Day 3, Lagoa do Fogo

Today we decided to try and get above the fog and explore the volcano in the middle of the island.  When we arrived through the dense fog, windy roads, extreme gale force winds, all we were able to see was more fog. Since we had driven all the way up there, we decided to at least try to hike down to the crater lake. No one in their right mind would have done this hike, but we did! It was slippery, steep, and straight down along a very wet and muggy pathway. It took us about half an hour to get down and though we were wearing our rain coats with our hoods as tight as possible, we were both soaked! At the bottom we could see a few feet out into the water and the sheer cliffs that we had just climbed down. It was truly magnificent and would have been much more amazing had we been able to see more than a few feet! It was still worth it though!
After the climb, we continued down the other side of the volcano and stopped along the way at another hot springs I had found that were even more natural and fun. There were two natural areas, one was 20 degrees celsius which was cold and the other was 35C which was nice and warm and shallow! After forgetting to take a towel from the hotel today, we dried each other off using our hands and standing over the steam venting holes from the ground!
Our next stop was the town of Ribiera Grande, which we discovered had a flower festival that had just ended. We got lucky as the church tower in the center of the town that is usually only open Monday, Wednesday and Fridays was open and we could walk to the top! It was very windy and nice from up there and neat to see some of the flowers on the ground that had been compiled for the festival. On the recommendation of the guide from the tower and from my research we went to a restaurant on the water called Alabote. It was by far the best meal we've had! And we had delicious chocolate mousse! I would definitely recommend it. Also the view is hard to beat!
After we finished our late lunch, we walked outside and it was torrentially raining and super windy! We had planned to walk along the black volcanic sand beach, but it was too stormy. So back to the hotel we ventured. We weren't hungry for dinner but knew that we wanted to get some gelato and go to a grocery store to buy some gifts before we left. We had tried white port that neither of us even knew existed the night before and it was delicious so we wanted to bring some home. Pj had researched and found a good gelato place nearby so we hopped in the car. We had crepes with two flavors of chocolate ice cream: one with cheese (seriously chocolate and cheese!) and one with chocolate and local strawberries. Both were delicious! The super market we went to looked like a Walmart and we were both skeptical but it was just a similar sign... we picked up some cheese and chocolate and looked at all the cheap wine and wished we could bring back a whole case!

But really Fire Lake... 

Day 2, Furnas & the Eastern Coast

Day 2 began with PJ waking up way too early but ready to go, so we went to breakfast in the hotel and then off to explore! Our first stop was the pineapple plantation where we got to see how pineapples are grown in greenhouses and how cute and squatty their particular pineapples are. We tasted some of their famous pineapple liquor and learned that pineapple hot sauce exists! It was rainy today so it was a good day to go to Furnas to explore and relax in the natural hot springs there. I have done my research so we did not go to the popular ones and instead went to a place that had 5 different springs off the beaten path. The man who greeted us even asked us how we had found them! Love those places. After relaxing in each of the springs (each one was a slightly different temperature and depth), we decided to go to the popular tourist spot to have lunch. All of the guide books and my research online said we had to try this particular place and stew. The stew is famous and neat because it is cooked in the ground for 5 hours and then served for lunch. The area is so volcanically active that it heats the food! It's actually pretty neat. And well, how it tasted... let's just say, we asked for mustard and hot sauce and ate about a third of the stew plate! The beer was good ;p

After lunch, we were pretty exhausted, but we knew that we had limited time on the island and so instead of heading back to the east coast the next day, we would try to cover a lot of ground and drive the entirety of the eastern coast and stop on the northern coast on the way home at the only tea plantation in Europe!  The views were stunning from the coast and the windy road was nauseating but felt as if we were driving through a rain forest. It was really cool.

The tea plantation, Cha Gorreana, was neat to walk through and see how they process everything. They have a tasting at the end and we tried their broken leaf and green teas. They were either both really tasty or we were really thirsty! We bought a few bags to take home and back to the hotel we went.

