The Way Late Melbourne Trip Summary

May 14, 2007 – 01:54

A trip summary that is written a month after the trip. Great…

I was in Melbourne, Australia for a conference (again) durng April 9th to April 14th, and stopped over in Hong Kong briefly. It was actually my first time to anywhere below the Equator.

The conference itself was excellent. There were several pretty interesting talks and most presenters are pretty good speakers. I presented on the first session of the second day. Attendance was quite good (maybe they were there to listen to the presentation before mine, which was made by a lady from Sun Microsystems). Thankfully, nobody seems to be asleep during my presentation, and I got a couple of questions in the question sessions and afterwards during the break.

So anyway, a brief summary of places that I’ve been to in Melbourne:

University of Melbourne: one of the best universities in Australia, the campus is mid-sized and not as big as UBC’s. The campus is made up of a mix of old and new buildings, and seems to be a pleasant place to study in general.

Various gardens and parks: been to Flagstaff Gardens, Carlton Gardens and Fitzroy Gardens. The parks in Melbourne are similar to those in Vancouver.

Yarra Riverside: walked along the Yarra River and took in some of the sceneries on both banks of the river. A good place to have a walk.

Albert Park: a large park in South Melbourne which features a large lake.

St. Kilda: the “beach” part of “beaches and sunshine” of Melbourne. The sky and the sea were gorgeous when viewed from there.

(on a side note, I made scheduling mistakes on the trip. I went to the University of Melbourne on Easter Monday, and went to St. Kilda beach the next day. As a result, both places were almost deserted when I was there… What was I thinking… orz)

Victoria State Library: just like what Wiki-travel said, a good place to be if you like books.

Melbourne Observation Deck: it turned out that my conference registration did not include the conference dinner, so I ended up going up to the observation deck on Rialto Towers that evening. The AUS $9 (concession) price is worth the money I think. The night scenery of Melbourne is better than I expected. The observation deck was on the 59th floor of the building, so it is quite a bit closer to the ground than, say, Taipei 101. I actually like the deck to be closer to the ground. Taipei 101 was a bit too tall.

Melbourne Docklands: A large scale community regeneration project, kind of like Yaletown in Vancouver. Lots of new apartment buildings and niche restaurants there.

And some additional comments:

Weather: even though it was officially autumn in Southern Australia, it was still quite hot (about 25 degrees according to weather forecasts at the time), and the sun is quite strong (I almost got a sun stroke while I was walking around St. Kilda). But overall the weather is very pleasant and reminds me of California.

Prices: the Australia dollar is about on-par with Canadian dollars nowadays, but I think the local prices in Melbourne had yet to reflect that. Prices are generally 20% to 30% higher than that of Vancouver. However, it can be due to the fact that I mostly buy food and etc. in the Downtown-ish areas.

Food: being the lazy person that I am when it comes to eating, I had McDonald’s for a couple of nights (sigh). I did manage to find Japanese curry rice though, and it was good.

People: from the outlook, Melbourne seems to be a multi-cultural city just like Vancouver, probably because of the large number of overseas students. I didn’t stay long enough to comment on how the locals treat Asian foreigners though (which is a often-brought-up concern when people talk about Australia).

Didn’t do: perhaps I should’ve gone visiting Sydney too, but I just didn’t want too many stopovers, which is too bad because I don’t know when is the next time I am going to visit Australia.

Finally, Melbourne in pictures: http://www.davidmak.info/album/v/melbourne/melbourne2007/

Tags: ASWEC, Australia, Melbourne

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檸檬茶

April 30, 2007 – 02:24

在刁民公園（反維園阿伯集中地？）看到關於今年香港中學會考題目「檸檬茶」的爭論（有人說這題目「太後現代」，讓我摸不著頭腦。究竟甚麼叫「太後現代」？），想起自己的小說中也有關於檸檬茶的一段：

