初到西班牙，你会发现按点儿吃饭简直成为不可能完成的任务。早上9点，很多西班牙人才慢吞吞地喝着咖啡吃早餐。中午12点你想吃午饭？对不起，餐厅还没开始供应，而午夜时分，各家餐馆中的人群反而熙熙攘攘。而这么奇葩的用餐时间竟然都是时区惹的祸。
2011年7月17日，在西班牙马德里市，厨师将海鲜饭盛盘摆放在桌子上，准备发放给民众免费品尝。海鲜饭是西班牙饮食中最具代表性的主食之一，以平底铁锅烹制。除大米外，配料包括虾、鱿鱼、牡蛎等各类海鲜，也有肉类和时令蔬菜等。 新华社记者陈海通摄
It is 10pm in the Madrid neighbourhood of La Latina, one of the city’s oldest areas, and the cobbled streets thrum with the sounds of people enjoying plates of gambas al ajillo and cocido Madrileño. Restaurants are bustling at an hour when, in most other countries, chefs would be hanging up their aprons for the night.
晚上10点，在马德里最古老的地段拉拉提纳，圆石铺就的街道上仍然人声鼎沸，人们品尝着蒜味虾和马德里烩菜。虽然这个时间点，大多数其他国家的餐厅已经打烊了，但这里的餐厅仍然人潮涌动。
While travellers might attribute Spain’s late mealtimes to the country’s laidback Mediterranean attitude, the real reason is a little more peculiar. Spaniards are living in the wrong time zone, and have been for more than 70 years.
尽管游客们可能会认为西班牙晚餐时间晚，是因为这个国家地中海式的闲适生活态度，但真正的原因有些奇怪。70多年以来，西班牙人一直生活在错误的时区里。
Glance at a map and you’ll realise that Spain – sitting, as it does, along the same longitude as the UK, Portugal and Morocco – should be in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). But Spain goes by Central European Time (CET), putting it in sync with the Serbian capital Belgrade, more than 2,500km east of Madrid.
扫一眼地图，你就会知道西班牙坐落的经度与英国、葡萄牙和摩洛哥相同，因此应该采用格林尼治时间。然而，西班牙依照的是欧洲中部时间，与位于马德里东部2500多千米的塞尔维亚首都贝尔格莱德时间同步。
So why are Spaniards living behind their geographic time zone?
所以为什么西班牙人要按照落后于他们地理时区的时区生活呢？
In 1940, General Francisco Franco changed Spain’s time zone, moving the clocks one hour forward in solidarity with Nazi Germany.
1940年，弗朗西斯科•佛朗哥将军改变了西班牙的时区，将时间往前调了一小时，与纳粹德国保持一致。
For Spaniards, who at the time were utterly devastated by the Spanish Civil War, complaining about the change did not even cross their minds. They continued to eat at the same time, but because the clocks had changed, their 1pm lunches became 2pm lunches, and they were suddenly eating their 8pm dinners at 9pm.
那时西班牙人正因内战而苦不堪言，完全没心思去抱怨时间的更改。他们仍然在相同的时间点用餐，但因为记时的方式改变，他们午饭的时间也就由下午一点改为两点，以往晚上8点的晚餐时间也突然之间变成了9点。
After World War II ended, the clocks were never changed back. However, in 2016, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced that the government was working on a plan to implement a new workday schele ending at 6pm as opposed to 8pm. One important element of the plan was evaluating the possibility of changing Spain’s time zone from CET to GMT – something that has sparked a heated discussion throughout the country.
二战结束后，这个记时方式也没有再改回来，但2016年，西班牙总理马里亚诺•拉霍伊宣布，政府正在计划实施一个新的工作日日程，其中包括将下班时间由下午8点改为6点。这份计划最重要的一点，就是估算有没有可能，将西班牙的时区由欧洲中部时间改回格林尼治时间，这在全国引发了激烈的讨论。
Being 60 minutes behind the correct time zone means the sun rises later and sets later, bestowing Spain with gloriously long summer evenings and 10pm sunsets. Those who run Spain’s tourist resorts believe that more sunlight is a large draw for visitors. The regional government of the Balearic Islands is strongly against returning to GMT and has even campaigned to maintain year-round summer time to allow visitors to take full advantage of the region’s mild winter climate.
落后正确的时区60分钟意味着，太阳升起和落下的时间会往后推迟，这使西班牙享受到夏日极长的夜晚，以及晚上10点的落日。西班牙旅游度假区的负责人认为，更长的日照时间对游客吸引力很大。巴利阿里群岛政府强烈反对重新改回格林尼治时间，甚至倡议全年都保持夏令时，以使得游客能够充分享受巴利阿里群岛冬日温和的气候。
But for many Spaniards, living in the wrong time zone has resulted in sleep deprivation and decreased proctivity. The typical Spanish work day begins at 9am; after a two-hour lunch break between 2 and 4pm, employees return to work, ending their day around 8pm. The later working hours force Spaniards to save their social lives for the late hours. Prime-time television doesn’t start until 10:30pm.
然而，对许多西班牙人来说，在错误的时区生活已经造成睡眠不足以及工作效率下降的问题。西班牙人工作日一般从早上9点开始，2点到4点这两小时进行午休，之后重新开始工作，大约晚上8点结束一天的工作。较晚的工作时间迫使西班牙人将社交生活挪到较晚的时间点。黄金时间的电视也是晚上10:30才开始。
Meanwhile, in the northwestern region of Galicia, the sun doesn’t rise until after 9am in winter, meaning that residents are starting their day in the dark.
同时，在西北地区的加利西亚，冬季太阳在9点后才升起，这让很多居民要在黑夜中开始一天的生活。
“The fact that the time