娜塔莉·多默尔 | 动情诉说旅行的意义

Chris’ true travel story as told by Natalie Dormer

Chris的旅行故事，由“小玫瑰”娜塔莉·多默尔讲述

How often do you get the chance to have your eyes opened? I mean, really...opened.

你多久才能有一次机会睁开自己的双眼？我的意思是，真正地...“睁眼”。

We must have been about halfway through our Contiki trip and we arrived in the Italian capital city of Rome. There was an American girl traveling with us, called Julie. We discovered Julie was almost completely blind. On this particular day, after exploring the many winding beautiful alleyways, we ended up at St.Peter’s Basilica.

那天，我们整趟旅程差不多过半了吧，一行人抵达意大利首都罗马。有一位美国女孩与我们同行，她叫朱莉。朱莉的眼睛几乎完全失明。就在这天，在探索了无数曲曲直直，纡回蜿蜒，交错纵横的小巷后，我们最终来到圣彼得大教堂。

Our trip manager jokingly said he had forgotten the way back to the hotel and did anyone know how to get there. None of us did, but then Julie piped up ‘I can do it!’

这时，我们的领队开玩笑说：“哎呀，我不记得回酒店的路啦，有人知道怎么回去么？”大家面面相觑，根本没人知道，这时朱莉却突然喊出声：“我知道的！”

We all thought she was joking too but she said: ‘No, seriously. I can take us all back.’ So he turned and filed behind her retracing our steps as she led us through the maze of winding streets.

大家都以为她也在开玩笑呢，可她却果断坚定：“真的，我可以。我可以带大家找到回去的路。”领队转过身，走在她的身后，我们也跟着一起原路返回。于是，她领着我们穿过迷宫般蜿蜒曲折的街道。

Someone asked: ‘How are you doing this? How can you possibly remember the way we came?’

有人感到讶异：“你究竟是怎么做到的？你怎么可能记得我们的来路呢？”

‘I just know. Feel how beautiful and cool the air is. We’re by the fountain this is where we turned left.’

“我就是知道呀，感受一下这凉爽纯净又沁人心脾的空气。这意味着我们回到了喷泉，这时我们应该向左转。”

We continued on. ‘I’m smelling freshly baked bread,’ she said. We turned right by this bakery and this is the cafe we passed by. ‘I recognised the sound of that coffee machine. Trust me.’ and sure enough had every turn the things we hadn’t focused on before revealed themselves like hidden gems and we discovered more and more the essence of this rich and vibrant city.

我们继续跟随她的脚步。“我闻到了新鲜烘焙出炉的面包香”她说。“我们要在面包店这里右转，”又路过了街边这家咖啡店。“我听到咖啡机发出熟悉的声响。请相信我。”果不其然，每次的路边转角，都让我们重新发现之前从未留意过的细节，仿若重拾一颗颗沧海遗珠。我们也愈发感受到这座古城的丰富灵动，这才是罗马真正的精髓所在。

Did we make it back to the hotel? We did, actually. Right to the front door, but that’s only a part of this story. What struck me was how Julie made us all see the city through her eyes, it made me experience travel in a totally new way. Thank you Julie, you are my Contiki legend.

那么，我们最终回到酒店了吗？那是当然啦。一路行至酒店大堂正门。不过这只是故事的一小部分而已。其实，最打动我的是朱莉让我们所有人都透过她的视角重新领略这座古城，更是让我从全新的角度，重新体会到旅行的意义。谢谢你，朱莉，你就是我的旅途传奇。