Surfin’ USA

Visit to the Holy Land

As I wrote earlier, I spent three weeks in Israel this summer. My visit was part of a research cooperation that we at UCI have with a group at the Technion University in Haifa. My Israeli hosts arranged for a nice room on campus for me and I spent most of my time with work related to our project.

I did, however, manage to explore Haifa itself as well as go to Jerusalem for two days. The latter was especially impressive with its rich history and religious significance for several major religions. Most of my stay there was spent in the Old City with its maze-like alleys, street bazaars and countless churches, temples, shrines, etc. I had come prepared with plenty of information about various sites and their significance, but it was still tough to keep up with all the different religious denominations and their respective beliefs. Among other things, I visited the Western Wall of the Old Temple (the holiest site in Judaism) and followed the Way of the Cross, along the Via Dolorosa, to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built on the site where it is believed that Jesus was crucified and later buried.

Naturally I’ve taken many pictures, a selection of which you can check out below.

All in all it was great trip, both from a work perspective as well as personally. Israel is a very fascinating country, and I hope I can return one day to visit more places, learning hands-on about its impressive history.

G’Day Mate!

After three weeks in Israel, I returned to California in early September for five busy days (hence no new entry on this page), where I had to prepare for this summer’s final trip: I was to present a poster at a conference in Sydney, Australia, for which I left on Sunday the 7th, taking a (looong) 14 hour direct flight from Los Angeles…

Well, I have just returned from this trip and I had a great great time. Fortunately I was able to squeeze in a few days of sightseeing in and around Sydney before the conference. I spent most of the time exploring Sydney itself but made a day trip to the nearby Blue Mountains National Park. I took plenty of pictures, some of the better ones can be found below. The conference also went well; I got some good feedback at my poster presentation, attended several interesting talks and met many new people.

P.S. I have not forgotten about the Israel trip, I just decided to write about Australia first.