Mark and Ita Go to Europe 2015: Olomouc!

Very early on rainy Wednesday morning, August 19^th, we boarded a bus to travel for three hours to the Czech Republic to visit the Center of Plant Structural and Functional Genomics at the Institute of Experimental Botany in the beautiful old city of Olomouc, where Mendel also studied.

Too early!

No, it's not!

We're almost there!

We were greeted by the director of the Institute, Jaraslov Dolezel, Jan Bartos, Jan Safra, and Hana Simkova.

They offered us beverages and delicious Czech pastries to enjoy before Jan and Hana began their separate lectures.

Before the lectures, the Institute’s new public relations employee interviewed Mark and a couple of the students (Michael and Nepheli) for their website.

Jan Bartos began the morning’s activities with a lecture covering the Institute’s strategies for genome sequencing.

Hana’s lecture addressed the process of sequencing wheat genome and the use of optical gene mapping.

Afterwards, the students toured the Institute’s various genome-related laboratories, led by Jan Bartos and Jan Safra:

It was lunch time so we reboarded the bus with Jan Safra as our guide (Jaraslov drove in a separate car) and we rode into the square in the middle of Olomouc to walk to our restaurant, which printed special menus for our group luncheon! Mark and I, upon Jaraslov’s recommendation, ordered the duck breast and dumplings because he said it was a traditional Czech entrée. It was delicious! Jaraslov went around to the students’ tables to let them know about the duck breast which I believe became a popular choice for a lot of the students.

After lunch, the students went on a tour with a guide and Jan to visit older sites in Olomouc, fountains and statues, while Mark and I strolled with Jaraslov as our guide through streets of old Olomouc until we reached the square and even stopped for ice cream!