－－－－引用分界線－－－－

星期二的中午，我在學校的飯堂買食物的時候，一如平常，買了紙包檸檬茶作飲料。

「咦，又買檸檬茶？」

學姐的聲音，從我的後邊出現。

我轉身笑道：「妳總是在我的身後出現。」

學姐只是笑了笑，說道：「為甚麼每一次見你在午飯時都要喝紙包檸檬茶呢？」

我只是聳了聳肩。「這是習慣吧。」

學姐只是微微一笑，沒有再追問下去。

因為她沒有問，所以我沒有說我這習慣是從何而來的。

　

某年的九月尾聲，香港。

我剛踏上學校的天台，就聽到一把聲音：「你怎麼來了？」

我轉過頭，看到芷瑤坐在欄杆的旁邊，手裡拿著一包檸檬茶。

自從開學那天認識之後，我和芷瑤在學校碰面時，都是微笑點頭示意，沒有深談。

我說道：「我不知道，只是突然想從學校的頂部眺望而已。」

她笑了笑。

我續道：「那麼，妳為甚麼在午飯時候跑上來這裡呢？」

芷瑤聳聳肩，說道：「我不喜歡到學校裡食堂或對面的餐廳，太擠了。」

我說道：「但是人總不能永遠的離群索居啊。」

「在有選擇的時候，任何人都不會選擇孤獨的。」

我以不解的眼神看了看她。

她只是抿著嘴，沒有解釋剛說出的話。

－－－－引用分界線－－－－

廣告時間：

原文是拙作《思念的季節》，收錄於《思念不只三天兩夜》內。若有興趣的話敬請買書，掃清倉底貨，不要讓它們再在特價書攤丟人現眼。因應出版社的要求，在書出版的時候我已把故事在個人網站中移除。若你能夠找得到的話，不關我的事啦。

若我當年沒有來加拿大，我的會考中文作文成績會怎麼樣呢？大概不怎麼高分吧！我的中文作文成績一向也都平平。

前兩天，我看《我猜，我猜，我猜猜猜》，有嘉賓認為一個十五歲的女生，學校作文成績只有六七十分，不可能是出過書的作家。

但我覺得，很多寫虛構小說的作者，作文科的成績不見得會好。作者都在作文裡加入很多主觀元素，很多時都不為老師所喜。老師大都喜歡一板一眼，依足範例來寫的文章（沒辦法，要不怎樣一個人改五十份作文？）。這點隱約跟上述「檸檬茶」的爭論互相呼應。「檸檬茶」這題目太廣泛，沒辦法依著一個checklist來改。

但既然考試的科目是「作文」，考的是學生創作文章的能力，不是單純的考中文運用技術而已。嫌題目難改而要規範學生的創意，好像有點荒謬吧？

　

P.S. 《我猜》裡面女生，當然是真的作家啦（若她說她的作文都拿八九十分，我就不信她是作家了）。

Tags: 我猜，我猜，我猜猜猜, 檸檬茶

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MSN Personal Message

April 3, 2007 – 02:05

最近經常有朋友看到我的MSN personal message之後給我問候的訊息（或是問我洋食屋是在哪裡 :p）。

很感謝大家的關心。其實我的message大都是很隨意的（真正在意的事未必敢這般公告天下），不用太緊張啦。 XD

最近的personal message是這樣的：「像個黑色漩渦　將我吞沒」。

有朋友問我是不是出了甚麼事，為甚麼這看來這麼灰？我說不是，那是孫燕姿的新歌歌詞。其實，我是很少隨心情來選歌。只要曲詞俱佳，演釋恰當的話，我並不排斥在快樂的時候聽悲歌，或是在心情不好的時候聽輕快的歌曲。

今天下午在等公車的時候，忽發奇想。若personal message的「漩渦」不是黑色的，朋友看到會不會有不同的詮釋？若我寫「像個粉紅漩渦　將我吞沒」的話，我大概會被誤會正在走桃花運吧。哈哈。

