Cultural Fun

It really is a once in a life time opportunity to get to live in the Azores.  Most days we got about our business, but we do try hard to remember to stop and enjoy what we have around us.  It is important when living somewhere new or different or unique, or even your birthplace, that you take advantage of what the place has to offer.  When we live in a place for so long we can develop routines and forget all about sightseeing in our own backyard.  I bet there are plenty of sights and activities in your own town that you have never visited or it has been quite some time.

Living in another country, to me, is very cool and offers an experience you can’t get just by visiting a location for a week or so.  We get to truly learn the customs and habits of the locals, while also enjoying some of the touristy things.  Since tourism is not huge here, these things are enjoyed by locals and tourists alike.

During our Thanksgiving break, we stopped in to the Angra museum.  We knew there was a different display there since the last time we visited.  After translating this billboard we discovered the display was about the island throughout the years in the press.

 

The lobby display was set up with things from the Freemasons of the island from many, many years ago.  I am not kidding, some of the dates were a couple hundred years back.

The stamp on this letter, which is hard to see, but says 1640.

Then we moved on to the display of the printing presses and old newspapers.

I was a history minor in college and I just love stuff like this.  I didn’t even care that I could not read the Portuguese.

After the museum, the rain was holding off, so we took a stroll through the main Angra park.

Here is the view of Angra as we climbed higher within the park to the monument at the top.

I zoomed in on the big church in Angra.

Here is the big monument at the top of the hill.  This is a well known feature of the town.

This was looking off to the west over Monte Brasil.

This was to the east looking at split rock.

You can see this is pretty old too.

After our little hike, we headed to dinner.  I took some pictures to show the food choices they had on the buffet and dessert cases, but we ordered off the regular menu.

Ryan wanted to try this apple pie.

We had egg and cheese sandwiches for dinner.

Then I had this pastry covered in chocolate.

The bad news was that after we finished dinner it was raining heavily.  We had been walking around all afternoon, so the car was no where near where we ate, and we had to climb a big hill (don’t forget we live on a volcano, or rather 4) to get to the car.  We were pretty soaked by the time we got there, but we survived.  It was a great day and lots of fun despite the rainy ending.

QUESTIONS:  Where was the last place you were a tourist?  Are there any places near your home that you have been meaning to visit, but haven’t been to see yet?  Does it rain a lot where you live?