We were tired after a long day in the car but knew we wanted to go somewhere nice for dinner as it was Saturday night and we both knew that Sunday night would be hard to find a place to eat. We tried to have the hotel make a reservation for us at a steak place that PJ heard was very good but they were all booked up. In our limited Portuguese we didn't quite know what to do, so in smart fashion, we called Amex, had them recommend a few places and they made a reservation for us at a restaurant closeby that we could walk to! Dinner was at 9pm. It was very good and there went another 18-19 hour day!

Azores

The surprise trip to Europe is in fact a group of 9 islands in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean called the Azores, which are part of Portugal. They had always been on my bucket list of places that I wanted to explore, but I didn't think that they would be up next!

On the way to the airport for a sad and meaningful pilgrimage that my boyfriend was about to embark on with one of his brothers, driving his grandmother’s ashes to their final resting place next to her husband, he called me and explained the following, I am paraphrasing: I wanted this to be a complete surprise, but I need your help and ideas. I want to go on a weekend trip in the next few weeks, but there are some guidelines we have to follow. 1, it has to be out of the country. 2, has to be a direct flight, less than 8 hours. 3, it has to be to a place that neither of us have ever been to before. 4, affordable and where we could possibly use amex miles. Well this seemed to be a tall order as between both of us, we have been to many places around the world. His initial thoughts were for us to go to Brussels as neither of us had been there and we both like beer and chocolate. While he flew to the west coast, I got to work and opened up google maps. The possibilities were endless, yet most of the places that neither of us had traveled to were just a bit too far. While we were on the initial phone call, I mentioned some islands that I couldn’t remember the name of but ones that I had always wanted to go to, so I looked them up and low and behold, they are the Azores and they are a part of Portugal. In the past, the islands were a challenge to get to, only accessible from Portugal and had many layovers. Recently, Azores Airlines has emerged from SATA and now flies direct from three places in North America… Boston, Toronto and Oakland. (random enough?!). I began to get excited, but he was still flying so I couldn’t run the idea by him! I composed a detailed e-mail laying out different options of flights to Brussels, Paris (because, well its Paris, even though both of us have been there), Azores, Casablanca Morocco, and even a couple of places in the US, just in case. Now it was the waiting game until he landed and could read my e-mail.  He said that he had looked at places in the Caribbean too, but they were all quite expensive this time of year.  Was I nuts for suggesting we fly to these Portuguese islands for a weekend and go hiking around volcanos, relax in hot springs, explore tea plantations and eat yummy Portuguese food? Maybe. Maybe I should have just found a city in Europe that we could have explored and not an island?! Maybe we could just go to a beach and relax for two days. What fun would that be?! I may have been second guessing all of my options as this weekend getaway seemed to mean more than just a getaway and I wanted it to be special and a place that if we ever wanted to go back to, we could. Even though he didn’t give anything away and kept a surprise, sometimes you just know!

He safely landed on the opposite coast and was off and driving with his brother. A little while later, an e-mail came in that said the Azores sounds like it’s the winner! Yay! He loved the idea. And off we went planning a weekend trip to the Azores for the following weekend. We also began a crash course in Portuguese so that we could try to understand and say a little bit of something. Between him speaking Italian and me, French, we were hoping we would be able to get by. As soon as he returned from his pilgrimage, we bought our tickets, arranged a hotel, booked a rental car… all booked after quick extensive research, and to Portugal we go!

Last minute trip to Europe!

Planning a last minute weekend trip to Europe for next weekend! Stay tuned for photos, details, advice, and a packing list!

Day 10, 3 flights home

We woke up early to see if sunrise was worth shooting and again, though it was beautiful, there were no clouds! I woke up early anyway, showered and finished packing and then we all went to breakfast at 8, said our goodbyes and thank you to the guides and the owners, and packed up the car and headed out to the airport. Leknes was about an hour away, so we arrived around 10:45 am for our 11:40 flight on our tiny plane. Checked in, went through security, where they made us take out all of our cameras and lenses. What a pita. Our first flight was open seating so we tried to get in line early to get decent seats and room for our large, overweight camera bags. It was a quick 20 minute flight to Bodo where we had a 25 minute layover before our next flight to Oslo. An hour and 45 minutes later we were in Oslo, where we had to get our duffels, check in for our JFK flight and go through security again. It took a while. When we checked in, there was one gate agent who was weighing everyone's carry on bags and we knew that our camera bags were very overweight, so as soon as the woman whom we saw was not doing that was free, we rushed over to her to check in and not have to deal with any consequences of our packs. Whoops! Lol. At security, all of our bags were flagged and they had to be hand screened. All for different reasons which was actually quite funny. I went through with some water in my purse and they didn't even notice that. However in my camera bag, something looked like liquid in the top of my bag and it was a nut bar. Weird!

