【阿德莱德――发现南澳之美】 阿德莱德生活怎么样

　　到澳大利亚旅游的人一般会选择悉尼、墨尔本、大堡礁等热门地点,很少人会选择阿德莱德,因为很多人根本不知道这个城市在哪里,有人甚至认为她很“乡下”。其实,作为殖民地时期的文化重镇,阿德莱德充满浓郁的欧陆风情,有着与大城市不一样的独特魅力。
　　阿德莱德位于澳大利亚最南部,是南澳大利亚州首府、商业和文化中心,也是澳大利亚第五大城。这是一个适合旅游的地方――城市的规划及架构很集中,游客可以方便地游览各个景点。市区内有许多保存完好的老建筑,整个市中心被公园绿地包围,是一个非常吸引人的城市。另外,环绕在阿德莱德四周的是无数个著名的葡萄酿酒场,澳大利亚最著名的葡萄酒很多都产自这里。
　　如果你厌倦了大城市的拥挤和千篇一律的高楼大厦,到阿德莱德去享受一趟与众不同的发现之旅吧!
　　
　　My friends, two very 1)urbane Australians with a 2)hip North Sydney apartment, 3)gasped when I told them of my travel plans.
　　“Adelaide?” she asked. “By choice?” he
　　inquired. Of course by choice. Why not? I wasn’t sure why they seemed displeased by the notion of Adelaide, situated on Australia’s southern coastline,
　　124 miles northwest of Melbourne. It’s not as if they’d ever been there. According to Bill Bryson注 in his travel 4)narrative In a Sunburnt Country:
　　“Adelaide is the most 5)overlooked of
　　Australia’s principal cities … for it rarely makes the news or gets a mention in anyone’s conversation. It is to Australia 6)essentially what Australia is to the world � a place pleasantly regarded but far away and seldom thought about.” Bryson 7)wryly writes that Adelaide is “… unquestionably a lovely city. Everyone is agreed on that, including millions who have never been there.”
　　I wanted a pleasant and fun place to take my young son. And I love wine. Adelaide seemed a good choice for us: there’s a zoo, lots of free
　　museums, a 1,800-acre greenbelt encircling the city, and approximately 50 8)vineyards nearby. The Barossa Valley, where more than 25% of Australia’s wines are crafted, is just a half-hour’s drive from the city.
　　Adelaide is charmingly friendly. Locals were eager to show us the city, which was settled by
　　immigrants in the 1830s, not 9)convicts, as in most of Australia � a fact that locals are quick to point out to visitors.
　　We enjoyed roaming the streets, which are laid out on a 10)grid, so finding places is easy. The many Victorian-style houses are attractive and tidy, and they 11)sport beautiful gardens. This city is thoroughly modern and diverse. At the University of Adelaide, we saw Asian students with iPods and skateboards
　　12)strolling or cruising past 13)ornate, century-old buildings and gardens.
　　Desk clerks and waiters were chatty and helpful.
　　While looking for the children’s book Possum Magic by Adelaide writer Mem Fox, the clerk asked if we had eaten any of the treats mentioned in the text. After a nice conversation, she pointed us in the direction of Cole’s Supermarket, where we found
　　 14)lamingtons � pieces of sponge cake coated in chocolate and rolled in coconut � the first of many delicious 15)Aussie cakes we would sample on the trip.
　　A trip to the grocery store confirmed what I had suspected:
　　Adelaide is affordable. Adelaide offers good deals on
　　16)lodging and dining, and it is less expensive than Sydney or Melbourne.
　　For example, the five-star Medina Grand Treasury, located in the city center, offers one-bedroom apartments with breakfast for $207AUD. For visitors, the affordable Discover Adelaide Card offers eight passes to 14 of the city’s attractions, such as the Adelaide Explorer City Tour and the Adelaide Zoo.
　　We were delighted to discover that most of Adelaide’s museums are free, including the South Australia Museum, the Migration Museum, the Art Gallery of South Australia and the National Wine Center. And to make things even easier, the museums stand shoulder to shoulder along North Terrace. There’s even a free bus that 17)loops around the city.
