全球十大“氣味之城”
10. Dallas 達拉斯
Cities, like people, have their own smell, their own body odors and perfumes that take on personalities. Dallas is one of the strangest scents I have ever encountered. Highways of strip malls and gas stations and exit signs. Insanely wide streets. It's very New World-smelling. It almost has a non-scent scent. Like many cities, you get concrete, car exhaust, and dust. If you really focus, you can pick up on the nearly undetectable Texas live oak. It's best during thunderstorms, though. The crisp smell of lightning and rain and vast flat space pervades and takes on a three-dimensional quality.
城市和人一樣，有着它們自己獨特的氣味和特點。達拉斯的氣味是我遇到的最奇特氣味之一。大商場和加油站和高速公路的出口標誌，異常寬闊的街道，都帶着新世界的氣息。它幾乎有一種沒有氣味的氣味。和很多城市一樣，你聞得到混凝土、汽車尾氣和粉塵。如果認真感受，你能嗅到微不可聞的德克薩斯橡樹，但在雷雨天氣時效果最佳。閃電、雨和巨大的空間互相交織，呈現出一種十分清晰的清脆氣味。
9. London 倫敦
I agree with Samuel Johnson's oft-quoted "when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford," and while being able to afford London is no small feat, if you just walk the streets, the scent of the city, at least, is free. Mist, rain, peppermint, wet pavement. You can smell the Thames and leather seats and aged Persian rugs. Thank Christ, there's much less cigarette fumes these days. Some people complain that London is a gray scent, but what they smell is actually the opalescent energy of Britain.
我同意塞繆爾·約翰遜經常引用的一句話——“一個人如果厭倦了倫敦，那他就厭倦了生活；因爲倫敦有人生能賦予的一切。”雖然在倫敦的生活需要大筆的開支，如果你僅僅走在街上，至少城市的氣味——霧、雨、薄荷以及潮溼路面是免費的。你能聞到泰晤士河、真皮座椅以及老化的波斯地毯的味道。值得慶幸的是，這些天的香菸味少了很多。有些人抱怨說，倫敦的味道十分灰暗，但他們聞到的實際上是來自英國的乳白色能量。
8. Mombasa 蒙巴薩
I was only in Mombasa for an afternoon, and what struck me was the scent of rough terra cotta baked by the sun, and a dry-ish tropical air that is common in February when I was there. I'm told the smell radically intensifies in the summer when the rains come and things are more green, although Mombasa is never apparently lush. One of my strongest sense memories was of the four-bare-walled stores the Mijikendas and Swahilis kept. They used fluorescent lights, so they had that distinct metallic, old-ish smell places that use fluorescents always have. I could also detect palm oil, the cement dust from the streets, and these strange spices I had never smelled and haven't smelled since.
我在肯尼亞蒙巴薩只停留了一個下午，曬制而成的陶器的氣味給我留下了深刻的印象，時值二月的乾熱空氣也十分常見。我瞭解到在雨季來臨之前氣味會擴大，城市中的綠色也更加鮮明，儘管平時的蒙巴薩的植被絲毫不茂盛。我最強烈的感官記憶之一當地人開的四面裸牆的店鋪，他們使用熒光燈，所以便有着獨特的金屬氣息。使用熒光燈的地方總是充斥着老舊的氣息。我還能在街上聞到棕櫚油、水泥粉塵的味道，這些奇怪的香料我從未在其他地方遇到。
7. Mumbai 孟買
I have no patience for the whiny American fear of strong smells. Suck it up. Otherwise you'll miss out on Mumbai, which is one of the most intense and rewarding olfactory experiences on Earth. It's kind of like Avatar for your nose. Everywhere you turn, the thick, penetrating scent of unfiltered motor exhaust and water in gutters lingers. There's the salty smell of ocean mixed with tropical rot, air conditioning, and frying palm oil. And, it's India, so your nose also picks up on incense and every spice imaginable—cinnamon, cardamom, clove. It's the smell of a vibrant city on the move.
