Chronicles of Portugal: Part Three - the Volcano Strikes

My workshop has now finished, but as many of you have probably noticed most of Europe is currently grounded. As such, I am stuck in Lisbon. This may be poetic justice, as I believe in my last blog I was slagging off the fact that we all flew to a conservation workshop.

The workshop was a success, many important wild plants will now appear on the European Red List (published in December) and I made some good connections and friends whilst I was there. And Lisbon is an exciting city, with plenty going on. But I do want to be home now. This would be a treat if I had certain people here with me, but instead I am stuck in a hotel for the next three days with perfectly nice people, but not the people I would ideally be here with given the choice. So I have to knuckle down, do some work, and try and make the best of a bad situation. The one consolation is that I have an extension on my thesis! Small mercies.

I just read this back, apologies for this being a somewhat dull, negative blog. So here are some good points:

1. They have the Fox channel in Portugal, which is basically the Simpsons, followed by Malcolm in the Middle, followed by Family Guy, followed by Scrubs, well, you get the jist.
2. I have internet in my room here so I don't have to sit in the lobby for hours on end as I did in the last hotel.
3. The cost of the hotel here will be reimbursed upon my return, so technically this is a free holiday.
4. I'm staying here with some of "the best ones" from the workshop, so evening meals should be good fun.

Okay, I'm going to go against everything As Well Continue To Run stand for, and in fact drink the water.

Chronicles of Portugal: Part Two

I have now arrived in Cascais, the setting for my first ever scientific conference type thing, although it is in fact a workshop. Let me explain what I am doing here, and I'll be brief so I don't lose you to sweet slumber. I am here as a so called plant expert, applying my knowledge of legumes in order to assess the state of European populations of species of this particular group of plants in order to establish whether they are threatened, and to attempt to decide on adequate conservation action. Legumes are of economic importance for human food, animal food and soil nitrification, and this particular workshop is focussing on the status of wild plants which are related to commonly grown legume crops which could potentially act as gene donors in the future in order to improve said crops. If you're still reading, congratulations, if not, well I don't blame you, I've bored myself slightly.

Anyway, the local council seem quite excited to be hosting us, and as such are treating us like royalty, but it's getting to the point where it is almost embarrassing. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the free three course meals and bottomless wine glasses, but no one can work out what the area is gaining from it. They must easily be shelling out £150 a day per person to have us here, and it's making me wonder how the money could be better spent. The first thing that springs to mind is some sort of conservation project in the area. If the purpose of hosting us here is to raise awareness about the importance of biodiversity, why not spend the money on local conservation projects, of which there are several, all of which I'm sure need funding more than we need feeding. This makes me sound incredibly ungrateful, which I'm genuinely not as this is an excellent experience and an opportunity to hob-nob with some big names in the field. I just think it could have been done on a smaller scale. Us biology types really aren't too fussy, happier rooting around in a field than being pampered. Anyway, enough rich boy complaining, and back to the books. I'm hoping to upload a few photos before the week is up as this place is annoyingly picturesque...

Chronicles of Portugal: Part One

As some of you may or may not know, I have been lucky enough to be given the opportunity to finish my first project for my Masters degree in Portugal, and today I arrived. I figured this was an excursion worthy of documenting as it is not every day I get an all expenses paid jaunt abroad.

The journey here has been fraught with amusing mishaps. First off, I need to be slightly frank. Have any of you ever used one of those new fangled toilets which operate their flushing mechanism via infra-red? Apparently it is for hygiene reasons, and it is a good idea in practice. However, (warning: this is about to get fairly disgusting) I was "on one", if you catch my drift, today, and, having some time to kill at the airport, was milking it slightly, having a read etc. Anyway, I had been up since half five, so naturally needed a "tired man stretch" and decided to execute this maneuver on the loo. Unfortunately this triggered the "clean flush mechanism, soaking my exposed areas in what I can only describe as my own filth. I am not entirely sure why I felt the need to share this, but take heed if you are ever in a similar situation.

I'm not a huge fan of flying at the best of times, not because of the actual act of flying, but because of all the waiting around. I really am hopeless when I have nothing to do; in fact my idea of hell is sitting in an empty room by myself, but today I had to catch two flights to get to my final destination (Lisbon). A delayed flight didn't help matters, but I was delivered a golden bonus ball when I arrived in Frankfurt for my connecting flight, assuming I had another two hours to kill, only to find I had forgotten about the time difference. So by the time I got to my gate (which, no joke, was a mile and a half walk) I was ecstatic to receive my boarding call. Even the lolloping child next to me on the plane couldn't quash my spirits and I was in Lisbon in no time.

Once I'd arrived in Lisbon I had the task of locating my hostel. I didn't help myself as I got off at the wrong bus stop, but after an hour of wandering in the sweltering heat, I found what I can only describe as the best hostel I've ever stayed in. After a quick shower and a chat to my new room mate (who was fairly non-plussed with Lisbon) I hit the town for the first time in my life on my own. I don't know if any of you have ever gone out on your own, but it an odd experience. It's great at first, because you're calling all the shots, essentially it's like going out on your birthday. But it's very odd sitting down to a drink and a meal alone in a strange town. Luckily I discovered a cafe on the street right next to a live band so my entertainment was sorted for the evening, despite calling early doors at half ten (I drink a lot faster on my own...). On a different note, if you ever want a lot of drugs, get yourself to Lisbon. I have been offered "hashish, marijuana, coke?" around 6 separate times now, but the drug dealers are so friendly it's hard to refuse. Needless to say (really?) I resisted.

Note: I'm in my hostel partially drunk typing this, and I only discovered the apostrophe on the this swish Mac half way through typing.

More updates soon!