因為潮流文化和生活經歷的關係，我們對不同的顏色都有先入為主的意義（例如藍色代表憂鬱，或白色代表純潔）。這些，算是偏見嗎？

在此附上「像個黑色漩渦　將我吞沒」的出處歌詞。這歌收錄於燕姿的新專輯裡。它應該不是主打歌，但我還是很喜歡（雖然有人覺得它悶啦！）。

漩渦
詞：小寒
曲：李偲菘
編：Martin Tang
唱：孫燕姿

總裝著很有把握　不准愛滲入生活
才發現闖了禍　讓你當真以為我的心上了鎖
讓你絕望地走　成全獨立的我

好想摀住耳朵　不想不看不想聽誰說
好想蹲在角落　把譴責的眼光都躲過
像個黑色漩渦　將我吞沒　悔恨已逃不脫
我承認這都是我　感情事處理得不妥
從不說　我愛你　那麼多

原來人可能脆弱　愛讓我很難振作
我坐在最前座　人生第一次面對什麼叫落寞
經歷你這一走　最大傻瓜是我

好想摀住耳朵　不想不看不想聽誰說
好想蹲在角落　把譴責的眼光都躲過
像個黑色漩渦　將我吞沒　悔恨已逃不脫
我承認這都是我　感情事處理得不妥
從不說　我愛你

我不要誰好心幫我　每個人像在隔岸觀火　看我犯錯
（提醒我說　都是我的錯　提醒我說　逼你離開我）
就算同情是條繩索　我也沒辦法伸出雙手
拯救自己（除了你）　除非是你（拯救我）
肯回頭（為了我）　扭轉這個結果

好想摀住耳朵　不想不看不想聽誰說
好想蹲在角落　把譴責的眼光都躲過
像個黑色漩渦　將我吞沒　悔恨已逃不脫
我承認這都是我　感情事處理得不妥
從不說　我愛你　那麼多

我愛你　那麼多

Tags: 孫燕姿

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David’s Not-so-grand European Tour: Part VI

April 1, 2007 – 00:05

Since EY is a normal person with a real job, I am left on my own on the last day of my London tour.

Arrived at the Tower of London at 09:30 (I didn’t manage to get in, remember?), only to find that the Tower does not open until 10:00 on Mondays, so I had to wait a bit before I can get in. I visited most of the points of interests in the time that I spent there, including:

-the White Tower: once the former Royal Armoury, it has a lot of historial weapons and firearms on display. It is worth noting that there is an exhibit that was dedicated to the historical struggles between British Protestants and Catholics, including the Gunpowder Plot. And then when I got back to Vancouver, I read about the news that the Anglican Church and the Catholic Church are planning to merge. I find that kind of ironic.

-the Crown Jewel: probably the must-visit place for visitors to the Tower, the real and still-in-use Crown of the British monarch is on display there

-prison cells where a number of high-profile prisoners were once imprisoned

All in all, the Tower is a decent historical site to visit, if one wants to learn a bit about Medieval Britain.

At around 12:30, I rode the tube to Russell Square Station and had a one last brief visit to the British Museum and visited the Enlightenment Exhibit again before heading back to the hotel to pick the luggage. It’s too bad that I did not manage to spend enough time there (since it was kind of close to the hotel that I stayed in, I did not really planned for a specific point of the trip to visit it, thinking that I could go there as a “time filler”).

I took the Circle Line train from King’s Cross/St. Prancras to Paddington. The walk from the Circle Line Paddington station platform to the Paddington rail station (where I would board the Heathrow Express) is noticably longer than the walk from the rail station to the Hammersmith and City Line platform. One really have to know the way around the London Underground system in order to find the shortest path to any place.

There were long line-ups at the British Airways counter at Heathrow, even the “fast” baggage drop off had a long queue. The flight from LHR to YVR was delayed due to the late arrival of the aircraft (what else). Otherwise the flight back home was uneventful.

London is truly a fascinating place to visit. In many ways (e.g. the dirtiness of the streets), it reminded me of the Hong Kong of old (i.e. 1980’s to early 1990’s). Thanks to the expert guidance of EY, my tour of London covered most of the prominent points of attractions in Central London, and the tour is very fulfilling. However, there were still a couple things that I would like to do but did not do:

- attending a football match: it was FA-cup 4th Round weekend when I was in London, and I thought about going to the Arsenal vs Blackburn match at the Emirates Stadium. However, the tickets were restricted to fan club members only. It might have been a good thing since the match was by all accounts a snooze-fest

- watching a West-end musical: it is listed as one of the to-dos in Wiki Travel. I should’ve made plans early for that.

