The Azores

On Teceira

In 2002, my best friend Chrigle won in a competition a big voucher for a Trip, and (that's why she is my best friend), she decided to share it with me! So we were able to do our first Island-Trip, a thing we like to do now regularly. By browsing through the catalogue, we suddenly saw pictures of volcanos and beaches- there we had to go!
So we booked a wonderful (and expensive) trip to the Azores, including 4 islands and the connecting flights, a rent-a-car on each island (although they were sometimes almost too small to drive on them) and some days in Lissabon.

Harbour of Horta

The Azores are a group of islands somewhere in the Atlantic, about one- third out from the distance Lissabon- America. They are very beloved by sailors who cross the atlantic, but also by whale watchers and by people who just love to spent some time on calm, very nice islands.
Each island has its own characteristics, ranging from the island with the nicest main "town" Terceira, which is a world cultural heritage, to the island with the highest volcano, Pico, which looks like a cone coming out of the sea. I believe that in whole Europe, you don't find a second group of islands with such a beauty!!!

Angra de Heroismo

We spent our days with exploring the different islands, eating a lot of sea food or very fresh ananas and just hanging around at the beaches. I still admire Chrigles courage, she let me drive on these islands only one week after I got my driving licence! But she seemed to be used to that, as she was the main person learning me how to drive..... (Thank you!!!)

On Pico

And she also kept her nerves when I didn't and didn't succeed to start the car on a slope in the middle of the town, having a huge queue after me! But heaven didn't appreciate that, sending a bird that vomited just on her head....

One of the greatest experiences on the Azores was the Whale Watching Tour!

Pico the Volcano

We started early in the morning (in fact they awoke us by calling that we could participate, in half an hour) with a special kind of rubber boat, that drove full speed over the sea. The trips are organized by a recognized whale watching organization that finances their research like this. Indeed we saw not only dolphins, but real whales, pushing out the water from their bodies!
On the boat was a french men who tries to picture all the whales in order to

Fajal

categorize the individuals, and he explained us everything about whales we wanted to know. Unfortunatly, he was very kind of speaking french to somebody, so we did not get all the answers... It was a great experience and on the way back, everybody was so excited that we drove

Sete Citades

like crazy over the water and tried to catch all the waves- so we got completely wet and couldn't stop to laugh!

Taken together: If you are looking for something really special, not so far away from Europe, and you have some money to spend, go to the Azores, it's worth every cent!