My trip from Cologne to Prague started on a rough note! I booked the ticket a month ahead, but on the day of travel, I learned the train was cancelled. I rebooked for the next day, which meant missing the first day of a two-day preconference workshop on atom probe tomography (APT) microscopy. Additionally, the second ticket didn't go smoothly—delays caused me to miss a connection, forcing me to spend the night at Karlovy Vary train station in the Czech Republic. Consequently, I will also miss the morning sessions on the second day!
Finally, I arrived at Charles University in Prague for the APT workshop, and interestingly, the final speech was the one I had been hoping for: an exploration of germanium in sphalerite via APT by Prof. D. D. Gregory. It was such a big relief.
Despite a series of misfortunes during the trip to Prague, the city itself proved deserving of such hardships. It was a beautiful city, and from the congress centre where the Goldschmidt conference took place, we enjoyed a stunning view of the city. I met several other researchers and scientists in my field and participated in numerous poster and oral presentations related to my work. I also seized the opportunity to promote one of my previous papers. Most notably, I presented my recent research on “the decoupling of Germanium from Silicon under hydrothermal conditions” and received many valuable and insightful feedback from the audience.
Finally, on the way back to Cologne, I missed another connection because of delays. I then arrived in Düsseldorf, where DB staff kindly offered me a hotel room for the night, resulting in my arriving home approximately 12 hours late.
Ahmad Haghi
PhD student
Institute of Geology and Mineralogy
PhD project: “Fate of germanium in geochemical environments: minerals, magma and hydrothermal solutions”