London in pictures: http://www.davidmak.info/album/v/london/london2007/

This was my first-ever trip to Europe, and actually my first time venturing out to places where English or Chinese is not the main language (although a lot of people that I encountered in Austria and Germany spoke very good English). Although the trip was a little bit short, it gave me a taste of what Europe is all about. I would love another visit again in the (hopefully) not-too-distant future.

On a final note: sometimes I would associate certain songs with the trips that I took, even though the lyrics or the song itself has little to do with my destination or even the trip itself. This time my “theme” song for the trip was Nana’s (starring Mika Nakashima) 一色. When I was on the train from Innsbruck to Munich, I found the song really fitted into my mood during that time, even though I don’t know what the song is about (I am one of those who don’t know any Japanese but listen to J-pop).

Tags: Europe, London

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David’s Not-so-grand European Tour: Part V

March 30, 2007 – 03:30

Day three in London coincided with the Chinese New Year, and EY and I celebrated by going to… Cambridge, which of course is known to the world because of the University there.

We met up at King’s Cross Station at 10:45 and took the next train to Cambridge. The ride was short, just under an hour. The most memorable thing about the ride is the changing air pressure (while the train enter tunnels and etc.) affecting my ears.

We took the bus to the town centre after getting off the train. Cambridge is a more vibrant town than I originally thought, as it serves as a hub to the surrounding areas, according to my guide, EY.

A few of my friends know that I love visiting university campuses, and Cambridge is certainly a worthwhile visit for people like me. We went around several residential colleges, including St. John’s, King’s, Queens’ and Trinity. Highlights of the tour included the Bridge of Sigh, the River Cam, and the King’s College Chapel.

Although the environment at Cambridge does not have the grandeur simiilar to Stanford (another great campus that I have been to), it does give out an aura of history and temperament (is that the right word?) of a prestigous education institution.

After touring the colleges, we sat down at a tea house and had tea (a visit to the UK would not be complete without this). It was all very relaxing, even though the weather was not the best.

We headed back to London in mid-afternoon. Since it is too early for dinner, I dragged EY to the British Museum again (sorry!). The great thing about free admission is not only that I don’t have to pay, but I can choose to go whenever I want and any number of times I want. This time around, we visited mostly the Asian (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) exhibits.

To me, the Chinese Exhitbit was a little disappointing, as I didn’t find anything strikingly impressive (so where are the booty from the 19th century wars?), and the organization of the exhibit is somewhat disjointed and lacked meaning. Afterwards, I read that some of the British Museum’s Chinese Collection went on display in Beijing shortly after I returned to Vancouver. So I wonder if the “better” things were shipped over to China already by the time I was there. The Jade Exhibit is probably my most memorable exhibit within the Chinese Collection.

The Japanese Collection, on the other hand, was very well organized. The exhibit halls are organized in a chronological fashion. A large variety of types of items (e.g. clothing, painting, everyday household items) are displayed to show the various aspects of life in different eras. The captions are well written and expressive. The exhibits are intended to educate people about how Japanese culture has evolved over the its history, instead of just a static collection of artifacts (e.g. pots and porcelain) that hold little meaning to observers, as displayed in the Chinese Collection.

After spending a couple hours at the Museum, we walked down to Chinatown for Japanese curry (yes, again!) at a different restaurant as the night before. I thought the curry there is better than the one I had on the previous night. After studying photographic evidence, Mr. Fung concluded that the second Japanese curry was more authentic than the first one. Nonetheless, my craving of Japanese curry is finally satisfied!

EY and I took a brief walk around some malls after dinner, but then she needed to leave early to tend for other businesses. Before we part, she recommended me to go down to Charing Cross Station and experience the Thames at night. It was not the last time we see each other that night though, as we thought it was.

