Mémoires de la Belgique (Memoirs of Belgium)

Man proposes god disposes… How often have unplanned events completely altered and overwhelmed your life? I have certainly been exposed to my share of such events and I get the feeling that my trip to Belgium may indeed be a significant junction in my life, whether or not I have anything evident to show for it.
For those of you who are wondering what the Belgian connection is …..I`ve been to Belgium for two days to attend a Microbiology conference entitled “Vibrio 2005” where I presented a poster on my project work.
The opportunity came up quite unexpectedly and while I was preparing myself for a massive project on job hunting. I guess quite a few of those of you involved in research would have already been to more than a few conferences and done a few presentations too…but as it turns out this was my first and I was all the more overawed by the impressive guest list for the conference. I will spare you from the details as I realise that there are not many microbiologists among my readers. But for those interested please do visit the Vibrio 2005 website for more information.What made our trip all the more exciting was that instead of flying over, we were to driving all the way to Belgium. Our team was made up of our supervisor Dr.Colin Munn, and three students ..James, Aklak ..both of whom are doing their PhDs and myself. We planned to drive through to the Euro tunnel and be transported through the tunnel into France and drive across to Belgium.
The euro tunnel or the Channel tunnel is a 50 Km long tunnel which runs beneath the English Channel and connects U.K and France. After driving through some typical English wet weather, we drove into the double decker train that would take us through the tunnel.
After what didn’t seem like half an hour we emerged in Calais, France. The difference was pronounced not just in the change to a milder and brighter sky, but in a terrifying switch of driving from the left to the right. James, who was at the wheel had prior experience driving through Europe and did quite a good job of it.
Other than the above changes and the apparent difference in the languages in which the signboards are written, the roads seemed to continue where they left off in England. After about half an hour and with no evident boundaries or borders in-between we passed into Belgium.
Although we did struggle a bit to find our way in the unfamiliar maze of Belgian streets, we did eventually get to our hotel through a combination of cutting across one way streets and second guessing the Belgian signboards….Talking of our “hotel” …now that is something that worth mentioning a few words about in itself.
Called “Monasterium Poortackre”,it was actually a Nunnery which has history dating back to 1278. After being closed to the outside world for centuries it is now an open hotel. The impressive neogothic arches together with ancient sculptures and modified but well preserved rooms was impressive and made me drift back into history a bit and wonder what unknown events had occurred here in the past
As I lay down that night to sleep I half expected to be chased out of the room by one of its “holier” former occupants!
The conference began with a talk by Dr. Rita Colwell and what followed was an amazing array of latest works involving Vibrios ( for the non scientific people among us ..these are the group of bacteria which include the the causative agent of cholera. There are also many other organisms some which cause diseases in other animals and some which are harmless (so far!)). Some of the talks had us rapt with attention , not the least of which was one which involves my specific area of study (the VBNC state in bacteria)…one that is likely to reignite interest in an already controversial topic…Once again I wont bore you all with too much technicality, but I must say I enjoyed every moment of it. It was amazing just getting to see people who have created history in microbiology…but having the opportunity to speak with them and hear their views was a lifetime`s opportunity.

I did get a fair bit of interest in my poster too especially after the above talk. Here is a picture of my poster. It can also be downloaded from this link as a PDF version for those of you who want a detailed view of it- Poster.
Not all of the conference was about sitting and listening to talks, we also had some fabulous food . On the first night we had the conference dinner where the menu included raw beef and venison (deer meat)and on another night we had snails..for those with the questions..yes I did eat them all and no I didn’t get an allergy!
On the next day we had lunch in the “Het Groot Vleeshuis” which literally translates as the meat house. This restaurant was originally the covered meat market of the city of Gent. It still maintains that atmosphere and has legs of cured ham hanging inside suspended from the roof just above our tables!
There were also other sessions such as the tasting of regional products where there was a great array of Belgian beer ..I of course tried out the sweetest ones which included a cherry beer. (no I didn’t get drunk!).
Since the conference lasted most of the day we really didn’t get an opportunity to see around the city, but we did enjoy the Belgian pubs at night. I found that in contrast to English pubs,these ones had a very serene atmosphere about them.
The architechure in the city of Gent is amazing and the medevial architecture has been preserved all over the city. Since the city centre is largely free of cars and there is not much of bustle , there were times when I wondered if I had not been transported back in time.
On the last day we had an hour`s time searching the city for shops selling the famous Belgian chocolates. To our dismay it seemed as if all the chocolate shops shut on a wednesday.. we finally did find one that was open and get our hands on the chocolates.
When the time for departure arrived we finally bid farewell to the city of Gent and made a reluctant journey back into France and through the Channel tunnel back home, but not before stopping to buy more beer from a wine supermarket which Colin and James almost cleaned out!
.Once back in U.K. we did have a brief stop over at the Stonehenge monument , the history of which I hope to bore you with at another timeThere are few journeys which imprint itself indelibly on the never-ending journey of our life but this was one of the most remarkable ones that I have ever had, and I thank Colin for having given me such an opportunity and James and Aklak for making it truly memorable. In the coming days I will be continuing my job search and preparing for possible opportunities that need to be followed up. I request all of your prayers and good wishes in this regard.