Day 1: The Long Haul

Friday 16th December 2016

By waking up at 4:30am, we had a warm shower before getting dressed and loading the van up with our luggage, which has been weighed and checked from Thursday. We’ve also brought our devices along that’s been charged up and ready for our day ahead to an island called Madeira. We had to stop at Springfield to get someone so that they can drop the van back from the airport.

As we passed our heavy luggage to the check-in desks for it to be loaded into our aeroplane and going through with some security checks, we sat down at a café where we drank some coffee (I had tea) whilst I was eating some breakfast, which contained some fried eggs, sausages, baked beans, bacon and a hash brown. Man, was it delicious!

A delicious breakfast from a cafe in Jersey Airport before going to our gate

After being at the café and going to our allocated gate number (it was gate 10), we boarded the airplane that was provided by Germania, a German airplane service provider, and sat down at our allocated seats. Their estimated flight time was 2 hours and 45 minutes for us to get there directly to Madeira from Jersey, and we were ready for take-off!

The three of us going on a flight to Madeira

Me in front of our airplane, Germania

The three of us sitting comfortably at our seats inside the airplane

After some time into our flight, they had Eddie The Eagle on the TV screens and we watched it whilst listening to the film by our headphones that we brought with us from home. It was fine and all until I had to get brutally ear-raped along with my dad by the captain speaking along with the loud ambient noise. It really made me jump and I quickly disconnected the headphones in order to prevent it from becoming damaged during the announcement, according to Behind The Meme. After that, it was fine. I got some more breakfast from the service they provided during the film, but I didn’t eat it all as I wasn’t too keen to eat because it wasn’t as good as it was before. During the film, I was starting to feel sleepy whilst I was watching the film and (surprise, surprise!), another ear-rape from the captain! This made me jump more than the first one as I ended up flipping the tray, that had a small aluminium tray with my half-eaten breakfast along with some condiments, off from the table and landing it on the floor. I laughed before picking up the food and the condiments up from the floor and cleaning my shoes, before playing on my iPad as I had enough of watching the film due to me being ear-raped twice.

A view of the sun shining above and the clouds revealing a smooth sea underneath

A smooth, yet somewhat bumpy, field of clouds

As we arrived to Madeira, or so that’s what I thought, we slowly began our descent to the island for us to land. I paid attention to the view outside and I noticed that it went around twice as I thought that the runway was being occupied by another plane, but I was wrong. One of the flight attendants made an announcement that we were unable to land and, as a result, we landed to Porto Santo that was 30 minutes away from Madeira as they said that it was due to bad windy weather.

Madeira?

I doubt it's Madeira...

Hmm... it looks like we're in Madeira but we're not...

As we got to Porto Santo, the attendant announced that we need to stay inside the plane for some time as the captain of Germania, as well as the other airlines that landed in Porto Santo, is trying to gain contact with the airport terminal in Madeira to see if we could land there or not. We’re also able to go outside on the stairs that they provided, but the flight attendant also announced us that it would be restricted to 5 people at a time and it would be taken away if there’s any more people on the stairs. I went outside for some time just to keep ahead of my activity goals on my Apple Watch (still going on a streak!) as I have a streak to maintain before going back inside. When I was inside, there was a man who was angry as he hit one of the chairs inside the airplane and the flight attendant told him to calm down or they would call the police on him as he would spend the night in jail. I don’t know what caused him to be like that as I think it was the situation that we were in before. That aside, I was playing Best Fiends Forever, Piano Tiles 2, and BOXD on my iPad before I played Tic Tac Tow with my mum and watching a cartoon called Benjamin the Elephant, which I cringed for a bit as I began to enjoy it later on. Don’t judge me! It was a good episode to watch about how to be economically friendly towards the environment!

Welcome to Porto Santo!

Some time later, a flight attendant made an announcement that we’re able to go to Madeira directly from Porto Santo by ferry at 6pm. We were so relieved that we were finally able to go to Madeira as we left the airplane but there was one exception: our travel documents. Yes, my dad forgot to take them out from one of the bags that was stored inside the plane and, as a result, we had to wait for the luggage handlers to take out everybody’s luggage as well as for the security. It didn’t take too long as we took some photos (they will be uploaded when we come back to Jersey next year on 4th January) with us around the airport that involved some mountainous views of Porto Santo and some airplanes before we were allowed to go inside the airport.

