Following the Equator

Around the World in 18 Days

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The Great Pyramid of Giza, the Taj Mahal, the Great Barrier Reef and the Great Wall of China.

Matt Borrello had dreamed of visiting one or two of the world's great wonders at some point. Now, he's going to see all four over the next three weeks. He embarks Sunday on an around-the-world trip, traveling to Cairo, Egypt; New Delhi, Agra and Jaipur, India; Cairns, Australia; and Beijing, China.

Matt, a regional sales manager with EF Educational Tours, was the lucky winner of an internal EF contest to travel around the world in 18 days.

Friday Fun Fact: European density

Photo: Brapke via Flickr

With a population of 82 million, Germany has more people than any other European Union nation. Not a shabby total by any means—that's roughly the equivalent of a quarter of the U.S. population. And yet, area-wise, Germany is only a little bit bigger than New Mexico and a little smaller than Montana.

No Big Sky here: Germany has 596 people per square mile, compared with 80 in the United States and just eight in Canada. And that only earns Germany the 56th spot on the list of most densely populated countries, and sixth among European countries (Gibraltar, Malta, the Netherlands, Belgium and the United Kingdom are, so to speak, denser).

The place on earth with least space between you and your neighbor? Macau (Special Administrative Region of China) with more than 40,000 people per square mile.

EF's Olympic spirit

The Olympic torch reached the summit of Mount Everest yesterday, but that was only a supplementary torch. The official Olympic torch was in the hands of EF Education First Founder Bertil Hult.

The 67-year-old patriarch of the EF family carried the Olympic torch 200 meters yesterday through Guangzhou, China. He was one of several torchbearers who covered 40 kilometers on the torch relay yesterday.

More than a million spectators —including a couple of hundred EF teachers and 350 EF employees from South China—cheered Hult and the other runners as they paraded the torch through Guangzhou.

Life of Guangzhou, the leading English news source in the city, wrote about Hult yesterday in a feature titled, "Swede Lessons in Life: Never Give Up."

"I love sports and I love the Olympics," Hult said just a few hours before he ran with the torch.

Travel Tidbits: Navigating the Louvre

The Louvre in Paris claims to be the world's largest museum. With more than 35,000 works of art and more than 652,000 square feet of exhibition space, it's easy to get lost among the masterpieces.

Globespotters recommends a handy solution to navigating the paintings, the sculptures, the treasures: a new multimedia gadget called the XP-vision.

The device, which was introduced last November and can be rented for six euros, includes a small video screen and headphones. You can choose various tours, or even customize one, through the vast collection. One of the best features is a virtual map, which helps you find your way through the maze of rooms.

Read on for more Travel Tidbits ...

Friday Fun Fact: Public restrooms

If you gotta go, Beijing may be the place to be. According to the official Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, China, has the most public toilets of any city in the world.

Xinhua reported recently that there are 5,174 public toilets in Beijing, which is preparing for the Summer Olympic Games in August. That's more public toilets than New York, London or Tokyo.

Photo: stan, Flickr

Friday Fun Fact: Olympic torch

The Olympic torch was lit in ancient Olympia this week amid protests, beginning an around-the-world relay that will culminate at the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics on August 8. The torch route covers more than 85,000 miles across 20 countries.

Keeping the torch lit at all times can be a challenge, especially in bad weather and on airplanes. Backup flames and cans of pressurized liquid fuel are always carried alongside the official torch, in case it goes out. And on airline flights, where open flames obviously are forbidden, the flame is usually stored inside an enclosed lamp.

Travel Tidbits: Long walk aborted

I decided to check in on Mark Boyle, whom we wrote about last month. Boyle—who also goes by the name Saoirse—was trying to walk from his hometown in Bristol, England, to Gandhi's birthplace in Porbandar, India, without money. Yes, without money.

Well, he didn't make it.

Apparently, relying on the kindness and generosity of strangers only gets you so far. Apparently, it only gets you as far as Calais, France.

Boyle pulled the plug on his "pilgrimage" after only 300 miles on his expected 9,000-mile journey. Not surprisingly, he cited lack of food, lack of housing and lack of the French language as huge obstacles. It didn't help that the French assumed Boyle to be a freeloading backpacker. You can read all of the excruciating details on Boyle's blog here, here and here.

Click on to read more Travel Tidbits …

Travel Tidbits: One long walk

How much does it cost to travel from Bristol, England, to Porbandar, India?

If you're Mark Boyle, the answer (hopefully) is nothing.

The catch is that Boyle is walking—yes, walking—from his British hometown to Gandhi's birthplace without any money.

The 28-year-old former businessman (pictured at left) began the 9,000-mile "pilgrimage" last Wednesday and plans to survive by relying solely on the goodwill of humanity or working for food and a place to rest.

"I've got some sunscreen, a good knife, a spoon, a bandage ... no Visa card, no travellers' cheques, no bank accounts, zero," he told BBC radio. "I won't actually touch money along the way."

Boyle, who also goes by the name Saoirse, estimates he'll cover 15 to 45 miles a day walking through France, Italy, eastern Europe, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. He guesses it will take him two and a half years to arrive in Porbandar, Gandhi's birthplace on India's west coast.

You can follow Boyle on his journey by reading his blog. And, if you happen to spot him along the way, be sure to post your sighting.

Read on for this week's installment of Travel Tidbits.

The other side of the world

It's nearly every American kid's belief that China is on the exact opposite side of the world. That's what we were told, right? Dig a hole straight through, and you'd arrive in China.

But like a lot of things we grew up believing, that's just not so. This map proves it. From anywhere in the continental United States, the exact opposite is somewhere in the Indian Ocean—between Australia and Africa.

The map superimposes the inverse globe on top of itself to illustrate antipodes—the diametrically opposite point from any place on Earth. Most of Earth's land mass is opposite water—no big surprise considering water covers 70 percent of the surface.

Gadling's Aaron Hotfelder directed our attention to the antipodal map and an even more precise, interactive map that can plot exact opposite points around the globe.

For the record, the exact opposite of Xi'an, China, is Rinconada de Parral—a city about 60 miles outside Santiago, Chile.

2 Million Minutes

Two million minutes … that's how long four years is, that's how long high school lasts, that's how long high school students have to prepare for their futures.

And that's also the name of a compelling new documentary, 2 Million Minutes: A Global Examination, which focuses on how the United States, China and India—"the three superpowers of the 21st century"—educate and prepare high school students for the global economy.

The one-hour documentary—the brainchild of entrepreneur Robert A. Compton—examines two high school students (a boy and a girl) from each country. The Americans (from Carmel, Indiana) are excellent students but appear more interested in sunglasses and sororities than studies. Their counterparts in China and India, on the other hand, are consumed with their education, their careers and pursuits such as the violin.

The film doesn't focus on big-picture solutions, but we know that increasing global awareness through educational travel can play a major role. This is right in line with the goals of The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, of which EF is a board member.

Thanks to Scott McLeod over at Dangerously Irrelevant for bringing our attention to this compelling documentary. I just ordered my copy. You can read more about the film, about the characters and about What Should America Do, and you can read Education Week's article.

But, first, you have to watch the trailer: