My world tour of Libraries!

Our trip is only a few months from the end so I thought I'd put together a little blog of all the libraries we have visited throughout our travels. This blog will take you through photos of many of the libraries we have seen.

What better place to start than the Alexandria library in Egypt!

#1 Alexandria Library, Egypt We went to Alexandria for two days. This library was huge and very interesting to explore.The library is designed in such a way that the windows are angled so there is never direct sunlight shining through them, but there is still plenty of light. The outside of the building is supposed to symbolise a rising sun, with the planetarium (top picture, left) symboling the earth. The planetarium was closed when we were there.

#2 Austrian National Library, Vienna

This library charged people to go in so we didn't stay too long. We got as far as the part where you needed to have tickets and then left. We got in for a second though before we were asked for our tickets that we didn't have. I got a sneaky photo of it but it is out of focus so I didn't put it up here. The photo above though was before the main part of the library so we were allowed there. To see how great it is inside, have a look here - you will need quicktime installed to see this properly.

#3 Prague Library, Czech Republic.

We visited the Prague Library on our last day it Prague. It felt quite uninviting to me and was hard to find (which is why we didn't go till the last day). I liked the statues at the fountain though.

#4 Berlin Library, Germany

The library in Berlin was undergoing renovations, or some sort of work that required a big banner to be put up in front of it that shows what it would look like if it had a huge ad covering most of it. I really didn't see the point. But the interesting thing about this photo is the courtyard. This is where many many books were burned during the war. I can't remember if this is the Berlin Library, or a University library, or if it only used to be. But it definitely held a lot of books during the war. The library below may be the proper Berlin Library.

#5 Staatsbibliothek (State Library) Berlin, GermanyWe didn't spend too much time in this library. Had a quick look at the catalogue but couldn't understand much of it due to my not knowing any German.

#6 Small local library, Berlin, GermanyThis was our hostel located between a library and a record store, which you'd think would be great. But it was a terrible, terrible hostel. Great library though. I didn't get any photos inside. But they had board games! What a great idea!

#7. Amsterdam Library. This library is easily my favourite so far of my world tour of libraries. We spent a lot of time here as Liz was applying for a job in Scotland and was making use of the free internet quite a bit. You didn't have to sign up or book in to use the computers so that was handy. This library had more dvds than a dvd store, more cds than a cd store, and I think they had some books too! They also had so many computers that no one ever had to wait. More than I have seen in university libraries. They also had a nice little cafe with newspapers from all over the world, and any magazine you'd ever want to read (but the coffee was not that great).

#8. British Library, London.
Yes, it was a little windy on this day. This was a pretty awesome place to visit, inside they have original and handwritten writings from all sorts of people from history- Shakespeare, Charles Darwin, Captain Cook, old maps, and even some Beatles lyrics written on the back of coasters and plenty more interesting stuff to check out. To get into the proper part of the library you need to be a member, to be a member you need to be researching something.

#9 Salisbury Library, England.

This was a really nice little library. In fact it was a really nice little town in general. This library had RFID in action and it was the first time I'd seen it being used. Looked very interesting and I can't wait to see it happening back home. They also had other ideas that I liked. I stole a bunch of flyers from this library so I could steal/borrow some of their ideas.

#10. The Mitchell Library, Glasgow, Scotland

We were in only in Glasgow for a weekend so this library was closed. Looked nice though. Around the corner was this...

#11. Anderston Library, Glasgow, Scotland

This library was closed also. Didn't look as nice or as interesting as the Mitchell Library, just a door in the wall.

#12. Library inside random Highlands castle, Scotland.

We stayed in a haunted castle during our tour of the Highlands. There was a small library in the castle. Didn't find many good books there though, didn't find any ghosts either.

#13. National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh.
We didn't go inside this library. We didn't have a lot of time in Edinburgh. Although, we did get a chance to see the place the first Harry Potter book was written and some of the places that inspired it. We also saw Dolly the sheep in the museum, and the Military Tattoo at Edinburgh Castle.

#14. Belfast Central Library, Northern Ireland.

We only popped into this library for a minute to check if they had free internet, which they didn't. But around the corner we found...
Library Street! Our hostel was on this street and down the end of this street was the...
Library Bar! The night we went to the library bar it was pretty much empty except for us. In fact most of Belfast seemed empty (and also closed) the whole time we were there. I thought the library bar would be full of rowdy librarians, but there was nothing! I hope their libraries aren't this quiet!

#15. Trinity College Library, Dublin, Ireland.

