Edinburgh

I'm still delaying on posting about my trip to Paris because I have several pictures and stories to go with them and I've been lazy. But if Jeff can post 4 times in 2 weeks, I can drag something out this month. I was in Edinburgh last week for a conference. I didn't take many photos, but here are a few from the Castle. The weather was nice. But the way the locals were freaking out about it made me not want to live in Edinburgh. It seems like a fun town with lots of beautiful architecture and history, which I get a kick out of. But if it seemed a bit gray and dreary on the best, sunniest day of the year, I'm wondering what the norm is.

this was a dog cemetary for soldiers' dogs in the castle

Finally, this reminded me of the beer situation back at home in Saxony....

World Tour 2010

Already halfway through world tour 2010, which currently has 8 countries on 3 continents, half for science, and half for pleasure....I would like to have a few pictures up from each of them eventually, here is one from Mallorca....

April
Mallorca, Spain (Research Symposium and Lab Retreat)
Vienna, Austria (Mitosys Scientific Meeting)

May
Paris, France (fun)
New York City, USA (Cell Cycle Meeting and visit Colby)

June
Heidelberg, Germany (Microtubules Scientific Meeting)
Edinburgh, Scotland (Aneuploidy Scientific Meeting)

July
Istanbul, Turkey (meeting Mom)

August
Moscow/St. Petersburg, Russia (with friends)

to be added.....Prague? Athens? Amsterdam?

The Elbe - 2006 and 2010

Photos from when the Elbe flooded in 2006 (not to be confused with the all-time record flood of 2002), preceded by photos from 2010 from the same spots. It was not trivial to align these shots taken 4 years apart and with different cameras. They should sit side-by-side if you expand your browser.

View from Albertbrücke looking West from the South side

Southeast corner of Albertbrücke, looking Northeast. I should have taken the non-flooded picture when the Flohmarkt (flea market) is there in full-effect.

Looking toward the Fährgarten biergarten. The entire biergarten was under water.

Looking East from the south bank. Notice the Waldschlößchenbrücke being assembled in the 2010 shot.

Trabi Stunt

This movie gets a lot of play 'round these parts ("East overtakes West"), I would just like to point out that the stunt driver there is yours truly.

Old roads

I like it when old cobblestones peek through the asphault, as if somebody someday is going to look at it and say, "Oh my goodness, look at this old beautiful cobblestone road underneath this asphault" and then rip it all off like carpet over a long-lost hardwood floor.

Spain

At the end of last year I took a short but memorable trip to Spain and am finally trying to find the time to post about it. I figured I should get it done before I head back there in a couple weeks. The whole motivation for the trip came when Elena (a native of Sevilla) found a beach ultimate frisbee tournament not far from there. She managed to convice 4 of us to join, not in little part due to the promise of food, food and more food like we would not forget. Fortunuately, that promise was met, and more than my expectations. Conveniently, the best flights worked out that we would really have to spend an extra 3 days before the tourney for it to make sense, a tough sell for the typical grad student and postdoc labrat workaholics afraid to leave for more than a weekend.

I had just got my new camera the week before so was able to grab some good pictures. As soon as we arrived in Sevilla we were treated to a giant home-cooked meal by Elena's entire family. This photo captures the evening, where doting hosts were continually throwing food at us.

It was all. good. And when we thought we were full, we would have a small argument about finishing the last few pieces of whatever on the plate, which we would always lose. And when said plate was finished, it meant it was time to bring out the next 3 plates. And it went on. Lots of traditional goodness that Elena had been telling us about.

Elena was basically our tour guide for the whole time, with the local tips. This not only meant the best eats, but between feedings we were able to get some good sight-seeing in. Here are some photos I have that don't involve food:

The largest Gothic Cathedral in the world only uses "Clock-O-Matic" brand clock motors.

After visiting the Cathedral we went for fried seafood. And as Per illustrates, we stuffed our faces. It was as good and as greasy as it looks

The only photo with me in it

After finishing off the fried seafood and sweet wine, we worked it off with a stroll, about 10 meters north, where we found a great place to sit down and have a glass of red wine and some sausage and cheese

here you see the proximty of the two establishments

A trip to the park, and then another break for some beverages

That evening we sampled some nice rum while listening to impromptu erotic poetry in Spanish, and then went to meet some of Elena's friends at one of their favorite places for eats:

Later on we went for more rum and I took some movies. Here is the first and tamest, to spare the viewer and those in the videos some laughs and awkwardness (and if any of you guys wanna complain about putting movies of you on the internet, well, you'll have to admit to reading my blog. HA!)

The next night we were treated AGAIN by Elena's parents, this time in a nice restaurant. And this was one of the best meals I've probably ever had. I mean, we just had lots and lots shared dishes and tapas. And everything was great. And everybody was in a great mood. We also hit the market to get some of the best Jamon in Spain to bring back home. Everybody got some, and while the idea was to also share some with friends back in Dresden, we seem to keep meeting up and just sharing it among ourselves....

...And finally it was time for the "main reason" for going, the beach ultimate tournament.
I risked bringing out my brand new camera in the salt and sand to try to get some fun action shots:

and I made it into a couple courtesy friends:

Dohna

(click to enlarge)

Beauty in Science





DNA (Blue) and two microtubule-associated proteins, tagged with red and green fluorescent constructs.
About 10x real time.

Cell Phone Camera Dump

...all taken with my phone...What kicked it off was that today there were two new flavors of yogurt at Konsum. All I can say is...WTF? no no no no no.



Sticker on the door of one of my regular cafes:


"Stop! Stupidity won't be served here! ...for a Nazi-free and non-violent Dresden Neustadt."
Always there, but a reminder that Feb13th is coming up and the annual Nazi convergence.


Here's two shots of my bike in it's natural habitat(s)(Neustadt and nostadt):





I get a healthy dose of "German" dishes in the institute canteen:

How else could I have possibly known that I actually like something called "Leberkäse" ("Liver-cheese")??? Look at that. With a fried egg, sauerkraut AND rotkohl. (Leberkäse is a type of meatloaf and tastes something like a hotdog.)


Old and New


And lastly....Hard evidence that that Trabi can push 100! (km/h)

Snowy Evenings in Dresden

Some shots I've got with my new "toy", a Nikon D300s
...and of course a big tripod and this fun little guy.

This is the intersection just north of where I live, looking East on Böhmischestr.
Haberland, Hebeda's, and Catapult all quality establishments that I'm fortunate to be so close to... (click to enlarge)


If you walk straight down the little alley in the photo above you come to this:
Martin-Luther-Kirche. My favorite platz in Dresden. It's just so.....European.


If I just walk a few blocks north towards the river from the institute where I work, you come upon this. I actually took this photo during an incubation time..... Schloss Albrechtsberg.


There's actually three castles right in a row there, lit up at night: