UK09: The conferences (AKA the reason for it all...)

The next morning I made my way the two miles from the hostel into Ft. William to catch a bus out of the highlands. I left myself a good half day in Glasgow to explore, but ended up just seeing one of the local parks (Victoria Park) and the Museum of Transport. There was not a lot notable about what I saw of Glasgow, except some petrified trees in the park and a bunch of interesting cars, boats, trains, motorcycles, etc. in the museum. Or maybe I was just so tired at this point that nothing would have been too interesting.

The end of the West Highland Way in Ft. William. I cheated and only did the last 35 of the 95 miles, but only for lack of time.

Petrified forest in Victoria Park, Glasgow.

Traditional gardens in Victoria Park

Did you know Scotland produced cars? Here's one from the Scottish Museum of Transport.

Anyhow, I caught a bus out to the airport, then a cheap domestic flight to East Midlands airport, which put me about 7 miles from the conference site. A short taxi ride later, I all but crashed in my room at the 4 star hotel. The event was the Rapid Manufacturing Conference, which is an international gathering of researches and companies from the rapid manufacturing (3D printing) community. I got my fill of traditional English food at the hotel, and the talks were interesting. However, I had to leave early on Thursday, because I was due to present a paper at another conference back across the pond in Montreal the next morning. London was about an hour and a half train ride away, and the international flight went without a hitch.

I showed up in Montreal at about 7pm that evening, caught a shuttle bus downtown (which was a mess because of a jazz festival going on) and checked into yet another amazing 4 star hotel where the conference was being held. I tell you, don't let a grad student get used to this continent hopping, 4 star lifestyle! My talk the next morning went smoothly, (some people even showed up for it at 8:30am!) but the rest of the conferences was, well, pretty boring. This conference was GECCO (Genetic algorithms conference), so it was mostly computer programmer types, who I don't associate with especially interesting talks. I did have a couple chances to explore around Montreal, and surprisingly, it felt almost more European than the UK did (something about the fact that the language and road signs are all in French there).

Montreal at sunset

Anyhow, a couple of my colleagues had driven up from Ithaca, so I just rode back with them to complete the loop. All in all, I was gone less than two weeks, but it was a crazy whirlwind of a trip. And even more of a headache to plan! I added it up and it turns out I made use of more than 10 different transit companies (planes, buses, trains, taxis, etc.), all of which operate independently. But all the planning paid off, and I got to do and see everything I had hoped to do, and came away with a very fun and memorable trip!