This library was basically one long room that looked amazing! I would have loved to get a photo but couldn't so I bought a postcard instead. It's the first postcard of ever bought without the intention of sending it. I just needed a picture of the inside of this library. Oh, and the Book of Kells was interesting as well. It was quite awe inspring seeing the work that went into books made so long ago. So much tiny detail used and so much care taken.

#16. National Library of Ireland, Dublin.

We didn't actually go inside here because we were on our way to see the bog men in the archaeological museum but I had to get a photo of me here anyway.

#17. The Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Ireland.The Chester Beatty Library houses an amazing collection of writing, books and art from all over the world. The work on display encompasses many different regions and religions. All of it is very old and very very interesting. Well worth a visit if you're ever in Dublin. Unfortunately photos were not permitted. It also has a very nice roof top garden with nice views of the surrounding area.

#18. End of the Road Library, Larmer Tree Gardens, England.

This small library was in the middle of the hidden away part of the music festival we went to. They had some good books here, and they somehow survived the rain on the first night.

#19. Liverpool Library.

The three pictures below are all from Liverpool, and are all the same building. Not sure if this library has 3 different names, or if it's 3 different libraries. It was all closed when we were there (a Sunday) so I guess I'll never know unless I go back.
#20. Xaghra Library, Gozo, Malta.
This library was only open about three days a week, in the mornings. I went back another day and checked it out. It was the most bland library I've ever seen. But it was great that this Village had a library at all. I wish I'd gotten a photo or two of the inside.

So that's all I've seen so far. Still have Africa to go though so I may see some more, but I'll be on a tour so I'm not sure if I'll get a chance to. I'd thought I'd finish with this last shot of me holding the hand of Demetrius Phalereus (350-280 B.C.) who was "The inspirer of the Foundation of the Ancient Library" - This photo was taken in the foyer of the Alexandria Library. I hope this blog wasn't too boring for you. I hope at least someone reads it.

Glenn 2.0

Email from March 23 - Vienna

sorry it's been so long between emails. There#s not really any net cafes in the sahara desert. Since I last wrote we've been on a 12 day tour around egypt. Starting with the pyramids. We would have liked to have a bit longer there cos they were quite interesting and liz was slowing things down by stopping every few steps to pick up rocks and examine them. Apparently they were, or used to be stone tools... at least that's what they looked like. We then went to the a papyrus museum which was a bit boring, then to the cairo museum where we could look at all of tutankamen's goodies. He had a lot of stuff, it would be interested to know how much stuff a pharoah that ruled for more than 10 years would have been buried with.

Next was the overnight train down to Aswan. Apparently the toilets on the train were the worst ever but fortunatly I didn't feel the need to go and look at them. We didn't sleep much on the overnight train. It's hard to remember all that we did because i don't have the itinerary here with me but we basically did all the tourist stuff, looked at way too many temples, went on a felucca for a nubian dinner and party which was a lot of fun, shopped in the bazaar which was quite frustrating after a while. The first time we went we just wanted to look and not buy anything. A guy offered up 2 outfits for 300 egyptian pounds. we didn't want them, we were ust looking and would buy something tomorrow, but then he said "ok ok ok.... 290 pounds" we would say we were just looking but thanks anyway" then he would say "ok ok ok, since you are very nice people i'll give them to you for special price 280" again we said no but he kept going down by 10 pounds. when he was around 200 pounds i said "you could tell us 10 pounds and i'll still say no, we're not buying anything today" but he wouldn't listen. He ended up going down to 70 pounds. We still didn't buy, but we had a good idea of what price to look for the next day.

We went on a 3 day cruise down the Nile which was a highlight of the trip. Beer and a pool with the occassional trip to a temple or two, it was a fun time. We also rode on donkeys to the valley of the kings from the nile (those photos are uploading onto my facebook right now), and we went in a hot air balloon over the valley of the kings, which was another highlight. We went out into the sahara for 5 days. The 12 of us went it 3 jeeps and camped under the stars for 3 night and stayed in a terrible "reed hut" that was made of concrete or something - probably the worst nights sleep i've ever had. But the desert camping was so so great. We all loved it and would go back without hesitation. We occassionally had police escorts which seemed strange and unnecessary. I thought the food was a bit average during the desert trip as well. We swam in a natural well and it was one of the strangest feelings I#ve had It was just water down to about the waist and after that it was like "swimming in wizz fizz" as one person described it. There was no ground, or bottom to it, but you couldn´t sink cos bubbles and air kept pushing you up... Actually, bubbles and air are probably the same thing so just ignore my stupidity in that last sentence. You could just into it from the high ledge and it went deep but pushed you straight back up. We all turned orange from that swim, it was quite funny. We also rode on camels for an hour to get to a campsite and probably did other fun stuff as well.

