Second Day in Scotland (part 2)

Here is another one of the dramatic churches in Edinburgh with the also dark foreboding sky in the background - the rain followed us on the second day, but we did have

Later in the second day we walked around a lot before we went with Erin to her Scottish Studies class, where we learned that the idea of tartan representing specific clans in Scotland isn't necessarily historically correct. In general, we talked about traditions: what makes a tradition, how quickly can something become a tradition, and when is something actually a tradition versus a "bricolage" (the taking of pieces of various traditions and giving them new meaning and different context) versus something completely fabricated. It was quite an interesting discussion!

Below is a lovely square near a bakery and coffee shop where we sat for a bit and had our lunch in the brief break from the rain.
Here Claudia models the traditional (haha) Scottish soft drink, Irn Bru (pronounced Iron Brew). This drink is SO sickeningly sweet that I have no idea how anyone can drink more than one sip in a sitting, yet they do! It smells and tastes almost exactly like liquid sugary bubble gum, though you get a bit of the manufactured orange color taste as well somehow! Definitely an experience. I barely managed one sip!

(Wikipedia says: "Irn Bru was first produced in 1901...Irn-Bru is known for its bright orange colour. As of 1999 it contained 0.002% of ammonium ferric citrate, sugar, 32 flavouring agents (including caffeine...) and two controversial colourings.")Here is Erin peeking out from behind a tree in the park when I was trying to get a picture of her, and then below are Claudia and I also in the park. We had a lovely afternoon together that day and then we went to Erin's flat and Claudia and I cooked dinner for her - she requested Searle-White spaghetti, which we then made and had with delicious garlic bread. :)