Ponta Delgada. In the rain.

Today, it rained and I got intoxicated. Those are not related. Or maybe they are. I’m not sure. As I’ve mentioned, I’m intoxicated.

With our canoeing cancelled and our car returned, we made the logical choice of sticking around Ponta Delgada until our gin experience today. We tried to visit the Mercado da Graça again, with slightly more success this time but since the market building is under construction and since it’s not a weekend or a popular day for cruise ships, there really was not very much to see. We were wanting to find a coffee shop we had heard about but it was too early for that so we headed back up to Igreja do Colégio. It was also too early for that. Well, eventually it wasn’t too early for that so we ducked inside this strange little church that had the most intense wood carvings I’ve ever seen in a church. There was also some of the lovely blue tiles that the Azores are known for and I think it’s been my first good sighting so that was exciting!

Then, we headed up to the botanical gardens that we missed on Monday. They were much smaller than I expected and had a very tropical and unmanicured feel to them, which is new for us in a botanical garden. There were several really incredibly fig trees with the most elaborate roots that were exposed. From there, it was on to the coffee shop for some lunch - EDP got his traditional vacation pizza and I had an ENORMOUS sandwich with a fried egg on top that was delicious and huge. We took some hot chocolate and dessert to go and headed back to the hotel until it was time to head off to our gin experience. By then, the wind was really picking up but the rain was holding off.

We had a bit of quiet time before heading out again - the hotel managed to get the wine out of my sweater so I didn’t look like a weird abstract painting (yay!) and when we headed out, the rain was just starting. It was really starting to come down when we arrived at our gin experience and we were in this adorable little outbuilding where we could hear the rain outside and made for quite the cozy afternoon.

Ali, our gin expert, guided us through the history of gin, explaining how bathtub gin came to be, how regulation led way for London Dry gin and then the revival of gin in the last few years when a lone woman whisky distiller spent some time playing around and created Hendricks gin, which took the world (London) by storm when they had a promotion involving free drinks in exchange for a cucumber that went viral. Over the course of his history lesson, we got to try the gin he produces along with a London Dry gin and then a bathtub gin for EDP and a lovely rhubarb gin for me. We also got to make friends with the local cat, who was a fan of our cheese puffs and insisted on having his share. We wrapped up with a restaurant recommendation from Ali and made our way over to an amazing seafood restaurant where EDP had an enormous skillet of limpets followed by some sort of seafood stew and I had an enormous amount of cod in a clay tray. It was a really large and delicious meal, accompanied by crazy crashing waves just outside the restaurant. It was still pouring when we got our cab back to the hotel. We’re not entirely sure of the name of the restaurant, its something I’ll have to dig in to but man, was it good. Even if I couldn’t eat 3/4 of what was on the menu.

Anyway. Between the 3 gins and the wine at dinner (what?!), I was already pretty toasty warm despite the rain. But upon our return to the hotel, I discovered a cake & bottle of champagne waiting for us. Because it’s my birthday. Part of why I was so desperate to get away is because I spent my last two birthdays in hard lockdown because of COVID. And while we weren’t facing another lockdown this time around, I needed to feel like the world was normal again. So here we are. With champagne and a peanut butter mousse cake that is delicious. I’m stuffed and have had enough liquor today to make a milestone birthday not seem quite so daunting. The rain is still coming down and we expect it’ll still be rough tomorrow, which isn’t great since we’re flying and there were flights delayed today but we’ll see.

Anyway. Is the rain the world’s way of letting me know it’s grieving my youth with me? I think we can all agree that is very likely.