我非常不理解美國人對濃烈味道的抱怨。用力呼吸，否則你就會錯過在地球上氣味最濃烈的嗅覺之旅目的地——孟買。就像鼻子的化身。無論去往何處，撲面而來的都是未經過濾的發動機廢氣和廢水的厚重又極具穿透性的氣息。海水的鹹味混合着熱帶腐朽的味道，還有空調、煎炸棕櫚油的氣味。而且，這裏是印度，所以你的鼻子同時聞得到焚香味道，以及任何窮極想象的香料——肉桂，豆蔻，丁香等。這是一個充滿活力的移動城市特有的氣息。
6. Bogotá 波哥大
Latin America smells of the 1950s; for instance, stroll around the Recoleta in Buenos Aires, and it's like time travel. (For the record, though, I wasn't alive then). Along with that mid-twentieth century smell, Bogotá's aroma is like a new car, concrete, and aftershave—a product of the bustling downtown business district. It's strange but you can also detect the altitude—8,612 feet above sea level—because of the exotic wind, rain, and greenery that rises from the Andes in the East.
拉丁美洲的氣味與二十世紀五十年代十分相似；比如在布宜諾斯艾利斯的雷克萊塔漫步時，就如同一場時光旅行。（當然，那時我還沒出生）。波哥大充斥着二十世紀中期的氣息，就像新車、混凝土、鬚後水的混雜氣味，非常奇異。但是由於遙遠的東方安第斯山脈帶來的風雨和植物，你還可以感受到8612英尺海拔的高度。
5. Rome 羅馬
I don't know of any other city as redolent of the Old World as Rome. Not Milan, not Madrid, not Budapest. Not even Naples, perhaps just because Naples has the ocean air to purify its notorious fragrance (salt water cleans everything from wounds to smells). Invisible Rome is gorgeous. Like the classic Italian masculine colognes of the 1950s, it's a particular style, and you have to like it, but if you do, the act of breathing is a real trip. The ancient walls give off a slightly dirty, sometimes greasy smell full of cedar and car and bus exhaust. Most concisely, it smells like L.A., but with 2,000-year-old stone and 500-year-old palazzi, peeling paint, and espresso-spiked decadence.
我不知道還有沒有其他城市像羅馬一樣散發着舊世界的氣息。米蘭、馬德里、布達佩斯，甚至連那不勒斯也沒有，或許只是因爲那不勒斯的海洋氣息淨化了它聲名狼藉的空氣（鹽水能夠清洗傷口，也能夠清洗氣味）。羅馬的氣息是一個用眼看不到的世界，如同20世紀50年代經典的意大利男性古龍水，是一種獨特的風格，而且你必須喜歡它，但是如果你真的喜歡它，呼吸便成爲一場真正的旅行。古老的城牆散發出一種帶有些許塵土的氣息，有時還有油膩味十足的雪松和汽車廢氣的氣味。更簡單的說，它聞起來像洛杉磯，但是還混雜着擁有2000年曆史的石頭和500年曆史的宮殿、剝落的油漆以及濃烈的意大利特濃咖啡的頹廢氣息。4. San Francisco 舊金山
Limited to its peninsula, San Francisco's scent is as sharply defined as its borders: soft clouds, smooth pine, sharp eucalyptus, and cold ocean. Depending on where you go, you can add to that mix grass and the heather-like smell of scrub (the hills); old wood used in the housing stock (especially on the block where the Painted Ladies stand); and a weird dry dampness that is cool and a little isolating. Sometimes the city's perfume is mixed with the heady scent of dry California desert. It may be the most beautiful-smelling skyline in the world.
因爲受到半島地形的影響，舊金山的氣味和它的邊界一樣分明：柔軟的雲，光滑的松木，鋒利的桉樹，和冰冷的海洋。你去往不同的地方，便會混合草和石南的氣味；家用的歷經滄桑的木材（尤其是那些脂粉聚集之處）的氣味；奇怪的燥溼氣味，涼爽又有些冷漠。有時，城市的氣味還混合了乾燥的加利福尼亞沙漠的醉人香味。它可能是世界上氣味最棒的地方。
3. New Orleans 新奧爾良
In my opinion, you could win the debate over whether Florida is part of the South just based on its smell. (It's not.) Meanwhile, New Orleans exudes the South's signature perfume from every street corner. It's a thick, soporific scent of humidity penetrating wood porches and plaster walls; dead moss; and the Mississippi's fresh water colliding with the brine of the Gulf. Old beer, frying fat, mud, and lush grass are all in there, too.
