On two sides of the sunset

After arriving in Tromsø I had to say goodbye to Patrick and Norway. All this exploration and fun was a great chance to break away from the desk for a while, but my PhD called me back to the world of science … thus I now sit in the warm Swiss sun while Patrick looks after Widdershins in the constant, but somewhat less powerful sun of the Arctic. While I dive into statistics and (epi)genetics, Patrick will start preparing the myriad of things that still need to be done before we can head further North next year.

While sailing along the Norwegian coast we rarely had a chance to wear less than two pairs of trousers and about three jumpers under a wind- and water-proof jacket, and I had almost forgotten that June means summer for the rest of Europe. When I arrived back home in Zürich I almost fell over with heat-shock. Even though I arrived after 10pm the temperature was still over 25°C, hotter than it’s ever been during the whole trip! The second surprise was the sunset – it actually got dark over night, the first proper night since about two weeks! Up North the sun didn’t ever touch the horizon, it just kept going round and round forever. Patrick complains that the sun is stalking him as it circles the boat at night peeking through the windows to keep him from sleep…

Well, and now it’s almost two weeks since I’m back to workaday life. Of course analyzing my data statistically is not half the fun we had during our trip north, but it’s only ten more months until we start our big adventure.

 

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