旅行之後 After the Journey

註明：以下言論純屬個人意見。

NOTE: The following comments are purely personal opinions.

        經過了44天的長途旅行(包含飛程)，終於完成了我從高中以來的夢想：到德國旅行。小時候，不知為何就總是對歐洲帶著某種夢幻的想法，像是英國、法國、西班牙...，當然，還有特別有感情的德國。原因是高一時，因緣際會之下選擇了德文作為第二外語來學習，從那時起，就與德國結下了不解之緣。然而，課程結束沒多久後早已忘得一乾二淨。上了大學後，由於忙於雙主修課業，無法挪出多餘時間學習德文，直到畢業前一個學期才終於又重新學習了半年的德文。如今，計畫回到學校後能在專業領域努力之餘將德文學好。或許，只是或許，下次到德國就是念書而不再只是旅遊了。經過這次的旅行，讓我更有動力未來到國外進修，尤其是德國。

        After a 44-day-long journey included the flight, I finally finished the dream I have since I was in high school: Travel in Germany. When I was young, didn't know why I just had some special feelings with fantasy about Europe, like England, France, Spain, and of course Germany, the most special one for me. The season is that the first year in senior high, incidentally I chose German as a second foreign language, and I have bounded up with Germany since then. However, I already forgot almost everything about German soon after the class ended. In college, I didn't have much time leaning German because of the tough work in my double major until the last semester before I graduated, I started to learn it, again, diligently. For now, I'm going back to school for my master degree something about engineering, and I plan to spare some time to learn German better. Maybe, just maybe, next time I go to Germany is to study abroad instead of just traveling. After the traveling this time, I have much motivation to study abroad, especially Germany.

        回到這次的主題：旅行。在國外待一陣子，會發現，其實，國外的月亮並沒有比較圓。並不是歐洲不美，而是這次了旅行讓我體會到，每個國家都有它美好的地方與不美好的地方，只不過是不美的部分你能接受與否罷了。舉例來說，台灣的鐵皮屋在我們當地人看來，某些人可能難以忍受其樣貌，但以外國人或是遊客的角度來看，或許他們只會覺得很「有趣」、很「特別」但並不覺得「無法接受」，因為他們並沒要在這裡定居生活。反過來說，你或許會以為歐洲人比台灣人不會亂丟菸蒂或垃圾，而市容相當乾淨，然而，事實並非如此，有些城市你一看到會發現，其實，台灣，沒有「比較」髒亂。諸如此類的事情太多，因此，有些價值觀在旅行結束後也改變了：重點不是人在哪，而是你如何看待這個環境。

        Back to the subject: Travel. Staying abroad for a period of time, I found out that, actually, the diamonds of other countries are "NOT" always the most beautiful. Not because Europe isn't good, it IS good, but this journey let me realize that every country has its good side and the bad side, and you can choose to accept the bad part or not. For example, as a native in Taiwan maybe you may hardly bare with the cityscape with metal houses everywhere, but maybe as a foreigner or a visitor he/she may just think it's "interesting", "special", but not "unacceptable" because he/she does not live here. On the contrary, you may think European have a better habit than Taiwanese that they won't throw cigarette butts or trash on the ground and have a better view of city, but in fact, it's not quite true for all the cities. In some places you'll find that, actually, Taiwan is not THAT dirty "relatively". There are too many things like these, so after the journey there are some of my values have changed: The point is not where you are, but how you see.

        接下來說些這趟旅程對於德國人的觀察好了，我不敢說是全歐洲人，畢竟，各國風情大不同，而這次旅行是以德國為主，所遇到的人事物當然也是以德國為主。說到德國，最有名的不外乎就是豬腳、上千種的香腸和各個當地的啤酒。慕尼黑的脆皮豬腳至今仍難以忘懷，一大支放在我面前，第一次吃還真不曉得該如何處理它！其皮脆的程度雖然有點硬而且不太好咬，但味道絕對值得讚賞。而香腸雖然這麼多種，但吃到目前為止我最喜歡的莫過於烤的白香腸(Weißwurst)，在你咬下去的時候會感受到內餡似乎在口中爆開一樣，其飽滿的程度可以見得。美食當然就要配啤酒，而德國人喝酒就跟喝水一樣一般。德國啤酒就像香腸一樣，種類也是百百種，每到一個城市，進餐廳時就會問：「請問你們這裡當地的啤酒是什麼？」。但若是到部分產葡萄酒的地區，像是萊茵河沿岸，不妨可以嘗試一下葡萄酒，別有一番風味。雖然德國不是個以美食出名的國家，但對我而言德國的食物真的很對我的胃，在德國的這段時間老實說並沒有特別想念台灣的食物，甚至，還相當懷念德國食物。

