In the same weekend as the one I went on the Brighton trip, another group organized a visit to York. I believe they only charged 12 pounds for the ticket. Naïve as us, not very familiar with the public transit prices here, thought that we could travel on our own at a price maybe just slightly more expensive than 12 pounds. Maybe around 20 pounds, no more than 25. …We were so wrong. | 在我去布賴頓的那個周末,其實有朋友跟著另一個團去了約克(York),印象中票價大概是12磅左右。我們幾個沒跟上團的就天真單蠢的想,如果自己去大概也不會差太多吧。是不會期待可以買到12磅,我們預想車票應該是會貴個一點,大概20磅左右—總之應該不會超過25磅吧。 …完全的大錯特錯阿。 |
Anyways, back to the morning of last Saturday. My two friends and I decided to try taking the train over to York, and buying the ticket there at the station just seems like the logical thing to do. Due to the previous mindset of the prices, my heart stopped for a few seconds when the woman at the ticket selling desk told us that a round trip from Nottingham to York is 40 pounds. WTF 40 pounds?!! ……Can I just walk along the railroad to York instead? After double-checking with the woman (Is there a student ticket? Is there a cheaper route? …seriously, 40 pounds?), we still bought the tickets though… well, first time, learned a lesson. We won’t let just 40 pounds (ughhhh) ruin our beautiful day trip! [Note: After asking some other people, they said that you might not be able to book your train ticket in advance to all destinations… but they strongly suggested us to buy a “railway card” that will provide discounts… I will look into it before my next trip!] The train ticket was interesting… there is no platform number, no time, and no seats printed on it. Later on I realized that it’s to have the trips being more flexible, but to us foreigners the ticket only seemed very confusing— especially with no knowledge of how the British cities are in relation to each other geographically. We had to check the timetable at the Information booth for a long while every time before we jumped on a train. When we were at Sheffield, it was lucky that we happened to stand right next to the platform we needed to go… 2 minutes before the train started! We rushed on the train going toward Edinburgh, stopping by York. Even though we had to stand, it was still such a relieve that we got on! | 總之,回到案發當時…星期六早上。我和另外兩個朋友決定試試看搭火車前往約克,而且很理所當然的就想到時候到車站再買票就好了。 之前單蠢造成的想像票價害我的心臟在聽到櫃台小姐說來回票價竟然要40磅的時候停止跳動了幾秒。 嗶嗶嗶 40磅?!!! ..… 我….我沿著鐵軌走到約克好不好? 不死心地又和櫃檯確認了好幾次 (學生票嗎?有沒有比較便宜的路線呢?…確定是40磅?) 我們還是認命的買了票 (血淚)。第一次的火車…付了好昂貴的學費阿。可是!我們不會讓這點小錢(呃)影響了我們美麗的一日遊! [筆記: 之後問了其他人,他們表示不是每個點都可以提前訂火車票,但強烈建議我們去買一個可以給折扣的“railway card”… 下一趟旅程之前我會查清楚的!] 再來談談火車票。英國的火車票對我來說真的很有趣:上面沒有印平台,沒有時間,也沒有座位…。後來我才意識到它的車票是為了讓大家可以更自由的選擇旅行的時間。但在第一次接觸這樣的系統的我們眼裡,沒有太多資訊的車票只有看起來很令人困惑而已(冏)… 尤其是我們三個外地人對英國鄉鎮的相對位置可以說是沒有半點概念。為了找到正確的火車和時間,我們每次上車前都得在信息亭查看時間表很長一段時間…當我們在謝菲爾德(Sheffield)的時候,碰巧地站在我們要搭的火車旁邊的平台,而當時距離發車時間.....只有2分鐘!我們趕緊在火車開動前衝上前往愛丁堡的火車上(中站之一為約克)。即使因為上車時間太晚我們只能站著,搭上車還是讓人大大鬆了一口氣啊! |
First stop: York city walls – walls that have been defending the city since Roman times After two hours of train ride, we got to York. The first thing we saw after getting out of the railway station was the beautiful defender of York: the York city walls! The walls that were built from the Rome time period, and still standing strong nowadays! It was an enchanted feeling to walk on something so historical… Wondering what historical events it has witnessed before… what kind of stories were made around here… | 第一站: 約克長城 [註1] – 由羅馬時期以來就一直守護約克的城牆 搭了兩個小時的火車之後我們來到了約克!從火車站出來之後第一眼看到的就是約克美麗的守護者: 約克長城!從羅馬時期就建造出來的約克長城,到現在都還是持續佇立在城市的外圍。能夠在這麼古老的城牆上行走實在是很奇異迷人的經驗,經歷時代變遷的美麗城牆阿… 會不經想像她曾經目睹過甚麼呢?這附近曾經有過甚麼故事呢? [註1: City walls 應該只是城牆而已,可是它不只是一面城牆阿!它的長度延續環繞著半個約克城鎮,給我的感覺太像中國的長城了(悠閒一點的版本),所以就私心翻作約克長城 (笑) ] |
Second stop: York Castle Museum. Ticket price is 7.5 pounds for students. The castle museum is … quite different from what I imagined it would be like. XD Well, it is partially my fault for not doing any research before I visited. I thought I would have a glance of the castle’s history and royal stories… what happened here, who lived in there in the distant past… I was even expecting some information about other castles in York, or in the UK. Instead, we had a historical walkthrough of the British life style – from the various styles of room to evolution of the toilets and cleaning methods, what they do in the big events of their life (marriage, birth, funeral…etc.) in the past…etc. It’s then that I realized that, York Castle Musuem… is just a museum that is located within a castle... … (´・ω・`) | 第二站: 約克城堡博物館 門票學生價為7.5磅。嗯…怎麼說呢,它和我想像的完全不同啊 XD 好啦,其實我也有錯,我在去之前沒有做任何研究就衝了。所以我就只有看著名字想像: 我覺得我大概會看到城堡的歷史和王室的奇聞軼事,這裡曾經發生過什麼,在遙遠的過去誰這在這裡,甚至是在約克或是在英國各地其他的城堡的介紹之類的。 結果我們看到的是歷來的英國食衣住行介紹: 從各種風格的房間到廁所和清洗方法,他們在生活大事(婚喪喜慶)的演進史等等。 那時,我才意識到,約克城堡博物館… 只是一個在城堡裡的博物館而已。 …(´・ω・`) |
The experience wasn’t negative though. There were a lot to see—it is really like a museum that contains several museums. The exhibitions were presented in fine details. My favorite section was the amazing street that was imitating the environment during the Victorian time – shops, school, police office…they were designed very carefully… there were even people in costume working in some of them! XD Interestingly enough, there is a section for the cultural interaction between Great Britain and China from the past—in art works, furniturs…etc. | 不過整體的經驗並不是負面的啦。它其實像是一個包含很多博物館的博物館(你可以再繞舌一點),而每個展覽都很注重細節。整個博物館裡我最喜歡的是裡面一個仿維多利亞時代的街道!有商店,學校,警察局......設計得非常仔細,甚至還有一些工作人員是穿著當時的服裝再和大家互動的 XD 阿還有一點,有個展廳是關於英國和中國之間在過去的文化互動,在藝術和家具上對彼此的影響…看到的時候感覺非常有趣 XD |
**Weebly is acting funny right now... I think this might be too long for it already lol. So please continue to York 2/2 for the rest of the day-- thank you!** | **Weebly 在我編輯的時候怪怪的阿... 搞不好這樣對它來說已經太長一篇了 XD. 請前往 約克 2/2 繼續閱讀這天的後續吧謝寫喔w** |