Europe tour Interail 2006 : Helsinki

En français
We arrive at Helsingin päärautatieasema, Helsinki's central railway station in the morning. This station is particular as it has a clock tower and giant statues holding the lamps at the entrance. We started by going to the harbor to buy our ferry ticket to go back to Stockholm in the end of the afternoon. Then we visited the city. We visit the market and a Lutheran church called Temppeliaukion kirkko in the Töölö neighborhood. It's shape is really strange as it is round and half in the ground, it basically look like a landed flying saucer. We then walk around the lake Töölönhti, we walk back to the market center and see Helsingin Tuomiokirkko, Helsinki Cathedral. When we take the ferry in the afternoon we can see a lot of little islands around. The next day we will be back in Stockholm.
Europe tour Interail 2006 : Introduction 
Travel table of content

Europe tour Interail 2006 : Kuopio

En français
We arrived in Kuopio at the beginning of the afternoon. We walk in the city a bit to the main place which is also the market place, some people made us taste some food. Sebastien bought a T-shirt with "Suomi" on it, it means "Finland" in Finnish and I get a moose teddy. We then walked south to the lake Kallavesi. It's a very large lake surrounding the all city. Our next train is leaving at 1am.
Europe tour Interail 2006 : Introduction 
Travel table of content

タイヨウのうた (Midnight Sun)

En français


























タイヨウのうた is a Japanese movie by Norihiro Koizumi from 2006.

Kaoru Amane dream of becoming a singer but most of all dream about a normal life. She is suffering from XP (Xeroderma Pigmentosum) which means that the sun light or more specifically any UV light would create so much damage to her that it would damage her nervous system. Most people suffering from XP don't survive beyond 20. That fore she can only go out at night and plays the guitar in the street. She always looks at a boy coming to the bus stop in front of her house until the day when she sees him in the street.



I find this movie by accident and I'm glad I find it. It's a very nice story about courage. I would just say : "Don't let the things you can't do stop you from doing the things you can/want to do."
Start watching  here.

Casting :

Yui as Kaoru Amane
塚本高史 as Koji Fujishiro (About love part 3)
麻木 久仁子 as Yuki Amane (Kaoru's mother)
岸谷五朗  as Ken Amane (Kaoru's father)
Airi Toyama as Misaki Matsumae (Kaoru's best friend)

Cinema, Manga, Animation Content

Europe tour Interail 2006 : Back from Narvik

En français
We got up at 8am to go take the train at 10.50 am for Luleå. When we arrived in the city center, we noticed that a thick cloud was hiding the mountains. We were really lucky to have arrived the previous day. The first plan is to go take the train in Kemi. We arrived in Luleå at 6.15pm and then we took the bus going to Haaparanta. Haaparanta is at the border with Sweden, when we arrived there we realized that there is not trains for the evening and the station will close soon and we can't stay in. We decided to start walking to Finland and to try some hitchhiking. A few minutes later we were crossing the border on foot. That felt a bit strange, a bit like realizing that you really are traveling in a foreign country, a bit like knowing that all those trains you have been taken really took you somewhere in your sleep.
We soon fine someone to take us in his car. At first he was going to take us to Kemi but we realized that we would be really late in Kuopio. Hopefully as he was going to Vassa on the west coast, he took us all the way to Oulu. As there are not trains early morning we took a little bit of sleep, before continuing to other adventures.
Europe tour Interail 2006 : Introduction 
Travel table of content

Europe tour Interail 2006 : Narvik

En français
We took the bus to Narvik at 7.40 am. The landscape on the road is really beautiful, we can see the mountains with snow at the top and I even got a glance at some mooses on the side of the road. When we arrived in Narvik we first find a hostel for the night as our next bus will be at 10.50 am the next morning. That will be the most luxurious night of the trip. We then went for a walk in the city and started to be disappointed as we were expecting to be able to walk in the mountains. We had a picnic under the rain before starting to walk again. And we finally found a pedestrian road allowing us to go walk in the mountains. We decided to take the longer path marked 8 kilometers. We arrived at the top to find a little house and a lake of drinkable water, the clouds were below us. We also found that the path was not turning back and we had to walk 8 more kilometers to go back to the city. We weren't scared that it was going to be late because at that time of the year on this latitude, it's sunny during the night. We walked back to the hostel and arrived really tired. We were sharing the room with a couple from Switzerland, a Japanese girl and a very excited Korean girl with who we end up talking about cinema. We had one of the best night of the trip, for that we were in beds and we were really tired.
Europe tour Interail 2006 : Introduction 
Travel table of content

Get "Demon soul"

En français

For those of you who are used to read this blog, you already know that I have been participating  to many writing contest and that I wrote some novels. The first one being Demon Soul. For those new to this or those needing a refresh, you can find everything so far about Demon Soul here.

I have been working on getting Demon Soul ready for publication for few months now. I reviewed the final proof few days ago and my perfectionism agreed to finally let me press the button to accept to let it go on sale. It didn't go through a editor, I did all the editing work myself. And it is self publication.

You can find the book on CreateSpace for sale, here and it will soon be available on amazon as well.

As a lot of people have been asking me questions about my writing, like: Where I find my ideas? How do I create the characters? if I prefer writing on computer or on paper and so on...

I will be answering all those questions in future posts as a Demon Soul Making of, so keep them coming.

I will also answer questions about particular characters from the book. I hope that will help you understand the story, the characters and the writing process as I see it better. And also will make you want to read the book and want to read my next stories involving the same characters.

I am sure that the book contains grammar mistakes and that part of it could possibly have been written better, especially because I still think in a French way sometimes. However I really put a lot of work and effort in it and a part of my heart. I hope that you will be able to appreciate this through the reading and through the "Making of"

Europe tour Interail 2006 : Going to Narvik

En français
We arrived in Kemi still in Finland at 6 am the next day. We were supposed to take the bus at 9.30 am to Haaparanta in Sweden but we missed it as we didn't realized that the time table and the bus stop were not at the same place. We were not the only one and I managed to find the bus stop so that we could get the next bus at 11.15 am. We had to help the driver to take the post out before going on the trip. He was just talking Finnish to us as if we could understand it and that was pretty funny. We arrived in Haaparanta one hour later. It's a city just at the border between Finland and Sweden. We took a second bus going to Luleå then another one to go to Boden. We took the time to walk a bit around the cities while waiting for the bus, seeing more lakes. Then we took the train to Kiruna. While in the train we will cross the imaginary line called the Arctic Circle which is pretty cool, we have never been that close to the North Pole. In Kiruna as the other are trying to get to hostel, we decide to camp in the train station. The automatic doors closed around 9pm and we are kind of stuck inside but I could still open the windows to let inside 2 Hungarians who didn't find any place in hostels because everything was full. A guardian will come in the middle of the night, after explaining to him that we are waiting for the train early in the next morning he decided to let us finish our night on the bench.
Europe tour Interail 2006 : Introduction 
Travel table of content