syncopation

火車站

除了香港電車上層以及天星小輪下層以外，我覺得火車站又是一個很浪漫的地方。不過呢個ＯＰＴＩＯＮ貴一點，因為我所講的火車站和香港的「火車站」很不同。

香港有幸，公共交通之發達己發達至不用擔心其速度及可靠度。（不是說它完全沒有問題，但除了其價格高昂外，真的沒有甚麼可以挑剔。）

可是香港人也無福享受火車站的浪漫﹣火車站經常人頭湧湧，行人如梭，有浪漫先奇。再者，香港的火車密度一班又一班，跟地鐵的班次密度無異，實在是世界唯一。可又，每隔五分鐘的嘟嘟嘟嘟以及月台廣播真的將所有閒情一掃而空，有浪漫都變無浪漫。

火車站的浪漫在於火車那種依依不舍的速度和親密感。火車和飛機的速度不同，你可以追火車看著你要說再見的人徐徐隨火車開動而離去，但你不可以追飛機。再加上如今的機場自９１１以來就有如驚弓之鳥，ＳＥＣＵＲＩＴＹ要ＣＨＥＣＫ呢樣ＣＨＥＣＫ個樣。在禁區前流躂多一陣都會惹來保安哥哥的好奇，實在諗起都掃興。

我想，我心中理想的火車站應該是歐洲的（大）火車站：倫敦ＫＩＮＧ’Ｓ　ＣＲＯＳＳ車站的古色古香，柏林車站的摩登和井井有條，馬爾墨車站的安守本份，哥本哈根和斯多哥爾摩車站之堂皇，一一都教我難以忘懷。我亦曾在隆德車站管接管送，在米蘭車站被追火車。那情那景絕對是我想牢牢記著一世的。

當然，凡事總有例外，因為我真的不能由衷的覺得我漏了往米蘭火車的巴黎里昂車站浪漫，我只記得它很大很大，大得我趕不上去米蘭的火車。我也不覺得捷克的ＰＬＺＥＮ車站很美。我只記得自己獨個兒在三七吾識二十一，又冷的地方在凌晨等了兩個鐘頭接駁火車往ＣＨＥＢ．．．

那麼，墨爾本的火車站呢？

應該是受到了本地城市規劃教育的影響，我對它火車站的感情無從入手。我只想到它的髒，它的誤點和不安全。

Eurovision in Oz

I gave Eurovision a miss this year. But the scene of how we groaned and yelled at Bulgaria for voting Germany to win is still clear as crystal in my head.

Good times.

Resettling in Melbourne

I am starting to think my impression of Melbourne is too much better than reality.

When I was travelling in Europe, I thought, ‘Eh, I will be able to find these in Melbourne.’ However, the truth is, usually, a big fat NO:

I couldn’t find good jamon Serrano. Good parmigiano-reggiano isn’t as readily available as in Italy. Proscuitto here tastes nothing. Pesto tastes weird. Good cheese is not as easy to come by as Europe. (I give up my search for Västerbottenost.) Bread is weird too… The collection of müsli isn’t as exciting as the one in Sweden. Collection in bottleshop is overwhelmingly Australian (duh. But is it a crime that I miss Systembolaget – not the price tag though). Grillakorv is a total disaster!!! (Okay, I know it is somewhat unfair as I am picking the cream of every country to compare what’s available in Melbourne…)

Aside from food, student accommodation is a nightmare here and a zillion times more expensive than in Lund. There are hardly anyone biking. Travelling by public transport on Sunday is more difficult than I could remember. Plus everything is so far away. And Melburnians are less chill than I could remember and intimidating in some cases (especially on public transport in suburbs!!! I guess that implies something?!)

