Favourite places I visited in 2015

I’m pretty fortunate. As a PhD student I’ve been able to do a lot of travelling. Even so, I still have to spend some time in the lab. So while I’d love this list to be all long holidays to exotic places, some are shorter weekends away and day trips. All have been a lot of fun.

Curacao

Well, obviously. This was the big holiday we planned when we managed to get a lot of money out of our energy company. Since we left Curacao we’ve been wanting to find a way to go back.

Seoul and Gwangju

This was for a gravitational waves conference which was in Gwangju. After the conference I decided to spend a couple of days wandering around Seoul before flying home. I was needlessly intimidated by travelling alone and wish I’d planned to stay longer

Amsterdam

We tacked a day trip around Amsterdam onto out Curacao trip. Oh my goodness we were soooo jet-lagged. Worth it, though.

Aviemore

We go to Aviemore once a year, usually to go snowboarding. This was an especially brilliant trip because as well as snowboarding we got to visit the Cairgorm brewery – a must if you have an afternoon to kill in Aviemore.

Jena

I visit Jena quite a lot with work. During this trip I had the luxury of setting up an experiment in the morning, going exploring for the day and coming back in the evening to collect the results. I know the town quite well these days and it’s always a nice, peaceful place to visit.

St Andrews

This was for a photonics conference. Honestly, St Andrews itself didn’t blow me away. I don’t like golf and all the buildings were grey and it was cold and drizzly and expensive. However, we stayed in one of the nicest hotels ever. When I get rich I’m going to go live in a hotel like the Fairmont.

Loch Lomond

It was sunny one weekend so we went to Loch Lomond for the day, taking the train to Balloch. Apparently a lot of other people had the same idea, I think it must have been the first sunny day in Spring. We bought the last available ice creams.

Ayreshire

This is another once yearly trip. A friend’s family have a cottage on te Ayreshire coast near Culzean castle. So we visit it once a year, have a barbecue chill out and take a walk along the beach up to the castle.

Originally posted here: http://unazukin210.tumblr.com/post/136180394614/favourite-places-i-visited-in-2015