We had a fairly long three hour layover so we went to Jamie Oliver's restaurant and had a wrap and some pizza, caught up on internet stuff and then proceeded through passport control to our gate right before we were to board. Boarding was free for all and they just announced ok, time for everyone to board and it was a rush! We flew a 787 Dreamliner home. Pretty cool plane part of the Norwegian Air fleet. When our meal came, it was fish or chicken. I'm sure by now you can guess which meal all three of us chose. We had some red wine with the meal too!

We currently have two hours left on our seven hour flight home, but we've just flown over Greenland which was gorgeous to see from above. The few times I've flown over before, it's been dark or cloudy so I haven't been able to see too much! We are close to new foundland now and almost back to the states! We are excited to come home and also sad to leave a wonderful country and end our trip.

More photo adventures will have to occur in the future! :)

Day 9, Skiing and Aurora!

I wasn't sure what to expect with backcountry ski touring in Norway, but it has completely exceeded my expectations and blown me away. So much so that I would love to go ski touring anywhere in the world now. Today will be hard to beat. We drove about half an hour from the lodge today near a fishing village in a fjord. Our skin started with an amazing view and every turn became more magnificent than the next. Let me back up too. We went to breakfast in the morning, had yogurt and granola, and the owner of the lodge came over to us to ask if it was okay if a ski photographer joined us for our skin today to photograph us. We all said, sure. She was really nice and it was fun having her along for the ski.

We skinned for almost five hours today, about 3800 feet total. Aaron was unhappy and in a lot of pain from his blisters, but somehow we helped him push through. This was a first ascent for our guide from this angle so it was fun to explore and learn how he figures out the best way to go. There were steep avalanche parts that we had to spread out just in case, a bit of crusty snow, lots of cliffs, and some areas where my stomach just dropped and I couldn't look down. We skinned over a lake, up couloirs, down little sections, and when we reached the summit were greeted with the most amazing view I've ever experienced in my life. There are just not enough words to describe the view. Breath taking mountains, fjords, ocean, cliffs, little red and yellow cabins below and peace and quiet. Majestic. We stayed on top for a while and refueled, took lots of photos, flew the drone; and I sent mom and pj photos from the top!

It took us about 45 minutes to get down and the bottom was tricky with rocks and rivers. Aaron got stuck in a rock hole and at the very end we had to cross a river with rocks and hike through them. Of course, I recorded all the fun on my go pro.

We were greeted with a gorgeous sunset and reflection on the fjord when we reached the bottom and got to our car. Then back to the ski lodge for waffles, returning gear, sauna and dinner! And would you believe it, whale steak for dinner. WOW. I need a salad. I ate a tiny little bite, but had lots of roasted veggies instead!

After dinner, we helped one of the guides girlfriends with her phantom drone that was new and wasn't syncing for you. Unfortunately we weren't able to help either but hopefully she will get it to work and then the lodge will be able to have one to fly around their beautiful spot! We asked for some wood for our wood stove so we wouldn't be freezing again as the night before, we were all really cold in the cabin. As we were leaving the lodge to go back to the cabin, the Aurora started appearing! Aaron and I were so excited. We got back, grabbed our gear and just ran down to the beach outside our cabin and started shooting. Andy made the fire inside. I thought we were only out for about fifteen minutes shooting, but when things had died down a bit and Aaron and I decided to head back inside, he said we were out for over an hour! It's easy to get enthralled and lost in watching the lights dance across the sky. A magical experience and a wonderful natural phenomenon. It was a great way to spend our last evening in Norway.

Then we organized, packed and went to sleep!