Back from NESAT.

Even though I had a few days off to relax and take a breather afterwards, the NESAT is still on my mind. It was a wonderful time with old colleagues and friends and the opportunity to meet new people, and I enjoyed every second of the conference.

NESAT is special, and this year it was extra-special, with the opportunity to visit the archaeological excavations in the bronze age salt mines, and a tour around Hallstatt. In case you haven't been there and have no idea about how it looks there, let me tell you: Hallstatt is spectacular, in more than one way. You have alpine scenery with those big, imposing mountains all around; the Hallstatt lake which is large and quite clear and very beautiful; and the combination between those two is really breathtaking. The weather throughout the week was wonderful, hot and sunny, and only very slightly overcast on some days, so we all got to enjoy summery weather. That included ice cream splurges and sitting outside for dinner in the evening.

The papers and posters were very interesting, and everybody kept to the time, so we all got to enjoy the breaks as scheduled (with minimal changes here and there, as is usual at a conference). It was so nice meeting and chatting with all the other textile folks - and the days went by in a blur, they passed so fast. At the end of the conference, I was quite happy that it was over, while at the same time very much regretting that it was already over. (A brain can only take so much archaeological textiles at a time... even if everything is wildly interesting.)

It's a pity that NESAT is only every three years, and then only for about four days. On the other hand, it's a big thing to organise, and handling all this every three years only is obviously much easier for the NESAT board than doing it every or every second year. I'm already looking forward to the next one in 2017, myself - it will be in the Czech republic, that time, and getting to see and to know some more of the Eastern colleagues will be a wonderful thing.

(Sorry for the very late blog post - sometimes my Firefox acts up, and it takes beyond forever to load a page... that was the case this morning, so internet work got delayed.)