Rainbows and ice cream

I had to go into Edinburgh for a meeting at the National Museum Scotland(NMS) for my project placement meeting recently.
Part of the program I'm in, requires you to choose an internship and work for the year.  I chose the Scottish Life Archives, that's part of the National Museum.

I checked out the Mary, Queen of Scots exhibition.  It was really interesting.  I recommend going to it, if you can(hurry it closes soon!)  I think my favorite object were the pendants.  One was a poodle and the other was an elephant. There were nice, sort of everyday kinds of jewelry.

Since the day was amazing, I followed a classmate's advice and went up to the roof terrace after my meeting, and boy was I glad I did.
There were rainbows all over Edinburgh.  There weren't brief, washed out rainbows.  This was vivid and with a perfect arch disappearing into the cloud bank and re-emerging.  After seeing it I understood why people believe it leads somewhere.  I don't remember seeing a rainbow that vivid. You saw all the colors and the progression. 

I won't say I followed the rainbow, but after I left the museum I wandered toward Edinburgh Castle and ended up on the Greenmarket, which is behind the Castle.  I was thrilled actually, because another classmate had told me about this gelato place, called Mary's Milk Bar.  I will say the gelato is amazing.

I had the rose and dark chocolate with another scoop of Peruvian 64% dark chocolate.  This woman knows what she's doing with gelato.  There are no words for how good this stuff is.  All I can say is if you are around Edinburgh, go.  Hell, I'd make a special trip.

Tuesday afternoon

We took a break when we crossed the Charles Bridge. Lunch, wine, relaxing. I had garlic soup with croutons. Yum. And Czech wine. I really like Czech wine. Sort of smooth and dry but just enough fruit to not be pucker-y like a chardonnay.

The garlic soup was good. It was a cool day to start with so it seemed like a good idea. And it wasn't too heavy. I have been seeing a lot of meats and potato heavy stuff on menus. Which is good. I love potatos and bacon. I mean hello, Irish ancestors! But not for today. Downside is my breath smells like garlic, but tough.

We took the tram up the hill to the Strahov monastery library. The tram is cool. A bit like the T in Boston. Except they are more relaxed about paying. You buy a card, they check it on occasion. You have it, sure. You don't...uh-oh.

Strahov was great. The old books and the art. They are renovating one hall of the library, so we saw the Theological Hall...I felt right at home. It was amazing. THey have some interesting artifacts as well. The monks collected all sorts of stuff so it's like a museum too. Dried sea life, shells, armour, weapons, and cannon balls. And narwhal tusks and penis. Those were fun.
I think my two favorite things were the portable library desk. It is a desk and the chair folds down to fit inside and on the other side was a mini stepladder to reach the books.
And the second thing was a huge book holder that turned. You placed your texts on it and could spin it so that you were reading what you need to interpret the texts. I know a few exgesis classes that would want that.
The librarian at Strahov had to have me explain exegesis, but he got it when he knew what I was talking about! He laughed and agreed that's what it was for.

After leaving the monastery we had great views of the city. Which reminded me of Edinburgh castle actually. Being so high up and seeing all of the area.
Some of us walked down back to the hotel. We did stop for wine. Martin, one of the coordinators, knew a place. It's very good wine. So we did Happy Hour Czech style.
And of course we found a gelato shop. I had nutella gelato. Oh yummy. But the strawberry was good yesterday too.

I found the John Lennon wall. I had read about it, but didn't think I'd see it. Very cool.