Göteborg, Manchester & Helsinki

01 Jun 2024 - Austin Shen

This was my first big international trip for work. Across the world to Göteborg, Sweden, for SRCNet PI Planning, with a week each in Manchester (Wilmslow actually) and Helsinki tacked on the end. An exciting trip to meet oveseas collaborators, to catch up again with Ruby and friends in Helsinki from the previous summer, to do another fun international trip with Kitty, and a surprise encounter with Kirsty in the most unexpected of places (SKAO headquarters). It started with a packed first week in Göteborg. Work of course, but Ruby flew over to stay the week from Helsinki, so we spent mornings and evenings (and moments in the day where possible) ferrying from the north of the river into the city to explore. Althrough we were both working, we managed to squeeze in a few trips out of the city: a bus ride through the hip Haga suburb to the botanical gardens, a cruise to the archipelago, and a visit to the Onsala Space Observatory, which is a collection of telescopes and space-observing instruments by the sea. Incredible!

I went to Manchester the following week to spend time with collaborators at the SKAO headquarters. I stayed a little outside of the city in a cosy town called Wilmslow. It’s a super wealthy area; mansions and nice cars everywhere. Apparently it’s where all of the big name footballers from the clubs in town live. The colleague who I was there to visit, James, mentioned that at some point he’d seen Peter Crouch (I think) and Balotelli’s infamous camo Bentley! I liked it there; it was an easy town to walk through with enough cafes and restaurant options to last a week. In the morning I would walk to the bus stop at the local gynmasium, and take the bus to Jodrell Bank. Lunches were sorted by the really lovely people at the cafeteria they have on-site, and James took me out for a run most days in the very British-feeling countryside with mud, lush grass and the smell of cow. On one of the last days there was a visiting party from ESO, and Kirsty just happened to be there! And so we went out for a drink in town that night. I explored Manchester by myself on the following (and last) day – it was a cool city!

This work trip coincidentally aligned with midsummer, so I was lucky enough to get to spend another year in the Finnish lake region on the longest day of the year. After all of the hard work from the previous two weeks, it was great to be able to relax with friends. I stayed with Ruby, Kitty had come from Cologne to visit, Sam and Linh were still around, and of course Ruby’s work friends who I had also gotten to know fairly well last year were all there. We got a cottage (but not a real one according to Senja, because it was connected to the grid) by the lake, and spent a few days cooking food for each other, lake swimming, and enjoying the sauna of course. Kitty brought her film camera to capture it all, and it was a magical time.