在我看來，多數人僅根據氣息便將佛羅里達劃定爲南方（其實它並不屬於南方）。同時，新奧爾良的每個角落都流露出南方的典型氣息，透過潮溼木材門廊和牆壁的一種厚重又具有催眠作用的氣息；已死的青苔；密西西比河淡水與鹽水相遇的海灣。老啤酒、油炸肥肉、泥以及茂盛的草叢也都在那裏。
2. Pleasantville, NY 紐約歡樂谷
Money changes the smell of everything, and wealthy towns where people who want to flee New York's asphalt canyons go to have gardens and lawns have scents as restricted as the covenants guarding their real estate values. Maple, oak, and pine smell cyclically different as the seasons turn, and Pleasantville's scent is based on these trees and their leaves at all stages—green, yellow, dead brown, and budding. When you close your eyes you get grass and then the smell of "America as it was," whenever that might mean for your nose. If Normal Rockwell's paintings emitted a scent, this is what it would be.
金錢改變一切氣味，富裕的城鎮中，人們想逃離紐約這座柏油峽谷，這裏的花園和草坪十分有限，氣味十分有限。楓樹、橡樹和松樹的味道隨着四季的交替而不同，歡樂谷的氣味和這些樹以及所有生命階段——綠色、黃色、枯萎以及剛剛萌芽的葉子息息相關。當你閉上眼睛，就能感覺到草叢，然後就能體會到“美國就是這個味兒”，如果諾曼·洛克威爾（Norman Rockwell）的畫作會能散發出氣味，那就一定是這種味道。
1. Los Angeles 洛杉磯
L.A. is one of the most bizarre places on Earth, and it has an equally singular smell. The clear, alluring track of its scent is arresting. There's the ocean breeze from Santa Monica that can travel as far East as Silver Lake; a dry desert air that comes West over Downtown and South Central; the astringent balm of eucalyptus, pine, honeysuckle, and jasmine from the hills; and car exhaust from catalytic converters, which is, in its strange industrial way, beautiful. It's like the jolt of a drug: shifting, comforting, cool like a blanket. The lonely smell of the marine layer burns off and you get this flashy perfume of hot asphalt, engines, and sun block that you can find nowhere but in L.A.
洛杉磯是世界上最奇異的地方之一，它同樣有一種奇特的氣味。清晰、誘人的氣味十分吸引人。從聖莫妮卡吹來的微風能夠將氣味帶到很遠的地方；從西部中心地區和南方中部地區沙漠的帶來的乾燥空氣；從山上吹來桉樹、松樹和金銀花的酸澀芳香，還有茉莉花的芬芳；從汽車的催化轉換器中排除的廢氣，帶有一種怪異的工業美感。如同一味五味陳雜的藥：不斷變換又帶來舒適的感覺。你可以嗅到澎湃的海洋帶來的孤獨氣息，以及熱瀝青、引擎和防曬乳液的混合的味道，除了洛杉磯，沒有任何地方擁有這種味道。
The Worst-Smelling 全球最差氣味城市
Paris 巴黎
Let's just start off with the breath. The oral care standards of Parisians are utterly unlike any I've ever known. Thanks to their pack-or-more-a-day cigarette habits, every other person smells like smoke-cured human bacon. You smell coffee, but not the fresh stuff in the cup—the smell of it in someone's mouth four hours later. Then there's the repulsive odor that wafts from the RER train system. If Satan farted, it would be a little like this sulfurous cocktail of burning photocopies and fried electrical wires. Sure, the gourmand perfume of fresh croissants, butter, and baked flour spills onto the street. But take a few more steps and you're smacked in the face by the equally fresh smell of dog shit. If you close your eyes, you discover the marketing of Paris—that whole "city of light" garbage that's eagerly swallowed by tourists—is really nothing but a lie.
讓我們從呼吸開始。巴黎人的口腔護理標準非常獨特。幸好很多人有經常抽菸的習慣，其他人聞起來像薰過的人肉培根。你聞到咖啡，但不是盛在杯子裏的新鮮咖啡，而是四小時後從某人的嘴裏聞到咖啡的味道。還有巴黎地鐵上令人作嘔的氣味。如果撒旦放屁，可能就是這種非常怪異的混雜氣味。當然，街上還有新鮮的羊角麪包、黃油以及烘烤麪粉的味道。但是，多走幾步之後撲面而來就是另一種噁心的味道。如果你閉上眼睛，就能發現巴黎的營銷市場，吸引了大量遊客的所謂“光之城”其實只是一個騙局。