But… the café latte in Melbourne never fails me. It truly is the best coffee in the world…! (And the ‘line’ in Castro is just how I remember it.) Soy option is always available in café (yay!). Fruits are comparatively affordable here. Beef and lamb are yummy… And availability of gourmet yoghurt continues to grow… (yummm…)

… So does my energy-intake per day…(!) Off to gym now – vi ses!

xoxo

The second half of the 25-hour train ride

After ‘a good night of sleep’, we finally arrived Köln at 06.25 as scheduled. We originally planned to stay in Köln for just an hour and Bruxelles for 2 hours since it’s quite early when we reached Köln but because the early train requires reservation, we thus took the later one to Bruxelles which, turned out to be a wise decision because 1) things are actually opened in Köln already – in the station, at least; 2) Bruxelles was unbelievably run-down for a European city – for a split second I thought we were not in Europe but somewhere in the middle east – it’s the most dirty city I have ever seen in Europe. No wonder Kaho got conered when he spent the night at the station! We made full use of the time that we were in Köln and even paid the Cathedral a visit – it’s incredibly big – I had to step back quite a bit to capture the entire building even my camera is equipped with wide-angle lens!

The Cathedral

Ludwig Museum

River Rhein

When we reached Bruxelles, we had to rush to the Eurostar terminal to pick up our tickets but we still managed to buy some Belgian waffles before we had to run to our coach which happened to be, again on the other end of the 400m platform…

After a little bit more than 2 hours, we finally arrived London St. Pancras International. Oh by the way, I forgot to mention we had to pass through custom and passport control of both Belgium and the UK while we were clearly still in the turf of Belgium, which was just plain bizarre. We had lunch at Chop’d which is quite like a salad place of Pret a Manger. I had Terriyaki chicken with sushi rice with a soya latte. The portion is not bit but the food was quite tasty and fresh. Then, in order to catch the 2pm train from London King’s Cross to Edinburgh we ran from St. Pancras to KGX within 5 minutes, not to mention that Tess and Jennie were dragging their luggage among the crowds in London!

London St. Pancras

London King’s Cross

After 4.5 hours, we finally made it to Edinburgh Waverley Station! The train ride is actually very rewarding although the part of hunting for seats were very frustrating since we didn’t make reservation but only hop on with train passes. We saw a lot of natural landscape and townscapes for instance, Peterborough, Newcastle, Doncaster and York. More importantly, we also saw a lot of pontuses! And so as the North Sea.

Even though we traveled for 25 hours i actuality, it did not eel that long at all. Probably because we got to walk around and did stuff. And of course getting to pracitice German and taste Belgian waffle were also very satisfying. I swear this is so much better than getting stuck in the airport for no better reason.

Post-Christmas Trip, Day 10: Last day of Praha

This is our last day in Czech Republic! (I made it sound like I have been here forever, didn’t I?) We went back to the Pražský hrad (Prague Castle) to check out the paid components… turned out, there isn’t actually too much that is worth seeing… or maybe I was just severely affected by the cold weather that I couldn’t be bothered looking anymore… trust me, you will also get numbed after seeing more than ten European castle or churches, no matter how amazing they are. However, I do think the Zlatá ulička (Golden Lane) is quite interesting and visually attractive. It is made up of a row of tiny houses which are now served as little shops that sell souvenirs (or maybe that’s why it’s more attractive? ah well…)

Pražský hrad (Prague Castle)

After leaving the Castle, Greg and I then went on the wild search for Frank Gehry’s dancing house (Tančící dům in Czech if that means anything to you) which originally was named Fred & Ginger. I normally am not a big fan of Frank Gehry (Certainly was less of a fan after seeing the close resemblance of the Disney Opera House in LA and the Guggenheim in Bilbao!) But we really didn’t have too much left to do and this building has always looked so photogenic on Flickr that I couldn’t resist not to do some photographic documentation myself:

Being lured by the idea of having a hot bowl of Phở, Greg and I followed a local’s direction and went to the Vietnamese Market in Praha on tram. But I guess we arrived there too late, shops are starting to close – and I saw nothing resembling Phở, or any rice paper rolls… :( We finally went back to hostel and resort our dinner to pizza downstairs at our hostel with Nisha and Bala before going to Praha hlavní nádraží to wait for my past mid-night trains (4 changes on a night train by myself, you have no idea how much I was looking forward to it!!!) to Yvonne’s place at Zeulenroda in Germany.