Madeira

April 7th
Madeira

Well, today didn’t go quite as planned. We ended up getting into the port an hour later than scheduled do to some mix up with the port authorities, meaning early morning tours like the one I was on get rescheduled on the fly. Seeing as I’d woken up really early for the tour, only to find we weren’t actually in port yet, I ate a quick breakfast only to return to my room and lay back down while I waited for my tour. I waited a half hour till 9:00am, and we hadn’t yet docked, so I went back to the room. I waited another half hour and went up again, however we still weren’t being allowed off the ship. I went back down stairs for what was another 20 minutes, returned to find the gangway open, and went outside to find my tour bus. The first thing I like to do is check in with the tour ladies, make sure everything is OK, especially on a confusing day like this. So I tried to do so, and the one I tried to talk to was running around like mad, with good reason, and while I stood their waiting for her to free up for a moment, my bus had decided to leave. It was literally driving away next to me when she came back to ask what I wanted and it was too late to stop them. So unfortunately, no tour for today. And what’s even worse is that this was the tobogganing tour where you descend the mountain by being slid down the roads on a wicker bench on wood skis. It’s unique to the island, I’ve tried to get on the tour ever since my first visit there a couple years ago, and it looks as if I’ll have to wait another indefinite amount of time to take go on the tour that just hasn’t been meant to be.
So I returned to the ship and took part in the training session I wasn’t supposed to be missing. That was followed by some practicing as I waited for one of my friend to come back from tour, when I figured we’d get off the ship again.
A few hours later and I was off the ship with John and Jukka (the bassist) getting lunch at some restaurant along side the marina, the Portuguese specialty, pizza. Then we made our way into the city to find the flower and fruit market, something that I vividly remember from past visits to the city, and a place that I really wanted to revisit. The end result was me buying a few bottles of wine from a specialty shop in the market, two bottles of cheap stuff for a wine and cheese party John and I were going to throw for the tour ladies (as a sort of bribe to get better tours), and then one more expensive bottle for me to do who knows what with at a later date. Wine in hand, we all made our way back through the city looking to a shopping center for some food, stopped for a quick coffee, and then went back to the ship for dinner.
I was excited for tonight though because not only did I have the night off, but we had a late sail from Madeira, meaning we didn’t have to be back on the ship till 11:30! So after dinner, my trio got off the ship again in search for a decent bar to hang out at and in search of the band. We had an idea where the band would be eating, so we walked in that direction, only to serendipitously wander by the restaurant where they were at where they were just paying for the bill, perfect. We let them finish up, and after discussing that there didn’t appear to be much open on the walk over, we decided to go to the tiny bar next to the restaurant where they had the football (soccer in the states) game playing. It was apparently a big match going on for the champions cup, which is huge in Europe, unheard of in the US. And that was it, we stayed at this tiny bar the entire time, six of us in total, and there was barely enough room for any one else. But it was the perfect place to hang, no one was really there, it was local and intimate, and a round of drinks cost 6 euro…or about 8 dollars. That’s for 6 people! So apparently, all the drinks were a euro, including my house wine, which you wouldn’t be able to get anywhere in the states for about a dollar (yeah mom, I’m sure you’re jealous).
We left when it was getting close to our departure time and caught the shuttle back to the ship, and that was about it for the night. It was a nice night in the city, nothing to exciting or wild, maybe not entirely what I had in mind, but we happened to find a decent place and stick with it, something that experience has shown me doesn’t always happen. So all in all, a nice day despite the confusion at the start. Now it’s three sea days to England and the beginning of my final cruise, thanks!