Boulder, CO

The first destination of our two-week holiday in the USA was Boulder, Colorado. Situated right at the base of the foothills of the Rockies at an elevation of 1650 metres, it is one of the most bike-friendly cities in the States (an not so surprisingly, the city also tops most of the US lists based on quality of life, etc.), and it is also one of the nicer university towns. We arrived here after two long flights with Delta (with free movies on the transatlantic one, and standing in line for immigration in New York for almost three hours thanks to, at least to some extent, a very chatty immigration officer), and went to sleep immediately after a very late check-in at our hotel.

We had one Sunday before the start of Clio’s conference (the original motivation behind our holidays), so we spent that day walking around in the city.

It was indeed very nice, lots of green, views to the iconic rocky walls of the Flatirons, creeks with walkways and cycle paths, the beautiful campus of the University of Colorado (with loads of squirrels – first we were like “look, squirrel!”, then an hour later we were like “meh, another squirrel…”), a nice shopping street (Pearl Street Mall), and a really cool bike store (University Bicycles) with a collection of vintage bicycles hanging from the walls and ceiling.

Oh, and we also dropped by Best Buy to pick up my new Nexus 7 tablet (so my Google collection is quite complete now with a Nexus 4 from a few months earlier). Thanks to the Nexus 7, I am back into reading books (on the tablet of course…) in bed again!

Then during the next three days, while Clio was sitting in a cold auditorium (just like I did that on Rhodes earlier this summer), I was either out on the road riding a rental Trek Domane 4.5 through (or more like up and down) the Rockies, or lying in bed trying to recover from these rides. It was a real sleep/ride/eat and repeat cycle, but it was great! More about the rides in the next post ;)

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Kiting at the coast

Before unleashing the posts about our holidays in the USA, here is a short memo about last weekend. So, the whole story started a bit more than a mont ago when, I do not remember how exactly, I stumbled upon a video on YouTube of someone flying a power kite. Not a huge kite like the ones used by kite surfers, but a smaller one, which looked like a lot of fun to play with. Since it was not too expensive (30 GBP), I ordered the 1.7 metre (it is the wingspan) version of the HQ Symphony Beach 2 kite from Amazon. It is an entry level kite, perfect to just play around with and to get into the world of power kiting, but it is indeed a lot of fun! After 5 minutes of getting used to the way how you control the kite with the two lines, it is extremely easy to fly it, and despite its small size, it delivers a surprising amount of pull, so it is also a good workout. So to try out the kite for the first time, we decided to go to the Belgian coast.

The weather was perfect, not too warm (which is a must to avoid the crowds), with stable 25-30 km/h winds, and low tide (which results in vast areas of flat sandy beaches along the coastline). We took the train to Knokke, had lunch, then took the longest tramline of the world, the coast tram to De Haan. I played almost two hours with the kite here (and Clio also tried it for a short while), but it seemed like 10 minutes… It was really cool! Now I want to try the larger kites and the kite landboarding too… At the end, we walked a bit along the dunes, then took the tram to Blankenberge to catch a train back to Leuven (Heverlee). It was a really nice day!

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Foodapest

We spent a few days in Budapest (again) recently, and since – as always – we had so much nice food, I think it is about time that I share our experiences about eating out in the capital city of Hungary. And a few nice pictures.

Budapest is one of the cheapest capitals in Europe, so if you are coming from Western Europe with your salary, the chances are high that you can have great food at a very reasonable price (especially compared to what you usually pay at home for the same quality). This of course means, that experiencing fine dining and trying out gourmet courses becomes an option even if you are not rich. Which we are (sadly or luckily) not. So, these are the restaurants we have been to recently (or a few months ago) – with there Michelin stars and Gault Millau points in parenthesis (where available):

Onyx (★ 17) We had the lunch menu here, first around Christmas, and now once again, and we had a perfect culinary experience in both cases. I especially like the interior of the restaurant (although Clio thinks it is a bit too much)! The lunch menu is very affordable, starting at 20 EUR (+15% service). We plan to try the dinner too when we go to Budapest around Christmas. That will be a bit more pricy.

