Flying home for christmas

The first part of my time in Corvo is over. I have been here for three months now. Time passed by so quickly . I can't believe that there actually are parts of the island I haven't seen yet, there are many people I don't know and many portuguese words I can't pronounce, like "Matralhas" (the name of one of the bars) or "palinha" (meaning drinking straw, so I ended up drinking my coke always in a glass ;-).

The decision to extend my stay on the island was partially made on those facts. There are still many things to discover and learn about and from this unique place.

The weather wasn't particularly good in last week before my departure. Therefore, I wasn't sure whether my plane to Horta, Faial would be delayed. Fortunately, the manager of the azorean airline, SATA, stayed on the island this week. This meant that there was some effort made to make the flight and take him off the island since his original flight on wednesday couldn't be realised. 

Dinner at Peter's with Carlos

I didn't leave the island alone. I was accompanied by a few familiar faces also leaving to spend a few days in Lisbon or one of the other islands. I was going to spend a night in Faial were I met a friend, Carlos Silva, for dinner in the famous bar Peter's. The bar is a known meeting place for sailors all over the world. The bars walls are covered in flags and drawings from crews who stopped here.  Spiegel online wrote an article about this interesting place. 

Before the dinner I took a walk through the "city". Since Lisbon I hadn't seen so many people and cars. I walked through the harbour and enjoyed the beautiful christmas decorations. There I also saw the posts in the harbour that are beeing painted by all the crews landing in Horta and I took a peak at my first real christmas tree of the year through a linving room window.

I spent the night in a rather simple hotel in the city. At the counter the receptionist asked me whether I wanted to see the room first, because it was very big. Thanking him I turned the offer down. I only needed a bed to sleep. When I entered the room I actually started laughing. Because the room really was big. It contained three beds and could accomodate a whole family. But who minds space. Unfortunately the bathroom light didn't work though...

The next morning Carlos picked me up because due to good luck we were on the same flight to Lisbon. And due to his rather bad condition we got first row seats with a lot of space for our legs. Unfortunately, the better seating didn't prevent us from sitting next to a lady who made very strange and almost disgusting noises.

I spend the day in Lisbon doing some christmas shopping and having dinner with a fellow English Comenius assistant who was also travelling home for christmas and, funny enough, her German friends. I just caught the last train back to the airport and spend the night there, sleeping on chairs. The next day my flight to Berlin left at seven and I arrived home at noon. :D Berlin, Helleluhja Berlin