A thoroughly sleep-deprived brain-overload week: just one way to describe my first of what I hope to be many—or at least a handful—of international scientific conferences, the European Retina Meeting in Brighton, an English seaside town. Concepts and complex scientific vocabulary kept flying at me from left and right: "mosaicism," mysterious number classification systems, "patterns of stratification," "cross-species inconsistencies in biomarkers," ... after a while, I felt like all the graphs, novel terminology, and microscopic images of fluorescent neurons were simmering inside my skull in some sort of brew that had supplanted my brain. I am pretty sure I eventually got something out of it, but my first time swimming in the deep end with the retina researchers was an exercise in keeping my head above water.
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| Looking across the seafront while poking my head out from the Brighton conference center that hosted this year's European Retina Meeting, where I did my best to keep my head above water. |
Luckily, I got a gentle mental warm-up each day along my morning walk. I awoke in our creatively, thoughtfully, and very uniquely decorated Airbnb home nestled in a leafy residential part of town, on the opposite end of Brighton from the waterfront conference center.
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| We found ourselves a cozy and cleverly decorated home with lovely hosts in a charming residential neighborhood for our stay in Brighton. |
From our Airbnb home, my Google Maps app directed me to the conference center along a trail of street art that couldn't have been better mapped if that had been the express purpose of the route I'd requested.
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| An assortment of murals I passed on my morning walk to the conference center |
It turns out that Brighton is a surprisingly lively, young, and vibrant town.
And I also had lunch breaks to look forward to. My new boss is Japanese and, wherever he goes, you can count of him to scout out the best local Japanese joints. It turns out Brighton's Preston Street is the place to go. We tested Japanese barbecue, ramen, and of course, my favorite, sushi. In fact, the Sushi Garden on Preston Street was some of the most fresh and flavorful sushi I've had in quite a while.
As part of the conference, we were even treated to a dinner at Brighton's aquarium, which was a surprisingly fancy and old-fashioned place built in 1872. The meal was hosted underground, in a vaulted hall which happens to be Europe's largest underwater fish observation tunnel.
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| The Brighton Aquarium: a surprisingly old-fashioned setting for dining under-the-sea. |
Finally, after surviving a half week of heavy-duty science, on Saturday afternoon I was freed to enjoy a weekend in a charming English town with Nicolas. We kicked things off in the fantastic
Food for Friends restaurant, a modern and creative take on vegetarian cuisine which has plenty to tempt even your standard carnivore. We could hardly resist each splurging for the three-course meal: First, smoked ricotta and parmesan gnudi dumplings and crunchy Thai salad. Next, piquillo peppers and open ravioli of roasted butternut squash, beetroot, walnuts, and wilted spinach. And finally, a saffron crème brulée and coconut and black sesame arancini. My mouth is watering just thinking of it.
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| A three-course lunch at Brighton's Food For Friends. Original vegetarian cuisine. Highly recommended. |
That evening, Nicolas's French pride was satiated when he got to enjoy watching England get kicked out of the Rugby World Cup with its loss to Australia, all over pints of beer while surrounded by some impassioned (and not terribly thrilled) fans in an English pub.
The following day was reserved for what is arguably Brighton's single largest attraction: the Royal Pavillion. From the outside, this place looks like it could very well have been plucked from DisneyWorld's Epcot, a romanticized and Westernized interpretation of Middle Eastern/Indian/Arabic architecture.
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| Brighton's Royal Pavillion |
The palace as we see it today was designed by John Nash for King George IV, who was known for his frivolity, love of fashion, womanizing, drinking, and gambling. After George IV, William IV also enjoyed the residence while living a more moderate lifestyle. Finally, it was passed on to Queen Victoria, who decided as she had more children that the palace simply didn't offer enough space or privacy. (I mean, just look at that shack.) So she sold it off to the town of Brighton in 1850. The inside is a surreal blend of the Orient as seen through a Western lens, complete with murals, light fixtures, vases, and chandeliers boasting dragons, lotuses, and other vaguely Asian designs. Sadly, photography is prohibited inside. And so I've only got this one shot. ;)
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| An illicit photo from the inside of the Royal Pavillion |
Overall, Brighton was really charming, lively, and a lot nicer than we'd anticipated. Nicolas's biggest complaint was the lack of rain: it is hardly proper for a Frenchman to return from his trip to England without anything to complain about. (Luckily for him, his wishes were granted on our Monday morning ride to the airport.)
