While in my seaside high-rise apartment, I had decided early
on not to extend my stay. I looked into
getting into my favorite place on the other side of Funchal, but it was booked
up for the next month. Not that I’m
surprised. Still a little disappointed, though.
No matter. There are
a surprising number of rental units on the island. As long as I could stay in the city or surrounding
area and the price didn’t give me a heart attack, I was willing to explore more
of the island.
I packed up and trudged to a nearby cab. As we traveled further up the hills, the
amiable cab driver asked where I was from.
He then told me that while he had been born in Madeira, he’d lived in
South America for forty years before returning to the island. The conversation turned as we both tried to
find the address of the new place.
Why is this such an issue on the island? The hosts give me an address over the Airbnb
app and it is all I have to guide the cabbies. Most of the time they can find
the street, but the addresses are too vague to give any clue as to where the place
is. The cabbie stopped by the side of the road and I thought he was dumping me
there figuring we were close enough. I
got out of the cab only to find that he had disappeared. The hell?
Turns out he had gone to the nearby gas station to ask for
directions. We were close to the apartment, but it was one tier down the hill. He
got me there, not charging me for the time we were stopped, and helped me out
with the bags.
The host’s daughter was actually standing by the gate to the
apartment, waiting for the
cleaning people to arrive as they were running late. I’d already gotten permission to drop my bags
off early while the apartment was cleaned.
Getting into the building is a windy, annoying nightmare as some of the elevators don’t work. Daughter and I found this out the hard way as we tried two separate banks of elevators before hitting one that worked. There were two elevators but only one was in service and could only be accessed from certain floors. There were stairs outside of the building leading to every floor except the 5th floor. Which is, of course, where we needed to go. Fun!
Disregarding that pain in the butt, the place is … awesome! This is just the layout I want for my new place. Two bedrooms, two baths, a spacious living room and a separate kitchen. Though, I do have a few notes.
Back to my issue with bathrooms – tub in the main bath, yay! Half-partition on the tub, no. The door to the second bathroom opens in the wrong direction (there’s a stopper in both bathrooms to keep the door from swinging into the toilet), even when there’s plenty of room on the other side. I would lose the bidet in the main bath for more space.
I’m also not crazy about the gray hardwood floor (I would
prefer a brown shade over the gray). The
place has an oven, which is great, but it also has an induction cooktop. I’ve encountered these things far too many
times on my journey and I STILL don’t like them. Give me a good old gas stove or even an electric
range and I’m straight. Even with my issues, the place is just what
I’m looking for.
The Madeira Shopping center is in walking distance. It is a busy living mall with a Continente
located on the lower level (as Pinga Doce is like Publix in the U.S. south,
Continente is more aligned with Target – even down to their logo).
While there is much to see in the mall, that’s basically all there is in the area. It’s just a bunch of houses with the occasional store. If you don’t have a car, it’s expected that you will take the bus or grab a cab to get anywhere.
I learned this on my first full day in the apartment when I
went out to explore. After walking a
good half hour towards the water, I realized there was no easy way for me to
get there. I could clearly see the water
from the apartment (there are great views all around the place), but the city
was miles away down windy routes that didn’t always have sidewalks. Since I’m still too cheap to take taxis
everyday and there is no way I’m driving in Portugal (despite the number of car
rental places and dealerships all over the place) I would FINALLY have to dip
my toe into learning the bus system.
There are two bus stops in short walking distance from the
apartment, so I picked one and took the leap.
My phone told me that the #8 would take me down to the shore for the
price of 1.95 euros (why not 2 euros? I don’t know.) for a single journey.
After a short wait, the right bus arrived. I got on after another woman to see how to
pay. She, like most residents, used an
app on her phone that she just scanned for entry. Some others had a physical card that they
scanned. Tourist-me had to shell out the
euros, then wait for my receipt and my 5 cents in change before choosing a
seat. I sat there grinning like an idiot
during the journey and feeling like Lisa Simpson on her first solo bus trip. I just hoped I didn’t get lost like her.
I made it to Funchal and, after my lunch and walk, went
back to the same bus stop for the return trip.
My mistake was in not finding a bus stop on the opposite side of the
street. There is a definite stop point
on the route where everyone has to get off.
We reached that point (taking me back to where I’d started my walk to
the bus stop), and everyone had to get off.
At least there was one other person who’d made the same mistake and we both
got back in line to reboard (and repay).
You live, you learn.
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