歐羅巴十二寶之布拉格的玩具

For the Travel section’s Oct. 19 issue on Europe, writers and editors selected special items to profile from a dozen cities. Below, explore everything from chocolate in Brussels to silk in Florence to design in Copenhagen.

在歐洲版10月19日旅遊板塊，作者與編輯精選了十二個城市的獨特珍寶，下面，我們從布魯塞爾的巧克力、佛羅倫薩的絲綢到哥本哈根的設計，逐一欣賞吧。

Prague: Toys

布拉格的玩具

There’s no shortage of souvenir shops in Prague, especially in touristic Old Town, but most of what these shops offer — Russian-style nesting dolls, reproduction Soviet tank commander hats, knockoff Barcelona football jerseys — has no connection to Czech culture or traditions. But as the father of two Czech-American children, I have often been impressed with the Czech Republic’s traditional children’s toys, and frequently recommend them as authentic souvenirs.

布拉格絕不缺乏紀念品商店，尤其是在遊人如織的老城，但大多數店裏出售的都是俄羅斯套娃、蘇聯坦克司令帽複製品或巴塞羅那足球隊的運動服，與捷克文化或傳統沒有關聯。但作爲兩名捷克與美國混血兒的父親，捷克共和國的傳統兒童玩具總讓我耳目一新，把作爲純正旅行紀念品的代表屢屢向別人推薦。

One of the best outlets for traditional toys, or hracky, is the five-year-old Retro Hracky shop (Nuselska 90; ). Owned by Rene Zelnicek, a builder of professional models for architects and property developers, the shop is an easy trip on public transportation from the city center out to the decidedly nontouristic residential neighborhood of Michle. After a direct ride on the No. 11 tram line from the Muzeum stop at the top of Wenceslas Square, you’ll spot the giant Hracky sign on the side of a faded modernist building, right when you get off 12 minutes later at the Pod Jezerkou stop.

傳統玩具最好的去處之一就是有五年曆史的懷舊玩具店(Retro Hracky，Nuselska 90; )，店主雷內·澤尼恰克(Rene Zelnicek)是一位專業建築模型設計師兼房地產開發。該店很容易找，市中心有公共車直達遊客稀少的麥可爾住宅區。乘坐11路電車，從瓦刺拉夫廣場一端的博物館站出發，坐12分鐘，在Pod Jezerkou站下車後，你就會在褪色的現代化建築旁邊看到巨大的懷舊標誌。

The Inside seems less like a toy store and more like a toy closet: a single small room overstuffed with beautiful, long-haired Hamiro dolls (around 300 Czech koruna, or about $14 at 21.7 koruna to the dollar) and boxes of Merkur metal construction sets (400 to 2,500 koruna), whose designs seem little changed since their first appearance in 1920. Inside one display case is an impressively realistic layout of Merkur’s O-scale model trains, on top of which are unusual stuffed animals, like the three-foot-high giraffe (750 koruna) and packs of simple wooden toys with wheels and pull strings. Everything seems quirky and fun, and often remarkably affordable.

店內看上去不太像個玩具店，倒是更像個玩具櫃：小屋內塞滿了美麗的長髮哈米洛洋娃娃（約300捷克克朗；按照1美元等於21.7克朗計算，合14美元），一盒盒的默克金屬建築套裝（400至2500克朗）看上去與1920年面世時幾乎沒有什麼不同。展櫃裏有一套極其逼真的默克O刻度模型火車，下面則是那些異乎尋常的毛絨動物玩具，比如三英尺高的長頸鹿（750克朗），還有整盒的帶輪的簡單木製拉繩玩具。一切充滿奇趣，而且價格便宜。

More important, almost everything has a real connection to the Czech lands. When you start playing with the old-fashioned wind-up metal toys from the Czech company Kovap, you will probably fall in love with the tiny version of the country’s classic Zetor tractor, complete with working forward and reverse gears (720 koruna), as well as optional attachable hay wagons, cisterns, seeders and tillers. In terms of entertainment, such historic toys probably don’t have much on Candy Crush Saga. But unlike most modern playthings, these toys don’t seem as if they could have been made anywhere else in the world. EVAN RAIL

更重要的是，幾乎一切都與捷克這片土地有真正的關聯。當你擺弄着捷克科瓦普公司出品的老式的、發條金屬玩具，大概會愛上該國的古典版澤塔拖拉機模型，有向前和後退發條（720克朗），還有可拆卸式乾草馬車、水箱、播種機和耕作機。說到娛樂性，這些老玩具也許與糖果粉碎傳奇幾乎沒有相似之處。但與大多數現代玩具不同的是，老玩具不是世界各地隨處可造的。埃文·瑞爾(EVAN RAIL)供稿。