Sorry about last week, it was a chaotic few days of traveling, but I am back for part two of madeira. I am just going to jump straight into it.

If you remember, I spoke about Christmas nativities that were built up around the island of Madeira. The reason I used the word “build” is because these nativity scenes are GIGANTIC. Some are even motorised with full on moving people and water features that adorn a reasonably sized space to exhibit the traditional nativity scene. It is quite intense to think of how much work went into each set up, considering the size and detail that it takes up.   You can find a nativity scene literally in every town.  Since it was a respective time of the year, there was always Christmas music playing in the streets of the towns so even if I wasn’t able to see the extent of the Christmas decorations and nativity scenes, the music never failed putting in the Christmas spirit.  Also, the Christmas markets in towns made if more festive with the smells of the delicious traditional foods being made. 

If you haven’t seen or been to the Island, I would describe it by having the tiniest of streets that I really cannot imagine all the cars driving on. It may de strange as I have seen and driven on these streets, but it is still unfathomable to me. The old roads are very curvy and narrow which is why they have now built highways to help get around quicker.  There are cobbled streets in towns all over the island and there are the originally styled pale yellow and pink houses with green shutters that you can see pop up whilst drive around madeira.

Ok, now for what I wanted to talk about. The New Year’s Eve fireworks. We were almost late for them but that made it all the more thrilling when we had to run through the thousands of people, through the main town Funchal towards the marina, to find the rest of the family to view the well-known fireworks. I had been anticipating the fireworks the whole day because the last time I saw them was before I had my surgery, so I didn’t know how loud it was going to be.

For those who do and do not know, my other senses are relatively stronger since losing my eyesight, so I didn’t know what to expect when we stood under the explosions of colour. Once the clock struck twelve, the first few fire works went up, and the sound was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. It was totally incredible getting to stand right under the sparkles of lights. The vibe of everyone around us was amazing. The seven ships that were docked in the harbour all honked their horns and the stroke of midnight.  The vibe was insane.  I’m sure people would agree that you could just feed off the energy of the thousands that were dancing, yelling, laughing and just having a great time. I know I definitely did. As the crazy person I am, I eventually grabbed my parents and started dancing with them all over the place. People must have thought that I had one glass too many, but I honestly had only had water the whole day. Maybe some iced tea when I felt a bit rebellious, but I believe that you don’t need a drink to have a good time.   Madeira Island is known for their firework displays as can be seen in the Guinness World Records.

I hope you all had an amazing Christmas and New Year’s. I would love to hear  all about it. I am wishing you all the best for the new year. I’ll be back next week, good luck to all of you starting work and school this week. I feel that this year is going to be a great one.