Prelude
A few months ago, I signed up for this conference with a solid plan in mind. By the time the conference rolled around, I was supposed to have deposited my thesis, submitted my paper, and been ready to enjoy a relaxed atmosphere filled with stimulating scientific discussions, new collaborations, and maybe even a post-doc interview. Oh, and of course, I’d get to catch up with my friends in Dresden, indulge in a ton of beer, and soak up the lovely spring weather.
But, as you can guess, none of this really happened.
Just Before the Conference
I soon realized that my paper was going nowhere, and I needed to focus on finishing my thesis. I managed to complete the writing, but the bureaucracy and revisions ate up a huge chunk of my time. I had to address loads of criticism about the style, which meant working 12-hour days for weeks on end. Three days before leaving for the conference, I was finally ready to submit my thesis. However, we hit a roadblock. We needed a committee to review the thesis and members for the tribunal – crazy stuff! I decided to get all the information, forms, and signatures sorted out before I left for Germany.
That week was rough. I felt sick, my neck hurt (and still does), and I was coughing and sneezing. Despite feeling unwell, I had made plans with people I couldn’t just bail on. I thought it would be nice to have a busy day and then enjoy the evenings, but boy, was I wrong. Sometimes you just need to rest. On Saturday, I went to a barbecue lunch where I tried not to overindulge, but by the end of it, I felt even worse.
Packing for my flight the next day was impossible; I felt terrible. Judith had to take care of me. We checked my temperature and discovered I had a fever. I took some paracetamol, hoping to feel better by the next day. I didn’t, but at least the fever broke, and I managed to pack. I left the flat and took the bus and metro to the airport.
Here’s where things got tricky: I still don’t have my residence card, so if someone asked for my ID, I’d be in a tight spot, having to explain the visa process and show my documents, albeit not in the proper format. It sucks. I was super nervous that if they didn’t let me board the plane, I’d have to just go back home. Part of me thought maybe it would be better not to go to Germany, considering I hadn’t finished my thesis.
To top it all off, I hadn’t prepared anything for the talk I was supposed to give at the conference. I had been so laser-focused on submitting my PhD thesis that I completely forgot about it. I decided to reuse my previous presentation and forget about any further preparations.
Travel to Germany
So many things were happening all at once: thesis submission, visa renewal, sickness, and an unprepared presentation. To top it all off, Germany was dealing with a massive strike. On March 27th, 2023, transportation workers held a warning strike for a wage increase, leading to multiple flight cancellations. Our flight from Barcelona to Zurich to Dresden got canceled, and they offered us a new flight on Tuesday, which was after my scheduled talk. That made no sense. We canceled the booking and booked another flight from Barcelona to Paris to Berlin for €800 each, planning to then take a train to Dresden. We were worried my boss would refuse to cover the cost, but luckily, he didn’t mind at all.
I traveled with Tom, a postdoc in the lab who’s from Germany, so he knew how to navigate the German transport situation. I was nervous to travel, but in the end, nothing really happened. No one checked.
Pro tip: If you don’t have proper documentation, it’s usually okay to travel within the Schengen Zone in Europe. No one checks your ID, you just need to show your passport. Sometimes, like in Munich, you don’t even need an ID; just a ticket is enough.
We landed in Paris and had 45 minutes to board our next plane to Berlin. What could go wrong, right? We were seated at the back of the plane, so it took forever to get out, and we had to rush to get to the gate in time. Paris airport is beautiful with lots of natural lighting, but it’s also crowded. And guess what? Our flight was delayed because it was the same plane we had just arrived on. They had to clean it and prepare for the next flight to Berlin. So we rushed for nothing.
It was so crowded that the airline staff asked us to check our carry-on baggage. We hurried past the checkpoint, where they only checked my passport. We scored emergency exit seats, which provided ample legroom. The airline even gave us sandwiches and orange juice. In my clumsiness, I spilled juice on a guy sitting next to me. He was so engrossed in the TV show he was watching on his phone that he didn’t even notice the spill on both our pants. I had to clean my pants in the bathroom later.
We reached Berlin’s airport train station, had some tea, and noticed the weather had gotten colder after Paris and Barcelona. It was around 5 PM. I put on more layers and took some ibuprofen. I felt slightly better, probably because I was constantly chatting with Tom. We took the next train to Dresden and sat in the children’s section, which had no kids but featured tables with different games. It was nice. We sat next to a long-haired techie guy who worked on his laptop the entire time. He said the Wi-Fi was good, so I took out my laptop to see if I could download things and work on my thesis. We arrived in cold, rainy Dresden around 8:30 PM, put on our hoods, and walked to the hotel. Fortunately, Tom had chosen a hotel close to the train station, so we didn’t have to walk far in the rain.
