If reincarnation is real, I want to come back as a cow on the Azore Islands

Thinking that our kiddo wasn’t getting enough beating from 14s and up at tennis, we decided to spice things up and open her to a stronger audience in Europe.

We already did this in the summer, at Dubrovnik Dub Bowl, where she collected 2 bagels, which prompted us to change strategies: less private classes with “ballet” and more real tennis playing. Competitions every weekend, getting that serve to a better place (20 double faults in a match is cool if you’re Coco Gauff and already a millionaire) and learning HOW to play, not just look pretty doing it.

Since 12 and unders is worse than kindergarten (you’d be shocked to see how hysterical kids are, and not in a funny way), she started competing against teenagers who at least can take a beating without crying too much.

Well, kidding aside, don’t think we have the world no.1 on our hands yet, she does lose matches, but never her composure.

As ITF is still at least 2 years away, we started with some Tennis Europe competitions, just to get to play some excellent kids and fix what needs fixing.

And, as the weather in North NJ is particularly shitty in November, we decided to look for something cooler (not temperature wise), so we headed to Portugal.

Lisbon was just a 2 day layover (gotta come back, it’s stunning), then we went to the Azore Islands and felt like we traveled back in time to some sort of an April (OK, not in NJ, cause April in my neck of the woods means 3 feet of snow); so a green sunny April in a normal place.

We landed on Ponta Delgada airport, which is a tad bigger than my neighbour’s kitchen, got the keys for our car rental (best idea ever from Mr.Dojo) and started driving towards the apartment we rented in a 8 story building.

The grass is cleary greener on this other side

As soon as we exited the airport we started seeing green. The grass was crazy bright (and after having to endure 15 rounds of rain in a day, we kinda understood why).

And there were cows.

Many cows.

I googled, so São Miguel Island has 2.5 more cows than people 😀

For someone who is addicted to milk (drinking half a litter a day, every day probably gets me into this select group), it was like I just died and got to Heaven.

Let’s not forget, please, we’re talking November here.

We’ve been to Spain and Croatia during winter, so we weren’t that shocked to see palm trees and flowers, but this kind of green grass? Heck no.

Towards a Lidl that doesn’t exist

OK, we have a “problem” with Lidl. Back in Romania it was our favorite store and, after immigrating, it was rough to adapt to the local supermarkets.

Let’s say that I love the US with all my heart (hence we’re still here after almost 7 years), but food sucks. And Lidl used to carry some of our favorites, which we didn’t get access to anymore.

Soon after immigrating, when our friends told us there’s a Lidl in Staten Island (25 miles, which is about 40 km), my husband jumped into the car and drove 2 hours to get there (40 kms in New York is a very slow drive).

Since in Lisbon we found one 10 minutes away, as soon as we landed in Ponta Delgada, I looked on my maps to find it.

Great news! There was a Lidl marked at 20 km away, which for someone who drives around 3k a month is almost “next door”.

This is what they found instead.

After making fun of me sending them to literally nowhere, we unpacked the food they bought from Continente, a supermarket located near the apartment building.

A great opportunity for kiddo to be “free”. We live in the forrest, up a small mountain, and the nearest store is 5 km away, driving down a very dangerous road named Breakneck (I shit you not, that’s the name).

We don’t have sidewalks, so kiddo cannot venture down the mountain and up again. She’s 11, so I assume the Police would frown upon her driving. This is why, every time we are in Europe, she gets to shop at nearby stores (gets souvenirs, some groceries etc.). She has money earned by winning tennis matches and it’s her time to shop freely.

Sete Cidades and how you can screw up a hotel in less than 2 years

Since we had a car (again, if you’re in the Azores, do yourself a favor and rent one), Mr.Dojo decided to drive from one side to the other.

First day: left side, which got us to Sete Cidades, a hamlet smaller than our private community in Highland Lakes, but kinda prettier, if you ask me.

There we looked at the Lagoa das Sete Cidades (the largest lake in the Azores, within a large volcano caldera, and consisting of two distinct bodies of water).

This is a clear example of technology not even coming close to showing you the AMAZING beauty of this place. It’s absolutely stunning and, since we were off-season, we could enjoy it with a handful of people only.

And then, turning our backs to this beauty, we found something that caught our eye: a huge ruin that looked like a hotel. Hmmm…

We made way through the jungle like vegetation, hoisted ourselves over a tall concrete wall (found out there’s a “normal” way to enter, but hey, sometimes we’re more brawn than brain) and then felt like we landed at Pripyat, but without the Geiger counters.

I present you the Monte Palace hotel.

Monte Palace was a 5-star luxury hotel on São Miguel Island that opened in 1989 but closed in 1990 after just 18 months of operation.

Ironically, it won Portugal’s Hotel of the Year award the same week it closed permanently.

The hotel was abandoned in 1990 due to poor business conditions (the Azores wasn’t yet a popular tourist destination, and the remote location made it difficult for visitors to access). For us it was a 40-minute drive from Ponta Delgada and taxi prices were always insane.

Another issue we experienced ourselves: it’s rainy in the Azores, so tourists wouldn’t even see the gorgeous views (you’re literally in the clouds) and, except for hiking, there’s not really much to do there anyways.

After closing, the property remained under surveillance until 2011, when security was discontinued. There was talk about some Asian investors bringing it to life, but nothing has changed.

I’ll upload some videos and create a separate post about this, as I think it deserves some attention.

And, since I mentioned we did visit the “other” side of the island, here’s a photo dumn from Nordeste, which is by far one of the most beautiful places I have seen. It did help to be there during golden hour.

The last image is of some houses near the Ponta Do Arnel Lighthouse, which is a super-steep drive down the cliff. My husband looked at the roadt at least 2 minutes, until finally deciding to drive down on it. I wouldn’t have dared, and I’ve done Breakneck thousands of times, so I’m not afraid of some hairpins myself.

This is, in a few images, some of our trip to the Azores. Feel free to ask questions (and give me ideas on what else to write). I’ll prepare the customary “what do to in the Azores” post and upload some of the crazy videos I took walking in the abandoned Monte Palace hotel.