Trip to Brazil

It's been more than a year since the last time we went to Brazil. But this time my expectations were pretty different. As I wrote here just after our first trip back, I was a bit disappointed, just because it's hard to see that your country, the place you love and where you grew up, is not the wonderland you imagined it was. But this time I'm not here to criticize my home country neither to talk shit about it. You can find bad stuff every where. I'm here to talk about the good ones. I'm here to talk about how great it was to be back and how I was feeling like. 

Just before boarding, I could feel I was different. This time my main goal was to meet my family and friends and get back. My expectations were too low, I didn't really care how I would feel at the moment I stepped on Brazil's grounds. I just wanted to have fun with my beloved ones, recharge my batteries and head back to my routine, head back home, 'cause now this is home, home is where we make it home, home is wherever my wife and I are.

Having sad that, I'll tell you that the experiences I had were far beyond my expectations. As soon as I landed in São Paulo, I looked for a place to have some snacks at 1am. Nothing better than a good cheese bread and orange juice after some hours of flight. After getting my food and sitting on a table, I couldn't help it but to notice there was an Aussie girl trying to order something at the counter, she was wearing a Brazilian flag as a scarf and I remember she was at the same flight I was. She didn't speak Portuguese at all, so she was quite in trouble to make them understand her, so I went to the counter and translated everything she was saying. At the end of the day, she came and sit with me and we had a chat for a while. She came all the way from Melbourne to Brazil for a Capoeira congress. Jees, how insane is that? And how proud I was of my Brazil?

A couple (7 hours) of hours later I was landing in Brasília, and there she was, waiting for me with a big smile in her face. God, I love this woman. It's just good to be back and great to be in her arms again. The trip finally began and we had to follow a whole schedule to be able to do everything we have planned. It was about nine and I was starving. so my first plan was to go to Quitinete and have their brunch, but for my surprise they were closed and we ended up at the Praliné, which was a good call as well. It was good to be back. 

I won't describe every single moment I had back there, otherwise it would be a bloody long post. So I'll try to shorten the story a little bit.

Despite the fact that I don't feel like living in Brasília anymore, I had such a great time. It was amazing to be at my in-laws' house once again. They treat me like their own son, how wouldn't I feel good with that? I'm the luckiest person in the world because of so many reasons, and that's one of them. 

Okay, now I have about 11 days to do everything we've planned. The marathon is going to start. The order of the facts my vary as my memory doesn't work in a chronological way:

• My first lunch was in the Outback (how come you come from Australia to go to the Outback?) and for my surprise, my wife called my best mates to meet us up there. No words for that, it was just fantastic; 
• We've met Rafa's daughter and had a nice dinner with fondue and wine. Amandinha is so cute, I bet Rafa is going to be in a big trouble in 15 years time; 
• We've had dinner at Danilo and Mari's place. It's so good to see they're fine. Danilo is so proud of their apartment, it's so well designed by his personal architect. Planning of having kids? Yeah, he wants it for yesterday, but she doesn't think it's the right moment. I told him to puncture all the condoms, but he doesn't listen to me kkkkk; 
• We went to a couple of forrós, I'll tell you it's not the same as it used to be, but it was pretty fun. With friends like Vanessa, Pedro, Aline, Day, Rômulo, Camila, there's no way it could not be fun. The first time we tried to have Cone (Sushi) after party and we ended up having pizza. The second time we tried to have hot dog and we ended up having Cone. Shit! There wasn't a third time. I still want to have the Igrejinha's hot dog; 
• We went to Mangai with my in-laws and had so much to eat. Those plates look more like trays than proper plates. I keep filling it up and at the end of the day a kilo was easily eaten; 
• We had a feijoada day, how I missed this. I can't even talk about it without salivating. The damn ass here picked the Father's day for the feijoada. Of course not so many people would leave their family to go there, but it was good anyway;
• We went to Sumô to have a proper Brazilian sushi (after waiting for about three hours at the hospital for my mother-in-law to be sorted out). That honey prawns were just amazing!  And what can I say about my fellas? It's always good to meet them;
• We had pizza in Madair's place. A kind of make-yourself sort of pizza. They have a pizza oven that it's awesome. Whatever you put on the top of the pizza, it just tastes good;
• We helped Victor and Sean to organize the house for Victor's party. It was so much fun. I think I had 10 types of drinks at least. Have I got drunk? No, of course not, but Sean did;
• We did wake boarding with Junior's boat. It's been quite a while since the last time I did it, but I think the snowboard helped me to improve it;
• We went to Porcão to have all kind of meats. Sorry, but the Aussie barbecue doesn't come close to the Brazilian one;
• I went to the city's park for a run with Sean and had coconut water just before picking my wife up at the school. The feeling was great. At least I felt I was burning some of the calories I was putting on.
• We went to Vanessa's apartment for a few drinks and an all special dinner made by Pedro and Lawrence. Far out! It looked like fancy restaurant's food and it tasted just like it as well. At the end of the day, the men always win the game (Vanessa, Lawrence, Pedro, Aline, Michel, Pauline, we had a great time), Mal mal rocks!!!;
• And "to close with golden key", we went to a concert of a band called Sambô with Danilo, Mari, Neto, Ka, Junior and Amandinha. It couldn't be better than that. Next morning heading to Recife. 

I'm sure I did more stuff than this, but my memory is not helping me out. 

At about 10am all my stuff was packed and I was ready to go to the airport. After the good byes and having breakfast with some of my best mates, I was heading to Recife. Getting there, my mom and my niece were waiting for me. It's just good to be with them. Driving to my mom's house, she looked a bit lost and I couldn't understand. For my surprise, there was a party waiting for me at my uncle's new bar with the whole family, a band playing samba and fresh feijoada. How good is that? There's not much to be said. I felt like home and for that I owe all my family. 

The day after I was heading to Itapetim to spend some time with my dad and grandpa. My father is running for alderman, so the time I spent there we were asking for votes and talking to people. I wouldn't say it was a bad experience, but it was certainly a weird one. 

Heading back to Recife, I already had appointments for every single day, each one in a different relative's house. And again I ate all I could and couldn't. I ran a couple of times on the beach and drank coconut water almost everyday. I just had good times there. It's hard to put on words, everything was great, but if you asked me what the thing I'll remember most about Recife I'd say the way I felt.

Feeling! As I said in the beginning of this post, my expectations were low, and because of that or not I had such a great time. But what does feeling have to do about it? There's a song called "Último Pau de Arara" that says "Quem sai da terra natal, em outro canto não para" (Who leaves the birthplace, doesn't stay anywhere). I left Recife when I was 8, I've been there a couple of times afterwards, but being there this time was different, I felt like living there, I felt home, I could imagine my routine there, I was homesick before leaving. So if eventually we go back to Brazil, I think I'll want to live in Recife for a while. I want to feel that again for longer.