An Angel in Our Midst

We virtually burned Wednesday and Thursday in this lovely place worrying and dealing with lost luggage and restocking ourselves with essential items.  A toothbrush and toothpaste are a luxury and a pure delight that I’d almost pay anything for once a full day without them has gone by!! 

Yes, we will be reimbursed for those things, but we bought very conservatively.  Most of our items came from H&M and the toiletry section of the grocery store.  We had faith we’d get our stuff very quickly and we didn’t want to overload ourselves with new items.  Luggage weight and size are an item here!  Heavy duty extra charges apply for anything over the standard weight and size limits.

On Wednesday, our first full day here, after putting ourselves in a frenzy waiting for a message from the luggage people and finally deciding it simply was not going to happen, we walked to the ocean front.   For people like us who have lived most of our lives in the middle of flat-land USA, a seaside view like this is like something fantastic to see.

The sea, quite a bit below street level, is clear and presents itself in a palette of shades of blue, turquoise, and white.  Wide walks, plazas and promenades, planted parks, and green spaces cover the coastline.  There are hundreds of restaurants and cafes where people sit outside under broad umbrellas at all hours of the day in the refreshing air enjoying espressos in the mornings and afternoons, lunch after 2, and dinner at about 10. 

Visitors here love the fabulous seafood like fish of many types, langostinos, mussels, clams, lapas (limpets), and craca (barnacles), all fresh that morning from the sea.  We have been told though that locals prefer meat when they dine out.  Fish is an everyday staple so when the people who live here go out, they want meat — not beef, not steak, but meat. That’s what they call it.  A stand of Espertados is one of their favorite dishes.  We’ve not had these tall skewers of grilled cubed beef yet, but surely will. 

We grabbed a hop-on, hop-off bus from our neighborhood heading to Cabo Girao, the highest cliff in Europe, on Thursday.  Along the way, we got a quick glimpse of Old Historic Town and blindingly beautiful gardens and farms growing on terraced mountainsides.  Bananas of many varieties, potatoes, corn, beans, squash, grapes, and cherry trees were laid out in a quilt-like pattern along hillsides in terraced gardens.

Our hop-on, hop-off took us only to Camara de Lobos, a quaint, small town on the water.  Their tiny cobbled streets were decorated for a festival.  All the decorations were made of items ordinarily trashed.  Bottle tops, aluminum, and tin cans, wine corks, and just about anything imaginable had been made into colorful, happy dream catchers, wind chimes, mobiles, and streamers.  We did not plan this sweet stop.  If we had not taken the hop-on-hop-off, we never would have seen this.  What a gift!

We had lunch there.  Not starving but hot and thirsty, we ordered a draft beer and a sandwich to share — total cost: 8 euros.  The tasty sandwich was made with traditional soft Portuguese bread called Bolo do Caco (look that up—I’m going to try to make some someday) and tender steak.  It came with a little bowl of roasted peanuts.  We loved it.

Just as it was described, the Skywalk at Cabo Gira is a must-see in Madeira.  There at the highest cliff in Europe is a glass-floored walk that extends out in the air and enables a peek to the ocean thousands of feet below and across many miles above in any direction.  It’s a shudderingly beautiful experience . . . did I just create a new word?

Back home, still no luggage.

Sometimes though an angel comes along.  Svetlana, the owner of our apartment, took the time and energy to meet us and give us entrance to our apartment at 3 am the other night.  We were astonished that she met us at that ungodly hour.  We thought she must be an angel then, but that’s only the beginning. On Thursday after we’d still not received our bags she personally went to the airport and intervened on our behalf.   On Friday morning, she found our luggage and delivered our two giant bags to us herself.  Unbelievable!  We are simply without words.  Now here is an example of why one should never characterize a person by their ethnicity, birth country or anything for that matter.    Sveta is Russian and she has a heart of gold.

We simply did not know how to thank her enough and still don’t.  We will never forget the great gesture of kindness this angel extended to us.

Sveta still has friends and family in Russia.  We asked her about their attitudes concerning what’s going on today in Ukraine.  She became a bit enflamed, and said, it’s terrible!  Her friends, she said, hear nothing but propaganda.  With little access to outside news, they believe the propaganda and believe their country is doing the right thing.  Lord, please help us all but especially put your arms around the people of Ukraine, and the innocent people of Russia too.