Almost Home

Looking around at breakfast you see tired faces and tired eyes. Some people are coughing, by now everyone has had a run-in with the PhD-trip bug, but all are happy. Although we had a very good last two weeks, people are glad to be going home again. 

Are road back to home is going to be one with a detour. First we take a coach to the airport in Vilnius (around 90 minutes). There we take the plane to Helsinki. In Helsinki we have to wait for about 3 hours before we can board our plane to Schiphol. In Vilnius we also say goodbye to Lena, Marta and Nicolas, who will spent an extra day there.

And in Helsinki is where I am writing this. I found a nice quiet space, not so difficult because all the Finns are glued to the big screens around the airport. You see, Finland is playing Russia in the semi-finals of the WC Icehockey. (Back home I learned that the Finns unfortunatly lost)

The last two weeks were really great. There were some bumps, but overall things went very smooth. The difference between the first and second week was very evident and very informative. In the first week we visited universities and institutes of a similar level us our work in Wageningen. In the second week it was a little more different, but for our PhD's it was a very educating experience. Things are not so difficult in Wageningen. When we need equipment, courses or other things we can usually procure them, in the Baltics that is much harder. Also the culture around science and the cooperation between science and industry is totally different and that fact is also a good thing to experience now and then. 

One of the biggest difference between our last trip (to the US) and this trip is the fact that we did more things and ate more often together as a group. And that made this much more a group trip and did a lot of good for the mood in the group. 

Outstanding moments for me were the medieval diner in Tallinn and the surprise birthday party for Remko.

Anyway, like I said we all had a nice and impressive two weeks in which we learned a lot about ourselves, our science and each other.

But it is also nice to be home.....