United Kingdom Zimbabwe-Zambia 2023

London Layover: Notting Hill

At the end of my trip to Zimbabwe and Zambia, I flew home to Vancouver from Lusaka via London. I had about an 8-hour layover and, as is my preference, there was no way I was going to spend that time at the airport.

I’ve written a lot of posts about my layovers in London. I’ve even gone into the city with as little as a 5-hour layover and it’s always been worth my time. I’ll say what I’ve said before, which is to make the most of a layover in London a few things are really helpful: if you’re a carry-on luggage person like I am, quickly stash your bag at the left luggage office at the airport. I always take the Heathrow Express into London – with a short layover, there’s no time to be messing around with any other form of transportation. I pre-buy my tickets for the Heathrow Express so I don’t have to stop and buy them on arrival; I just have the ticket on my phone and scan it and get right onto the train.

I usually have some kind of an idea about what I want to do. Sometimes I just go and smoke cigars on Saint James Street, other times I’ll pick a specific museum, or an area that I want wander around in. This time, I decided to visit Notting Hill. Upon arrival at Paddington Station, I took the tube to Notting Hill Gate. (I could have walked, but I didn’t have an abundance of time.)

I don’t think I had been to Notting Hill since I lived in London many years ago (and well before that movie was out). It was a delightful place to spend some time walking around. I was there too early to enjoy the market, but I walked the streets and enjoyed the colourful buildings and stopped and had several coffees, which were necessary after my red eye flight from Lusaka. London is truly one of my favourite places in the world and I will never miss an opportunity to visit it. It was a perfect end to my trip.

Eritrea-Djibouti trip 2024 United Kingdom

London Layover: Mayfair Morning

I left Djibouti city late afternoon, had a short layover in Dubai, and then a seven-hour layover in London. Never one to miss a London layover, I caught the Heathrow express to Paddington and then walked Mayfair.

If you read my blog at all regularly, you might know that I always go into London if I have a layover of at least five hours. The longer the layover, the more I can do. (Check out this post for my best ever London layover.) Seven hours is a decent amount of time. It gives me an hour from wheels down to arriving at Paddington, and then I usually give myself three hours before my flight to head back to the airport (because i am paranoid about missing flights) so I only had about three hours in the city, but it was worth it.

Every time I go into the city, I tend to pick a different neighbourhood or activity, although often that activity involves cigar smoking. With not very much time, I decided that a little coffee crawl around Mayfair would be a good idea. My flight landed at 7:00 in the morning so it was a perfect time to hit up the cafes. The air felt cool and refreshing after having been in the scorching heat of Djibouti. I sauntered leisurely around the streets and hit up a few cafes.

I went first to Cardinals Café. Nothing too extraordinary, but I liked it, an Italian café tucked down a side street and busy with people off to work. I had a double espresso and small cigar outside on the patio where a man awkwardly told me that my backpack had caused my dress to ride up above my bottom. Is there a word in English for being both mortified and thankful? There should be.

I went to the charming and fancy H.R.Higgins, a tea and coffee merchant in business since 1942. There I got a little adventurous and I tried some concoction that was a mixture of orange juice and espresso. Honestly I didn’t really care for it, but I also I had a croissant before carrying on with my stroll.

*H.R. Higgins (I resisted the urge to make any Magnum PI references)*

I visited Everbean x BIBI’S for my third espresso of the day, a nice neighbourhood café. I sat outside and was feeling so relaxed and in the moment that I even forgot to take a photo.

From there I just meandered about before going to Selfridges to visit the James J. Fox cigar store at that location. Usually I go to the James J. Fox location on St. James’s St., which has an excellent cigar lounge upstairs. This is simply a small retail outlet inside the Selfridges, but I wanted to pay to visit. I went in and picked out a few nice cigars. I was feeling a little bit sheepish because I looked a little rough. After traveling around my clothes were a bit dirty and rumpled and I had the look of someone who had been on a red eye flight, and I was still wearing my backpack, but I still received a polite reception and the people were very friendly as I chatted with him and told him about some of my recent adventures. Cigar people are lovely people.

At this point, I didn’t have much time left, so I leisurely walked back to Paddington station, smoking a small cigar. Did I do any sightseeing? No. Was it still worth it heading to London for this short time? Yes. Thought that maybe the espressos talking.

It was a perfectly pleasant way to end my trip to Eritrea and Djibouti. Even with all the things that went wrong on this trip, it was my favourite trip of 2024.

(My next trip would be to Southern California for some Halloween fun.)

Africa Zambia Zimbabwe-Zambia 2023

Last Stop: Lusaka

I had arrived in Lusaka in the afternoon of Saturday, arriving by car from Livingstone. I set out immediately to explore what I could of the city. I had read a lot of things about Lusaka that suggested that it might not be particularly safe after dark, so I wanted to get in the sightseeing that I could while I could on that first day. I set off from my hostel – Lusaka Backpackers – to explore.

Lusaka doesn’t seem to have an overwhelming abundance of intriguing touristic sites, but I always say that there’s something worth exploring in every city.