Getting back to Cairo was a bit sad cos we were back in traffic and bad smells but the hotel we thought was a dump at the beginning of the tour suddenly seemed very nice and i got to have my first proper shower in about 6 days.Some of the showers during the tour were like standing under a dripping tap.

And so now we're in Vienna. We had no accomodation planned cos it's supposedly only busy in the summer months. No one told us we'd be arriving the night before easter sunday though. We managed to book into one place for the night but were spending more than we would have liked. The next day we found a nice hostel but it was a bit out of town, we had to go to the end of the train/underground line and then on the bus. But it#s a good hostel and worth it when this morning we woke up to about 10 cm of snow on the ground!! I was quite shocked. I opened the curtain to check if the sky was blue and was pleasantly sueprised to see snow everywhere! Vienna is really easy to get around and we haven't had too many problems with the language yet. Just a couple of tiny ones. We haven#t really done anything exciting yet. Everything was closed yesterday (Easter sunday) and today as well. Highlight here so far was probably the snow this morning. If I don't run out of time i'll stick some photos of vienna up on facebook.

Glenn (and Liz but she's not actually here at the moment)

Travel Blog No. 1 - Our Plans

So now that the learning 2.0 stuff is over this blog is now my travel blog. This is my first entry as a travel blog. We don't leave for 52 days and 22 hours. Let's just say 53 days... less than 2 months. Anyway, I thought I'd make this first entry about what our plans are and how they are going so far.

We leave on March 8th and fly to Singapore. We stop there for 2 or 3 hours and then fly to Egypt (Cairo). We'll be flying Singapore Airlines. There is only a few hours we have to wait at Singapore Airport so hopefully the flight from Melbourne isn't delayed too much. There are not many flights to Egypt and if we were to miss the connecting flight then we would miss the start of the tour we have booked in Egypt. We arrive in Egypt close to midnight, and will have someone waiting for us there to take us to our hotel (Hotel Pharaoh). We will then sleep and spend the next day wandering around Cairo and having no idea about anything, should be fun. Apparently Cairo has a population of about 16 million, a bit more than what I'm used to. Later that day we will meet up with our tour guide and will spend the night again at Hotel Pharaoh then head off to Alexandria the next morning. In Alexandria we plan to visit the library, and Liz wants to swim in the Mediterranean so we may do that as well. I'm sure we'll also find some other stuff to do. We stay there the night and head back to Cairo the next day.

After another night in Cairo our big adventure begins, starting with looking at places around Cairo and visiting pyramids and whatnot. That night we catch the overnight train to Aswan. In Aswan we do some more stuff, go on a boat, and a camel. The next day we go to Abu Simbel and check out our Nile cruise boat. The next few days we cruise up the Nile, stopping at places of interest and generally enjoying ourselves. Day 7 we ride some donkeys into the valley of the kings as the sun rises. Apparently it's a very nice experience, not sure how comfortable it is to ride a donkey though. Hopefully it won't be too hard to steer them. At the end of the day we head off to Baris and spend the night sleeping under the stars. The next day we do more stuff, see more stuff, travel further into the desert and spend the night in some reed huts! The next few days we do more stuff, travel through the desert some more and get back to Cairo at the end of day 11. We have one more night there and then we have a flight to Austria!!

We arrive in Vienna on the 22nd of March at 7pm. And that's all we've planned so far. We have no accommodation yet for Vienna. No idea about anything there really. I know Billy Joel has a song called Vienna though. Hopefully things will sort themselves out. We plan to buy a Eurail pass thingy which will allow us to travel about for a bit. We intend to go to Prague from Vienna and relax there for a bit and then we have no concrete plans. We'll travel west until we get to London. Then we'll find somewhere to stay for the next few months and work and earn money so we can afford to get to Africa before we come home. Liz is going to Africa a month or so before I do because she has an archaeology dig to work on. Once she's finished that then I'll go meet her and we'll probably have a tour around East/South Africa and see lions and things. Then we'll either stay in South Africa for a little bit before coming home or not, depending on our money situation I guess. So that's our plans... we don't even have a uk visa yet though. We sent the application (which cost $500) on Tuesday and hopefully we'll hear back from them soon.

Feel free to leave a comment below. Any travel tips or info that would be of help to us. Or anything interesting at all. I'll write again soon when I have something new to say, or perhaps when I have nothing new at all to say. If you're interested in our trip then check back here occasionally. I'll try and update it as much as I can. Thanks for reading.