Monthly Archives: October 2012

希臘小島遊:Santorini

十月份,遊希臘,似乎聞所未聞地不吸引,正因踏入淡季,市面開始蕭條。但對我來說,卻是最好時候,對,為了慳錢之原則,反正,二千元的機票我又買不起,不如趁天氣變幻莫測時,去賭一賭運。

我沒有逗留很長時間,Island Hopping 的意義,可能是 A 去 B 去 C 等,無三不成幾。不過,我只是在有限的九天裡選了 Santorini 及 Naxos,其餘的時間,寧願回到雅典去,畢竟我最愛看古蹟,如果錯過了衛城就太過對不住自己。結果路線定好,先來到 Santorini,人稱的蜜月島。此島一向予人兩種感受:

 

1:好 sweet ,2:好遊客。

愛與不愛,取決於什麼?我反覆思考這問題,市中心的 Thira 擺明就是手信商店充斥,然而,在我來說又沒有害我覺得悶透,反正,一路走有不段的風景百拍不厭,石階中上又落,仍然像尋寶一樣的新奇有趣,我拿着一張明信片,為了尋找最美的風景,偶然遇上了一群可愛小貓,牠們貪玩又不怕人,也同樣是我打發時間的風景。從 Thira 坐公車到下一站 Oia,午餐於崖邊的餐廳,原以為這麼旅客的靚餐廳,一定是騙人的收費及難吃的土產,卻又喜出望外的滋味。我手上沒有地圖,然而卻會找到崖邊的古蹟。其實,我眼中沒有希臘的小島有多甜美的印象,還是一句,沒有期望,不會失望,因此, Santorini 比起想像之中美麗。

我認為,所入住的酒店也是關鍵,旺季的四星級可以過二千元,淡季則降到很低,我所住的離 Thira 市只不過 15 分鐘的步程,卻擁有無敵大海景,要知道,房間全面向西,日落就發生在你的房間外,真是誇張。淡季的價錢只是 80 歐一晚,實在不能用不以「抵」字來形容。做這一行越久,越知價格與所得的風景,往往成正比,天底下價廉物美的地方越來越少,尤其在已發展旅遊這麼久的小島。我在 Santorini 的賭局是獲勝的,天氣出奇的好,還可以天天在泳池曬太陽,或者搭公車去沙灘。賭天氣,像是玩 50/50,下一篇 Naxos,就是還錢的時候。

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Here is my off-season trip to Greece. And of course it is the best time for me because I can save money in a reasonable way. I can’t afford to buy $2,000 round tickets in peak season, I should better pray for good weather instead.

I plan to spend 9 days in total. Although Island Hopping is the popular route, I could not just skip Athens, which she has thousands of  historical sites I want to visit. Finally, I pick two Islands called Santorini and Naxos. We all knew about Santorini for its famous white houses and churches. Some people said the island become too touristic. But some stills find her romantic side, that would be enough to stay for few days.

In my opinion, I didn’t hate the touristic shops in the town of Thira, it gave me a lot of fun when I was walking uphill and downhill to find spots for photography. I also spent half day in Oia, in the northern part of Santorini, and had a great lunch in a so-called touristic restaurant along the main street with sea view. I didn’t expect that they served nice local food or seafood with cheap prices. Sometimes you are able to find local dry white wine with a very good price when you dined in one of the greek restaurant on the island, just 3-4 euro for half liter.

In some extents, the choice of your hotel is the most important part of your trip. The one I stayed was more than excellent. In peak season, the rate could be in triple. And now I paid 80 Euro per room per night, which I would have sea view, swimming pool with sun bed, the private balcony and the wonderful sunset…3 times in front of my balcony. I was lucky with the incredible favorable weather…but it changed suddenly when I moved on to Naxos.

 

Festival of Lights – Berlin 柏林燈光節

柏林燈節開鑼,細雨紛紛揚揚,燈影朦朧,奇幻派對展開,至 10 月 21 日。click HERE

Autumn 秋色 @ Potsdam

The color of Autumn, Potsdam, Germany

7th OCT 2012 

My return to Barcelona (eng version)

Four or five years ago, my first trip to Barcelona, I was busy on writing a travel guide book. I never had any awareness of it before, by collecting data, reading some travel books, preparing map, holding big baggages with my photographer, from Berlin we arrived in Barcelona. At that time, it was necessary to race against time. As a result, we probably worked ten hours a day, visited the attractions including La Pedrera, La Sagrada Familia, Park Güell, Casa Batllo, Montijuic Peak, Miro Museum, Museum MNAC and the MACBA Art Gallery, Picasso Museum, the Concert Hall of Catalonia, FC Barcelona’s stadium, Mercat de la Boqueria, La Barceloneta beach … and a dozens of shops and interviews. Finally, a travel guide with 216 pages  was produced, within four months’ work. For me, the experience of Barcelona was so amazing, although everybody said that it was the worst hit cities of pick pocket. Fortunately, we kept awake all the time. But I remembered, when I left Barcelona on the last day, I said︰In the coming decade, I don’t want to be back … maybe it was just the influence of the guide book, or because the place was too complicated for me, too many pickpockets, I was extremely nervous, couldn’t relax for a day.

