Europe tour Interail 2006 : Göteborg, first day of rain

En français
We waited five hours in København's train station before taking the train to Göteborg I already told you in the previous Interail trip how much I hate København train station. When we arrived in Göteborg it was raining that was our first day with rain that was kind of sad as the color of the city would have looked a lot better with sunshine, but we had to use our funny rain poncho and that's fun. The temperature drop of about 20 degrees was a big change too. We walked in Gustav Adolfs Torg (Gustav Adolfs' square) with a statue of king Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, the founding father of Göteborg. There is also a Gustav Adolfs Torg in Stockholm. Later we went to the harbour at the border of the Göta älv river. This river drains lake Vänern, the largest lake of Sweden into Kattegatt a part of the Northern Sea between Denmark and Sweden. We went back to the city center and walk in pedestrian streets and in Kungsportsavenyen the main avenue of the city considered as the Swedish Champs-Elysées. We walked to the fortification and Skansen Kronan. Göteborg has also the largest university of all Nordic countries. We then took the train to Oslo and Bergen. It is considered as the most exciting and beautiful train ride in the world, 496 kilometers and the highest mainline railway line in Northern countries. We unfortunately ride it at night so we didn't really see that much of it.
Europe tour Interail 2006 : Introduction 
Travel table of content

Europe tour Interail 2006 : End of the first part

En français
We took the train to Gdynia and arrive there a bit late. The plan was to get a train for Berlin to be able to start the second part of our travel. After looking at the time tables, we realized that we need to go to Warszawa first and to change there for Berlin. The train for Warszawa was at 12pm leaving us the morning only to visit Gdynia. We walked in the main street and decided to go to see the sea but we just arrive in the harbor. No luck, we should have prepared the itinerary in the city a bit better. We walked back to the train station and like the night before, we had to wait for the train reminding me a bit of Italy but without major incident this time.  We arrive in Warszawa and see the Palac Kultury i Nauki (Palace of Culture and Science). As the city center is quite far we prefer to stay near the train station and see the modern part of the city than to go to the old town. We took our train for Berlin and arrive there at midnight. Fortunately we are greeted again by my German family and we spend the next day with then before taking the next train to the North and the second part of this Europe tour.
Europe tour Interail 2006 : Introduction 
Travel table of content

花より男子 returns

En français

花より男子 returns is the sequel of 花より男子 released in 2007.

Tsukasa has now been in New-York for a year and Tsukushi didn't get any news from him. When Sakurako comes to visit her and tell her that she had met Tsukasa is New-York, Tsukushi starts doubting his feeling for her. Hanasawa Rui advises her to go to New-York to meet him. Her father winning a week-end in New-York at his work lottery gives her the opportunity. However in New-York she meets a totally different Tsukasa. Not happy to see that her son still have relations with Tsukushi, Tsukasa's mother decide to take him back to Japan for his birthday and to introduce his new fiancee, Okawahara Shigeru the daughter of a rich oil company president.



For one the second is as good as the first. I really like the music in this part of the story. Shigeru is also a very funny character and a great add to the story.
Cinema, Manga, Animation Content

Europe tour Interail 2006 : Kraków and the dragon hunting

En français
We arrived in Kraków very early in the morning. Kraków used to be the capital of Poland from 1038 to 1596. It has been the leading center of the Polish academic, cultural and artistic life. It is now the capital of województwo małopolskie (Małopolska Province). We walked to "Rynek Glóny", the main market square. This place was designed in the 13th century and was the largest place in Europe for centuries. We walked along the Wisła river until Wawel Hill with the castle and the Basilica. There is also a legend about a dragon, Smok Wawelski,  and we spend sometime hunting the dragon which actually is a statu blowing fire when you send it a text message. Hunting the dragon was pretty exciting.
We then took the train to Katowice at the end of the afternoon, hoping to meet a friend there. As we couldn't, we decided to take sometimes to visit the city center before taking a late train for Gdynia.
Europe tour Interail 2006 : Introduction 
Travel table of content

Europe tour Interail 2006 : Bratislava and Brno

En français
We arrive in Bratislava at 6 am, and check the time table to go to Brno in the afternoon. We start to walk in the city waking up discovering Prezidentský Palác (the presidential palace), streets and Churches (Kostol Trinitárov). We also walk to the tower, Michalská Brána, which has been built in the 13th century and was used as the watch tower of the city fortification. Bratislava has the particularity to be the only capital in Europe close to the border. It is even more significant as it is at the border of two countries, Hungary and Austria.
Bratislava  also has a lot of bronze statues in the street, watching over the city, Cumil the watcher, the French army soldier, the paparazzi...
We also went to see Bratislavký Hrad the Bratislava castle to allow ourselves a good view of the city. The castle hill site has been inhabited since the period of transition between the stone and bronze ages. We could also see the modern Nový bridge with a flying saucer at the top that made me think about Goldorak.

We took our train to Brno in Czech Republic in the afternoon. Brno is the main city of Moravia a region which takes it's name from the Moravia river running in the North. We walk around Špilberk Hrad castle and have a nice view of the city. We can see the differences between the Bohemian part of the country (České Budějovice) and the Moravian part. We then leave the city for further adventures.
Europe tour Interail 2006 : Introduction 
Travel table of content

花より男子 season 1

En français
花より男子 (boys over flowers) is a live action series coming from a Shōjo manga series by Yoko Kamio. It was released in 2005 by TBS.

Eitoku Gakuen school is rules by four boys called F4 (Flower 4). Of course every one in this school is rich. But Mimasaka Akira, Nishikado Sojiro, Hanasawa Rui and Domyuji Tsukasa are rich to a totally different level, their families basically own the school. Tsukasa is violent and selfish, he is also the leader of the F4 and decide on the Aka fliers, the red notices that transform the life of students into hell.
Makino Tsukushi is the only poor student of the school. She has completely different values and is not ready to follow the order of the F4 just because they have money. She tries to stay quiet, not to be noticed by them and raging when she is alone to avoid trouble. Until the day when Tsukasa decide to take his anger on her new friend Sanjo Sakurako. Starting from there, Tsukushi becomes the F4 target until she declares publicly war to Tsukasa.



I love this drama, I watched it so many time and listened to it so many time to learn Japanese. I know that there are other drama, I'm thinking about watching Hana Kimi really soon. But I want to be able to fully understand the language in this one. I also bought the manga series so I have some reading to do.
Cinema, Manga, Animation Content

America : Kansas State University campus

En français
I needed to go spend two months in America for work. So I have been in Kansas for a bit more than a month now. I work on the Kansas State University campus and here are some pictures of the place. I didn't really explore the all campus so that's just the places I'm seeing walking to work from my apartment.
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