Hair cuts, Hari Krishna, and books

So, I went and got myself a hair cut. It was cut by Alain Winters. He's Belgian and very gay. He decided my hair is too serious and needs to be more a-symetrical. Here are the results (shorter than I wanted it but you know barbers - you tell them not to cut too much, you get home, discover half your hair has disappeared - but luckily mine grows fast). I think it's nice. Very European.... (oh, and don't get alarmed by the "after" picture, it's just that I took the picture myself and didn't know where to look and when to smile, I promise to change the picture when I have a better one - I wanted you to see the effect right after the cut - I tried about ten times but didn't manage to get it right...):

Before (taken at the office one day):

After (taken at the hotel):

As this is an experiment in blogging - you'll have to bear with me while I try out the technology...

In addition to getting my hair cut, I visited my first church yesterday - Sant'Amrbogio, the patron saint of Milan. You can see his remains - dressed up and with two other saints flanking him (spooky...) - in the crypt of the church. This custom of not burying people but leaving them on display is a bit strange to me (saw it also in Brno where Franciscan monks were left in boxes above ground) . There were some people praying there, singing very nicely. The church acoustics are very good.

I also went to two good english bookstores. There are 4 stores some nicer than others (there were books in Spanish, French, Russian, German, even Portuguese in one store). No used bookstores. Seems this is not "the thing" here. People don't like used books. Got a very funny book called "Lost in translation" with funny quotes from all over the world from planes, hotels, etc. (I've seen some of them before on the internet, but many were new) making some hysterical mistakes in English (I suppose I make some mistakes myself but nothing like those quoted in this book..). I had to stop reading it on the train - I was laughing so hard people were staring at me.... I also got a book about Louis the 14th and his women - the women in the life of the Sun King, by Antonia Fraser. Looks good.

Milan is nice in the sense that it is a very cosmopolitan place - and so has bookstores in English, a newspaper in English for tourists, many people here speak at least some English and so on, but because it doesn't have too many tourist attractions (compared with Rome or Florence) there aren't so many tourists around, which makes the place less crowded and you don't see so many groups of tourists going after umbrellas.... (their guide). I think I'm going to like this place...

Today I went with Paola to eat at a Hari Krishna place. I went to a place like this in Hungary with Hagit. Like everything else in Milan - even the Hari Krishna place here is elegant. They're centrally located and the food is good, vegetarian, but good. You sit with other people having lunch there in tables of eight. The price is reasonable and it's better than what you'd would get in a fast food place here - which costs the same.

I was planning to go to visit a friend in a village near Florence today, but because rain is expected - the trip will take place next weekend. If it doesn't rain - I'm thinking of going to Bergamo (a small town east of Milan) which I hear is nice and/or take part in the Terry Fox Run here (I won't run, I'll walk). Terry Fox Runs take place all over the world at this time of the year in memory of Terry Fox who went across Canada while he was sick with cancer, with an artificial leg, to raise awareness to the illness. Money raised on these runs are given to cancer research, hospitals, etc. You can read more about this here.

Looks like I'll start taking Italian lessons next week. High time. I understand a lot but am afraid to speak and make mistakes. Luckily, although I said that many speak English, many others don't so I'm forced to use the language.

and since I'm attaching pictures today - here are two of the hotel room:

That's all folks for this edition of my blog. Have a nice weekend.