Last week I have been to the Massive Stars: From α to Ω conference in Rhodes, Greece. I did not go alone, Clio also came along, but while I was sitting in the cold conference room (seriously, it was freezing in there), she was enjoying the summer temperatures and her books next to the pool :) This conference itself is a very important event for the massive star community, held only every five years (and always somewhere near a beach). I have to say for me it was a bit of a disappointment. I went there to broaden my view on massive stars, but I was hoping to hear a few talks on the pulsational aspects too. Unluckily, at the end, there was only one slide mentioning asteroseismology at all, since the only talk which would have been about pulsations was cancelled :( (In the summary talk the speaker also mentioned that he expected to hear more on this topic…) Of course, on the other hand, it was very interesting to attend talks about something else than asteroseismology, but if I can choose, I would like to stick to my field in the future ;) By the way, I did not go there empty handed, I presented a poster showing the results of my last paper on the Kepler binaries.

The conference venue (Rodos Palace) was a (nominally) five star hotel five kilometres outside of Rhodes on the West side of the island. It was perfect in terms of the conference infrastructure, except for the crappy internet connection, which was really below my worst expectations. In terms of holiday resort, I have mixed feelings. Parts of the hotel are nicely renewed, but some other areas (like our room) felt a bit old and worn. Luckily, the view really made up for it (see first pic below). But since it was payed by work, I am not going to complain any further.

Outside the conference hours (9-18:30) I planned to do some running to keep in shape, which failed miserably, since I only managed to do one 5k. It was way too hot already on the mornings, and it was really difficult to get up early and go running before breakfast… So I did gain some weight with all the conference food and the nice dinners on the evenings in Rhodes… Speaking of Rhodes, we did not get to see too much of the Island (only the Hill of Filerimos and the Springs of Kallithea outside of the city), but Rhodes itself was very nice. I liked especially the Avenue of the Knights in the old city (see many-many pictures below), and the windmills of the old port. I am still very happy with my FUJIFILM X100S, it is really nice to take pictures with it, and – I hope you agree – the results are also really pleasing.