Nothing good will ever happen to you if you never leave your house. 如果你永遠不出門,好事決不會發生在你身上。
Before my evening flight back to Barcelona, I also booked several cooking classes making pizza, tiramisu and pasta, as well as a walking tour in downtown Rome. Luckily, the classes connected seamlessly. I had a full schedule and I made several friends who I still keep in touch with till this day.
在回去巴塞羅那的晚上班機之前,我在羅馬市區預定了幾堂製作Pizza、提拉米蘇、和意大利面的課程,還有一個在市中心的徒步之旅,幸運的是這些課程都連接的天衣無縫呢,讓我一整天都行程滿滿的,而且還交了幾個至今我們還保持聯繫的朋友。
That was the end of my journey in Europe. I had so many beautiful memories and had seen most of the cities I was eager to visit. I had met the people I wanted to meet and also got together with some friends before I went back to Taiwan.
這就是我在歐洲旅行的終點了。我擁有好多美麗的回憶,還看到了許多我曾經渴望拜訪的城市。在我回台灣前還見了許多我一直想見又和一些朋友重逢。
After I got back to Taiwan, I had some quality time with my family and then I was figuring out where I would like to go after I had some much-needed rest. Then the pandemic hit. A lot of my friends in Europe were suffering from the sudden change in their lives and restrictions on things that previously seemed normal. I only talked to a few of my hosts briefly however they seemed quite low and there was a point at which it felt like the world was ending. At this time, a lot of people in Europe and other countries died from this horrible disease and many more were stuck on their computers and within their homes for weeks on end.
回到台灣後,我和家人共度了一些美好的優質時光,然後在我充分休息正要計劃著下一站要去哪裡的時候,新冠肺炎的大流行蔓延各地。我在歐洲的朋友都因為這個在他們生命中的突然轉變和生活受到的限制而受苦著。我僅僅和幾個曾經接待過我的沙發主人說話,然而他們都心情低落也感覺世界好像就要滅絕了。因為在那個時候,在歐洲和許多國家有許多人死於這個可怕的疾病,還有許多人待在家裡被電腦給困住不知道多久了。
Now in hindsight, I am really glad I took the trip. I really am. Though it was hard and I was exhausted from the trip, I followed my heart, and I didn’t waste time. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to create so many beautiful stories to tell. I saw so many beautiful sights and scenery however I was most interested in the people who lived there. At this point, I don’t know when the world will be normal and safe to travel again. It’s very possible that we will have to continue to travel with caution and socially distance from people we meet from now on. Back when I was traveling, these ideas never crossed my mind.
現在我回頭看,我真的很高興那時我啓程了。雖然路途很辛苦,我也精疲力竭,但我一路跟隨著我的心所以也沒有浪費時間。不然我就不會有機會製造和說這麼多美麗的故事。我看到了許多美麗的風景,然而我最有興趣的還是住在那裡的人。此刻,我並不清楚何時這個世界會回歸正常並能夠再度旅行。也很有可能從此之後,我們必須要繼續小心的旅行著並保持社交距離。而這些是我在旅行的時候,從來沒有想過的。
I was used to flying all the time, and I even created a brand for myself called Fly with Lily. However, the train made it so easy to travel to nearby countries. The eurail ticket was also a money saver too and I took 56 rides with a two month pass, which came to around 900 euros.
我以前總是不停的到處飛,我甚至開創了一個品牌叫做「和Lily一起飛」。然而,這個火車旅行讓我們可以更方便的到鄰近的國家去旅行。環歐火車的通票也非常的划算,讓我省了不少錢,在兩個月的旅程中,我用900歐元搭乘了56趟火車,和橫跨了10個國家呢。
At the end of my journey, I saw how far I had come from when I first thought about the idea of traveling around Europe by train. These thoughts developed after a conversation with my good English friend in Barcelona, Greg, who suggested that train travel was a great way to leave a smaller carbon footprint than flights and was more environmentally friendly. He had lived in Sweden for almost twenty years and even shared that some Northern Europeans advocated 「Flight Shame」. He jokingly told me that maybe I should stop encouraging people to 「fly」 since I was building my personal brand 「Fly with Lily」. Over the years while I was traveling around the globe, I became more aware of the impact of my actions on the place I lived in and I felt inspired by Greg to try this new approach for myself. When we can travel again, I would love to try more train journeys in different countries and continents. My experiences convinced me that this method of travel is not only more environmentally friendly but that there are so many exciting adventures to be had. At the top of my list is traveling around China by train, experiencing the many sides