I followed EY’s instructions and walked on the Golden Jubilee Bridge to cross the Thames from Charing Cross. I was walking along Belvedere Road until I discover that there is a riverside walkway (The Queen’s Walk). Even though it was a Sunday night, there were still a lot of tourists along the riverside area. The night scene along Thames is fantastic, comparable to the night harbour scene of Hong Kong (not sure if that is an appropriate comparison). The London Eye looked big when I was walking beside/underneath it. I didn’t get on it though. What is the fun of going on a ferris wheel alone? Although I think the view would be nothing short of magnificent up there.

I was under the London Eye when I got a call from EY. It turns out that she left the things that she bought from Cambridge in my backpack. I guess we both are quite forgetful. :p We agreed to meet after I finish my night tour of the Thames. Moving on, I walked across the Westminster Bridge and observe the Westminster Palace and the Big Ben at night. Overall, it was a very pleasant walk and I was quite pleased.

I took the tube to Finchley Road and met up with EY to gave her back her things. We said good bye for real this time, but I’m sure we’ll meet again some time in the future.

Tags: Europe, London

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David’s Not-so-grand European Tour: Part IV

March 21, 2007 – 03:17

So why is the London part of the trip broken in several entries? That’s what happens when a lazy guy keep procrasinating and keep putting off writing his travel log. If he waits until he finishes the whole thing before posting it, people won’t get to read it until 2010, or something.

But then, is there really people who would read this self-loving guy’s so-called travel log, with all the petty little details written in?

Anyway, let’s move onto day 2 of the London trip.

After a brief visit to the British Library (it was right across from the hotel). I got to the Westminster Station at 10:30, met up with EY and start our tour from there.

The weather was simply fabulous at that point in time. The blue sky was quite Vancouver-esque (during the summer), but still not quite California-esque though, if you know what i meant. :p

We walked along Whitehall towards Trafalgar Square and passed by the entrance of the National Gallery. We then passed through the Admiralty Arch and walked along the Mall at St. James’s Park. We stopped at the lake area to look at some goose and pelicans (those are Royal properties) and tried to guess which pelican was the one that swallowed a pigeon and made it on youtube and bbc.co.uk.

We got to Buckingham Palace at around noon, just in time to see the changing of guard. There was a ton of tourists there (being a Saturday), and I had to hold my camera up high to take pictures. For the first time I realized that the work of a photographer can be quite hard. To a lot of people, the changing of guard might been be seen as a show. However, I think rituals like these signifies the importance of the British Royalty, even though they have become increasingly low-key politically.

After the change was over, we moved on along Constitution Hill in Green Park. The weather really did make the walk in the parks much more pleasant (duh). The series of Royal Parks (St. James’s, Green, Hyde) in the area are different than the parks that I visited in Canada in the way that it gives a much more “artificial” feel (I don’t mean this in a negative way). The park outside of Rideau Hall in Ottawa actually is in some ways similar to the Royal Parks, for obvious reasons. In Canada, a park is more of a designation of a natural area instead of something that was built by humans.

After walking past the Wellington Arch, we moved onto Hyde Park, walked along the Serpentine, and visited the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain. We got to Kensington Palace at around 13:30.

Compared to the glamour and luxury of Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace is much more modest. In the tour of the Palace, we got a glimpse of Royal life during the pre-Victorian times. I usually don’t like audio tours (I usually find the speaker talked too slowly), but I managed to go through the one at the Palace, partly because it was well made. The audio guide provided a lot of small, fine, but interesting details throughout the tour.

After finishing the tour, we then headed to the Natural History Museum. There were a lot of people there, with parents bringing their children for a Saturday afternoon visit, but there were very few tourists though. We spent some time lining up to get into the dinosaur exhibit, and walked through some others. The architecture of the Museum is quite beautiful. It was worth the visit just to see the building itself.

Afterwards, we walked to Knightsbridge to take the Underground to Piccadilly Circus and went to a Japanese restaurant in Chinatown. I finally was able to satisfy my unexplainable craving of Japanese curry rice (which had gone on since I came back to Vancouver from Hong Kong in January). The curry rice was pretty good, but somehow my appetite wasn’t great that night (being stuffed at the Natural History Museum and then on the tube didn’t help).

