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Most people talk about soulmates… Well, I have a soul-place. I found it on an island 500km off the Moroccan shore, into the deep blue of the Atlantic. The very moment the airlock opened after we landed on one of the most dangerous airports in the world and I took my very first sip of Madeira air, I could feel a mysterious allure I had not encountered anywhere else before. The fact that the average temperature is around 24 degrees Celcius all year round and for the most part there is very little moisture in the air were also strong contributing factors. Madeira was a magical far-away word I had heard in Portuguese class many years ago. It had sparked my curiosity but this is as far as it went until I jokingly suggested it to my friend as our next travel destination. To my great surprise she not only agreed but after a couple of days came back with a 2-week itinerary. The only catch was that it was an agency-organized trip… I have a strong aversion to those. Visiting tourist traps and being on the clock is not how I like to travel. I want to get lost in the small back alleys and sit on a bench for hours soaking up every last drop of the scenery. Unfortunately, I had to yield and jump into the scary unknown of group holidays. Turns out that if used properly and with the right amount of luck those might be interesting experiences as well. You just need the right attitude, a cool tour, a couple of decent travel mates in the group, an external battery pack and a good set of headphones. And so we embarked to discover Madeira – the pearl of the Atlantic which sadly nowadays is more popular for being the birthplace of Christiano Ronaldo which fact is exploited to the fullest in true consumerist fashion. For such a small island, Madeira is full of awe-inspiring and well-worthwhile nooks as the one-of-a-kind tropical botanical garden, Porto Moniz, the ancient rum distillery in Porto da Cruz or the wicker artisans village of Camacha as well as the breathtaking vistas that open up from the many miradouros (viewpoints) which are peppered all around. But the hidden gems that I discovered on Madeira are rarely found in any travel guides, if ever. This journey of extremes started too early in the morning and from the moment we left Funchal it felt like a once in a lifetime ride, mostly because at every turn you literally pray for your life. I still have mad respect for our bus drivers – the way they handled those beasts on the narrow mountain roads was out of this world especially remembering how steep the drops below were. We finally reached our destination - Pico do Arieiro – Madeira’s third highest peak at 1818m. If you chance to visit it on a clear day, you could see the neighboring island of Porto Santo. In a way, I felt luckier it was not such a day as the peak engulfed in fog and clouds feels out-worldly and magical, as if you are about to step into a different dimension if you take the wrong step. The wooden path seems to leads into a aerial nothingness. From there we were whisked off to Monte, on the outskirts of Funchal, majestically sitting atop of a hill overlooking the city. After a short stop at Nossa Senhora do Monte church where Karl Franz Joseph Habsburg I, the last Austrian emperor is laid to rest, we indulged in how the European nobles used to travel down to shore some 40 years ago – a wicker toboggan ride. I used to think that “your life flashes before your eyes” was just an expression. Not any more, not after we barely missed scraping the paint of a bus crossing on the very active streets while going down on an almost vertical hill with no brakes and just two hunky Portuguese dudes steering the sleigh. Nothing on this island is for the faint of heart but you can certainly find more about life and yourself on this small gem of a rock in the Atlantic.