(Editor’s Note: The following is the first installment of a three-part series that chronicles one student’s summer trip to the Azores.) 

 The summer of 2016: a vacation to the other side of the world, a different culture, and days to remember. For most of my life, I’ve never really been on a big vacation. The first time I had a big vacation was when I went to Disneyland when I was six years old, and I don’t remember much of it. Of course, I do go to Maine almost every year and I’ve been to Canada a few times as well. But that wasn’t really what I was yearning for. I wanted to go to extravagant, fun, tropical places – just like most of my friends go on all the time. You know, the Bahamas, the Caribbean, Hawaii! So when after years of being told we’d get to go on a real family vacation, I was ecstatic that I’d finally be able to live my dream. I was headed to the islands of Portugal: the Azores.

Now, back to how my trip went. I got on an actual, big plane for the first time in a while. Of course, I wasn’t nervous, though, because I’ve been on many different old-fashioned planes. No, I was excited and took in everything I observed. I had an overnight flight that was going to land on the island we would be staying at, São Miguel. Of course, with my luck, the plane ended up temporarily landing on the small island of Sante Maria that was south of where we were headed, all due to heavy morning fog. So for around an hour or two, everyone on the plane was stuck in one of the smallest airport buildings I’ve ever seen, not allowed to leave, and getting very hungry. Fortunately, the pilot finally called us back for departure and in less than an hour, we had landed on the island.

Day one of our adventure, Monday, June 13th, was pretty bland. After landing and gathering all our stuff, we drove to the house we’d be staying at in the town of Pilar Britannia. We were in the northwest part of the island in a pretty rural area, away from the main city. The house was pretty small and quite old-fashioned, not to mention pretty dirty from not being used for a while. My aunt, nana, brother, Mom, Dad, and, of course, me, would all be staying there for the next two weeks. I never got much alone time there, so often I would climb up onto the roof of the house and listen to music, draw, or just admire the view. Anyway, since we were getting settled for most of the day, we didn’t do much except unpack, drive around, and find a restaurant to eat at.

Finally, the adventure had begun and I was exhilarated for the days to come. Tune in next time to hear about the next part of my adventure in the Azores!