Ponta Delgada Part Two

 Ponta Delgada Part Two

We are lucky that we have a large apartment since we would go bonkers in a small hotel room with all of this rain. We have not seen the sun for many a day and it has rained every day we have been here. You can tell that there is a lot of moisture on this island just by looking at the buildings because all of them have black and green mold everywhere. Inside this apartment there are patches of blistered stucco and some of the beautiful woodwork is showing signs of rot. I assume when the apartment is not rented it is also not heated so the moisture has lots of time to do its dirty work.

We have been reflecting as to why we decided to come to an island we knew nothing about for two weeks. So far we have narrowed it down to wanting to escape winter, wanting to be near water, and wanting to learn more about Portugal. We are sure that when the rains disappear and the sun comes out we will congratulate ourselves on this wise decision, but for now we are worried about our judgment!

Cindy was concerned about not having her violin here for practicing. Since we were gone for ten days on a cruise earlier this month and only had three days to repack to come here, her time with her music has been very limited. We found a music shop here in town on the internet before leaving home and arranged to have Cindy buy a cheap violin to use while here and then donate it to a school (they don't rent instruments at that store).  On the map, it looked like an easy, albeit long, walk to the shop so we set out between squalls to fetch the violin. Flat maps are funny, everything looks like an easy walk. In reality this walk was straight up hill for two miles on slick narrow cobblestone sidewalks where we had to walk in single file to avoid being hit by buses, trucks, cars, and garbage wagons, all traveling at a rapid rate of speed.  Since we had a time crunch because the shop was to close at one for lunch, we walked as fast as possible. My injury from September prevented me from keeping up with Cindy so I sent her ahead so as to not to miss them and have to wait until after their lunch break. Gracious, that gal can move when motivated!  The shop is NOT in town, in fact it is so far out of town I don’t know how they can call it Ponta Delgada. Cindy did get there in time and by the time I rolled in she was trying out the violin. Ruben, the owner, could not have been nicer and I know he really appreciated that Cindy was so dedicated to her music that she would buy a violin to give away just so she could practice. 

The purchase was made and we decide to head to the largest mall in town to get some lunch and to figure out why my phone did not work despite my having an eSim for Portugal. Roads here are funny, one street will have four different names in only three blocks, so we felt we were justified in missing our turn as we walked back down the hill. Sure enough it started to rain and we were near a bar and popped in to stay dry. Three guys - all drinking hard booze and smoking near the door - and one barmaid also smoking but happy to get us two coffees. So the rain ended and with the help of the barmaid we backtracked to the correct street. To our credit it is only labeled on one side of the road, not the side we were facing when we left the shop. We got to the mall just as it started raining again and were happy to get dry and looked for the NOS shop, the local ATT.  Turns out my eSim was a bummer and could not be used so I purchased a new hard Sim from them. Talk about cheap!  One thousand minutes of calls and fifty GB of text all for ten Euros. He installed it, tested it and we were on our way to lunch.

If I had dropped you in the food mall with ear plugs so you could not hear the language, you would have thought you were in any mall in America. All of the same fast food available at cheap prices for the masses, KFC, Burger King, various pizza and taco joints, etc. After searching we found a local organic sandwich shop and split a rather delicious tuna sandwich. In the middle of the mall was a replica of one of the whaling boats they used in the 1800s. It was a narrow sailboat maybe 20 feet long that might be nice for a picnic sail in a quiet bay, not something you would think could kill whales and haul them back to land, but that is what they did and they are quite proud of it. Azorian whalers get great play in Moby Dick and every fourth bar, cafe and restaurant along the waterfront has some reference to the novel. Finally, we had no rain as we made the last leg of the journey home, which thankfully was all down hill!!

Despite any whining we are having a wonderful vacation, just not quite what we expected. We have a washer, and most importantly, a dryer so we can dry our wet clothes and towels so as to prevent mold from growing on our bodies!