Pictures!
My flight was so early in the morning it was still practically late at night. I had very little luggage and I would have been able to take all of it on board with me if it wasn't for the poster tube. I hadn't expected it to be a problem, but it was. I was reluctant to part with my poster, which was: a) a sheet of paper in a plastic tube b) going to spend over two hours in the freezing cold luggage compartment, possibly under a pile of heavy suitcases and c) kind of important. The woman at the check-in desk also told me off for not having checked in online and forcing her to actually do her job. It was too early in the morning for this, for both of us, I guess.
At the gate I met one of my collegues from the Quantum Center and we travelled together for a while. We parted in London, after breakfast and figuring out how to get to Cambridge. I spent the rest of the day sightseeing.
I only headed back to the railway station when it was starting to get dark. This might have been a mistake, since I wasn't sure where exactly I was supposed to stay during the conference. I knew the name of the place, but not the address. After some unsuccessful attempts to follow the signs, I decided to ask for directions. As usual, it took me a while to find someone to ask. It turned out to be farther than I'd expected. I was tired and hadn't had enough sleep the night before, and, really, I'm surprised I was still able to follow the directions. It was almost exactly midnight when I arrived. I was afraid checking in at this time of night was going to be a problem, but the porter seemed totally unfazed, like this sort of thing happens all the time. I rarely fall asleep the moment my head touches the pillow, but this time I'm not sure how I even got into bed. I must have been half asleep by the time I entered the room.
The talks started a little too early. I was still tired from the journey, but I did my best to pay attention. And then there was the poster session that afternoon. It was the first time I was presenting my work at a conference and I was half asleep. At first, there weren't a lot of people around my poster. Much as answering questions scared me, I wasn't happy about this. Was my poster not interesting? Why wasn't anyone talking to me? But later on, as some people started leaving the building, others began to gather around my poster.
After the poster session, I was going to go to my room and finally get enough sleep, but somehow I ended up going out to dinner with some of my collegues.
And so on. I spent most of the day at the lectures and walked around the town on most evenings, taking way too many pictures.
I got the chance to talk to a lot of people and I'll probably be going there again for a week or so some time next month to work with one of them. Wow. When did this happen?
On the way back I didn't really need the poster any more, so I could squeeze the tube into my bag. It wasn't easy, but I managed. And then they made me unpack it all at the airport. *sigh* Other than that, the journey was pretty uneventful.
Meanwhile in Warsaw, my cousin was getting married. The ceremony was beautiful, or so I've been told. I only managed to get there about halfway through the reception, which was, mostly, tiring.
I spent the next day in Warsaw and came back to Gdynia yesterday. Tomorrow another conference begins. This one is in Gdańsk and my talk is on the first day. This is not a good moment to start worrying, is it? Wish me luck.