悠閒星期三 ~ 坐公車和聽北韓故事 Leisure Wednesday ~ bus rides and a North Korean story

夏天很怕上街，因為天氣實在太熱。今天需要賣點東西，所以要到台中的北屯區，離我家不遠，大概六公里，但坐公車就坐了超過半小時。
In summer I don't like to go out as it gets too hot. Today I had to go to Beitun at Taichung to buy something. Beitun is only about 6km away but the bus ride took over half an hour.

平常較少到這區，所以在網上看有甚麼好地方可以吃午餐。找到這一家蔬菜料理，好像不錯，希望不會踩地雷。
I don't go to Beitun often, so thought I'd take the opportunity to see what's good for lunch there. After a bit of research in the internet, I found this vegetarian restaurant.

餐廳有一道大玻璃門，而店前的小花園帶點日本風。後來翻看網上資料，原來這裡以前是日本餐廳，老闆剛搬到這裏不久，保留以前裝潢，怪不得哩。
The front of the restaurant has a big glass door and a nice little garden which I thought was quite Japanese. I found out afterwards this used to be a Japanese restaurant and the owner had just took over not long ago. No wonder.

這區住宅居多，但中飯時候也算蠻多人，大概坐滿一半。餐廳裝潢很舒適，座位寬鬆，有不少人用餐後還留下來慢慢聊天，看來悠閒的人不只我耶！
Beitun is more of a residential area, but the restaurant wasn't doing bad for lunch time, it was half full. The inside was quite spacious, very comfortable, and lots of people were there chatting after lunch. Seems like I'm not the only leisure one around here!

我點了他們的招牌炒飯，餐牌上還有冬瓜奶茶，我以前沒見過所以也點了一瓶。蔬菜炒飯很不錯，加了一些海苔和素肉鬆，口感蠻特別。至於冬瓜奶茶，有點像奶水沒甚麼冬瓜味，不推薦。
I ordered their special fried rice, and a bottle of winter melon milk tea which I've never seen before. Winter melon tea is very popular in Taiwan, but adding milk to it is a first for me. The fried rice was very tasty with bits of crunchy seaweed and vegetarian meat floss on top. I can't say the same about the winter melon milk tea, it just tasted like milky water and had no water melon flavour at all.

走之前去一趟廁所，沒甚麼特別，但這水龍頭很別緻很漂亮，很想帶回家。
Before I left, I paid a visit to the toilet, there was nothing special there except for this lovely birdie tap. I so wanted to take it home with me.

午飯後，到附近的春水堂下午茶。朋友住在附近，而我們已有差不多兩個月沒見面，所以約她出來聊天。朋友剛在台北的世界大學運動會工作完畢，我們在聊她的經歷。她在醫院負責行政工作，選手有不適需要到醫院看醫生就需要處理他們的案子。
After lunch I went to Chun Shui Tong for tea. I have a friend whom I haven't seen for nearly two months who lives nearby, so I gave her a call to catch up. She just finished working at the Summer Universaide 2017 which was organised by Taiwan this year, and told me about her work there. She was doing administrative work at the hospital, responsible for looking after the competitors if they needed treatment.

她說有一位北韓舉重選手在比賽前一晚發生急性盲腸炎，需要馬上動手術。但那位運動員還堅持手術後第二天繼續比賽! 我們不知她的堅支是因為她的運動員體育精神，還是因為如果她不去比賽回到北韓怕被領導責怪。大家覺得應該是第二個理由比較大，想到這裏都有一點心酸。很幸運，這位運動員結果都拿了獎牌，總算向領導有一個交代。
She told me a story about a weight lifting competitor from North Korea. The evening before the competition, the competitor had acute appendicitis and needed an immediate operation. However, she still insisted on taking part in the competition the next day. We weren't sure if that was due to sportsmanship, or whether she was worried that she'd be reprimanded by the authorities if she failed to compete. We reckon it's likely to be the latter reason which was really sad. Anyway, despite her operation, she did manage to win a medal the next day. Hopefully things turned out fine for her back home.

記得一開始我說需要到北屯買點東西嗎? 其實我需要到這間烘焙店買一些烘焙的材料。這一家店在台中是比較大的烘焙店，貨品種類多，有很多喜歡烘焙的朋友也會來這裏。可惜有一些我要找的貨品他們沒貨，結果我只是買了一點點東西。
Remember I said earlier on I needed to come to Beitun to buy something? This is the place, it's one of the largest baking supplies shop in Taichung and popular with many bakers. Unfortunately today they didn't have some of the things I wanted, so I didn't buy a lot in the end.

購物完畢後已差不多是晚飯時候，我就決定坐公車到一中吃點東西才回家。一中是台中一個著名的繁榮地區，很多學生和年青人都喜歡到這裡逛街。之前有朋友帶過我來這一家韓式食店，於是我今天就帶我的另一半來這裏晚餐。店裡面全是年青人及學生，我們一進入店就馬上把平均年齡拉高!
By the time I finished shopping it was nearly dinner time, so I decided to catch the bus to Yi Zhong to grab a bite before heading home. Yi Zhong is a popular area for the youngsters and has a vibrant night market. Last time my friend bought me to this Korean eatery so today I bought my other half here for dinner. As soon as we stepped inside, we immediately increased the average age of the customers!

因為顧客多是學生及年青人，所以食物比較簡單及便宜，但絕不馬虎。套餐可點飯捲，炒飯或炒麵，另外可選三種不同的配菜。你看我們這兩個套餐才150台幣，USD5 也不用!
Since the customers are mainly students and the younger generation here, the food is pretty basic and cheap, but they don't compromise on quality. You can choose sushi rolls, fried noodles or fried rice in your set dinner, as well as three types of side dish. These two sets only cost us NTD150, less than USD5!!

好了，逛了一整天吃飽喝飽又買了東西，又是時候繼續坐公車回家。有沒有發現我整天都在坐公車? 我沒有告訴你知嗎？台中十公里以內的公車是免費噢！
Well, its been a long day, time to catch the bus home now. Have you noticed that I catch the bus all the time? Haven't I told you? All bus rides within 10km in Taichung are free of charge!