2017-07-09

【Aiden in English】

        The capital city of Vienna is probably the most famous place on our itinerary of Danube Castles and Legends. I've heard about it, you've known about it, mom has seen it, celebrities want to live here, etc. However, Vienna's fame was built on musical notes, performances, and composers. A long history of music in this part of the world has inspired popular worldwide concerts that pretty much have come to define musical performances. Experiencing this will be for tonight.

        The day time is going to be an exploration as well. Vienna, to hold all these great shows, required equally breathtaking halls. From the Vienna State Oprah to the Belvedere, many halls have reached international levels of popularity. With fame came money, growing business and shops, and so here we are now, Vienna maintaining a large seat as the host of the United Nations. By far, Vienna has grown to a point where it has become a staple in European vacations. No cruise can pass without stopping. No tourist can pass by taking a photo. No musician can pass without listening to one of the many musical nightly performances.

        A stroll through the old town of Vienna for mom and I is more of a quick walk. When we tour, we prefer to see more leisurely waltzing through shops. With this in mind, on the strict 45-minute free period, mom and I more or less sprinted through the main streets. What I ended up concluding is that within the little five hundred by five hundred meters of the main landmark Stephansplatz, there were more theaters, commercials for theaters, and salesmen for theaters than I've ever seen. And those salesmen all were dressed as Mozart and Strauss, so Mozart and Strausses essentially made up ten percent of the crowd population. Luckily, most of the sellers worked for the same company, therefore, we received little competition for our attention. All this mess while in front of St. Stephen's Cathedral, the third-largest church in Austria. Recently bombed and burned during WWII, the country pooled together resources to rebuild all damage, restoring it to its previous glory. Now, when we walked through the old town, many of the façades reflected hundreds of years of history. The spell broke once a bike nearly ran me over.

        Outside of Stephansplatz, there were multiple main streets running through the city. However, all of them appeared to die out in popularity outside of the old town. Across the Danube River, one could see the bright sunlight bounce off a skyscraper, towering over the horizon. The river really defines the borders between old and new, symbolizing many divisions occurring for cultures. Austria, while continuing to maintain its history of music, is blending well with modern technology. Furthermore, they used new innovation to broadcast their shows to the world. Salute to Vienna! This is probably also why I'm here now.

        In the end, I still feel bad for Austria. It's difficult to compete against Australia, an entire continent, for the 'Aust-' title. People get confused over Austria and Australia, and they assume Australia because of its size. However, even though it is minuscule in comparison, there's only one Austria, and it doesn't have kangaroos indeed.

【紅霞譯文】

        奧地利首都維也納恐怕是我們“多瑙河城堡與傳奇”之行呼聲最高的地方，以前我略有所聞，你已經見識過，媽媽早就先睹為快，名門望族巴不得到此生活，等等。然而維也納超群絕倫之處更在於音樂作品、表演藝術及作曲人才，源遠流長的音樂王國已然成為孕育國際一流表演藝術家的搖籃，而我們今晚將要欣賞專場音樂會。

        眼下當好，我們白天有空四處轉轉。維也納除了高水準音樂會之外還有令人陶醉的宮殿國粹，從維也納國家歌劇院到美景宮，許多廳堂建築蜚聲海內外，由此招財進寶，商業區購物中心得以蓬勃發展，維也納還是聯合國辦事機構重要據點，而我們現在正身臨其境。到目前為止，維也納足以標榜成歐洲人度假勝地，沒有哪家遊輪不設立一站停泊，沒有哪位觀光客不拍攝一張照片留念，沒有哪個音樂家不觀摩一場正式表演。

       我和媽媽與其說來維也納老城逛街，不如說到這裡趕集。隨團遊覽之餘，我們偏愛輕步飛舞商家店鋪，照這種說法，要想在規定的45分鐘自由活動時間內做到隨心所欲，我倆只能健步如飛。以維也納地標景點斯蒂芬廣場為中心，方圓五百米之內大小劇院舉目皆是，非但宣傳劇院的廣告鋪天蓋地，兜售劇院戲票的流動大軍更是浩浩蕩蕩，讓我大開眼界。這些推銷員不是打扮成莫扎特模樣就是扮演施特勞斯角色，基本瓜分10%左右的客流量，幸虧他們多為一家公司效力，否則真叫我們應接不暇，越是靠近奧地利第三大教堂──維也納聖史蒂芬大教堂，越是忙乎得不亦樂乎。話說第二次世界大戰期間，聖史蒂芬大教堂被炸燒毀，戰後國家投注大量資金修繕一新，全力恢復了從前的榮耀。如今我們漫步環顧老城，許多建築外表都反映着幾百年來歷史風貌。沒等看完光景，我差點被騎自行車的人撞倒在地。

        斯蒂芬廣場周圍多條馬路縱橫交錯，一旦偏離老城就顯得沒有那麼熱鬧。往多瑙河對岸看去，陽光將高樓大廈折射投影在地平線遠方；河岸兩旁標示出新城與舊城之分，象徵着本土文化多元性，奧地利在繼續弘揚古典音樂的同時，正大力引入現代科學技術，並且巧用創新手段把音樂會推向全世界，“向維也納致敬”！這大概也是為什麼我會專程到訪的原因。

        遊覽結束的時候，我內心禁不住有點憐憫奧地利，要知道它很難跟有着同樣發音前綴、幾乎占據整個澳洲的龐然大國較勁，因為地盤大小，人們總是誤把奧地利當成澳大利亞，不過這並無大礙，重要的是天下只有一個奧地利，它根本沒有袋鼠。

Today in History(歷史上的今天):

2017: Wachau Valley the Queen of Fruits,AUT(奧地利瓦豪谷—水果皇后)

2017: Dürnstein the Lionheart Castle,  AUT(奧地利杜倫施坦—獅心王堡)

2017: Melk Abbey, Austria(奧地利梅爾克修道院)

2017: Wachau Valley Wine Tasting, Austria(奧地利瓦豪河谷品酒)

2016: The Channel Islands, UK(英國海峽群島)

2016: Guernsey the Donkey Island, UK(英國根西—倔驢之島)

2016: Guernsey over the English Channel, UK(英國英吉利海峽上根西島)

2014 World Cup—BRA vs. DEU(巴西對德國世界盃足球賽)

Crosslinks(相關博文):

Austria(出遊奧地利)

Europe(歐洲掠影)