The loyal three companions together in Porto Santo

Me with a crowd of people leaving our airplane

A panoramic view of the runway in Porto Santo

Me going inside the airport terminal

The queue was quite lengthy, but we held up when we got to the desk. We went to the toilet individually before going through a baggage check just in case of any unauthorised items, which we obviously didn’t bring with us. We used a taxi to take us to a café in Porto Santo that’s located not too far away from the airport as we were quite hungry. I had a steak sandwich in Portuguese bread (Bolo Do Caco) and my parents and the same as mine but with lettuce, tomatoes, cheese and ham. It was deliciously tasty as I had Brisa, a Portuguese drink, as my drink with a flavour of passion fruit. Yum!
I passed the time with Super Mario Run on my iPad (it requires an internet connection in order to play it) as I had a Wi-Fi dongle with me turned on and connected to the internet. It was fun until I realised that you had to pay if you want to play all 6 worlds including level (or world) 1-4.

A steak sandwich with lettuce, cheese, ham and tomatoes with Bolo Do Caco

As we were having our delicious steak sandwiches at the cafe, there was a man from behind fixing something on top of the roof. All I can say is that I heard some tumbling and as I looked back, the man was falling from the stepladder and my dad turned into an Olympian as he jumped over the Esplanade fence to help the man out! It was funny but it could've turned into a serious accident. Luckily, with the tumble that the man experienced, he didn't have any serious injuries at all.

As the taxi came and took us to the boat, we loaded our heavy luggage in before heading inside the boat, and boy was it fancy! It felt like we were dreaming but it was real! And best of all: it was free! They had things ranging from bars and restaurants to a cinema and a games room, although things began to take a turn during the journey about the condition of their items…

Going inside the cruise ship, Lobo Marino, with my mum and dad

Goodbye, Porto Santo!

A small bar located outside at the top of the cruise ship

There weren't any incidents or anything with other people, but the picture they had displayed around the boat about the games room was very misleading. One picture had a few arcade games, and another had a bright and colourful image of an air hockey table. When I got there, which was located all the way down on the boat, they had some racing games, 2 air hockey tables, a football table, a fighting game and, the only game I played there, Puzzle Bobble. I gave it a few goes on it as I played it with one 50 cent coin each go, but I found it quite boring after a while as it was the only game that made me interested. The screen was not so good, and the music and sounds just glitch out every now and then by playing it like it normally as it would but with some pops before they don’t play at all as I played it later on. Well, ok then… creepy, I suppose? Bub? Bob? Hello?

An old game of Puzzle Bobble that brought me some joy from the miserable games room

Anyway, let’s go to the cinema! It was better than the games room as I watched Hercules (not the Disney film, by the way) with English audio with Portuguese subtitles before going on a tour around the boat at around halfway through the film. The tour was about what they had available for all of us to use, as well as showing us the exclusive First Class area at the top of the boat. I enjoyed the tour.

I'm in first class (not really)!

Winch me up, Scotty!

Me and my dad going on a tour around the boat with the tour guide on the right

Going back to the cinema, the projector they had was not as good as the ones the cinemas use, but it was watchable as I watched the rest of the film. Man, it was a good, yet intense, film! A good thing to fuel my imagination because I always think all the time about things.

As we arrived at Madeira after 2 and a half hours on the boat, I went outside with my family on the boat to see some bright Christmas lights that lit around Madeira as it was so beautiful and way better than Jersey! We took some more photos with us including the lights before we departed from the boat, collected our luggage and used a taxi to take us to our apartment. We unloaded our luggage there and prepared our items before meeting my grandma (my dad’s mum). Our dinner there was a glass tray full of little bones of meat with a plate of rice, and I enjoyed it.

The lights from Madeira illuminating behind me

Madeira is one bright, yet small, island!

Now that's what I call Christmas!

A heart-warming message illuminating from the harbour in different languages

Oh, Christmas tree! Oh, Christmas tree! You're one bright Christmas tree!

After having our dinner there and beating my activity goals with my dad by walking around outside for some time, we spent some time discussing to my grandma about me being ear-raped by the captain in the plane, the part where someone became agitated and angry, and our time in the boat before I passed the time on my iPad until we came back to our apartment to prepare ourselves to go to sleep for us to be ready for the next day.

It took us 11 hours, 59 minutes and 16.36 seconds for us to get to Madeira, which we started when we got inside the airplane!

Are you enjoying your Christmas holidays so far? Let us know what you think in the comments below!