EPTI travel a lot, especially since I got involved in science and started going on all of these "business" trips to our observatory and to workshops and conferences, with still a lot of private trips mixed in. But one thing that always irritated me a little was my inability to chain the travel efficiently and so I always ended up going there and back from home. Surely, I was able to sneak a private excursion on top of a business trip, or spend two months straight in Argentina for various reasons, but the ideal of going from one place to another was never really there.
I understand that such a goal might sound silly, but I still feel a little satisfaction that it finally happened ... tomorrow I am leaving for Barcelona, to first have three days off for some birding and then to attend a meeting. Afterwards, on thursday, I take a plane to Dusseldorf, to spend the rest of the week in Krefeld for HSC (my first live SC2 viewing ever). On Sunday night, probably in the middle of the finals, if there is enough delay, I will take the last train back to Dusseldorf, where at 2:30 am, my very smooth train connection with only two transfers in the middle of the night will take me to Karlsruhe, to present another talk on Monday afternoon on another meeting (man, I am gonna be soo fresh ...). From there, hopefully, my colleagues will take me back home by car. Here, the story would end, if it weren't for me leaving said home the very next Monday for 2.5 years to live in Warszawa, so I would call that a continuation of the journey
Sounds cool, right? Well, at the very same time of my glorious logistical success, my younger colleague and friend has plans to outshine me right away - From Barcelona, he lamely will come back to Prague, but then he heads straight to Cortina in Italy for some ultra-trail competition (as a runner), from there to Karlsruhe, then onwards to spend two weeks on Tenerife "working from home" (haha, he's definitely gonna do sooo much work), later to Bilbao for a summer school and from Spain straight on to Argentina. Beaten by my own apprentice, how embarassing!
Anyway, I plan to snap 15 new bird species in Catalunya, so photos are incoming and perhaps if I can arrange some internet, I might do the liveliest of reports straight from the HSC venue from time to time. And as I am finally becoming a part-time member of a nation that actually has good SC2 players, expect me to cheer mindlessly for my Polish countrymen