        I would like to talk something about German I observed. I can't say the whole European, because each country has its own characteristic, and the journey this time is mostly in Germany, things and people I encountered were mainly German for sure. Speaking Germany, most people may first think of food like Haxen, over thousands of sausages, and the biers everywhere. The Haxen in München is still really hard to forget for me... It's so big that I really didn't know how to deal with it the first time. Although the pigskin is hard and not easy to bite, but the taste is really worth to recommend it to others~!!! About the sausages, there are so many kinds in Germany, but so far I've tasted I still prefer the roasted white sausage (Weißwurst) in München. You may feel the fillings of sausage will blow out when you bite it and fill all over your mouth!!! So delicious~!!! With such a tasty food should be with tasty bier in Germany!! Drinking bier is just like drinking water for German. Just like the sausage, there are over hundreds of biers in Germany, so every time I arrived a new city and entered a restaurant, I'd ask, "What's your local bier here in XXX(a city name)?" But if in some areas that produces wine, you may wish to try it, it's nice, too!! Although Germany is not famous for its cuisine, the food there is really match with me~~, and actually, I didn't really miss the food in Taiwan that much when I was in Germany, instead, I really miss the food in Germany now...XDD

        德國，感覺是個休閒活動並不多的國家，除了白天的逛街、跑步和晚上的看球賽配啤酒，很少看到其他像是球類(足球例外)、游泳或.....總之，感覺似乎少了點什麼。或許是因為台灣從早到晚都有太多地方可以去，而且太多24小時的店讓你絕對不會感到無聊，因此與一些歐美國家相比似乎豐富了許多。噢！德國人還相當喜歡做一件事，就是找個地方坐下來，然後...什麼也不做！這或許是他們最大的樂趣之一吧！？而你在台灣應該是看不太到才對...XD

        Germany, I feel it's a country without many recreational activities. You can only go shopping, jogging during the day and watch ballgames with lots of biers at night. And...... that's all! It's hard to see other exercises like playing ballgames (except soccer game), swimming, or... anyway, I feel that it miss something. Maybe it's because there are too many places I can go in Taiwan day and night, and there are thousands of 24H stores and you will never get bored. That's the reason why I think the life in Taiwan is much colorful than some Western countries. Oh! There's one thing German really like to do is find a place to sit down, and......do NOTHING!!!!!  Maybe it's one of the most interesting things they like to do which you won't see in Taiwan!?

        身為一個亞洲人，走在德國的路上常會遇到一種事，就是很容易被一種很異樣的眼神盯著看，並且在你對到對方眼神時，他們並不會轉移視線，而大多會繼續「盯」著你，對，就是「盯」著看，而不是只是看一眼。我總在想：「沒現在是怎樣？是 ─ 怎 ─ 樣 ─ ？沒看過亞洲人嗎？你知道亞洲人的人數佔全球超過60%嗎？」老實說，我很不喜歡這種感覺，很不舒服，甚至偶爾感受到敵意的時候就會很想回：「Was schaust du denn?(沒你是在看X小？)」但理性的我，告訴自己那些只是「好奇」的眼光罷了。而日子久了，漸漸也不太繼續在意這點，畢竟，我終究是個「外國人」，僅此而已，習慣就好，沒什麼大不了的。不過有一點很有趣，就是在德國時，我很常被德國人誤認為日本人，連我去日本餐廳用餐時，日本人也以為我是日本人，不過我想這也很正常啦！畢竟在歐洲的亞洲人當中，日本人還是佔了大多數，被誤認也在所難免。

        As an Asian, I really often encounter one situation that you may easily be stared by German with an awkward look, and when you have an eye contact with them, they won't divert their attentions and keep STARING at you. Yes, I mean "staring" not just "taking a glance". I wondered, "Now what? WHAT? Haven't you guys seen any Asian? Do you know the population of Asians has accounted for more than 60% all over the world?" Honestly, I don't really feel well about it, it's quite uncomfortable. Sometimes you may even meet some people staring at you with hostility, and then I really want to say, "Was schaust du denn? (What are you looking at?)". But at the moment the rational part of me told myself that they just "VERY curious". As time goes by, I don't really care about it very much now, after all, I'm a "foreigner" eventually, that's all, just get used to it. It's no big deal. But there's an interesting thing that I was often mistaken for Japanese by Germans and even the Japanese when I went in a Japanese restaurant. At that moment, I could only replied, "Sorry, I'm not Japanese..." It's normal actually, because most of the Asians in Europe are Japanese.

