tell u in a spainish way 03

the first person who helped us to find our way was having a beer at the corner in a cloudy afternoon shade, he pointed on the metro route map right where we popped up in confusion. he was enthusiastically talking in spanish and english, showed us the way and we headed that way with thanks and doubt. it was an hour later than we assumed to arrive the guesthouse of Ana's, arrival: 1530. briefed about the facilities and being showed to our room 6, which has no window, Natalie, the daughter of Ana and the lovely hostess of the guesthouse we finally stayed in barcelona, showed up and asked if we'd like to move to another place where the room is nicer with balcony, and that's how we left Ana's. i regret we hadnt taken pics of Ana's, the place was just nice.

on the way we walked to guesthouse Rosello, i checked with Natalie if it's going to snow? the answer's no, which i already knew from the weather forcast, yet it was still a little dissapointing. but there should always be hope, our hope was in mardrid. knowing we're from hongkong, our hostess told us there was a couple also from hongkong spent their honeymoon in barcelona and stayed at her place. i asked are the hongkong people bad, to my surprise i had the truth from Natalie, she sad,"yes, oh, no i dont mean that, haha~~ i dont know, i mean they're nice." after such long flight our personal hygene was in a critical condition, im so glad that we were able to take shower right after we had some info and brief directions. before 5, another long night started.

tell u in a spainish way 02

the tourist centres everywhere in spain mean only one thing to us, the local maps. as we dont speak spainish and they dont speack much english, the spainsih staff's passion was only luke-warm(maybe it was the weather too cold). the travel planner regretted for not buying a well designed, fancy, compact barcelona map in heathrow airport that i didnt want to buy cos there wd be maps when we arrive barcelona for free, her argument was it was compact and look less like tourist thus lowering the chance of being robbed. some how, may be she was right, i dont know, my pocket was this close (1mm) to be picked in metro(mtr) when we were reading the travel guidebook. Pam tried to warn us on the plane, the pick-pocket she met was only a kid. she said it was serious in spain. i bore it in mind and was scared and when it happened, it happened. but i was lucky for they were too obvious in a spacious metro compartment they stick too close to us, alerted me to reach for my small bag, where i touched his hand covered under his blazer. that was the 1st flaw in our journey of this vast artistic wonderland.

unlike hongkong, the blocks in barcelona are very big, one block is as far as 2 to 3 blocks in hongkong, when they tell u to walk 2 blocks away, u have to prepare it's not a short walk. and the premises are also big in area, so when u're standing on no 2 of a street and is going to no 98 dont think ur gonna arrive anytime soon, especially in a rainy season like spring.

tell u in a spainish way 01

it was exciting for this was our first europe trip. luckily i have a good travel planner and we have everything ready just couple of days before we fly on a peak season like cny. the price was right, the date and days are perfect, guesthouse booked, well, partially. and, off we go~

12 hrs mid night fligh was a long long night, i couldnt eat(cos we forgot to order veggie meal), i slept terriblly and dried up and couldnt watch tv cos mine was broken, heaven knows i love tv!! drowsy as i was, arrived in heathrow and amazed for a breakfast was €8 but the boots cucumba cream to my dehydrated chapped face's rescue was just €1.6 . Pam, a lady who sat next to us on the way to heathrow and lives in barcelona for 7 years but speaks no spanish told us people in spain usually understand english, that was a relief... not for long. 3 hrs later, our own act of lost in translation started in barcelona, spain.

i hate myself for the habit of imitating how people laugh, sneeze , speak the accent or whatever sound they make attracts me, this can be embarrassing and should be avoided especially when that person was a custom officer... the officer stopped us talking spainish, i said excuse me, he just looked at the luggage, slightly patted it and let us go with an "OK", inspite of he's good-looking, we walked away and i imitated his "OK". great.

tell u in a hongkongish way

the english names of the local stores and companies are often in transliteration. english words in those name don't mean what they should, just the pronunciations matter to them. like "fat" doesn't mean their business has anything to do with selling fat, i mean, may be they do but, in this case, not what the business or the chinese character itself suppose to mean. and for the word "fat" again, it means wealth and prosperity which makes it a very popular character for commercial names.

each chinese character has its own meanings, when two or more of these cling together forming vocabularies or phrases, their meanings differ and a lot richer. like "fat" again, when group with "fuk" (fat fuk) means gaining weight, and fat here is the verb, fuk is a noun. i find it interesting for shop names or even given names for ourselves, they literally dont follow this "vocabulary rule". names always come in 2 to 3 characters, when reading the phrase, all the characters are apprehensible but when they come together it doesn't add up to a phrase, like corn starch in water, they seem to mix but they actually not. then what are they? they are 2 to 3 different wishes or expectations from the shop owner or our parents, names are the sum of blessings and love and desires. common characters for commercial names always link to good fortune, profit, grandness, excellency. for neutral choices there are reputation, swiftness, loyalty, trustworthiness. are we repressive? not in this aspect.

transliteration is an art, while chinese literature is powerfully poetic, when the two to fuse together it forms really beautiful pieces. Firenze is a delicate piece of radiant jade in cool mist, revlon is from a poem of a talented passionate writer. Kate Blanchett is a noble orchid white as snow. like any other art forms in this world, this one also changes its course to serve some purposes. in recent years, media of hong kong tend to orientate the way how mainland china media transliterate, giving up style of hongkong's own, which i think it is sad. among those new names, the one i consider irritating the most is the transliteration of Brisbane, sounds like Bris "livor mortis(in our language)".