In the Biblioteca Alexandrina

My time at the computer in the New Library of Alexandria will time out in thirteen minutes so this blog will be very rushed.
I went across the whole western coast of Egypt and it was pretty awesome. From Alex, I went to Marsa Matruh, which, as the guidebooks say, is a lackluster town, but it has a grade-A waterfront. In fact, I think it's the most beautiful waterfront I've ever seen. (And I unfortunately can't upload pictures yet.) A white railing follows kilometers of white sand and light blue, sometimes clear water. The beach is not especially clean - and let's be honest, hardly any beaches really are - but it looks so pure and clean, it's easy to overlook the trash. And come to think of it, the trash was still minimal compared to Sinai.
I decided to go swimming. I saw a little, abandoned brick house on top of a hill and went inside it. I felt really cool, like I'd found my little hermit's house. I had to pee really badly, so I peed inside it. I felt bad for soiling it. Then I discovered that there were three piles of shit inside the same house. Some people had also discovered this tiny house, but they went much further than myself in making it their own. I changed behind a rock instead. Then, I realized it was too cold outside to go swimming.
This beach is named Rommel's Beach, after the German general. There's a Rommel Museum inside a cave. Apparently he devised some great plans to defeat the Allies in the cave. An Egyptian approached me and said, "This man, he was from your county. He was a great man." "I'm not German, I'm American" I said. He looked disappointed. "But yes, Rommel was very smart. Patton was smarter, though." He seemed puzzled. "Patton defeated Rommel," I said. I thought of George C. Scott and felt a little bit proud to be American. This Egyptian (his name, like many Egyptians, was either Ali or Ahmed) introduced me to some of his cold friends who were swimming and offered me a ride back to town. I said, "I'm going to walk, but thanks."
After Matrouh, I went to Siwa. I have two minutes left, so I won't say much now. It was a nice, isolated place, although it still managed to be loud and it had lots of flies.