Right Start Tour (Part 1)

So, there is this thing called Right Start. It's basically the Air Force way of introducing you to your new surroundings. It's mostly briefings about what not to do, and what you should be doing while here. But another part was a cultural tour of the island. It is this tour that is the subject of this post.



We started our tour at about 8:30 in the morning. It was a crappy and rainy morning, but the forecast promised a ray of sunshine at some point in the day. We got on a 'school bus' (literally a school bus, just not yellow:) and started off to the north, heading toward Vila Nova, quickly passed Quatro Ribeiras and finally were able to get off the bus at Biscoitos. The villages of Vila Nova and Quatro Ribeiras were really quaint. Very steep slopes gave way to people's walled in gardens and houses build straight into the rock face. Well kept houses lined the cobble stone and some paved streets.



We did run into a heard of cows being 'transferred' from one pasture to another. The street was maybe wide enough for two mid size cars, and it was being filled with a school bus and about twenty cows who have not grasped the meaning of 'two way street' just yet. We safely made it past the cows and stopped at a little cafe in Biscoitos. Since it had been raining all morning, we were not able to stop and get out of the bus for most of the first leg of the trip. On the way to Biscoitos we were all looking at the ocean and just as everyone spotted what looked like a huge spot of boiling water right off the coast line, our tour guide clarified that it was a permanent whirl-pool. It had been there forever, and was the result of the rock formations that trap the incoming waves and turn them into this ginormous death trap. It was quite exciting to see something like that firsthand, because it's normally the kind of thing you read about in books like "Moby Dick". I don't have a picture of the whirl pool, but I do have one of what just plain coast line and waves. No less impressive.

That is what the entire coastline looks like. People here have either made swimming holes in the rocks, or dredged up sand from the ocean's bottom off the coast and dumped in to make a beach. I think there are only two sandy beaches on the island. Both man made.
We proceeded to make our way into Biscoitos, which is reputably the 'summer villa' capital of this island. And no question as to why people with money buy houses here. It's strikingly beautiful. It really is a shame that there were not a whole lot of picture opportunities in Biscoitos....stupid rain.

Angra do Hiroismo

Let me just start by saying that, we have been here a week and already we have a group of people to hang out with. It's amazing, the camaraderie and the extent of friendship that we have been lucky enough to be offered here. I can't speak for the entire Air Force, but this AF Family has certainly welcomed us to the fullest extent!
So, today we and about 20 or so people went to hang out in Angra Do Hiroismo, which is a town about 15 minutes from base on the southern coast of the island. The town was founded in 1451, and was the original Capitol of the Azores chain. It is now one of three regional capitols and is the cite of the seat of the catholic church here, the judicial branch of the government, and has the population of about 35,000 people, out of about 40,000 on the island as a whole. There is a funny story about the local cows that I read about!
So apparently sometime ago, the Spanish decided to take over the Islands, because of their importance in controlling the trade with West Indies, and so decided to storm the city of Angra in a surprise attack. One of the local monks, Father Pedro, decided that he was going to help resist in any way possible, and so rounded up about a thousand head of cattle and drove the cows straight at the Spanish forces. Within hours, most of the Spaniards were either trampled or driven into the sea and drowned trying to swim back to their ships. I believe it, because you literally can not go 100 feet in any direction without running into cows. It's one of two main sources of income here, the other being fishing:)



The city itself is amazing! It's one of those places you see in romantic French movies and on Samantha Brown. Narrow, cobblestone streets, tiny European cars (oddly enough we decided to get ourselves one as well! So for nearly nothing, we got our old Peugeot, or as we affectionately call it - The Goat:)), and cafes with .50 euro coffees. We're in love with this place already.



Our trip started with a visit to a Chinese restaurant, with real Chinese people, serving real and amazing Chinese food. Only I found out later that apparently Portugal had or has a colony in China, and so the Chinese people at the restaurant speak fluent Chinese and Portugese....bizarre. The food was delish, but since we all know and love chinese, I will simply leave it at that.My husband thought he was safe from the chinese food addiction here, but alas...No such luck:)



Afterward, we all took a walk around town and ended up in a park behind Angra's Art Museum. As you see in the pictures, the weather was beautiful on the way there, but very quickly turned into apocalyptic rain and wind. Everything weather related is 'psychotic' here as I'm told. The rainbow was so vivid, that you could literally see every single color, like purple and green and orange! Then, by the time we made it to the park, the horizon turned a steel gray and wind had picked up so much I almost lost my sunglasses off my head. The sunny days are gorgeous, the rain is always intense, and the wind is always 50 miles an hour (no exaggeration, by the way). And you can have all existing weather conditions in the span of an hour; hence the psychosis:)

On recommendation from my friends.

