Defeated by a museum

Boston Day 6

This was the day a museum broke me. It started out as any ordinary day last day in a location - woke up, did a little packing, headed into the city to meet Mo after her class. But then it all went awry. I'd like to say my lunchtime bagel had insufficient humus, but that would be a lie - it was applied like putty to a large hole in a wall. I'd like to say the weather was tiring, but that would be a lie - the sun was shining brightly while I sat and enjoyed some live music eating said bagel, you can see my lunchtime view here. I'd like to say many things, but the truth is that once Mo and I were halfway through the Harvard Museum of Natural Science, I was feeling like I'd walked far further than I really had, and I was flagging.

There is just so much in the museum! So much! Lots of pretty rocks and minerals, a fascinating collection of glass flowers (made in the late 19th century for the study of botany), many many skeletons of long extinct creature, stuffed examples of animals of the world, and then an exhibition on the art and lives of the indigenous people of the area. I lost Mo somewhere in the animals, but figured she'd turn up somewhere, and sure enough we bumped into each other again in the anthropology section. We had half an hour until closing, and admitted we were both a little tired. Then the fire alarm went off, just in our section, and we took it as a sign to leave.

I really enjoyed the museum, there were some animals there I'd never seen before, particularly some of the prehistoric ancestors of modern animals. I'm always amused by the poses they put taxidermied animals into - the Australian animals looked fairly unimpressed with the situation, and there was at least one monkey that was definitely in 'escape!' pose.

After some respite at the local Starbucks we found our way back towards Mo's. This time, however, we decided to lash out and go to a local favourite of her's for dinner - an ice cream parlour type place that does good beef stew. So that's how the day ended, with stew, followed by a slow walk home, and some chocolate and tv while I finished packing up all my stuff. It's amazing how disorganised a bag gets after just a week of digging around. It shouldn't really be amazing - it's a tightly packed bag. But it is.

I did like Boston. It's a friendly place with nice people and fascinating architecture. Perhaps I'll be back there some day, who knows!