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.
Travel table of content

Europe tour Interail 2006 : České Budějovice, a colored city

En français
We needed to take several trains to go from Pula to České Budějovice, we missed our train in Salzburg as one in the previous train was late. We arrived in České Budějovice in the afternoon. It is the largest city of the south Bohemian region in Czech Republic but it is still a quiet place. The houses are all very colorful which makes the city particular, it is also well know for its beer brewed since the 13th century. The city also present different type of architecture form Baroque, Gothic, Renaissance and 19th century period, and all that around the main place.
There are the ruins of a castle some 30 km south in the city of Český Krumlov but the interail pass only allows us to go to places accessible by train so we couldn't see them. That can probably be added to the long list of future destinations.
We take the train to our next destination at 1am, being alone in it allow us to get some well deserved sleep.
Europe tour Interail 2006 : Introduction 
Travel table of content  

Europe tour Interail 2006 : Pula, bath in the adriatic sea

En français
We took our train to Pula at 7.00 am and arrived at the end of the morning. Pula is the largest city in Istria, a region of Croatia which was known by the Romans as the Terra Magica. It's name comes from the Histri an Illyrian tribe that the Romans as pirates. There are several caves near Pula, Lim fjord, Šandalja and Roumald's with archaeological remains from stone age, we didn't have a chance to visit them so we will have to go back in the future.
The first thing we saw in the city was the Pula amphitheater that looks a bit like the Colosseo. We really wanted to go to the sea so I used my Croatian to get direction. That was kinda fun, I just don't speak Croatian so I had trouble understand the answers. We walk to the sea, that was pretty far and took a bath there. Sebastian got stuck by urchin, he probably stepped on them. We started to go back and were almost sure to be late for the train but fortunately the hitch-hacking worked and an someone from Lugano took us back to the city center. We have the time to enjoy ourselves and have a drink before taking the next trains.
Europe tour Interail 2006 : Introduction 
Travel table of content

カードキャプターさくら (Cardcaptor Sakura)

En français

カードキャプターさくら is a anime from Shōjo manga series written and illustrated by Clamp which appear on the screens in 1998. Clamp is a group of people writing mangas who are often adapted into anime. The particularity is that the main characters appear in several series with different life. I really like Clamp's style and I'll try to watch more of their anime and post about them. カードキャプターさくら series contains 70 episodes, divided in 3 seasons.

When she is alone at home, little Sakura hears some noise in her father's library. She decides to go have a look and open the wrong book letting the Clow cards being released in the world, and causing trouble. She becomes a cards hunter to find them all back. Of course she has friends to help her :

Tomoyo, her best friend who always wanted to film her, recording all her adventure with the capture of the cards and providing different outfit. I like the fact that the characters in this anime are changing outfits, in a lot of anime I have seen so far that wasn't the case.
Xiaolan, the chinese transfered student who is also capturing cards.

Kerochan (real name Cerberus)  kind of Sakura's pet who appeared when the Clow card got released. (I also have my Kerochan) Kerochan has his own section during the first episodes to explain about Sakura's outfit of the day.
Some more helpers appear during the episodes.
Cinema, Manga, Animation Content

Europe tour Interail 2006 : Ljubljana and the curious bridges

En français
Going away from Roma was just a little more comfortable than going there. We arrived in Ljubljana in the morning after changing train in Venezia. Ljubljana is the main city of Slovenia. It's a very nice city with interesting construction showing the medieval history.
Ljubljanski grad the castle of Ljubljana was built in the 12th century but we can notice the architectural evolution in time. It has a defensive function and has continuously been inhabited.
Ljubljana also has several nice bridges : Zmajski most, the Dragon bridge with statues of dragons, Tromostovje, the three bridge is a bridge build in three parts, Čevljarski most, the shoemaker bridge.
 We spend a part of the night in front of the train station waiting for the train to our next adventures.
Europe tour Interail 2006 : Introduction 
Travel table of content