Moxy Dresden
We stayed at the cool and hip Moxy hotel, located in Dresden’s hipster neighborhood of Neustadt. Though it’s a proper Marriott hotel, everything about it seemed a bit lower in standard and offbeat in terms of vibes. The ambiance was similar to a hostel dedicated to hosting adult-themed parties, with sexual imagery everywhere. I didn’t mind, but it looked odd considering most of the guests were middle-aged to elderly. The bar was full of board games and beanbags, but no one was using them.
Our room had two beds and a thermostat set to 20°C. The room was small, with no desk or wardrobe, and the bathroom was tiny. We felt the air was too dry when we went to sleep, so we had to leave the window open the following days to increase humidity. Tom pointed out that this was one of the most common criticisms of the hotel online.
However, the breakfast was good. I must say, the last time I stayed at a German hotel, the experience was much better, with a more extensive buffet. However, since I was sick, I wanted to eat well to cope with my thesis, conference, and the cold Dresden weather. I indulged in tons of croissants, brotchen, meatballs, and yogurt. I think I’ve gained some weight since coming back.
As the days went by, working on my thesis became more intense, and I ended up working from the hotel bar with loud, poppy music playing in the background. I managed to work using headphones.
It was amusing to imagine the lives of people I encountered at the hotel bar. I couldn’t tell much about the German-speaking guests—some dressed like businesspeople, while others appeared to have just returned from a hike. The most interesting person I met was the bartender. He asked if I was from India and mentioned that he was also from India, specifically Delhi. He was studying something like management and working part-time. I saw him striking up conversations with random people at the bar. When I paid attention to what he was saying, I realized he was talking to a COO of a startup in Vienna. They were discussing everything from career to relationship advice. At one point, the bartender even stopped working to have a drink with the COO and asked for his LinkedIn ID. He seemed like someone willing to push limits to network—a nice guy.
I spent a lot of time at the bar writing and editing my thesis. The hotel staff assured me not to worry, as they would leave the lights on for me. In the end, I stayed up until 2 AM to submit my thesis.
DPG
We arrived on Sunday night and enjoyed a delicious Kumpir, a potato-based Turkish dish. Turkish cuisine is quite popular in Germany. I ate a lot and also had a nice local beer. Despite feeling unwell, I kept eating Paracetamols like candy that day. We discussed how to get to the conference venue, which was an hour away by foot in cold, rainy weather. Tom tweeted to see if someone could pick us up from Neustadt to TU Dresden, but unfortunately, no one replied. We found a taxi in the end.
The DPG (German Physics Society) meeting is the largest science conference in Europe, held at the TU Dresden campus. More than 4,500 people attend, with hundreds of talks and posters. There were too many parallel sessions; in the biophysics section alone, there were over three happening simultaneously. We were in the Bar Scho auditorium, a large room with two big projected screens.
We arrived fashionably late and went straight for lunch at the mensa (university cafeteria), where the staff only spoke German and accepted cash. I had €10, which I spent on lunch. It seemed that Germany loves international cuisine—I had couscous with falafel, which was quite good.
We attended the tissue mechanics section. The talks were interesting, but the coolest aspect was that people applauded by hitting the table with their knuckles or hands instead of clapping.
The conference was so large that it relied on volunteers, many of whom were students (including a lot of Indian students), instead of professional organizers. There were no audio-visual personnel, just a guy who handed you a microphone and pressed a button to project your laptop. You needed to bring your own laptop and choose from multiple cables to connect it. Sometimes there were issues with the cables and projection.
The talks were great, but I was often distracted due to thesis edits. I got the “professor experience,” editing text on my laptop while a PhD student presented. I was also working on my presentation, which I hadn’t rehearsed. In the end, I delivered a good presentation and answered most of the questions. My thesis was nowhere near submission.
The weather improved, so we went for a walk and explored the city. We strolled through the commercial area and visited the fanciest sports store I’ve ever seen, Globetrotters. It was like Decathlon but for wealthy Germans, and the prices were five times higher. As a Decathlon patron, I found it too expensive.
Outside the store, we saw MLKPD protestors. I would have loved to talk to them, but they didn’t speak English. It’s always nice to see ML protestors.
We returned to the hotel and then went to a vegan restaurant for dinner. The payment process was strange—they asked us to pay with a 20-year-old card system that no one uses anymore. They didn’t accept debit, credit, Mastercard, or Visa cards. In the end, we paid via PayPal.
I attended all the cell mechanics and tissue mechanics sections, which were pretty good. I took a chance and went to the active matter section, which turned out to be a disaster—the talks were irrelevant and extremely boring. Thesis writing and Paracetamol eating continued. I think my worsening condition was due to the thesis. Both of us felt bad, so we ate regular food—vegetarian doner kebabs and tea—to feel better. Our poor health caused us to miss the bar-hopping social events; we were too tired to participate.
