Exciting weekend going to PortAventura!!

Hi everybody again!

Today I will introduce you one of the most interesting activities you can do while living in Barcelona. It is one of the biggest theme parks in Europe, it has a lot of roller coasters…yes, I'm talking about PortAventura!!!

At the entrance of PortAventura!

This weekend my cousins and I decided to do something exciting so we agreed to go to PortAventura, the best theme park in Spain, which is in the province of Tarragona (south of Catalonia). PortAventura is a theme park and a resort in the well-known city for tourists of Salou; on the Costa Daurada, approximately an hour drive south-west of Barcelona. You can get there taking the highways AP-7/A-7 by car and by using the train (there is a nearby station). It attracts around 4 million visitors per year making it the most visited theme park in Spain.

Among all the attractions in PortAventura, there are some that outstand over the rest. These are: Furius Baco, Dragon Khan, Shambhala and Hurakan Condor Ride.

Furius Baco: This one will catapult you dramatically horizontal in a shuttle from 0 to 135 km/h in three seconds.

 

Dragon Khan on the left (red), Shambhala on the right (white)

Dragon Khan: The Dragon Khan ride of PortAventura theme park, consists of an impressive downhill drop and 8 loop the loops, defying the bravest on a journey of 110 km/h. Incredible!!
Shambhala: Totally insane, I cannot explain how crazy it is! Check this out:
The attraction beats three European records:
    1.    The highest rollercoaster in Europe (76 meters)
    2.    Rollercoaster with the longest fall in Europe (78 meters)
    3.    The fastest European hypercoaster, it will reach 134 km / h on the first descent.
Hurakan Condor Ride: The only attraction of the park that will rise to 100 meters for you to experience what its like during a true free fall. Scaring!

There are, of course, other attractions that are very good too, but these four are the most exciting ones. Be brave and try them all!

                                        With my new friend...but he wasn't very talkative





In addition, we were lucky enough to enter into the park when it was acclimated in a Halloween-fashion. So cool! You could see skulls, pumpkins, spiders and blood everywhere…but the best time was in the afternoon/night, when everyone got dressed and some crew of the park tried to scare you!!

For more information I recommend you to reach the website: http://www.portaventura.co.uk/

Enjoy PortAventura! :)

Some words about my research place!

Hi you all again!

Waiting for more info about my research in Barcelona? Let's go!

In this week's issue I will focus on the place where I'm currently doing my research project: at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB).

The door of my lab

IRB Barcelona is a research institution engaged in basic and applied biomedical science, with an special emphasis in promoting multidisciplinary research of excellence at the interface between biology, chemistry and medicine, that aims to improve quality of life by applying advances in this field. The center was founded by the Government of Catalonia, the University of Barcelona (UB) and the Barcelona Science Park (Parc Científic de Barcelona) in October 2005.

The entrance to the Science Park I take everyday

From the previous paragraph you can foresee that the IRB Barcelona is within the complex of the Parc Científic of the UB. The whole research complex was built by the UB in 1997, being the first scientific park of Spain. Since then it has grown exponentially, being consolidated now, with more than 85.500m2 (43.537m2 exclusively for laboratories!) and 70 companies working there as one of the biggest in Europe.

*It is important to address that if you are planning to come to the UB as a KI exchange student, it is worth to check where you lectures are, since the "Campus Farmàcia/Biologia" is very close to the Parc Cientific UB! Otherwise you may have to take the metro to reach your classroom from here.*

The center is close to the University of Barcelona and to the Nou Camp (Barça's stadium) too!

Finally, I will give some information about my research group! The group is made up of five Spanish (all of them from Barcelona, except me), one Argentinian and two Italian. Therefore we have imposed the Mediterranean lifestyle...! Just joking! But I have to say that it is a very friendly group and I feel very lucky to work with them all. With regard to my research topic, it is about the unknown effect of an enzyme named ADAT2/3 (adenosine deaminase acting on tRNA) on the whole cell. It is well known that this enzyme deaminates A to I in the position of the tRNA anticodon, but several questions are unresolved so far: how does this affect cell translation? did it have a selection effect? do the organisms use always this modification or it depends on the cellular state?...The group belongs to the Molecular Medicine department of the IRB Barcelona, and it has a special focus on the gene translation studies.

PS: As I'm writing this there is a big storm upon me! That is scaring!