        接下來我想說我在台灣至今仍絲毫無法苟同的一點，就是交通。在台灣，宣導上的理念是行人優先，相互禮讓，但實際上總是：台灣的人命不值錢，因為，撞死了比撞傷還便宜。一方面是台灣人的步調真的比德國人快太多，似乎時時刻刻都在趕時間，慢了你就輸了，但還有一個主因，就是台灣人太愛貪圖己利與小便宜而忘了彼此禮讓的基本道理：許多車在等紅燈時很愛超線，似乎想在轉為綠燈的那一剎那間衝出去似的；在轉為綠燈的前一刻就開始聽到後方的喇叭聲，似乎想告訴前面的人：「你欠揍啊？有沒有在注意紅綠燈阿？起步太慢了啦！」而許多車都在不能轉彎(包含左彎、右彎和迴轉)的地方轉彎，不能超車的地方超車，不能停車的地方停車，機車該待轉的地方不待轉...諸如此類貪圖一時的行為到處可見，而意外也當然也不意外地到處上演，怪誰？台灣人知不知道自己犯法？知道，但台灣人在反省的同時，各自維持自己原有的習慣，所以，理論與實踐在台灣就成了平行線。反之，在德國禮讓行人的程度絕對會讓剛到德國的台灣人「受寵若驚」，禮讓到你甚至會覺得「不好意思」。在沒有紅綠燈的情況下，你原本站在斑馬線前想說等車子過你再過，結果車子經常會停在斑馬線前讓你先過，他再過，這種行為根本如果在台灣出現那叫奇蹟。因此，一個我在德國念書將近三年的台灣朋友Cindy諷刺地說：「在德國待久了，回到台灣一個不小心一定會被車撞死。」到底，台灣的交通水準要到何時才會提升到一個更高的層次？

        Next, I want to say one thing that I can still NOT even slightly agree with so far in Taiwan: the Traffic. In Taiwan, you can see the public awareness all the time which said, "Pedestrian Priority, and have comity with each other.", but the truth you'll see is that "The lives aren't worth the money because the dead is cheaper than the injured." On the one hand is the tempo of Taiwanese is much much faster than the Germans, it seems like people are always in a rush hour, and... you'll lose if you're too slow. On the other hand which is also very important is that Taiwanese are easily to put themselves in top priority and suddenly forget the basic moral: so many cars like to stop on or even over the stop line, which looks like they'll rush out at the moment when it converts into green light; before the moment when it converts into green light, you'll hear the trumpet on the rear, which looks like they're telling the front, "Need a good beating, huh? Didn't you notice the traffic light is "going" to be green? You're too slow!!!!" In Taiwan, you can see lots of cars turn where it can't turn, overtake where it can't overtake, park where it can't park, and motorcycles don't wait in the waiting zone... and on and on and on...........and of course the car accidents happened everywhere not accidentally, whom to blame for? Do Taiwanese know they're breaking the laws? Yes, but at the meantime when introspecting, they're still doing what they did. So ironically the theory and the practice become a parallel line. On the contrary, the people who just arrived Germany will definitely feel quite flattered by the level of courteous behavior of pedestrians here, or... or even feel very... very embarrassed!!! On the condition when you encounter a zebra crossing without a traffic light, for instance, you may wait and let the car goes first and then you go later, but usually the car will stop just in front of the zebra crossing and let you go first!! You know what, if it happens in Taiwan, that must be a MIRACLE!!! Hence, one of my Taiwanese friend Cindy who has studied in Germany for almost three years told me sarcastically, "When staying long enough in Germany, you'll easily die in a car accident carelessly if you go back to Taiwan." When all is said and done, when will the level of traffics in Taiwan be raised to the higher one?

