Libreville, Gabon

I didn’t find Libreville, the capital of Gabon, to be anything special.

When I arrived, the visa process took much longer than necessary. My passport disappeared a few times, and I was the absolute last person from my plane still waiting around (by a long shot) when they finally gave me the visa.

The first night, I walked around the area near my hotel and through some of the residential neighborhoods. I passed a mosque and an interesting monument.

After passing another mosque, I wound up near the presidential palace. I snapped a picture from pretty far down the street, and police showed up out of nowhere to make me delete the picture. Oops.

The next morning, I saw a small lizard in the courtyard inside my hotel when heading out for the day.

Upon arrival in Gabon, I learned that the driver from Gambia had managed to get a refund for my unused flight ticket since it was essentially his fault I missed the flight. Since they refunded him in cash, he wired the money to me in Gabon. And then it required a ton of bureaucracy and waiting to be allowed to pick up the money at a bank in Libreville.

With a pocket full of cash, I grabbed a taxi into the old city, passing the presidential palace and the congress hall along the way.

We also passed this monument to liberty, showing broken chains around the wrists.

There was nothing overly interesting in the city, if I’m being honest. I survived on Indian food and got some laundry done while in Libreville. And I walked out to the national stadium in the evening.

After 48 hours in Libreville, I felt like I’d seen everything and was excited to head to Central Asia, flying through Ethiopia with an overnight layover on the way.