I was sad to leave Sao Miguel island of the Azores but the two hours flight between the two islands was pleasant. I hadn’t been to Madeira before. The view of an island in the clouds looked pretty. Especially, those brown and red rock walls that the plane passed by before landing on a short tarmac almost straight on the sea. The first thing I read at the airport was a welcome poster to Madeira. I don’t remember the whole list but it went something like “Madeira welcomes every family, every couple, etc.” But the most important line for me was “Madeira welcomes every emotion”. I felt accepted on the island right away and promised to be accepting of myself as well. Whatever comes.
Hotel in Funchal
Funchal was the city that we reached in heavy rain after an hour of waiting for the bus. I didn’t want to get soaked but it stopped pouring when it was our time to leave the bus. The way was mountainous, cars drove fast, and roads were crowded. I missed the peacefulness of the Azores straight away.
The smell of the hotel was damp. The owner pushed us out in the rain to show how the door code works. I felt irritated by such nonsense. I guess, he wanted to be welcoming. I entered our hotel room and asked my husband:
“How many nights are we staying here, again?”
The room was clean but worn out and not soundproof at all, and all in all felt not the place to be for a week. The next morning I woke up from a nightmare that people in the next room were singing very loud and I was shouting at them but my voice was muted. In reality, I woke up and they were actually singing. The song was Radiohead’s “Creep”.
We switched our room to one on the ground floor. It was darker and colder but I felt much better straight away. It was planned differently and the space was much more liveable. I thought I will not be able to wash my hair for the next week at first, as the shower was super low on pressure. At least, the coffee maker didn’t have a hole in it. The beds had old spring mattresses. The other hotels were hilariously expensive or unavailable as there was a carnival coming up. I decided to be happy in that place anyway and laugh at the broken things rather than let them break me as well.
People and Food
I liked how people were friendly. Our cleaner was chatting with us each time she came to clean our room. The owner seemed to be happy all the time. The staff at the restaurants were chatty and made lots of jokes (my favorite places to eat were “Bella 5 Snack Bar” (went there twice and it was phenomenal), “Doca do Cavacas” (ambiance of the ocean and sun with beautiful food – sat there for 3 hours), and homemade food from local products). The carnival that came on the last day of our stay was sad.
What to do in Funchal without a car?
Walk. I loved the walk by the ocean from Funchal to Formosa beach with a stop at the “Doca do Cavacas” for a long lunch. The sunset at Formosa beach was amazing. And there were local buses to come back.
The morning that we decided to go whale watching was weird. As if some kind of dusty yellow cloud was hanging above the island and the ocean. We sailed into a fog. The ocean made us feel nauseous. Some people were throwing up. I was watching the horizon, relaxing into a swing of the catamaran, and was amazed by the sun playing on the ocean waves. I think I got it, why sailors can’t live without the sea or the ocean. The ocean is something else. After the trip, I was ready to watch the movie “True Spirit”. The fog was a sand storm cloud brought from Sahara. The whole town was covered with a thin layer of yellow dust. If you don’t go to the desert, the desert comes to you.
Another great walk was to the Botanical Garden. At first, we thought to take a cable car but by the time we reached it, it was not worth paying the price as we needed more time than we had that day to see the attractions there. So we walked. It was a very steep walk but somehow the only thing that bothered me was passing by cars. The streets were narrow and that gas smell was a bit too much. The botanical gardens had a nice view and a collection of plants, though I’ve been to more impressive ones. The most entertaining part of the whole trip was a ride down the mountain with a local bus.
Monte Palace was on a different hill than the Botanical Gardens and on another level of spectacular. Here, plants and culture came together in creating a special kind of oasis. There were exhibitions of African sculpture art and display of massive semi-precious rocks, and then it was the Japanese garden that led all the way to some Antique period garden, and after that to the shades of a Buddha temple guarded by dragons.
Epilogue
The airport bus took a long route this time. There was a highway that went straight to the airport but the bus kept taking the side roads. The sign “Airport” showed up a few times just to be left for a small village sign instead of the bus heading straight there. As if somebody was asking teasingly “Are you sure you want to leave? Look what’s here. Look what’s there.”
“I am gonna run to the airport if I have to”, was my firm, calm, tired answer.
Windrose Travels 
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