「少為人知」的蕃紅花城 / The “little known” Safranbolu
土耳其是一個頗受英國人歡迎的旅遊地點，我的朋友和同事中不乏去過土耳其旅遊，甚至在土耳其擁有房子。但提起蕃紅花城，他們的第一反應是「這是什麼地方？」。我第一次知道蕃紅花城，是在「背包客棧」上看到了其他的背包客的遊記，說這是一個非到不可的地方。
Turkey is a popular holiday destination for the
Brits, many of my friends and colleagues have been to Turkey, even own
properties there. But their first responses
to Safranbolu mostly are “What is this place?”.
The first time I heard of Safranbolu, it’s from travel blogs on a
Taiwanese backpacker forum, describing it as a “must visit” destination.
蕃紅花城是在土耳其中北部的一個小鎮，它以舊地區保留得很完整的鄂圖曼建築馳名於世。由伊斯坦堡乘巴士前往需要6-7個小時，而由土耳其首都安卡拉出發的話大約要三個小時。
Safranbolu situates in central northern Turkey,
it’s famous for the well preserved Ottoman houses in its old town. It takes 6-7 hours from Istanbul by bus, or 3
hours from Ankara, Turkey’s capital.
稍為了解一下蕃紅花城，也就明白為什麼英國的朋友並不認識它。因為相對多雨和潮濕的氣候，陽光與海灘是不少英國人選擇旅遊地點的重要條件。所以他們對土耳其沿海的城市算是相當熟悉，但對相對「內陸」的蕃紅花城則一無所知。
Knowing this, I now know
why my British friends don’t know about Safranbolu. Because of UK’s rainy weather, the sun,
beaches and resorts are important criteria in choosing holiday
destination. Therefore, they know quite
a lot about the cities by the sea, but nothing about this relatively in-land
town.
「世界遺產」蕃紅花城 / Safranbolu the "World Heritage" site
蕃紅花城是在1994年被聯合國教科文組織認定為世界遺產，它的舊城區保留了鄂圖曼時期的建築群被認定為文化遺產。漫步城中，猶如置身於以中世紀為背景的電視劇中。
Safranbolu was put on the
list UNESCO World Heritage sites in 1994, because of its well preserved Ottoman
houses and architecture. Walking in its
old town, it feels like time has stepped back to the Middle Ages.
當時在蕃紅花城時並沒有想太多，但經過數星期在土耳其旅行，發現土耳其對它的「世界遺產」似乎很「自豪」。每逢到達「世界遺產」的地點都有標示告訴人們這是世界遺產，其中以蕃紅花城的最為明顯，可能這能增長旅遊吧⋯⋯
I didn’t
think much about it at the time, but after several weeks in Turkey, I’ve found
the Turks seem quite “proud” of their “World Heritages”. There’re big signs to tell people it’s a “World
Heritage”, and Safranbolu being the most extreme, perhaps it helps with its
tourism…
