Now ill move on to Africa and exactly to the most northern of all African cities, and the closest one to mainland Europe – Tangier.

Tangier is known for its very rich history due to the historical presence of many civilizations and cultures, Tangier was founded in the early 5th century BC by Carthaginian colonists, the city was ruled by many civilizations such as Umayyads, Abbasids, Idrisids, Fatimids, Caliphate of Cordoba, Maghrawa and many others, Morocco reintegrated the city of Tangier in 1956.

As any Moroccan town, the Kasbah (old quarters) is almost a mandatory visit if you are interested in feeling "the life" of the city and being close to the locals.

It is also worth to see the Grand and Petit Socco (markets) without forgetting about the most known café Hafa. The café is in a steep hillside and shaded by trees and shrubs known for its mint tea, a Tangier special brew. From the terrace of Café Hafa you can sip tea and enjoy stunning views over the strait of Gibraltar.

Tangier is a very popular tourist destination not only for its rich history but also for it’s a location between the Mediterranean sea and the Atlantic Ocean which make a very good place for those who like to enjoy the sun and the beach, where you can spend the day sunbathing enjoy the water and watch little soccer games or the incredible gymnastics beach athletes performances.

• Buda Castle - is one of the most famous and most visited sights of Budapest.
• Millennium Underground Railway - the second oldest underground in the world!
• The Houses of Parliament - neo-Gothic building contains amongst other things the Hungarian Crown Jewels
• Thermal Baths - Budapest is also known as the City of Spas.
• and other places and buildings from World Heritage Sites list like River Danube embankments, Andrássy Avenue, Heroes' Square and others.
  

Good idea is to combine sightseeing in Budapest with spending few days at Balaton Lake. :)

Morocco is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of nearly 32 million. Its capital is Rabat.

I and my friends spent in Morocco 7 days. We started our journey in Tangier.
Tangier didn't look like tipical Morocoo city. This is kind of European city with a large amount of hotels and pubs.


Then we visited Fes. It is a city whit the biggest medina - is typically walled, contains many narrow and maze-like streets. Unfortunatelly one Arab guy persude me to buy the carpet :D. There we spent almost 2 days.

Our next destination was desert.



On the desert I spent the greatest time. There we have a lot of fun and adventure.

• travel with 4x4 jeep through the desert
• Camels travel to berber's village
• the night on the desert
• sunrise on the desert

We didn't have oportunity and time to try ski on the desert. But next time we have to try!! ;)

Next we also visited Marrakech. We spent there one day on walking and sightseeing. Then we came back to Tangier were we have our flight to Spain.

Gibraltar is the place that is visited by many tourists from Spain. I also hope that I will have some time to see it. There are several really interesting thing about this city, related to the history as well as to the places we can see there.
Where is it?
Gibraltar is the city and the port, situated on the south coast of the Iberian Peninsula at the Mediterranean Sea. Most of this area is covered by a Gibraltar Rock, that is 4,8km lenght and 427m high. The area of Gibraltar is only 6,5 square kilometers and it's the most populated territory in the world where in one km² live 4,3 thousands of inhabitants.

History - don't worry, just few sentences;)
The fortress was built by the Arabs and conquered by Spain in 1462. Since 1714 under the peace of Utrecht, Spain had to pass the peninsula to Great Britain and in 1830 Gibraltar became the official colony of Great Britain. So the official language there is English, but many people can speak fluently also Spanish.

What is so interesting in this city?
Gibraltar became the place where I want to go, so I read many information about it. Now I would like to present some facts that I remembered because of their originality;)

Gibraltar has no natural resources so there are limits in freshwater. In rock-hewn reservoirs the water, that later is used for consumable aims, is stored.

Gibraltar is the only place in Europe where you can meet free-living Barbary Macaques monkeys. They are considered to be the top tourist attraction. Many tourists take photos with them. Nevertheless, one should bear in mind that they can steal our property, a mobile phone or a handbag.

Really interesting is also the airport in Gibraltar. The runway crosses the road, so for the taking off or landing time of the aeroplane, the barriers (like at rail crossing) are closed.
One of the main tourist attractions is a labyrinth of tunnels and caves. Nowadays the biggest one - St. Michael’s Cave became the concert hall for thousand people due to its natural acoustic properties.

It is also worth to mention about Strait of Gibraltar. It connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. The Strait’s narrowest point counts 14 kilometres width and 300 metres depth.

Virtual Tour

Now I'm going to Holland which is located in North-West Europe . It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlandsborders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east.

I'm going to my friend Joep which I met on the Erasmus. I have a flight from Alicante to Maastricht. Is a city situated in the southern part of the Netherlands. Near this city live my earlier mentioned friend Joep. We will be travel around the Netherlands. I'm planing to visit such city as Amsterdam - the biggest city of the Netherlands and capital of country, Rotterdam - the second biggest city of the Netherlands .

