• Log InLog In
• Register

International business trip #33: Canary Islands

Post a Reply

opisska Poland8852 Posts July 18 2016 22:04 GMT #1 Recently, I have done a lot of things worth writing about and took a lot of pictures worth sharing. However as the life zips by, fighting the backlog is too demotivating, so I figured the only way to push myself to show you something is to do it on a "right here, right now" basis. So here I am, sitting in one of the greatest hotels I have ever been to - La Casa Posada in La Laguna, Tenerife. Upon entering the property, the owner has passionately started explaining the history of the 365-year old building, once a place for future nuns and the original use the different rooms. Luckily, one of them was a bathroom even today, so I could interrupt the tour rather smoothly, as nature has been calling for some time already. Patiently, the owner then continued and showed me the surreal rooftop mini-garden and explained complex details from mating habits of the local trees, explaining the sweet fragrance of the air. If my count is right, this marks my 33rd "business" trip abroad. Even though I have not always been very happy with my work as a PhD student (and, frankly, a lot of the work I was told to do, was pretty pointless), the traveling thing makes up for that to a large extent. Even though only a few destinations were really flashy (this really depends on how do you view Argentina after the 11th visit ...), the very essence of traveling still fills me with joy, almost independently of the destination. Tomorrow morning, I have prepared a schedule that allows me to spend about 4 hours birdwatching, searching for the elusive blue chaffinch (exclusive to Tenerife), before I move to La Palma, to try to arrange a place to put our small atmospheric-monitoring telescope among the giants of the world-famous Observatorio Roque de los Muchachos (where also the currently largest telescope in the world, the GTC, resides). In other news, I have basically moved to Warsaw (even though I am still employed in Prague, as evidenced by this very journey) and I have finished reading A Deepness In the Sky, the greatest piece of science-fiction I have ever stumbled upon, so if I ever get to making another blog outside the spur of the moment, these will be the topics.

Saechiis Netherlands4989 Posts July 18 2016 23:25 GMT #2 Wow, someone opened up a can of atmosphere in that hotel.

EatThePath United States3943 Posts July 19 2016 16:17 GMT #3 Wow, so cool. Thanks for the sci-fi recommendation

opisska Poland8852 Posts July 19 2016 20:27 GMT #4 Aaaand that's it for blogs and pictures for now, my laptop seems to be dead. Very pleasant thing to happen whrm far away from home... Am now on the La Palma observatory, it's an unreal place - even without the telescopes, the "caldera" is stunning, one of worlds greatest natural wonders.

Please log in or register to reply.