5 Must visit cities

Last week I told you which cities I would like to visit. Now I would like to recommend some cities to you. These are my five favourite cities, and I would recommend them to anyone who loves visiting (and exploring) cities!

1. Hamburg

 

Picture from: http://thesewallsthatsurroundme.tumblr.com/post/2073098622#notes

Over the seven years in which I lived in Hamburg, I slowly fell in love with this city. I find it hard to describe why I love this city. The city has a nice atmosphere, and I really feel at home there. If you want to see the whole city at once, climb the Michaelis Kirche, which gives you a gorgeous view over Hamburg and its harbours. Besides this, Hamburg is also has nice shops, and after shopping one can relax by the Alster lake in the middle of the city. Oh, Hamburg is also a gorgeous city around Christmas (see picture)!

2. London

Picture from: http://happilyeverafter-startshere.tumblr.com/page/54

I have only visited London 3 times, of which I don’t remember the first two times because I was too young, but I have fallen in love with this city. At the moment I am even considering studying in London. I don’t know the city very well yet, but I think I can feel at home there. During my last visit I especially enjoyed Camden Markets, which I really recommend to anyone who likes alternative markets!

3. Marrakech

Picture by me

In March, I went on a school trip to Morocco and we spent two days in Marrakech. This city is very different from the first two, but that also makes it very interesting. Morocco is only about 3 hours flying way from The Netherlands, but it is a very different world. I found it really fun to go shopping in the souks and  haggle over prices. If you want to see a large part of the city in a short time, I recommend taking one of the horse carts, they can take you around the whole city.

4. Valencia

Picture from: http://beautyineverything.com/5270964554

Again, a city I visited on a school trip. Last year, I went on a Spanish trip to this city. We had Spanish lessons in the mornings, and did sightseeing in the afternoons. On one afternoon we walked to the Ciudad de las Artes y la Ciencias (a science center/museum) through the park that has been created in the dry river. Besides this, the loud (cracking) fireworks that took place every day because of the Fallas (a week of partying in Valencia, I’m not sure what the reason was), were also a highlight. And don’t forget to eat a lot of tapas and churros (fried dough sticks), since you are in Spain!

5. Venice

Picture from: http://a-spectrum-in-the-mirror.tumblr.com/post/6635695183

Like I said in my post about cities I would love to visit: I simply love Italy. I visited Venice about 6 years ago, and I think it’s a wonderful city! All the water with the gondolas in it, and the bridges, give it a romantic touch. I would love to visit this city again and I really want to see the Venetian carnival sometime, the costumes always look so pretty.

Did you ever visit any of these cities, or are you planning on visiting one of them?



Morocco!

Sorry that I didn't post anything for so long, but I was in Morocco from the 4th till the 10th and after that I was busy with homework and studying for tests!

I went to Morocco with school and it was amazing! On the 6th of March I celebrated my 17th birthday there. We had an awesome cake and I got some small presents from the teachers. In the evening we were allowed to have wine with our dinner, which normally wasn't allowed. I also enjoyed the rest of the trip. We spent the first two days in Marrakech where we did a lot of shopping in the souks, which meant a lot of haggling! I thought the haggling was really much fun, I managed to buy some nice things, such as a bag for which the guy wanted 250 dirhams (nearly 25 euros) for 150 dirhams (nearly 15 euros). We also visited the leather tannery, a pharmacy (where I bought some things again, like Moroccan tea and Ras el Hanout, which is a spice), a Koran school and the Bahia palace. From the rooftop of our hotel, which was in Marrakech Medina (the old part), we had a wonderful view on a mosque and lots of palm trees. On Monday we drove to Imlil, a small village in the Atlas mountains. On our way there we had a camel ride, which was something I'd never done before. First I found it a little scary, but in the end it was really much fun! On our first afternoon in Imlil we went for a walk to another village where some of my classmates played soccer with children from the village. The next day I did geography work in the morning, and I learned more about the impact of tourism on Imlil. We also went to the Argan Cooperation, where young women were making Argan oil. I bought a bar of soap made of Argan oil. In the afternoon we dug irrigation channels, which I didn't enjoy so much because I was lazy, haha. On Wednesday we went on a 6 hour hike in the mountains. Nearly everyone was dreading this, but in the end most of us really enjoyed it! We had lunch on the mountain, in the open air. The food was also prepared in the open air and it was lovely. On Thursday we left Imlil again early in the morning, because we still had to drive about 6 hours to Casablanca airport. I really miss Morocco and I'm sure it's a country I'll visit again!

Here are some pictures (some were taken by me, and some by friends, if you'd like to use one please ask me first! Oh and blogger reduced the quality...):

The view from our hotel, a really pretty mosque!

















The view from our hotel on the busy street. We had to cross this to get to the main square, which sometimes was quite scary because Moroccans don't seem to know what a zebra crossing means...


















Part of Djemaa el Fna, the main square by the souks.
















The leather tannery, which smelled quite bad...

My birthday! The cake was amazing :]

I'm really happy with this picture of the mosque! And as you can see we had great weather as well!



















Abena and I on a camel, a great experience.

This road went up the mountain we climbed on, but of course we had to take 'paths' which actually couldn't even be called paths.


















Again, the road on the mountain.


















The view from the Kasbah du Toubkal, where we stayed in Imlil.












All in all it was an amazing experience, especially because it was my first time in Africa! I learned a lot and would love to go back to see more of Morocco sometime. If you want to go to Morocco, I advise you to not go to a luxury resort because you won't experience the culture and see much of the country. Choose for a place like the Kasbah du Toubkal, which is being run by locals. Oh and Moroccan food is really good, especially the round breads (don't know what you call them)!

Kasbah du Toubkal

(picture from http://www.riyadelcadi.com/html/img/pool/kasbah_2.jpg)

In a few weeks, it's travel week at my school and my class will be travelling to Morocco! First we'll be staying in Marrakech for two days, and then we'll go into the Atlas mountains. In the mountains we'll stay in Imlil, in the Kasbah du Toubkal. This accomodation is at a fabulous location, as you can see in the picture above. When I look at pictures like this one, I become more and more exited. It will be my first time visiting Africa, so I'm not sure what to expect but I think it will be a wonderful experience. Of course I'll take my camera to Morocco and you can expect some pictures here when I'm back!

Have you ever been to Morocco?