After dinner, we took a brief walk around Leicester Square and Covent Garden before parting for the day. We were actually quite proud of the distance that we covered and the number of places that we’ve visited for the day. :p

Tags: Europe, London

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David’s Not-so-grand European Tour: Part III

March 10, 2007 – 15:50

Whether they admit it or not, a lot of Hong Kong people have some kind of emotional/sentimental attachment to Britain (although memories of the pre-handover days are starting to get fuzzy now, I’m sure). This is demonstrated by the English National side’s popularity in Hong Kong, and the number of Hong Kong tourists in London when I was there.

I arrived at Heathrow at 8:30am (the plane had to circle before landing again, is that really common for Heathrow?), waited 30 minutes for the luggagage, and took the Heathrow Express to Paddington (Note: buying Heathrow Express tickets online, namely from the JAL web site, saves 1 pound per trip). From Paddington, I took the Hammersmith and City line to Euston Square. This was a mistake, as the walk to the hotel was 20 minutes, while walking to the hotel from King’s Cross/St. Pancras (the next stop in the line) was 5 minutes. I guess tube maps that failed to clearly show which line goes where did not help, but it did show that I lacked preparation (i.e. not pinpointing where exactly the hotel is beforehand).

I got to the hotel at 10:30 and was told that the room is not ready yet. So I had to change my plans slightly - originally my first item on the agenda is the Tower of London - and headed off to the British Museum.

With more than 200 years of history, the architecture of the British Museum itself is a wonder to a “culturally-deprived” person like me. I went through a number of exhibitions, including Enlightenment, Ancient Greek, Ancient Roman, and Middle Ages. I only browsed through the Chinese exhibits, knowing that I will return for another visit for sure. I saw a number of Cantonese-speaking tourists around in the museum (as well as a couple pretty Japanese female tourists…), and I suddenly came to realize that it was the start of the Chinese New Year holiday.

The collection is all in all very interesting, as the captions are well written, and there are a lot of things that I cannot see anywhere else in the world (e.g. the Pantheon Marbles).

I had a Krispy Kreme donut for lunch. I was surprised that Krispy Kreme is so readily available in London, as I found one in Paddington and another one in Euston. But then there are Subways (no, not the tube) around too…

I went back to the hotel at 14:00 to take the room. The room was really big and well furnished. Perhaps I got lucky and got one of the bigger rooms, since small room size is a common complaint for hotels in London.

Afterwards, I rode the Underground to Bank/Monument, visited the Monument, and walked towards the Tower of London. However, by the time I got there (15:30), it was too late for admission. I walked around the exterior walls of the Tower and took some pictures. I then proceeded to walk across the Tower Bridge and onto the south side of Thames. After walking past HMS Belfast and the Hay’s Galleria, I took the Underground again to Westminster.

London’s Underground system is the most complicated public transit system that I ever encountered (Munich’s S-Bahn and U-Bahn look pretty complex too, but I was only there for a day). Transferring from one line to another in a station, or to exit at a particular exit can be quite different than it was with the MTR in Hong Kong. Not all walkways have access to all the platforms and exits, therefore when I got off the train, I need to pay attention to the signs to see which way I should go in order to get to where I want to go. More often than not I found myself walking the wrong way.

The main attraction around the Westminster station is of course the Westminster Palace. I took several pictures of the Big Ben, and walked around the fences of the building along Millbank, and then along the Thames in Victoria Tower Gardens and all the way to Lambeth Bridge. I finally walked back to Westminster Abbey along Millbank and right about that time the battery on my camera went out (and my spare was charging at the hotel room).

I headed back to the hotel at around 17:30 but got lost around the King’s Cross Station and the Pentonville area (I didn’t know I needed to walk to the St. Pancras side of the station when I was inside the Underground station) for about 15 minutes. That’s what happens to people who rely on intuition and “feel” (instead of being prepared and observant) to get around places that they are not familiar with.

Went to Mornington Crescent at 18:45 to meet up with EY. We then went to a nearby Japanese restaurant. The dinner that we had there consist of teriyaki chicken and beef, plus the usual a-la-carte items (e.g. rice, miso soup). The restaurant was ran by Japanese people, so it was more or less authentic (at least more authentic than the Chinese-ran joints in Vancouver).