　　At the Museum of Natural History and Science, my son and I viewed a giant squid that 18)stretched four floors �
　　modeled on a dead squid found floating off the Australian coast; saw every Australian animal known to science in a
　　19)taxidermy display; and giant gold 20)nuggets and rare
　　21)opals. We were delighted to take part in an Australian
　　learning experience when we listened in on a curator’s talk with a group of Aussie school kids in their school uniforms, complete with bush hats.
　　Adelaide is even a little bit foreign. On a tour of the
　　Central Market, the Southern 22)Hemisphere’s largest fruit and 23)produce 24)bazaar, we had the opportunity to see, smell, and taste Adelaide’s Italian, Russian, Asian, French, Turkish and 25)Aboriginal cultures. We sampled all sorts of free goodies, only to 26)whet the 27)appetite for lunch later at Lucia’s � one of the country’s first 28)pizza parlors.
　　After a few days in the city, we drove 28 miles northwest to the Barossa Valley, looking at the
　　vineyards and stopping for 29)cellar-door samples. The trip was enhanced by a tour of the National Wine Center in Adelaide. At an educational wine tasting, I learned how to 30)identify a merlot’s flavor, 31)clarity and 32)bouquet.
　　The whole family/wine theme came
　　together as my son and I played with the 33)interactive wine computer; we made
　　34)virtual 35)chardonnay. Our 36)batch was, according to the virtual wine 37)connoisseur
　　who sampled our wine, “38)Utterly
　　39)appalling!” Fortunately, the case of
　　shiraz I bought was utterly yummy.
　　I returned to Sydney and told my friends that they had to visit Adelaide; Bill Bryson was right! Adelaide offers, he states, “a 40)dash of classiness and
　　respectful 41)venerability that Sydney and Melbourne all too often 42)discarded for the 43)sequined 44)glitter of skyscrapers.” I raised my glass of shiraz in a toast to
　　Adelaide � I couldn’t agree more.
　　
　　我有两个温文尔雅的澳大利亚朋友,他们住在北悉尼一间时尚的公寓里。当我把自己的出行计划告诉他们时,他们俩都倒抽了
　　一口气。
　　“阿德莱德?”她问道。“你自己选的吗?”他打听道。当然是我自己选的啦。为什么不呢?我不太明白为什么说起阿德莱德这地方,他们俩看起来似乎不大高兴。这座城市位于澳大利亚南部的海岸线上,离墨尔本东北部124英里(约200千米)。他们看起来也不像曾经去过那里。根据比尔・布莱森在其游记
　　《烈日暴晒的国度》中所述:
　　“在澳大利亚的主要城市中,阿德莱德最为人所忽视……因为它没有多少新闻价值,在人们的对话中也极少被提及。基本上,它对于澳大利亚的意义相当于澳大利亚对于全世界的意义一样――一个被人善意地谈起却又远在天边、很少被人想到的地方。”布莱森挖苦地写道:阿德莱德“……毫无疑问是个迷人的城市。每个人都赞同这一点,包括无数从未去过那里的人。”
　　我想带我年幼的儿子去一个宜人且有趣的地方,加上我热爱葡萄酒,因此阿德莱德对于我们来说似乎是个不错的选择:那里有一个动物园,许多免费的博物馆,一条1800英亩(728公顷)的绿化带环绕着整个城市,周边还有约50个葡萄园。超过25%的澳大利亚葡萄酒产自巴罗莎山谷,而它离市区只不过半小时车程。
　　阿德莱德友善宜人。当地人热情地向我们展示他们的城市。不像大多数澳大利亚城市那样,该市在19世纪30年代由移民――而非服刑犯建造而成――当地人通常迫不及待地向游客指出这一事实。
　　我们喜欢在大街小巷中漫步。这些街巷呈网格分布,很容易找路。许多维多利亚风格的房子漂亮整洁,而且还有美丽的花园。这座城市极其现代化,也很多元化。在阿德莱德大学里,我们看见听着iPod的亚洲学生踩着滑板,在富丽堂皇的百年建筑和花园中闲庭信步或逡巡而过。
　　这里的接待员和侍者都很健谈,而且乐于助人。我们在找阿德莱德作家梅姆・福克斯的儿童读物《负鼠魔法》时,店员问我们是否品尝过文中提到的食物。在愉快地交谈了一阵之后,她给我们指了指柯尔超市。在那里我们找到了林明顿蛋糕――一块块海绵蛋糕上覆盖着巧克力、滚满了椰丝。我们在旅途中尝了很多美味的澳洲蛋糕,这是第一块。
　　在杂货店里逛了一圈之后更证实了我的想法:阿德莱德的消费指数不高。阿德莱德的住宿和饮食很划算,价格比在悉尼或
　　墨尔本要便宜。
　　譬如说,五星级的麦地那宝藏大酒店坐落在市中心,带早餐的单间只需207澳元。对于游客来说,经济实惠的阿德莱德游览卡包含了其14个城市景点中的8个,其中包括阿德莱德城市发现之旅和阿德莱德动物园。
　　我们很高兴地发现,阿德莱德的大部分博物馆都是免费的,包括南澳博物馆、移民博物馆、南澳美术馆和国家葡萄酒中心。更加便捷的是,各博物馆肩并肩地坐落于北台街。这里甚至有一趟免费的环城巴士。
　　在自然历史和科学博物馆中,儿子和我看到了一只巨大的乌贼,有四层楼那么高,它是以一只被发现漂流上澳大利亚海岸的死乌贼为原型制作的;我们看到了目前科学所知的每一种澳大利亚动物的标本;还有巨大的天然金块和稀有的蛋白石。当我们聆听一位馆长向一群穿着校服、戴着丛林帽的澳洲小学生讲解时,我们很高兴地体验了一次
　　澳大利亚式学习。
　　阿德莱德甚至还带有一丝异域风情。参观中心市场这个南半球最大的水果和农产品集市时,我们有机会看到、闻到并尝到
　　阿德莱德的意大利、俄罗斯、亚洲、法国、土耳其和土著文化。我们尝了各种各样的免费美食,结果更加激发了胃口。我们随后在该国的第一家比萨薄饼店――
　　露西亚餐厅大块朵颐。
　　在城市盘桓数日后,我们向西北行驶28英里(45千米)到达巴罗莎山谷,参观葡萄园,停下来品尝窖藏佳酿。这段旅程更因国家葡萄酒中心之旅而令人印象深刻。在一场教学性的葡萄酒品酒会上,我学会了如何鉴别墨尔乐葡萄酒的味道、清澈度和芳香。儿子和我还玩起了葡萄酒互动电脑,整个“葡萄酒家庭同乐”的主题完全得到体现。我们做出了虚拟的夏敦诶酒。虚拟品酒师品尝了我们的葡萄酒后评价说,我们这一批酒“糟糕透顶!”幸运的是,我买的那箱席拉葡萄酒好喝极了。
　　我回到悉尼,对朋友们说他们必须到阿德莱德看看。比尔・布莱森说得没错!他说,阿德莱德带着“少许的优雅和可敬的庄严,而这些品质总因为悉尼和
　　墨尔本那些亮光闪闪的摩天大楼而被人遗忘。”我端起手中这杯席拉葡萄酒,敬给阿德莱德――我完全赞同他的说法。
　　
　　注:比尔・布莱森是享誉世界的旅游文学作家,1951年出生于美国艾奥瓦州,曾任职于伦敦《泰晤士报》与《独立报》,同时也为《纽约时报》、《国家地理杂志》等撰文。作品主要包括旅游类随笔和幽默独特的科普作品,横跨多种领域,皆为非学院派的幽默之作。代表作有《“小不列颠”札记》、《失落的大陆――美国小城之旅》等。