The joys of business travel

This week I've been in Lisbon for a weeks worth of standards meetings with the MIPI alliance - a group establishing microprocessor interfaces (terribly geeky, nerdy stuff to most of you, I'm sure...). There are some good things and some annoying things about these trips (and this one in particular).

Good -

• I get to see some new cities that I otherwise probably wouldn't for quite a while. The meetings don't take all day, so I get to spend a little bit of time looking around and playing tourist, and sometimes finding places I'd like to come back to with my family. Look here for some pictures I took in Lisbon.
• I'm not paying for the trip
• I get to keep lots of airline miles for making the trip
• The work is generally interesting and exciting

Bad -

• I'm away from my family, and never sleep as well when I'm not with my dear wife...
• Most of the time is spent in meeting rooms - the inside of one conference room is pretty much like any other, so it isn't all that glamorous...
• Lisbon does dinner like Spain - really late. Of course the meeting schedule is pretty much like a normal business day everywhere else - no time for a siesta in the afternoon. So I'm up at 6:30 to get ready for the meetings at 8:30, but awake until midnight getting dinner. I don't do well on 6 hours of sleep...
• Europe especially has some jet-lag issues for me coming over, so I'm pretty much tired and messed up for most of the time that I'm here...
  

I have at least two more trips this year, but one will be within the US. Will I be interested in coming back to Lisbon? Probably not - the city, at least what I've seen, isn't all that interesting, and it doesn't feel particularly safe - more pickpocket problems than I've heard in other cities, and more of the businesses seem to be out to rip off the tourists.

If you're interested in seeing where I've been, I have an application on my Facebook page to show the cities I've been to, so become my friend and you can see the full list. I have been to a bunch of places...