So, here it is. The first of hopefully many adventures of Inna. The blog was suggested by my dear friends as a way to stay in touch and for living vicariously:) Thank you guys and here we go...

My husband is active duty Air Force, and as such has to go to different bases every so often. When we started trying to figure out where to go after the fabulous Gadsden, Alabama, we thought Mt. Home AFB in Idaho was as far as we were going to get. Then completely out of the blue, my husband says - why not go to Europe? And really, why not? And that is the story of how we ended up in the Azore Islands, or on Terceira Island at Lajes AFB to be exact. (For those of you who are Travel Channel junkies, Anthony Bourdain did a show about the Azores, look it up on YouTube!).

We got here Sunday, January 10th. After three days of traveling and trying to make the cat stop shedding what looked like furbies all over everything, we finally arrived on the island. Molly the cat was promptly placed into the Atlantic Kennel, and the humans were dumped into what is called the TLF, or temporary housing a.k.a. a hotel. I say dumped not because the welcoming committee (consisting of the entire Fire Department, because my husband is a fireman in the AF) was not welcoming - it was; but because I was hopped up on DayQuil and was trying my hardest to cough up my left lung all over the row in front of me. By the time we got to the hotel room I had no idea where we were.

Let me just say that the welcome we received into the Lajes FD family was amazing! Our sponsor organized all our reservations, took us around the island to get all our things done , AND put all the food essentials into our hotel refrigerator. We even had milk for our cereal! We were greeted by what seemed like 20 firefighters at the airport. All smiles and handshakes.

So I spent the first day pretty much in the same condition as I arrived....and the second day as well. In between the Benadryl induced naps, I managed to get out long enough to pick out our apartment (one of two offered) and take a mini shopping trip off base.

The shopping trip was to the local 'supermarket', the only one on the entire island. You see, before I came here, I read just about everything there is about the base itself and the food here, and I was delighted to learn that they do lots of interesting things with fish and ALL parts of animals here...much like the part of the world I came from - Ukraine. So, there I was staring dead in the face of a fileted, spreadeagled, salted and dried humongous fish of some sort that seemed to be telling me that were going to become great friends. I smiled. Why yes, yes we are!

And then there it was. In all its blackened and curled glory - black pudding. For those of you who are unfamilliar with this animal it is also known as blood sausage [cue suspenseful music]. I know it sounds appaling, but considering this will be a blog largely devoted to the local quisine, I suggest you breathe a little and relax, this is sure to be a fun and interesting journey. So I bought it. Came back to our hotel room and fried it with some wonderfully creamy locally made butter. Put it on a piece of toast and served it to my husband. He is a very brave American indeed:) It turns out he liked it....I didn't.

The texture was very similar to what I'm used to eating while hanging with my peeps in Ukraine, but the taste was way more complicated. The texture was a bit grainy but creamy, with a casing that pops like brauts. The taste was very smoky and salty, to the point where one could not discern the fact that the stuffing was not really 'meat'. In the end, I suppose it reminded me of any other sausage that has been overflavored. They do have another kind at the supermarket, I'll have to try.

Shortly after the supermarket trip, we stopped at a local restaurant (and although I failed to to remember the name, I assure you I will get the name soon). They had a 5 Euro lunch special, which included a drink, a starter, a main course and a coffee. Not bad at all for 5 Euro (about $6.50)!! Ken and I both got Fanta, because we wanted to be EuroChic :). For the starter we got Carrot Soup, which consisted of pureed carrots and potatoes in a really rich vegetable stock, and for the entree, we both got "red fish". It's an ocean fish that is a very pretty pale red color with disproportionately big eyes. Simply fried in a skillet and served with plain boiled potatoes and greens. Flaky, white, and practically boneless, it was served almost in entirety, minus the head. The mild fish flavor was offset by the very crispy and salty skin. My husband's coffee choice was rather blah - sugar, cream, coffee. Mine was served in what looked like a tripple shot glass (tall and thin), piping hot. It was almost entirely cream with a shot of exresso on top, with froth just collecting over the coffee as it made it to the table. Delish!

The rest of the time, I'm afraid we've spent eating my "I'm sick, I can't cook today" disasters. Things like Ramen Noodles, and ham and cheese sandwiches. The all carb diet has started to take a toll on my bowels, and so I'll be compensating with LOTS of green beans:)

On a side note, Molly the cat, refuses to speak to me since her kennel adventure, but is still very actively growling at innocent passers by.