Adventures in Europe!

I had the enormous pleasure earlier this month to spend 3 weeks exploring Europe with friends both old and new. Austin and I started with a sightseeing stop in Copenhagen, a really lovely city with some beautiful colors, canals, and sunshine. From here our adventure took us to Latvia and Lithuania to meet up with Sohan and Tommi. I loved exploring the medieval alleyways of Riga and feeling like a local as we made our way to various bars and restaurants with our Vilnius tour guide Jarek! And of course the highlight of the first week was the amazing castle at Trakai, where we spent a lovely day exploring the castle grounds, eating lots of dumplings, and taking a boat ride along the castle lake.

 

Copenhagen palace and relaxing in the graveyard (yes, true story)

Sightseeing in Riga and enjoying the amazing Baltic food

Trakai!

After a fun week seeing new places in Europe, I ventured to Glasgow for the SETAC Europe meeting. It was a very busy week with student events, a poster presentation, meeting new SETAC folks, and getting some advice and doing some networking as I get ready to start looking for post-PhD employment (scary!). But of course no conference is complete without late nights spent with friends talking and enjoying the city and all its libations (even though only served until midnight...). I love these meetings and the chances I have to meet old friends and make new ones-always a great week despite the exhaustion at the end.

Fun times with SETAC friends :P

Unlike my previous Europe trips that involved a short flight and a long weekend spent somewhere new, this time I wanted to actually spend more time in the place that the conference was. Scotland provided us (myself, Austin, and for a couple of days Dragan) a great opportunity to see one of the most gorgeous places in all of Europe-epic scenery, gorgeous rocky coastlines, and really cool castles to boot! We managed to stay mostly dry and even had a few sunny days thrown in as well. Highlights for me during our busy week of driving and hiking was the Lost Valley glen hike, seeing the Isle of Skye in the sunshine on our way to Inverness, Doune castle, and Rossly Chapel. 

D and E on a hike

We didn't make it to the summit of this beast known as Ben Lui :/

Rope bridge to an amazing waterfall

A sunny glen :)

Looking back towards the islands

Urquhart Castle on Loch ness

Doune Castle (of Monty Python fame) and the apprentice's column at Rosslyn Chapel

After an epic trip, it's nice to be back home again. Even with the conference at the interim to keep me occupied and busy with SETAC stuff, it feels good to get back to work again after a long hiatus. That being said, I'm really thankful we spent the additional time to really explore the Highlands and took time to see some new places with friends, so I'm really thankful that we got to have such a great trip.

Until the next adventure, I have a lot of great memories, nearly 2000 photos, and a love of traveling and exploring that continues to grow and flourish with each new trip that I take.

Time to get back to work and settle in to the summer season here in the GNV...at least until the travel bug bites again ;)