Greetings from Horta, Faial Island, Azores
So I don't have to retype everything, below is an e-mail I sent to my parents about the trip:
We arrived on Faial yesterday after a nice flight overthe Atlantic. The airport is the size of our neighborhood Safeway. Turns out most of the relatives were arriving on the flight that landed 20 minutes afterward, so within 40 minutes Horta Airport was entirely filled with the Silva and Silveira families. It was quite a site.
We spent time yesterday evening in Victor´s mom´s village, Praia do Norte. It is extremely rustic and rural here, and very beautiful. The houses are veryvery small and simple. Most of them only recently have gas stoves. Before those were installed, they cooked bread and other food in built-in brick ovens. We had a nice chicken soup that Maria (mother in law) and the other tias made, which was made with a chicken caughton their land (it was nice to have a homemade meal after eating airplane/airport food for 2 days...).Then we took a walk up the road to the house where Maria and her brothers were born. It was destroyed in an earthquake in 1958, as were many homes on the island. So it was overgrown by bamboo and other wildplants.
Most of the homes are made of lava rock bricks. In fact, most of the older buildings are, since thei sland has a volcano (which erupted when Maria wasabout 4 years old). We spent some time at Sonia´s house (bride-to-be), checking out her parents' chickens and pigs. The homes are all on a big big hill overlooking the Atlantic.
Still getting used to what I call the Hugshake. I forget that when people greet you, they hug you even if you've never met them before. So I extend my hand, they grab it and pull me toward them in a hug as if I'd known them for 40 years and haven't seen them in 38. Then you get the sweaty kisses on both cheeks and both shoulders are grabbed so they can get a good look at you. Everyone here (and in Lisbon) are SO FRIENDLYand polite and full of life it's wonderful.
Ate at Pete's Cafe this morning -- an old stop for yachtsmen that's become world renowned. It's a great little pub-like place, and both of us ate for 7euros!!! It's very inexpensive here.
Tomorrow we will go whale watching. Pete's has whalewatching boats. When we ate there this morning, we sat next to a Swiss gal who comes here in the summer towork the whale tours. She said we sure to see sperm whales and several kinds of dolphins. It is very very windy here, so I'm praying I don't get seasick.
We're going to drive around the rest of the island today (btw, last nite we saw a huge waterspout rightoff the coast. I guess it's extremely unusual and the residents were all looking out their windows when we drove by).
It's hot and humid, but cools off at night.Thank god, because like France and Italy, A/C means a fan or some kind of plug-in unit that is totally useless.
The wedding is on Sat and there are lots of festivities planned. The entire family is taking thef erry to the island of Pico on Monday. Then Tues we'reback to Lisbon. Can't wait -- our short day in Lisbon was great, and we look forward to exploring the city more. We may drive to Spain one day.
We arrived on Faial yesterday after a nice flight overthe Atlantic. The airport is the size of our neighborhood Safeway. Turns out most of the relatives were arriving on the flight that landed 20 minutes afterward, so within 40 minutes Horta Airport was entirely filled with the Silva and Silveira families. It was quite a site.
We spent time yesterday evening in Victor´s mom´s village, Praia do Norte. It is extremely rustic and rural here, and very beautiful. The houses are veryvery small and simple. Most of them only recently have gas stoves. Before those were installed, they cooked bread and other food in built-in brick ovens. We had a nice chicken soup that Maria (mother in law) and the other tias made, which was made with a chicken caughton their land (it was nice to have a homemade meal after eating airplane/airport food for 2 days...).Then we took a walk up the road to the house where Maria and her brothers were born. It was destroyed in an earthquake in 1958, as were many homes on the island. So it was overgrown by bamboo and other wildplants.
Most of the homes are made of lava rock bricks. In fact, most of the older buildings are, since thei sland has a volcano (which erupted when Maria wasabout 4 years old). We spent some time at Sonia´s house (bride-to-be), checking out her parents' chickens and pigs. The homes are all on a big big hill overlooking the Atlantic.
Still getting used to what I call the Hugshake. I forget that when people greet you, they hug you even if you've never met them before. So I extend my hand, they grab it and pull me toward them in a hug as if I'd known them for 40 years and haven't seen them in 38. Then you get the sweaty kisses on both cheeks and both shoulders are grabbed so they can get a good look at you. Everyone here (and in Lisbon) are SO FRIENDLYand polite and full of life it's wonderful.
Ate at Pete's Cafe this morning -- an old stop for yachtsmen that's become world renowned. It's a great little pub-like place, and both of us ate for 7euros!!! It's very inexpensive here.
Tomorrow we will go whale watching. Pete's has whalewatching boats. When we ate there this morning, we sat next to a Swiss gal who comes here in the summer towork the whale tours. She said we sure to see sperm whales and several kinds of dolphins. It is very very windy here, so I'm praying I don't get seasick.
We're going to drive around the rest of the island today (btw, last nite we saw a huge waterspout rightoff the coast. I guess it's extremely unusual and the residents were all looking out their windows when we drove by).
It's hot and humid, but cools off at night.Thank god, because like France and Italy, A/C means a fan or some kind of plug-in unit that is totally useless.
The wedding is on Sat and there are lots of festivities planned. The entire family is taking thef erry to the island of Pico on Monday. Then Tues we'reback to Lisbon. Can't wait -- our short day in Lisbon was great, and we look forward to exploring the city more. We may drive to Spain one day.
posted by Michelle S. at 11:13 AM
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