Lagos is an experience of a lifetime. The city will enchant and wreck you. The bedlam. The 15-minute journeys that stretch to five hours because of traffic jams. The multitudes everywhere you turn, each individual fizzing with hope and energy and stories, each unfazed by the maladies of living here — crumbling infrastructure, an oppressive kleptocratic government, the daily whiff of disasters brewing.
Lagos, or (as it’s known in Yoruba), is a city of paradoxes, of extremes. Every condition exists prodigiously here. This is why Lagosians sometimes quip, “: “Lagos never ranks last in anything.” Take housing. In the neighborhoods of Lekki and Ikoyi, you’ll find mansions posher than any in Manhattan or Mayfair. But across the Lagos Lagoon, you’ll find a floating city: thousands of families living in shacks built over stinking waters.
With more than 15 million people, Lagos is Nigeria’s capital of culture, finance and entertainment. It is the laboratory of two of Nigeria’s major cultural exports: music (including Afrobeat) and cinema (Nollywood). Afrobeat songs chart high on the Billboard Hot 100; Nollywood is the world’s second-largest movie industry by output. Even when I was a boy growing up in northern Nigeria, hundreds of miles away, the city was my reality. Like most Nigerians, it informed my identity — culturally, linguistically, philosophically.
Each time I visit, time seems both to freeze and to hasten. Every moment amid the orchestra of Lagos’s streets or the polychrome of its markets, every stop at its psychedelic parties or its devious police checkpoints, every conversation overheard or scene witnessed makes me wiser, more conscious, more human.
Although Lagos is ever-changing, like most Nigerian cities, its spirit, and how it informs its residents, remains largely consistent. Thus, many modern classics still offer powerful and faithful evocations of the city.
Set mostly between 1930s and 1940s Lagos, Buchi Emecheta’s novelfollows Nnu Ego as she navigates childlessness and the challenges of womanhood and motherhood in a patriarchal society. Emecheta, with immense deftness and subtlety, provides a haunting and forceful attack on patriarchy, sexism and misogyny in Nigeria, and indicates how they taint and limit a nation.
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The view from the ship’s bridge is what I expected: a ribbon of dark Arctic water leading through a maze of snowy mountain islands. But the view of the bridge is a shock. Where is the wheel, the chart and that big metal thing that goes “ting”? You know, the one marked “Dead Slow” and “Full Steam”, like you see in Titanic when they spot the iceberg? In its public areas, the Havila Capella looks like any modern cruise ship or upmarket ferry. There are lounges, a panoramic bar, a couple of gyms and a deck that can be strolled. It is what lies behind the bulkheads that is very different.
Norwegian low-cost airline Norse Atlantic is heading for Nigeria. The addition of the West African nation is unusual for the carrier, which usually flies from Europe to the United States and the Caribbean.
You don’t need to head to obscure, hard-to-reach parts of Italy to heed some of today’s most popular travel mantras, like “escape the crowds!”and “beat the heat!” Here are five gorgeous destinations close to (and even in) the country’s most sought-after spots that can help you do a bit of both. All are right on the water—almost a requirement for summer vacations now, when warm-weather months bring new, record-setting hot spells throughout Europe.
Starting January 1, 2025, Norway plans to introduce new restrictions for cruise ships and other tourist activities in Svalbard to protect its unique wildlife, including a cap on ship passengers and designated landing sites. Svalbard, a remote archipelago situated above the Arctic Circle, is set to see significant changes in tourism regulations aimed at preserving its pristine environment and diverse wildlife. Known for its dramatic landscapes and as a haven for species like polar bears, reindeer, and walruses, Svalbard’s popularity among adventurous travelers has prompted the Norwegian government to take action to ensure the archipelago’s protection.
From enjoying a spectacular pink-orange sunrise over snow-covered mountains to taking part in an exhilarating snowscooter tour before the thrill of a mesmerizing northern lights display overhead, winter cruises in Norway are unique from any other kind of cruising.
As someone who has spent decades exploring the coast of Maine, I have stayed in properties up and down the coast. Here are four of my favorites and one new property worth considering for your summer getaway. Summer is a short season in Maine, and these are small boutique hotels, so the time to book is now.
Traveling by train in Europe is as easy as pie. You can go across France in half a day, you can get from London to Amsterdam in just four hours, or even travel between Austria and Hungary for less than $10. Even in Scandinavia, the rail network is extensive, providing rail transport to and from large cities, small towns, neighboring countries, and even in the far reaches of the Arctic.
We’re in the golden age of expedition cruises. Travelers can board relatively small luxury ships or yachts to explore remote places like the frigid Article Circle, or cruise to Antarctica to hike, kayak, and photograph penguin colonies. According to the Expedition Cruise Network, these types of excursions are the “fastest growing” market in the cruising world.
Looking for a new read to tide you over until your next vacation? Pick up one of these Nordic noir hits and be whisked away to Norway, where you’ll find Norwegian authors all too keen to lift the lid on the darker side of Scandinavian society.
On the Kent coast, where the North Sea meets the English Channel, the historic town of Deal was at one time the busiest port in England. Today, though, it’s less dockyard and more seaside resort, popular with day-trippers and weekenders from London and beyond, who come for the pebble beach and pretty castle and stay for the town’s growing culinary scene.