This is Spain! I am not always obliged to be in Barcelona when updating barcabios. So there I was in Zaragoza, the city of the most bars per capita in Spain, home of the "jota", the "piedras del Ebro" and the "Basilica del Pilar".
Zaragoza, capital of Aragon is a beautiful city, built by the Ebro river by the Romans almost 2000 years ago (for a Greek it is not very old of course but for the Spanish it means something). I was there for a geek conference that consumed most of my time but at least I had a few hours off (or more precisely I gave myself a few hours off) to take a long walk around the city center, along the riverside and by the most historical buildings.
The variations of age, architecture and styles reflect the passing of the centuries and civilizations Zaragoza has suffered (or benefited from). From the Roman walls by the river, to the Aljaferia castle built by the Moores originally made entirely out of alabaster and from the mudejar cathedral of La Seo to the "Pilarica" constructed by the Spanish after the "Reconquista". The subsequent layers of the universal spanish soul lie at the feet of the visitor. And when our geek (that is bioinformatics) conference left us time, we also had the chance to have a couple of drinks in "el tubo", Zaragoza's main nightlife zone.
Sitting back at my desk in Barcelona, alternating my playlist from Theodorakis (thanks to Sarah), to Pearl Jam (thanks to Maria) and Brad Mehldau (thanks to Julien) I am trying to dig my way back into nucleosome prediction, based on some ideas I had in Zaragoza. People would say that conferences serve exactly for these things, meaning to steer new ideas to the participants and it is true but only partly. Because the ideas I had, no matter how mediocre, I had them all while walking around the city looking at this cathedral by the river...
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