Costes (★ 17) We went here in December, and had a full 5 (8) course dinner. I even went for the suggested wines. Again, we had a really great evening, full of amazing food (both the presentation and the flavours). Although we have to note, that the service was a bit too fast, meaning that there was not enough time between the consecutive small courses to rest. It would have been nicer to have a bit more time to just relax. We barely spent two hours there, and left feeling way too full. I do not think anyone could manage the larger tasting menu. (But I wish I could!)

Bock Bisztró (14) More traditional Hungarian cuisine, impressive wine selection, big (or at least heavy) courses. Should not go there if you are not hungry enough or if you are not a wine loving person. I think I stuffed myself full already with the amazing bread which came with my lecsó. After that, I really had no place left for dessert, although I really wanted one…

21 Hungarian Kitchen (13) We have been here also twice already, and on the first occasion I was extremely happy with everything (and maybe not only because I had a bit more wine than I normally would), but at Christmas last year I was not as satisfied as before. Still, I really love their take on the traditional Hungarian chicken soup (tyúkleves), and also their version of the Somlói cake, although I was a tiny little bit disappointed when I had it the second time, because I missed a flavour which made it so amazing the first time. I hope it was only a mistake (of my taste or the chef), and they did not downgrade their recipe… Anyway, it is a nice place in the Castle, and for the location, it is not too pricy or touristy at all.

Baldaszti’s Grand (11) Surprisingly “low” score for a great place, at least we had a great dinner here las summer, with nice and fresh courses. As far as I can tell, the place is now being turned into a Indochinese restaurant by the same group (but different chef), which sounds like something we should try the next time.

ZONA Ran by the same company, it provides similar quality than the one above. The courses are a bit smaller here, so take 4 and you will be OK. The food is great, try the home made szörp, or if it is summer and they still have it, their fresh, cold fruit soups. Also, very nice interior with huge lightbulbs hanging from the high ceiling.

Spíler One of the new hip and trendy places in the heart of the city, serving a wide range of simple food ranging from burgers to – the so called – traditional Hungarian pizzas (I do not know how traditional they are, but they taste good). Great atmosphere, extremely friendly staff, good food, but nothing fancy. Worth a visit (especially for the feel of the area it is situated within).

Café Alibi A nice small café/restaurant with a great terrace during the summer months. Nothing fancy, but good food, sandwiches, salads, smoothies, and coffee :) When you have a hotel nearby, it is the perfect place to dine out if you are not in the mood for something fancy that night.

Besides all the nice restaurants, this time we also went to the Zoo, which was really nice, and since I can not even remember when was the last time I have been there, everything was new for me too. Also, we took the boat of the public transport company to go to the centre from near where my parents live, which was also a first – although mainly because this is service is quite new. Then of course we took the opportunity to go a few rounds on the Ferris wheel (the largest mobile Ferris wheel in Europe) – also worth every penny (or Forint)!

On the way home our flight got cancelled due to a technical problem with the plane, so we had to fly Lufthansa via Munich, and thus get a five hour delay, but at least we got some food on board, and just recently, Brussels Airlines payed us 250 EUR for our troubles, which should be enough for our next tickets to Budapest! :) Update: it was! ;)

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Short term postdoctoral position

I got the news a month ago while standing on the deck of a small boat during the conference dinner in Sydney, that I got the PDM I applied for earlier this year. This is a short term postdoctoral position funded by the university itself, “aimed at providing young researchers who have obtained their doctorate at KU Leuven with an opportunity to share their research by: (a) generating publications based on their doctoral research, (b) passing on acquired knowledge and expertise to other members of the research group, (c) conducting research based on the knowledge and expertise acquired during the doctoral research and on the results obtained”. So that’s what I will be doing in the year 2014. Three of us applied for this from the department, and only I got it. Probably the fact that I applied by submitting a full FWO (Flemish Research Foundation) proposal was decisive. I will apply for an FWO postdoctoral research fellowship early next year (again), which could add another three years to my postdoctoral life in Leuven, and help me unravel the secrets of pulsating B-type stars on the main sequence ;)

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Zoo Antwerpen

On the weekend we visited the zoo in Antwerpen. The weather was very nice, and we spent quite some time walking around. Afterwards we went for a gourmet burger, which made the day even better! The only problem is that I am still a bit jet lagged, which makes me really unable to sleep on the evening, but it is getting better day by day. You can see a few pictures from the zoo below, all taken with a Canon EOS 7D + Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0 L IS USM lens.

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