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Previous experiences with Dan Brown
I have read three of Dan Brown’s other books, and had decided a while ago to skip on his most famous book to date. Occasionally there are interesting tidbits of information in them, but then on subjects on which I have some knowledge they are inaccurate: how can I trust the [...]

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Saturday 2nd August — Sunday 3rd August, 2008
The plane made a dramatic landing at Hahn airport around midnight, with the plane briefly bouncing off the tarmac before settling down on the landing strip. People clapped for the pilot as the plane taxied up to the terminal, something that I find is done quite a bit [...]

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Saturday 26th July, 2008
My first weekend in Trieste. Last night was the final night that I would have to try and sleep through the loud snores; from tonight on it was going to be blissful sleep. Today I was up early: I was going on a bus tour of the area starting at 9:30. The [...]

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Monday August 4th – Tuesday August 5th, 2008
(This story continues on directly from the previous story. Even though I have made it home there is one more tale to tell.)
Reaching my apartment gave me a second (or perhaps third) wind. I put my suitcase down and started to unpack, to e-mail people letting them [...]

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Sunday 3rd August, 2008
Bristol, Cambridge, Athens, Trieste, Venice, …
The list of places I have been, each with their own memories. Each special in its own way. But like all voyages it is time for this one to end. I am finally heading home.
It is odd to think about home. I have spent the last ten [...]

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Thursday July 17th, 2008
Hydra (`Υδρα, pronounced Ethra) is a small and quiet island, so this will probably be a short entry. I came in not knowing anything about any of the Greek islands but knowing that I should go to at least one, and Hydra was the one that was recommended for people who enjoy [...]

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Sunday 20th July — Friday 25th July, 2008
My supervisor Nemanja had once told me about a physicist (who shall remain unnamed) who had gone to a physics conference surrounded by some of the most interesting and prominent people in the field. Most physics conferences have an outing or formal dinner on one night, and this [...]

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Wednesday, 16th July 2008 [Athens]
[First a note to all the language purists: I realise that Greek is a language in its own right, and that writing in Greek requires more than a font change. The title is meant to be humorous, not insulting to Greek culture or language.]
The bus pulled up to Syntagma square [...]

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Physics experiments are designed to test the very frontiers of human knowledge. Sometimes, if you are clever or lucky, you can think of an easy experiment to look for something that is easy and no one else has thought of it yet. But a lot of the time you need to construct expensive machines in [...]

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Friday, July 18th 2008
For my last day in Greece I was going to have a nice quiet day. Walking the Acropolis and the other ancient sites on Wednesday, and walking over Hydra yesterday had worn me out. So today I was taking up a traditional Greek past time that goes back to the days [...]