But You will never know. After five years, I came back to this place again. I met a friend K in Ireland, she asked me to bring a guide book back to Germany for her. At that moment, she didn’t even know the author is me, she said: it was your colleagues masterpiece! However, you should suggest to update the map ( Surely, it has been five years…), I told her with an embarrassed smile that I am the author.

Finally, I come with a friend this time and stay in Barcelona with my custom-made itinerary. Referring to the book, there are several designers’ stores, I encountered those people again. I felt so interesting, I sometimes doubt whether they would remember me or not. In fact, if you remember them, they would remember  you too.

In this trip, I am mostly surprised with the interior of the cathedral of the Holy Family, it was completely built! In 2010, the Pope visited and renamed it as Basilica.

But I still have a bad impression of Barcelona which has not changed, the problem of crime still made me nervous. In addition, I didn’t really have time to visit the beach. It is already autumn in Berlin, without any beach around, everyone wants to visit the beach of Spain. Maybe it is the reason of my re-visiting of Barcelona? I hope that the Holy Family Cathedral would be completed in my next trip.

special thanks︰

U magazine for Barcelona guide book on 2008-2009

Swiss International air lines for supporting on the guide book

My return to Barcelona 重回巴塞隆拿

約四、五年前,首次往巴塞隆拿(簡稱巴塞),那時我忙於撰寫一本旅遊 guide book,在從未對它有任何認識之下,用最快的時間搜羅資料,閱畢幾本旅遊書,做好地圖的標記,拿着行李㩦同我的攝影師,於柏林坐飛機抵達巴塞。當時我的心情是很複雜的,既要與時間競賽,一味靠快趕拍攝,也要讓自己大開眼界。結果,我們在大概八至十天的時間,遊畢高第的景點包括 La Pedrera、聖家教堂 La Sagrada Familia、Park Güall、Casa Batllo,登上 Montijuic 山頂看 Miro 博物館,遊 MNAC 及 MACBA 美術館、畢卡索美術館、加泰隆尼亞音樂廳、FC Barcelona 的場館看球賽、Mercat de la Boqueria 街市、La Barceloneta 沙灘…還有幾十間店舖的訪問。最後,生產出一本厚 216 頁的旅遊指南,在四個月之埋首之間。當時我最深刻的體會,巴塞實在是個驚艷之都,而眾人皆指它是 pick pocket 最嚴重的城市,我與攝影師 Chow 深表同意,幸好我們雖疲累不堪,但都打醒十四分精神。不過我記得,當我離開巴塞的那一天,我曾經說過︰往後十年我都不想再回來…或者是做 guide book 的後遺症,又或者是我認為自己再消化不下這個城市了,我強烈地覺得這裡的人太複雜,扒手太多,讓我萬分緊張,無法放鬆過一天。

世事難料。五年不夠,我又回來旅遊,出發前在愛爾蘭跟朋友 K 見面,她竟然拜托我把一本當年我撰寫的 guide book 帶到德國,再轉交她,她當時未知作者是我,她還說:你同事的傑作呀!不過地圖方面就真的要 update (畢竟有五年了,我也認為要更新),我尷尬的笑笑那是我寫的。事情真巧合,我再與這本書遇上,甚至有時連自己都忘了,我寫過什麼東西時。

今次是伴遊關係,我想我大概可計劃一個我熟悉的旅程吧。最後我們停留在巴塞的時間約五天,我把我所知的全放在行程之內。結果,我想我也盡了力,把我所知的告訴同行者。書中曾寫過幾間 designer 店,我又再遇上那些人,感覺很有趣,我在柏林也遇過同類事情,我常疑惑,他們會否記得我,但事實上,當你記得他們的面容一刻,我覺得,他們也會記得你,或在想我們是否在哪裡見過,人與人之間的感覺實在太微妙。

是次巴塞遊,我當我還是新人,也當我自己是舊人。最讓我驚喜的,是聖家大教堂的內部,原來在我離開之後的幾年間,完完全全的建完整。當年我印象之中仍是黑沉鐵架的工程地盤,如今燠然一新,成為驚世的教堂,2010 還鑊得天主教教宗的探訪及正名。

但,我對巴塞有一個印象仍未改變,就是治安問題,它仍然令人很緊張,像我暢遊意大利一樣,無法一秒鐘不緊握住自己的行裝。此外,還有一件事,我仍未能在巴塞完成心願,就是在沙灘暢泳,話說,柏林已經入秋,而且沒有海灘,大家都移師往西班牙的海灘去尋歡,可是當風和日麗時,我卻跑去觀光。當天陰時,我又無法下水…留下的伏線,問題是,究竟是幾時,我又會重遊巴塞呢?我希望是聖家大教堂外貌完工的一天。

special thanks︰

U magazine for Barcelona guide book on 2008-2009

Swiss International air lines for supporting on the guide book