I told EY about my craving of Japanese curry. She told me that there are a couple of places around Chinatown that makes good Japanese curry rice, and we can go try it out the next day. I was absolutely delighted. :p

Tags: Europe, London

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David’s Not-so-grand European Tour: Part II

February 25, 2007 – 01:32

The day that I spent in Munich is more of a by-product of flight schedules, as opposed to a planned stop. In order to get a lower-priced ticket, I had to take the 7:00am flight from MUC to LHR. Since I cannot make it to Munich from Innsbruck at 5:00am, I will have to stay a night in Munich (well, maybe I can, but either way I will have to stay in Austria/Germany for another day, so why not go to another place). I am glad that I did, and I will surely visiting Munich again if I get the chance.

I arrived at the Munich Hauptbahnhof at around 12:30 and proceeded to walk to the hotel (a 10-minute walk, contrary to the advertisements). The hotel that I found was probably the cheapest hotel near the main station, stopping short of staying at a hostel. Predictably, the room was small, the furniture is simple (with a “Hong Kong-style” single bed) and of course there’s no view (it does have a balcony though). However, it was clean (my primary requirement), therefore it was perfectly suitable for a night’s stay.

The elevator of the hotel was one of those old manual-door style elevators. It reminded me of the elevator at the primary school that I went to in Hong Kong (except that the one at my old school features a manual inner door). Later, I was told that a lot of European buildings still uses these older elevators. When I was moving into my room, there was no light in the hallway. It turns out that I needed to press on the light switch in the hallway (obviously I’m not a curious person) and the light would turn off after certain period of time. This would save energy I guess?

I didn’t really have much of a plan as to where to go in Munich. I thought about going to the BMW Museum, but it is kind of far from the main station/city center area, and I am not sure if their new museum is ready yet. So, I just bought a all-zone day pass (I can still use it to go to the airport the next day morning) and trot down to Marienplatz, the city center area.

One thing that I liked about the S-Bahn is that some of the more busy stations (e.g. Marienplatz, Hauptbahnhof) have platforms to both sides of the train. Passengers on the train are asked exit on one side, and people will enter on another. Hong Kong’s MTR should really consider doing that.

The general area of Marienplatz is a mix of heritage buildings and commerical district. The central square is surrounded by the old and new town halls, as well as various shops and department stores housed in three of four storied buildings. It is a good example of how traditional-style architecture can work in a modern setting. A lot of people automatically equates old with dispair and think that old buildings are useless relics of the past and they should be demolished to make way for new buildings, for the sake of “progress.” Of course old buildings would fall into disrepair if people don’t cherish it and give it life.

For some stretches in the afternoon, I basically just walked along the streets, not really having somewhere in mind. I passed by the Viktualienmarkt Food Market, as well as Promenadenplatz. It was funny that no matter where I walked to, I’d end up back in the central square of Marienplatz. Later in the afternoon, I went to the Deutsches Museum, but it was too late to look at the exhibits in detail, as well as walking around the Royal Residence in Odeonsplatz.

As lunch, I had a currywurst from Im Restaurant. It was good (it’s kind of obvious that I’m not a good food critic). In fact, I love it so much that I went back there for another one, and a hamburger + potato salad for dinner (and it’s cheaper than sitting down in a real restaurant).

In early evening, I went to Königsplatz (basically just for the sake of it), the Staatliche Antikensammlung (State Collection of Antiques) and the Glyptothek (Greek Museum) did give a mysterious feel at night.

I rested early that day, since I will have to get up at 4:00am to catch the flight to London.

The one-day (or rather, one-afternoon) trip in Munich is a general overview of the central part of the city. It would take days to actually visit all the museums and royal palaces. Munich will certainly be on my list to city to visit when I am going to visit Central Europe again.