On Wednesday, the weather improved. At least it was not freezing anymore. We had all the talks in the morning, so we could do some tourism after lunch. We had amazing currywurst in front of the Culture Palace. We were eating while facing the large mural of the workers’ movement in Germany.
We went to see the Frauenkirche, Church of Our Lady, which was pretty nice. We could go up the stairs to the top of the dome to see the amazing view of the city. You have to pay for this, though. I think it is worth it. Tom told me that during World War II, this city was totally destroyed and flattened to the ground. You might have heard this in Kurt Vonnegut’s famous book, Slaughterhouse-Five. The firebombing of Dresden was one of the brutal attacks on civilians carried out by the British and US air forces.
This church was not destroyed in the bombing directly because the dome deflected the bombs. However, this church came down because of the fires inside it. The East German socialist government treated the ruins of the church as a war memorial. However, in the ’90s, reunified Germany decided to rebuild the church for some strange reason. The view was amazing. The city was much bigger than I expected. It looks like a nice place to live, with a river, plenty of activity, and not that expensive. The weather is a downside, but I liked the city.
We went to Zwinger, a Middle Age palace, which was quite nice but was excessively under construction. The thing about this neighborhood was that it was a very nice place to have picnics. The river and the pedestrian bridge gave a vibrant vibe to the area.
We concluded the evening by going to a traditional East German restaurant called Planwirtschaft, where I had an amazing German sausage soup with East German beer. This place looked like one of those old bars, where the lighting is low and everything is made of wood. They even had a photo of former German Chancellor Wilhelm Pieck. It was an interesting restaurant.
The next day was the most intense day of the PhD thesis editing. Unfortunately, it overlapped with the poster session. I couldn’t socialize at all. I was with my laptop in the corner, fixing plots. The posters were nice, but I had to abandon them and work on the thesis. At the end of the night, at 2 AM, I finally deposited the thesis and could go to bed feeling more calm.
Friday was the last day of the conference, with all the talks in the morning. I woke up early and went to the cell mechanics session. It was great, but I was too tired to focus. Then we went to the last plenary talk, given by a famous biophysicist who was wearing a t-shirt and had a ponytail. I saw so many guys with ponytails; I was incredibly surprised by this trend. I saw people aged 20 to 60 with this ensemble.
That was the end of the conference. Tom suggested that hipster burgers were very popular in Germany, so we decided to go for a burger. We found a very cool place with punk rock music playing in the background and a cash-only policy. I enjoyed my bacon pork burger with sweet potato fries. I felt very relieved that the thesis was done, and my bosses congratulated me.
I was very happy and very tired. Tom had to meet his parents, so I just went to bed and spent all my time watching YouTube until Judith texted me, urging me to move around. The sun was shining brightly, but all I could think to do was to visit the nearby “Die Welt der DDR” museum. Tucked inside a shopping center, it resembled a novelty clothing or Halloween costume store. The moment I tried to enter the place, a stern old woman stopped me, demanding 4 euros in German. I paid in cash and ventured in.
The museum was a bizarre mix of ’60s and ’70s cars and bikes manufactured in the GDR, along with peculiar toys and mannequin children. The experience of looking at more than 50-year-old toys and clothes felt surreal. At the end of the corridor, replicas of rooms from the GDR transported me to an East German school, grocery store, or pharmacy. The funniest scenes depicted camping and beach holiday spots. There were also military uniforms, athlete medals, and other relics. It all felt so strange, knowing that these things belonged to real people who had won those medals. Anyhow, I visited the novelty gift shop and bought a cool fridge magnet.
Later, I met up with Tom, and we went out to get some currywurst for me and beers for both of us. It was the first day where I felt genuinely good; maybe my sickness had been related to the thesis. As we enjoyed our beers outdoors, the weather was so lovely that people were eating out on the terrace, and music filled the streets. I felt alive. Afterward, we went to a cool bar for a cocktail. The moment we entered, a cloud of smoke enveloped us. In Germany, people can smoke in specific bars; at this one, ’60s pop played as we sipped on gin and tonics. We headed back to the hotel, and I felt relieved that this trip was finally over.
The next day, it felt good to wake up relaxed and return to Barcelona to my bed.
Conclusion
Dresden is a nice city. It is definitely worth another visit in a better mindset. I often considered this city come for postdoc, as it has so many good science institutes. I think it could be a great place to live. Even with so much stress, I think I enjoyed the conference and the city. I need to learn how to multitask and increase my stamina for working while traveling.