There are many different ways you can obtain information about the outside world. Among them there are: reading, watching television, using the Internet and many others. But I personally think that traveling is the most effective way to learn about the world you live in because all sensitive parts of our body are involved in this process. I encourage travel to as many destinations as possible for the sake of education as well as for pleasure. It's necessary to see other lands and experience other cultures. Traveling increases the perception that the world is populated by people who not only speak differently but whose cultures and philosophies are other than your own. Perhaps travel can't prevent bigotry but by demonstrating that all people cry, eat, worry, die, laugh it can introduce the idea that if we try to understand each other we may even become friends.

To my mind the main purpose of traveling is studying the way of life, cultures of other people, observing people's relationships, different historical monuments and many-many other. Traveling also is a splendid way of communication and making new friends because we are more alike than unalike. Perhaps the great disadvantage of tour-programs is the thing that we are allowed to see only what the organizers want us to see and no more. That makes, somehow, our opinion traditional and narrow. We have no opportunity to formulate our own opinion according to our experience. The sad thing about this situation is that it leads to the persistence of national stereotype. We don't see the people of other nations as they really are, but as we have been made up to believe they are. We are all similar to each other but at the same time unique.

When anthropologists turn their attention to the 20th century they will surely choose the label "Legless Man". Histories of the time will go something like this: "In the 20th century people forgot how to use their legs. Men and women moved about in cars, buses and trains from a very early age. The surprising thing is that they didn't use their legs even when they went on holiday. They built cable railways, ski-lifts and roads to the top of every huge  mountain".

The future history books might also record that we didn't use our eyes. In our hurry to get from one place to another we failed to see anything on the way. Air travel gives you a bird's-eye view of the world. Car drivers in particular never want to stop. The typical 20th- century traveler is the man who always says "I've been there" - meaning "I drove through it at 100 miles an hour on the way to somewhere else."

When you travel at high speeds the present means nothing: you live mainly in the future, because you spend most of your time looking forward to arriving at some other place. But actual arrival when it's achieved is meaningless. You want to move on again. The traveler on foot, on the other hand, lives constantly in the present. He experiences the present moment with his eyes, his ears and his body in general. At the end of his journey he feels a delicious physical weariness. He knows that sound sleep will be his: the just reward of all true travelers.

So I personally prefer to travel on foot, or at least by train as it gives an unforgettable view and gives you an opportunity to experience the travel.

And now I want to tell you some words about an extraordinary travel I had last summer ...