Munich in pictures: http://www.davidmak.info/album/v/munich/munich2007/

Next stop: London

Tags: Europe, Munich

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生日感言又來了

February 24, 2007 – 15:15

又是二月二十五，又是生日。

其實也沒甚麼好感言的。人還是這樣，懶散，沒見識，膽小，太容易分心（看，這寫了沒兩個句子，就跑去看Wikipedia了）。

過去一年到了好多地方去（在我而言啦），渥太華，多倫多，香港，台北，因奈斯堡，慕尼黑，倫敦。從這些遊歷裡，我得到了甚麼嗎？不知道，只知道我應該趁這一兩年的機會走出去，看看這世界了。

接著的一年是重要的一年，最顯要的莫過於身份終於要由學生轉到在職（希望如此啦）。一直都覺得，在外邊工作了的朋友，在談吐舉止上都比我成熟。雖然已經二十幾了，但很多方面，我還是像一個十幾歲的小朋友那般（最好外貌也是啦）。

寫作方面也碰到了瓶頸。那篇寫了不夠一半的長篇已經停擺了幾個月。也許，再不努力的話，我那所謂寫作的生涯就到盡頭了。這作家夢，是不是不應該再做下去呢？

跟我同年的朋友開始結婚了。最近，不只一個朋友問我，現在有沒有談戀愛？我都是笑著搖頭。我是喜歡單身的生活嗎？對我來說，這不存在喜不喜歡的問題，就像我沒有比較喜歡溫哥華或是香港那樣。一個人無論怎樣，生活還是要過。在哪裡，跟不跟誰在一起，只是生活裡的兩個細節而已。

　

今年的生日願望，不是要世界和平，我只要地球不要繼續暖化就好。

怎麼我的生日願望聽來都是奢望？

Tags: 生日

Posted in life / 生活 | 3 Comments »

David’s Not-so-grand European Tour: Part I

February 22, 2007 – 06:00

Just to clarify, this is not turning into a travel-only blog. :p

Last week or so, I went to Innsbruck, Austria to attend a conference, and then went to London for sightseeing and a night in Munich in between.

Flew from Vancouver to London Heathrow, and then onto Munich. Although the YVR to LHR flight was delayed, the LHR to MUC flight was delayed as well (delays seem to be commonplace at Heathrow), so I managed to make the connections. Hopped onto the S-Bahn at the airport and went to the Hauptbahnhof (main station). Just missed a train to Innsbruck, so had to wait an hour. The train ride down to Innsbruck took another two hours, making the total length of the journey 20 hours.

I arrived in the Innsbruck Main Station at around 11:00pm. It’s good that the hotel that I stayed in is close to the station (it has an underground pathway connecting directly to the platforms), so that I didn’t need to haul the luggage around and trying to find the hotel in the middle of the night.

The conference that I attended was the International Association of Science and Technology for Development on Software Engineering (long name, I know). It is held yearly in Innsbruck, Austria. I presented my paper on the first day. The presentation went all right, if not 100% smooth (I was too tired from the time difference to practice properly). There were a couple of questions, but nothing malicious, so it’s all good from that perspective.

I attended most of the sessions (afterall, that was why I was paid to go there…) as well as the UML 2.0 tutorial, which I found pretty informative. It is interesting to talk to people in other fields as well. I do find that project management is really a minority in the software engineering community, and most software engineering research are related to tools and methodologies. The conference has a fairly friendly atmosphere (from what I can see anyway), probably because of the location of the conference I guess.

I spent a day touring the city by myself. Innsbruck itself is quite a pleasant place. Think Banff with more history. I spent a day walking around the town, notably the Old Town area and along the Inn River, and of course I took some pictures.

The weather there is not dissimilar to Vancouver’s, it was around 6C to 8C during the day and almost always had the chance of rain. The wind is kind of chilling though, and I had to buy a cap on the first day that I was there (I usually don’t like wearing extra things like gloves and caps, in fear of losing them).

Tyrolean food was so-so for me. I feel that the pasta is a little too “cheesy” (as in having too much cheese) to my liking. But I guess not feeling well in the stomach in those days did not help matters.

So, here are the pictures from Innsbruck:

http://www.davidmak.info/album/v/innsbruck/innsbruck2007/

I have uploaded the few pictures that I had from Taiwan and Hong Kong in last December and January as well. They can be found in their own sections in the gallery.

Next stop: Munich

Tags: Europe, IASTED, Innsbruck

Posted in travel / 出行 | 1 Comment »