Settling In

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Moving to an apartment in downtown Madeira and settling in to a comfortable routine has been just a bit challenging. Why do I have to have a routine going to feel settled?

When we first arrived, our room wasn't ready yet. So we left our luggage and walked to the main Post Office to buy stamps for our post cards. That went smoothly. The Post Office (Correios) looked and operated much like those in the US except that the predominate interior color is bright red and they have racks and shelves of stationery supplies and books. We took a number and had to wait about ten minutes for our turn to speak with a clerk. She spoke enough English to sell us post card stamps at 75 cents apiece, or 1.11 USD.

We were then able to move into the apartment. It is small, but well-organized with a "one-butt" kitchenette. We face south, so get lots of sun. No balcony, but the sun comes into the sitting area and I love sitting on the love-seat, in the sun, drinking my morning coffee. There's a fairly large bathroom with a tub, and a king-size bed in the sleeping area with a nice sized desk. We're quite comfortable.

OK, we've moved in and are ready for our biggest challenge, buying groceries. We've seen no grocery stores, but are told by the young woman at the desk downstairs that there's one across the street at the end of the block. At that site we find a large shopping center, La Dolce Vita. After looking around for several minutes, we finally inquire and are told it is "downstairs". That means we take an escalator down three floors and there it is! We subsequently discover that there is a shopping center every few blocks in this part of town, most of which are not obvious from the street. At the bottom of each center is a "super mercado". Who knew?

Anyway, we have a list and start out to find the items we want. By and large we do just fine. We really get confused when looking for hand-washing soap: all soaps are in one section and it takes careful analysis to determine the difference between dish washing and clothes washing soap. Same problem when buying crackers; they are in the same section with cookies and it is difficult to figure out the difference.

The cuts of meat, fish and produce are all fresh and plentiful. We get enough for dinner that night and breakfast the next morning, plus wine and snacks and the bill comes to 41,55 euros, or $61.53.

A comment on choosing to buy soap for hand washing clothes rather than using a laundry: the only thing we could read on a sign outside a lavandaria advertised a price of 3,70 euros for laundering a t-shirt! We didn't consider the idea of sending our clothes out any further. Fortunately, there's a bar just outside and across the base of our window and we've been using that to dry a few clothes at a time.

We're eating all of our breakfasts in and most dinners. We're out wandering around during the middle of the day, so usually stop at an outside cafe and have sopas and coffee for lunch. "Our" grocery store has a nice deli, so yesterday we each had a large bowl of wheat soup there for a total of three euros! While eating, we could see a TV monitor showing the British Airways jet that came down short of the runway at Heathrow. Since we couldn't read the particulars, we came home and turned on CNN. It is a miracle no one was killed or badly injured.

More later..............

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