They’re both snazzy descriptions — practically travel catnip. But after a week on São Miguel, one of the nine islands that make up the Azores, I found the Iceland and Hawaii analogies to be a bit, well, lazy and inaccurate. Yes, the Azores were created by volcanoes and have geothermal activity. Other than that, this place has its own pastoral personality, wonderful quirks, unique culinary offerings, and a lot of very narrow European city streets.
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