        最後，說點到德國旅遊的一些建議好了。德國真的是一個非常適合自助旅行的一個國家，治安好不用說，交通系統極為便利，而大多數的城市基本上用英語溝通不成問題，但若要到較為偏僻的小城鎮時，最好還是學點基本德語還是比較保險。若是第一次到德國，建議先到南部玩，畢竟身為外國人對德國的印象在南德基本上都可以一覽無遺，像是德國傳統木衍架建築(Fachwerkhaus)、新天鵝堡(Neuschwanstein)、黑森林(Schwarzwald)...等等。若是時間足夠，即可嘗試向西北移動，到萊茵河(Rhein)沿岸參觀古堡及葡萄園一路到柯隆(Köln)及其附近的杜爾賽多夫(Düsseldorf)、阿琛(Aachen)、波昂(Bonn)，或是到北部的漢諾威(Hannover)及海港城漢堡(Hamburg)，其附近有相當多小城鎮也都相當值得走訪一趟，像我當時從中南部抵達北部時，頓時感覺來到另一個國家，因為其建築與南部的大不相同，更不用說風俗民情；而東部的首都柏林(Berlin)、德勒斯登(Dresden)、萊比錫(Leipzig)...等，由於地理位置接近東歐，再加上一些歷史因素，在這參訪時又會產生另一種不一樣的感覺。而移動方式呢？就像我說的，德國的交通系統相當完善，只要是在買票前精打細算一下都會相當划算。雖然德國全境的鐵路系統都是沒有驗票閘門的，但是切記，請不要逃票，德國罰金相當高並且會被記錄下來。若是想要機動性高一些，而經費允許的情況下，可以考慮租車的方式，想必很多人都很想在無速限的高速公路上體驗快感！總之，到德國旅遊的書籍很多，在逛書店翻旅遊書的時候，其實也是相當有趣的，因此過多的旅遊細節我就不再一一細說。我希望也相信大家未來到德國旅遊也會像我一樣愛上這國家。

        In the end, I would like to give some advice about traveling in Germany. Germany is a country that is really ideal for backpacking. Not to mention the good safety, the traffic system is extremely convenient, and basically having conversations in English in most big cities is not a problem. But if you want to go to some rural towns, I suggest that it would be better to learn some basic German just in case. If you're the first time to get Germany, I suggest that you can start from Southern Germany, because most of the impressions of foreigners can be seen right here, such as the special architecture called Fachwerkhaus, Neuschwanstein Castle, Black Forest (Schwarzwald),...etc. If there's more time, then you can try to move to the northwest, visiting hundreds of castles and vineyards along the river Rhein to Cologne(Köln) and the cities nearby such as Düsseldorf, Aachen, and Bonn. Also, you can choose to move north to Hannover and the harbor city Hamburg, there are lots of interesting small towns nearby. For me, I felt that I got to another country when the first time I got north because of the buildings and even the customs. Due to the locations are near the East Europe, and with some historical factors, you'll have one more different feeling when visiting the Eastern Germany such as capital Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig,... etc.. What's the transportation?  Like I said before, the traffic system here is very complete, and it will be inexpensive only if you stretch your money before buying tickets. Although the traffic system throughout the Germany has no turnstiles, please keep it in mind, DO NOT TRY TO BE A FREE RIDER, the fine in Germany is very high, and most of all you'll be recorded! If you want to have a higher mobility, you can try to rent a car if your funding is permitted to do so, because I believe there are lots of people want to try to drive on the highway without speed limit! Anyway, there are amount of travel books that you can find in bookstores, and I think traveling with books in bookstores is also quite an interesting thing for me. So... I'm not going to talk about more details about the traveling. I hope and I believe that everyone will also fall in love with this country just like me when you get there, Germany.

        經過這次的旅行之後，更強化了未來我想到德國進修的想法，我相信在這個很合我個性的國家裡能夠學習到很多。我的未來會在哪？會是什麼？不知道。但就是不知道，所以我們人才能夠畫出一幅幅的夢想圖，並不斷「努力地」向它們前進，或許結果與所想不盡相同，但這不要緊，因為這是你自己努力得來的，沒有所謂的是非對錯。希望大家都能夠朝自己的目標前進，並達成它！共勉之！

        After the journey, it strengthen my thought of studying abroad in Germany. I believe I can learn more in such a country which is very match with my personality. Where's my future? What it will be? I don't know. Because I don't, that's why we human beings can depict our own dreams, and try to move forward to it "VERY HARD". Even it would be different from what you want eventually, it doesn't matter at all, because it's the result that you earned by your own strivingly, there's no so called right or wrong. Hope everyone can go for your own goal and achieve it! May it be the common wisdom to encourage ourselves!

這是我回到家後花了10天慢慢拼出來的1000片拼圖，圖片為新天鵝堡。
This is the 1000 puzzles which took me 10 days to finish after I got home, the picture is Neuschwanstein Castle.

P.S. 如果有什麼問題想問可以提出來，我很樂意回答~！

        You may ask if having any question, it would be my pleasure to answer~!