Day 4 – Saturday, June 23, 2012
We enjoyed a tremendous sleep-in this morning, something
we never do at home, but are definitely experimenting with it here on
vacation. While the kids were busy
playing, Ana and I snuck out for a quick walk to explore the area a bit. Tia Ana’s house is on a hill, so we followed
the hill up for a kilometer or so, looking at the houses, seeing all sorts of
animals, mainly cows and ugly dogs, but one house had a ripe looking goat tied
up at the front door, who winked at us as we passed, as if sharing an inside
joke, though I have no idea what the joke was.
We drove to tia
Alda’s house....wait, I’m just thinking I haven’t really explained who all
these people are I’ve been talking about.
Here’s the map of our vacation world:
Cast of Characters:
Kris, Ana, Magnus, Stella – The Olson Armada
John and Maria – Ana’s mom and dad
Tia Ana – Ana’s aunt, youngest sister of Ana’s dad John,
we are staying with her, husband’s name is tio Joe
Tio Manuel – Maria’s oldest brother, husband to tia Alda
Tio Luis – Maria’s youngest brother, husband to tia
Genoveva
Cousin Natarcia - Tio Manuel’s youngest daughter, and
Ana’s closest cousin, her husband is Paul and they have a new baby daughter
Leoneld.
Cousin Carmelia – Tio Manuel’s middle daughter, husband
is Pedro, daughters are Sofia and Bella
Cousin Manuella – Tio Manuel’s eldest daughter, husband
is Antonio, son is Francisco
It took me about ten years to figure all this out, but I
think I finally got it!
Back to the story, we drove over to tia Alda’s house,
watched half of the Spain/France game then moved onto tio Luis’ house for
lunch. The front of his house is tiny,
probably about fifteen feet across, but goes quite far back and has three
bedrooms. But when you walk out into the
backyard, that’s where you get a big surprise.
As you walk back, you first pass through a lovely covered patio area
with picnic tables and umbrellas and lots of decorative flowers. Passing there, you climb a few steps and enter
into a grapevine enveloped sitting area with two tables and a big outdoor wood
oven which, at the time, was piled high with sardines grilling slowly over the
glowing embers. Beyond here was an
outbuilding which housed a separate dining/sitting room, a full kitchen and yet
another wood burning grill, but this one was piled high with various types of
meat and sausages, and the smell was incredible! There were people everywhere, cutting up
vegetables, cooking food, preparing salads, chasing kids, being chased by kids
and generally having a good time. I
assumed this was the end of the yard, but I soon discovered otherwise, as tio
Luis led us further back on a tour of the estate. We walked up another set of stairs to find a
huge garden area, and a concrete pen which was home to a cute, smelly little
piggy. There was wide selection of herbs
growing on the edges of the garden – I was able to identify rosemary, basil,
parsley, anise and spearmint, but there were many more. The main part of the garden had lettuce,
cabbage, fruit trees, kale and a bunch of other stuff I didn’t recognize. Tio Luis led us further back, into the last
section of the garden which, besides lots more fruits and vegetables, had a
shed full of chickens and rabbits, and two mangy mutts, tethered to a post
beside it standing guard. By the time we
reached the end of the property, we were so far back I could barely see the
roof of the house.
After the tour, we tucked into a massive lunch – they had
every meat imaginable including beef, chicken and pork, but also home-made
chorizo sausage, blood sausage and back bacon, all derived from the previous
residents of the piggy pen. It was a
feast fit for a king and we stuffed ourselves silly and washed it down with
generous glasses of red wine. We had a
great time and an excellent visit with everybody, and I got to practice my
wretched Portuguese on the poor folks.
After lunch, we headed down to the beach area to enjoy
the hot sun which had appeared mid afternoon, and Ana and I enjoyed a drink on the
patio, soaking up the sun and scenery, while we watched the kids down on the
rocks exploring and searching for creatures.
The bill for the giant beer, coffee and drinks for the kids was five
euro, which is a hell of a lot cheaper then we’re used to paying at home.
We then met back at tia Alda’s house, joined up with
cousin Carmelia and family, then head off to Villa Franca, about 15 miles east,
for a big parade and festival called Festa de Sao Joao. We managed to find a parking spot then walked
all the way down the main street in search of free sardines which Pedro had
told us about. When we saw the lineup of
several hundred hungry looking Azorean folks, we knew we had found it. After fifteen minutes in line, having made
fifteen feet of progress, we decided to abandon mission and go in search of
quicker, paid food instead. We moved
back into the main area where there were a couple food vendors, and claimed a
nice spot along the wall from which to watch the parade. The first float didn’t arrive until 10pm, and
by then the streets and sidewalks were jammed with old people, young people,
babies and kids. Now this was our
scene. One of the things we’ve always
tried to do differently than most people in Canada is take our kids everywhere
we go. The status quo for the majority
seems to be put your kids in bed at 7pm, get a babysitter, then take off for
the night. Or dump the kids with the
grandparents and go on a couple only holiday.
Or weddings where they don’t allow kids.
All of that is strange to me. In
the Azores, we are now back in the majority, as evidenced by the kids
everywhere, at all hours of the night, out having fun with their parents and
other kids. It’s a great scene.
We are told that there will be 12 parade groups and by
midnight, after making it through six of them, we decide to head home as we’re
all getting a big tired after a big day, and want to beat the crowd out of
there. The parade groups are huge and
comprised of a set of singer dancers backed up by a huge marching band. Each of the main towns on the island provides
a group for the festivals, and the festivals run all summer long in a different
town every weekend. The choreography and
music is fantastic, and we all enjoy it, especially Stella who claps and dances
throughout.
No comments:
Post a Comment