In March me and my friend went to Toledo. We spent there just one day but we saw many famous places. Toledo is situated on the south of Madrid, about 30min by car or train so if you plan a trip to Madrid think if you have even one day to visit this city, it's really worth to see it.

Main sights are:
- Castillo de San Servando near the river, where you can get by the Puente de Alcantara admiring magnificent views (photo on the left)

- Alcazar fortress from the 16th century that is located in the highest part of town, overlooking the city. From 2009 it houses the collection of the Army Museum.

- The Gothic Cathedral dating from the thirteenth century (photo on the right)

- Museo del Greco (artist) where you can find many important paintings of him.

To mark the fourth centenary of the publication of the first part of Don Quichote, the Council of Communities of Castile-La Mancha designed a series of routes through the region crossing the various points in the novel are cited. In Toledo there is also a monument of Cervantes, the author of Don Quichote.

If you don't remember Don Quichote, you should see a video, that for sure will remind you about him:
Information about Don Quichote route: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toledo,_Spain

• Śnieżka - the highest peak of Karkonosze, 1602 meters above sea level (a visibility in favourable conditions surpasses 200 km!). On Śnieżka is also Meteorological Observatory.
  
• Szklarka Waterfall (520meters above sea level) - the most popular waterfall in Karkonosze, not as tall as a waterfall Kamieńczyk, but equally beautiful ( or even more beautiful).
  
• Kamienczyk Waterfall (846 meters above sea level) - the highest waterfall in Polsih part of Sudety, water falls from 27 meters.
  
• Small Pond Cauldron - glacial kettle at the foot of the Równia pod Śnieżką and Smogornia Peak
  
• A lot of peaks, passes and rock formations on the trail, but there are too many to describe them in one post ;-)
  

All photos in this post I took during trip in september 2008.

The other trip I decided to make was to the capital of Spain - Madrid.

There are many parks worth to visit but the best one and probably one of the most famous places in Madrid is Parque de Retiro. There are many things to see there, like Palacio Crystal, la Puerta de España, Monument of Alfonso XII, La rosaleda. There is also a possibility to row a boat.




Other places that every person should see is Puerta del Sol and Plaza Mayor, two main squares with many restaurant, souvenir shops all around. On Plaza Mayor there is Casa de la Panaderia with very characteristic frescoes and the monument of Philip III on the horse.



Really important place is also The Royal Palace with gardens in its surrounding. The Royal Palace in Madrid is actually used (but not owned) by the king of Spain for state ceremonial activities. The palace was built on the site of a former alcazar that burned down in 1734. It took 26 years to complete. A visitor to the palace today gets to see 50 of its 2800 rooms.

To those who like art I recommend visiting two big museums in Madrid ( free at the weekends;)) - Museo del Prado and Museo de Sofia Reina, very famous ones.

If you want to see Madrid not just on pictures you should watch this movie, maybe not so professional, but showing all interesting places with really nice music;)


Information about the Royal Palace: http://www.travelinginspain.com/Palace.html

Last saturday (6.03.2010) I was on ESN trip in Morella, a small town in province of Castellón, 170 km from Valencia.








Source of information about places: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morella,_Spain

My next destination is Barcelona. After I came back from the Netherlands. I'm going to Barcelona. As I heard it's the most beautiful city in the Europe and it has more visitors than Rome or Paris.

Culture
I would like to visit in Barcelona Gran Teatre del Liceu is the world renowne theatre. Barcelona has also a great number of museums like National Museum of Art of Catalonia, Picasso Museum.

World Heritage
What is compulsary to see in Barcelona are greats buildings Sagrada Familia - work of Antonio Gaudi and Hospital de Sant Pau.

Sport
For every fan of football is obligatory to see famous Camp Nou the largest stadium in Europe of the greatest futbol team FC BARCELONA - three-time winner of the UEFA Champions League.

On the 26th of October 2009, me and my friend made a trip to Alicante, a city situated in the south-eastern Spain, at the seaside. Alicante is one of the popular places for summer visitors on the Costa Blanca shore, where the beach called San Juan is considered to be one of the most favourite beaches of the Madrid inhabitants.

First thing that we saw was the Castle of Santa Bárbara which is located "above the city", on the hill.

Later we made a long walk through the oldest district in the city centre - Barrio de Cruz, where we found inter alia the Basilica of Santa María, built in the gothic style and the Theatre Principal.


In the evening we went to the port and the beach where we could admire the magnificent view of the hill with a castle.
The main places of Alicante, that it's wort to visit, and the beauty of the city are great shown in the video below: