Was sagst du? 樣樣都德

I never thought that it could become so cold in mid-September. Perhaps writing about my three days in Barcelona (from 2nd to 4th July) will help me feel some warmth again! 想不到九月中已天寒地凍，不如靠寫寫七月初在巴塞羅那的三天（7月2至4日）取取暖吧！ My Hong Kong friend at my research institute once told me something about his colleague from Barcelona. She has actually been offered a post in Madrid, but was somewhat hesitant because Madrid was, in her opinion, a completely different place which would not make her totally feel at home. I thought that must be an overstatement, but once I’ve been in Barcelona, I could finally appreciate why she would have such an opinion. 我在研究所的香港朋友告訴我，他有個來自巴塞羅那的同事，本來已在馬德里覓得新職，卻老不大想去，原因是環境不同，不大喜歡，而且要適應一番。當時心想，究竟是不是如此誇張？去過巴塞羅那，就終於明白那人為何有如此想法。 Barcelona is situated in the region of Catalonia (called Catalunya in the local language) which has retained its own language of Catalan (Català). It’s actually quite close to Spanish but differences are easy to spot. Catalan enjoys a status that many re...

（為保持原汁原味，本文祇用英文撰寫。） Can't be much clearer One of my colleagues was rather puzzled yesterday at lunch. 'The sign says "Clear Chicken Soup", but it is creamy with mushrooms,' he said, and after taking the first slurp of the soup, 'and it also has some chicken in it.' Then I asked, 'Are you sure the English and German signs say the same thing?' 'Yes, they are consistent with each other.' 'Well, at least we can say it is clearly chicken soup.' Bloody fantastic! Our canteen wanted to cater to some extreme tastes for once, and came up with this 'Your favourite dish' that would be stunning to the senses of vision and smell. The blood-thirsty customers were flocking to try it out: which, in English, would translate as: Slaughter plate with blood, liver sausages, sauerkraut (sour shredded cabbage) and pan-fried potatoes If this is not enough to satisfy your appetite, may I recommend 'Chocolate Mouse' for dessert ... (But wha...

Our long weekend in Hungary turned into a mini workplace outing. On our second day in Budapest, a few more colleagues have arrived and we all met at the Parliament building wanting to join the official guided tour. 我和中國同事在匈牙利的那個長週未，實驗室也彷彿跟我們搬了過去！在布達佩斯的第二天，一眾來度假的同事齊集在國會大樓外，準備參加指定的導遊團。 Some of us were not lucky enough to get a ticket for the earliest tour, so we had to find a way to kill time. At first I suggested to a Japanese colleague that we could go to the Central Market Hall (Nagyvásárcsarnok) together, but we got side-tracked at the Széchenyí Lánchíd (Chain Bridge). The traffic on the bridge had all but disappeared and was replaced by an arts and craft market. One of the stall owners told me that this arts and craft market was open on all weekends during summer time. 不過並非人人都買到當日第一團的入場券，等待下一團之時間總得想辦法打發，原定打算跟日本同事同往大市場（Nagyvásárcsarnok），但走到鏈橋（Széchenyí Lánchíd）時，發覺該橋搖身一變，由車水馬龍的行車橋變為手工藝市集，那裡其中一個檔主告訴我，該市集原來在夏季時逢週未都在鏈橋上開設。 The arts and craft market on Széchenyí Lánchíd 鏈橋上的手工藝市集 Taking ...