Milan

Hey

Just a quick post to update eveyone and answer a frequently asked question, that is: how are you enjoying travelling by yourself?

Truth be told its fine. There are a few ups and downs and it would be great to have someone to share the good times and bad times with but there are a lot of positioves as well (mainly, that you can do everything at your own pace). I've adjusted to the hostel life pretty quickly which is good. Its actually a really good way to do things, and if you have cool room mates its a lot of fun. Of course the opposite is true as well and if you're room mates are creepy it can be a real drag. There's a certain honour amoungst travellers in hostels which I've noticed, and which helps a lot. Similar to how in golf you never walk on someone's line, in hostels there are things which are not done either, such as:
> if you get in late you try to make as little noise as possible; and
> you never turn on the light if someone's trying to sleep.

I've also noticed that everyone (myself included) goes out of their way to be nice to the other room mates. This is mainly because (I think) that everyone is worried that they might get their stuff stolen. So you try and take measures to ensure that it stays safe, like locking your bags and being super nice to everyone. The logic is that if there is a thief in the room if you're really nice to them they won't steal your stuff, they will steal from the other, less nice person. Of course this logic is totally flawed but it does mean that you are constantly meeting new people and everyone seems to get along quite well.

Of course there are some people who don't follow this ettiquette, like my last room mate here who I'm certain was an ex prostitute or drug addict. She (who for the purposes of this post I will call the Crack Whore) had a disgustingly weathered face and masculine voice, coughed and spluttered like a diseased person and had those crazy eyes. Naturally I tried to be nice for fear she might stab me in the middle of the night or something. She was constantly getting up in the middle of the night and switching ALL the lights and when I woke up the next morning she was smoking a cigarette in bed. Needless to say I was pretty annoyed. Fortunately though the Crack Whore went that day and my new room mates seem okay.

Milan itself is pretty cool. Went to the Duomo, which is a large cathedral in the centre of town.



[pic: Duomo in Milan]

Was pretty cool but didn't find the body that Mum told me was there....

Also saw Leonardo Da Vinci's Last Supper. Was blown away by that. And I have to say (my art historian friends may not like this next part) that I'm convinced that the figure on the left of Jesus is a woman. I know that traditionally John is depicted as young and effeminate (and often even asleep on Jesus' shoulder) and I agree with the logic art historians use as to why that figure is not a woman but when you look at the painting you see a woman. Presumably its Mary Magdeline. Also telling (in my view) is the painting at the other end of the hall. This showns the crucifixion and Mary Magdeline IS depicted in it. Both paintings were done at the same time and Mary Magdeline is wearing the same clothes (in roughly the same shade) as the figure in The Last Supper.

So I'm pretty convinced. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Dan Brown was right, I'm just saying that Leonardo, for reasons only known to him, decided to paint Mary Magdeline in the Last Supper...maybe he thought it was funny or something.



[pic: a copy of the Last Supper, I wasn't able to take a picture of the actual painting!]

One thing that also made me laugh is that there is an archway that intrudes onto the bottom of the picture (google the picture and you'll see what I mean). Apparently years after it was painted the decision was made to build an arch and the moron that did it decided to cut into Leoonardo's masterpeice. Why you would do this is just beyond me. I hope that man didn't get his Christmas bonus that year!

I was supposed to head to Lake Como today but unfortunately there was a train strike (not even the metro was working) so I wasn't able to. Looks like I'll have to do that tomorrow. That sort of killed the day a bit for me so I've just been taking it easy. I also decided to get out of the way a few of the more mundane things and even got my haircut. The barber didn't speak a word of English and my Italian is pretty non existant so its no surprise that I'm now sporting a pretty terrible haircut! Haha



[pic: Where I had dinner that night - designed by Leonardo Da Vinci]

Anthony