[Island Chris]

I'm working 2 weeks at OGS Italy, on Ross Sea. A few days ago I decided I should not skip dinner again, so I walked to the local restaurant. It was closed. So, I walked back to the hotel, which is sort of a non-hotel, to read my book and go to bed. I left my book in India or on a plane.

Finally walked to Trieste (2 hours) to meet people I am working with for dinner. The Costa Mediterranea was in port (and left 1/2 hour later). I joked that it looked like a wild party on the bridge and the captain was going to show off and run aground somewhere down the coast. it is a huge ship.

My hotel has no AC or internet, and I am the only one staying there, and there is no one in the building (you get the key 4 minute walk away). It had been hot, but thunderstorm late Saturday night. I got up Sunday morning, started to walk to breakfast, and a lightning bolt struck between 200 and 400 meters away: it was not raining and I had not heard thunder before. This unnerved me so I want back to cover by the hotel for a couple of minutes. It still was not raining so I walked about 100 m and another bolt hot between 100 and 200 m in front of me. I ended up running to breakfast. Then it started raining.

Chris

[Skywise]

(07-27-2015, 06:52 AM)Island Chris Wrote: a lightning bolt struck between 200 and 400 meters away: it was not raining and I had not heard thunder before. This unnerved me so I want back to cover by the hotel for a couple of minutes. It still was not raining so I walked about 100 m and another bolt hot between 100 and 200 m in front of me.

I've been that close to lightning before. It's quite.... loud. And bright. For me it was at night and I was looking very close to it's direction.

Hope the rest of your trip is less ... errr... shocking.

Brian

[Island Chris]

The work is going well; I have been working really hard, most of 7 days/week, maybe 12 hours/day. This would kill me sooner or later if I kept it up, which I will not. There is lots of opportunity for deep thought. I am the only one in my hotel: in 11 days I have not seen a single other person in the hotel, although someone comes in and makes the bed (I have not seen him/her). I don't speak Italian, and there are virtually no non-Italian people. Trieste, 9 km away, is a really nice small city with lots of old things and museums and is on the Adriatic Sea. But even there the people on a weekend tend to be 95% Italian: no Germans, Americans, Asians. The cruise ship was just leaving, so earlier there must have been 2000 tourists who may have been from other countries. Meanwhile, Venice, west down the coast, is a zoo (presumably; it was a few years ago the one time I went).

So, I have lots of time by myself to just think. The hotel has no internet, I have no smart phone or service, and the hotel has no TV either. I have been working with Italian Colleagues, and we have done some "brainstorming", which is the point of such trips.

Chris