Unfortunately I had missed the closure of the museum, which I had really wanted to see, and it would be closed the next day as well, but I walked to it so that I could see the freedom statue out in front.

National Museum of Zambia and the Freedom Statue, marking Zambia’s independence.

I walked around a busy street catching some glimpses of mosques and a few interesting buildings. But I didn’t have a lot of time before the sun went down. I walked through sort of a residential neighbourhood filled with flowering bushes and trees and made my way to a cute cafe set in a garden (The Garden Café & Buddha Bar), which I recommend as a pleasant oasis.

I had a bite to eat and a cigar and ended up chatting with the owner for over an hour. He is from Zambia originally but had moved away to England and moved back. It was fascinating to hear his theories about why, he felt, Zambia is so culturally diverse and safe. His theory was that tribes from lots of different warring countries around Zambia had all fled to Zambia to escape conflicts and as a result, the country was full of people who were diverse and peace loving. I don’t know if that is true, but I certainly cannot contradict it; nor would I wish to.

I walked back to my hostel just as it was getting dark. I don’t know if it was safe or not to be out after dark, but I was also fairly tired so I spent an evening hanging out at my hostel before going to bed.

The next morning, I got up early, determined to make the most of what I could that day. I had to leave for the airport around 4:00 that afternoon. Again I went out exploring. A lot of things were closed in Lusaka on a Sunday, but it was pleasant to walk the quiet and colourful streets.

I visited several cafes, but I had breakfast at this wonderful restaurant called Meraki Café, which is not a far walk from my hostel. (I think there is more than one location; the one I went to, which is so pretty, is on Chaholi Roasd). It looked like it was lovely inside, but I never made it past the wonderful outdoor garden seating. I had an excellent breakfast and a morning cigar. It was the sort of place that if you weren’t looking for it you wouldn’t stumble across it because it was tucked away on a residential street. I got the sense in my short time in Lusaka that a lot of places were like that, just hidden away, which makes it difficult to see a lot on a short trip, but I did what I could.

Breakfast at Meraki Café

I took the bus to the African Sunday crafts market, which was worth the journey. Lots of masks and paintings and other sorts of crafts being sold. It was a little outside of the centre, so I took a bus. I walked around and looked at the offerings, which were lovely, but how many things can one buy? After a bit of haggling, I walked away with a mask for my office.

At this point it was time for me to head back to the hostel and get organized to go to the airport. My trip to Zambia and Zimbabwe was at an end — or just about, as I had a long layover in London ahead of me.

Africa Zambia Zimbabwe-Zambia 2023

The Road to Lusaka

I had done what I set out to do in Livingstone, including visiting the Devil’s Pool, and my trip was drawing to a close. I decided to fly home from Lusaka, rather than return to Harare. Why not see a new city, even if only for a day or so? I needed to figure out how to travel from Livingstone to Lusaka.

Lusaka is the capital of Zambia and is not too far away from Livingstone. You can fly, but most of the flights were routed through Johannesburg, making it a needlessly long journey. There is also the bus, which is cheap and seems to run on schedule from a big, new bus station in Livingstone and takes about seven hours. Or you can drive. I was set to take the bus, but I met this nice taxi driver in Livingstone – let’s call him Max (not his real name) and I liked him so much that I asked if he would drive me. He wanted to visit some of his kids in Lusaka, so we worked out a deal and he drove me the whole way. It was faster than the bus (giving me more time in Lusaka) and we got to make stops.

Changing Money & Getting a Snack (not very good, as it turned out)

The drive was pleasant. Max had a comfortable car, and I enjoyed chatting with him about his life and family. We drove though small towns or cities along the way (Zimba, Koloma, Choma, Batoka, Pembo, Chisekesi, Menze, and more), stopping for snacks and coffee. About halfway through the journey I finally asked Max about the music he was playing, as we had been listening to the same CD on repeat. (I didn’t know what it was, but I make a small video and ‘Shazaamed’ it later.) It was an Irish boy band called ‘Westlife’ that I had never heard of. It just seemed an odd choice for a Zambian man in his mid 40s. Monga said he didn’t know who the band was. He had just bought the car used and the CD was in the player and, as the car menus were all in Japanese, he hadn’t yet figured out how to change the music. So, Westlife was the soundtrack to the journey.

En route it was wonderful to see some of the landscapes as well as catching fleeting glimpses of daily life.

We arrived in Lusaka about midday. The traffic in the city was awful. We crawled along once we reached the city limits, but I go my first glimpses of Lusaka. A busy, not terribly attractive place.

I checked into my hostel, Lusaka Backpackers, which was a nice little place. I had a private cabin-type of room, which, unfortunately, I shared with many small cockroaches, so I slept with the lights on both nights, but it was well located and I could walk to the museum and other central locations, so it was ok.

Lusaka Backpackers Hostel

More about Lusaka in the next post as I explore Zambia’s capital.

Wandering North

London Layover: Notting Hill

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