Edinburgh introduction

I gave a talk at an infection-themed conference in Edinburgh earlier this week. I’ve presented posters before, yet that was my first spoken presentation outside the Institute. There was this so rare opportunity when we had the financing especially for the conference and I was given a chance to go. While working in the molecular biology lab, I see the topic from somewhat different side, and here the clinically oriented picture was prevalent. The tablet and Wi-Fi made sitting through it quite different from purgatory where one has to absorb information presented in an awfully slow and confusing manner, meaning the speech (no matter what language it is). I even (and often) googled the things as they were mentioned. This way, a conference can really help to learn something without tedious suffering.
There was a couple of evening-walks (some impressions of them are on my Instagram, as they were captured using the tablet). And there was a Thursday with single lecture in it, and sunny (!) perfect day (BIG note to myself: no matter the forecast, the sun-filters are a must anytime anywhere, as the hand shielding the eyes gets tired indeed). And this day included walking through Princess Gardens, climbing the small Calton Hill, climbing the huge hill to the Arthur’s Seat, finding a way to get down in a more solitary and not so steep manner, eating haggis pie and soup at The Piemaker. And then, already well known Old Town with the castle, and coming back to Haymarket.

So there is the beginning, the peak on the last photo being the Arthur’s Seat.

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Holyrood park

It’s almost painful to downsize those photos. I would rather show the originals on a good large screen. If you think this can be arranged please tell me :)
There were people eagerly ascending the path in the Holyrood park, even if the path was already beaten to mud, and I joined them. Climbing up required some boldness from me at the top, as the volcanic rocks give little sure footing (that’s a very old lava channel on the summit of Arthur’s Seat). Happily I’ve looked down only when almost there. By then, I could hardly keep steady on a relatively level place even, so just stood in place and then sat here. The scenery was impressive. The people were impressive as well. Quite some of them came here while engaged in a cross-country running, and ran away as if it were nothing. As for me, I find mere walking down the stairs tricky if they are lengthy and steep. And here I wore my best glasses which are for special occasions only, so the adapting to them for the precise eye-foot coordination is slow to set in. There is no vertigo on the streets... yet this was no street. The distortion of peripheral field of vision is specific to particular eyeglasses and very marked in this power range. So I climbed down the rock itself very slowly, stood on a grass here for a long time, and then took a path where no one was going, and there came my enjoyable nature experience at last. The path went round the hill, yet there was nobody, it was not steep and almost not dirty. And then, I could use the navigator to understand where I came.
(And here are the thanks to Werhamster and Exon who told me about this place).

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Edinburgh: the evening

And then the night came, and the Old Town is great in the darkness.
I’m happy I’ve met this old city, even if it was an afternoon, an evening and one long day. Sure one could explore it and get to know it much better, as there are many hidden ways and doors (how about a bar which says He who is without mathematics shall not enter?)

A lot of journal styles downsize the pictures on their own, losing the quality. Sometimes making the window wider helps. On LJ, viewing them in my own style, which I set to be wider does. I hope this can be done by entering the post and deleting your style from the URL, namely the “?style=mine” part. Usually this is not that important, but the previous post would really benefit from it.

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