22/9 – No sunrise really this time.

Mmmm….night in Paris, with dinner and hotel paid, two queen size beds, double balcony, view of Disneyland and the lake just beside it. Could have been quite nice, if it wasn’t because I was really supposed to be somewhere totally else…for example in a Boeing 747 half way over the Atlantic Ocean. Air France seems to struggle a bit with their statistics, not to mention technical issues with their planes at the moment. I have no idea where the spare parts must have been shipped from to cause a 12 hours delay, rather smells like crew issues here I think?

Almost forgot, to make the evening even more exciting, we practiced some evacuation exercises at Charles de Gaulle. Of course this took place in between the events of handing the boarding card to the nice Air France lady and getting the food and hotel vouchers. Wouldn’t surprise me if the drill was all because of a stressed and somewhat distracted person, who just happened to forget his or her luggage in the wrong place. But I guess rather once too many than once too little when it comes to evacuations.

21/9 - Time for a change again.

September could be a lovely month. On the good days you can enjoy the clear and crisp air on a calm morning, take nice long walks along the water and still feel the warmth from the sun when you leave the shady parts. However, a September weekend could also be described with the words: Essen, Germany, canoe polo, camping, 11 degrees, rain, wind and a constantly wet towel. In other words, a whole weekend where the main objective was to avoid getting: 

a) Pneumonia. 

b) Bladder infection.

c) A nasty cold that would stick until spring arrives. 

d) All of the above.

Or, if trying to look on bright side, an exercise in optimising the procedure of: 

1) Take your Gore-Tex boots, woollen socks, Gore-Tex pants, jeans, long johns, woollen underwear, Gore-Tex jacket, sports jacket, woollen jersey, thermal shirt and hat off. 

2) Put your wet bikini, wet neoprene shorts, wet rash guard, wet neoprene west and wet neoprene socks on. 

3) Run to your kayak and put a wet spray deck, wet life jacket and helmet on. 

4) Get on the water as quickly as possible to get warm enough to be able to throw a ball without ripping every muscle fibre in your shoulder apart.

Of course, the reversed procedure was included just as many times as well in the optimisation exercise, with the extra challenge of trying to get dry enough with the soaking wet towel to put your woollen underwear on. Conclusively, after that weekend of blue lips and constantly being cold, it felt like just the right time for the Southern hemisphere again.

For the record, Denmark gave me some payback for the miserable weekend. After moving the last box to the storage place, returning the rental van at Enghavevej, sweeping the living room floor one last time, leaving the keys in the kitchen and zipping my massive bag up (have no idea how I always end up with so much luggage), September showed me it’s best side: Sunshine, a walk along a deserted beach, fresh – but not cold – air, a windsurfer geared up to the max and people making their yachts ready for the winter in the harbour. Thanks Henrik, for the company during the last few hours in Scandinavia, just a shame I didn’t bring you and your professional skills to Paris.

Até amanhã...or so I thought.

3/6 – Cause I’m leavin’ on a jet plane…

…but know when I’ll be back again.

All my bags are packed I'm ready to go, I'm standin' here outside my door…

Six months – time flies when having fun, but looking back I have to admit that I’ve seen and experienced more places and things than I ever expected when arriving half a year ago. Most of the things on the standard tourist list have been ticket off by now, but as always, you can never get enough of experiences, so I’m sure I’ll be able to keep busy in this country next time I get the chance as well.

Pão de Açúcar – double-check, sunset and morning coffee – sunset to prefer
Copacabana – a-few-checks, despite New Years it never turned into a favourite
Petropolis – day-trip-check
Favela tour – check
Lapa – stop-counting-check, will never forget the Caipirinha lady
Buzios – triple-check, including the most expensive Caipis in Brazil and free entertainment.
Paraty – check
Snorkelling tour – double-check
Washing machine experience (read surfing attempts) – quadruple-check at least, none really successful though, think I’ll give up on this sport. Have also had some interesting experiences with a real washing machine…or maybe not a real one, a top feed one.
Rain forest on horse back – check with bonus brown eyes
Pedra da Gávea – sweaty-check with obvious cultural differences in hiking gear.
Pedra Bonita – check
Barra de Tijuca – check, Bintang is the favourite hang out spot, they just need a coffee bar and I would never have to leave their back porch.
Santa Teresa – check, including Escadaria Selarón
Jardim Botânico – check (mental note…do not wear Havaianas next time.)
Ilha Grande – where did those plans disappear? Next time.
Beach buggy – nah, but we tried…
Corcovados – still semi-closed after the rains, at least he got to keep his arms on

Of course, there are a lot of other experiences that will stay in a solid part of my memory for a long time as well. And experiences, which except for being great fun, also caused future traveling plans for around here to get more and more filled up with musts and wants.
During the first couple of weeks every minute outside the office was like a big holiday, at least once my stomach had recovered from the Christmas Party and the less excellent food there, that is. Thanks to my French colleague being in town in December, the restaurants to visit were quickly ticked off the list. Marius can’t do anything but an excellent impression and Porcão is of course a must for a first time foreigner in town.
Arubinha can probably take a top-five position of places to where I’ve spend hours and hours traveling to and from (mainly from) with very varying pay-off considering the purpose of going there. But when it’s good, it’s really good - the kite surfing haven of Rio de Janeiro state with brilliant water and enthusiastic instructors.

And there’s no way I cannot mention the Carnaval, it’s like entering a different universe. Impossible to imagine, just has to be experienced, including being convinced (quite easily even) to pay for getting dressed out as some kind of Arabic shepard with camel heads on your shoulders.
Guess I wish I would be here for the World Cup starting next week as well. Apparently the Carnaval is not even close to what the city turns into during the football party. According to most people, football is probably the most important thing in life - it even beats samba and having nice looking legs in the ranking. And now wonder Brazil is ruling the world when it comes to futebol. If you start playing on the beach when you’re three years old, with a full size ball and full size goals, it is probably hard not to become good at it. Try to dribble a ball of a size up to your knees and you will see.

Another memorable weekend was the canoe polo trip to Londrina, a place no one has ever heard of but brilliant set-up for the sport. So looking forward to meet the Brazilian rock stars again at the Worlds in September and for the next time, Brotas will have a big treasure hunt cross on the map as well.

I’ve also experienced a lot of water, water from above, water in sinuses, water where it shouldn’t be, water everywhere. And sun, massive amounts of sun, even more than water and the Cariocas wouldn’t last long without their beaches.
A couple of days ago I thought Rio was going to show me the same side when leaving as when I arrived. I arrived in rain and thought I was going to leave in rain as well, but instead Rio decided to give me a last few minutes of Brazilian sun to enjoy my last brunch on the balcony.
Anyways, the Brazilian adventure is over for this time. A Scandinavian summer with family, friends, some newborns, a wedding, canoe polo, my purple beauty, Danish North Sea, Café Latte from the IceQueen and hopefully also some waterskiing and kitesurfing is just around the corner.

Até Setembro!