Old movies, Chinese tea and the snow outside

Today is Valentine's day or as they call it in Swedish, Alla hjärtans dag.  Hubby is working and I am on holiday as it is Sportlov (the official Swedish Ski holiday).  I am not going skiing.  But I am saving my energy for Italy, Rome, on Thursday.  We are thus postponing Alla hjärtans dag to Friday!

I'm spending my time re-organizing my cupboards, drawers and life.  Planning and distributing things I don't need to the waste basket.  Building on my "dream-file" - a file I have covered in collages of pictures of beautiful, exotic places I still want to visit (PS. everybody should have a dream-file.  It's a lot of fun!). 

After all my shuffling about, I start to get tired - the typical holiday relaxation mood.  And the snow falling outside contributes to my mood.  I put on an old movie that I've been meaning to watch for a while, a 1946 film - It's a Wonderful life.  I enjoy the energy with which the actors played in those days and all the drama, songs and words strung together which makes the 1940's the 1940's.  I take out my Chinese tea (bought in China and send to Sweden in a box after we left Asia) and my 5 kronor (R5) IKEA tea strainer, make a cup of delicious tea and sit back and enjoy Alla hjärtans dag!

May you have a relaxed Alla hjärtans dag!

Búzios, Brazil

As a little girl, I remember, I saw a photo in a magazine of a statue of a girl sitting with her suitcase overlooking the ocean. I didn’t know who she was or why she was staring at the ocean in such a beautiful-sad stature. Never knowing that I would someday sit on her lap and look at the ocean with her, I tore out that picture and kept it somewhere.

After we had enough of Rio’s never-ending heat, noise and over-crowded waters, we ran into a fellow South African who told us about Búzios. Again, we didn’t plan it, but it was one of my favorite parts of the trip. We took a bus from Rio to Búzios, without knowing what to expect or what we will find.

Búzios is a small town about two hours from Rio. Once the preserve of pirates and slave traders, then popularized by legendary movie star Brigitte Bardot in the 1960s, a quiet fishing village, now luring peace-seekers away from busy Rio.

Brigitte Bardot had come to Rio de Janeiro with her Brazilian boyfriend but could not leave his apartment without being followed by the paparazzi. The couple escaped to Buzios. While she was there, she fell in love with the town - so much that she stayed for months longer than she planned, and returned often for vacation.

Her statue sits along the main street of Búzios, the Rua das Pedras (Street of stones), overlooking the ocean and the beautiful sunsets.

Búzios is a hidden gem, a treasure. And Brigitt Bardotts saw it and showed it to the world and to me: Fishing boats resting on clear blue waters, fishermen statues pulling ropes along the horizon, beautiful, calm beaches. The best way to explore the curving shore of Búzios is to rent a buggy. Exploring the cobble streets and coastline can be tricky, (use a map!), we got lost quite a lot. It is a paradise once you find the beach. "Mielies" (corn cobs), cashew nuts and coconuts are being sold on the beach by locals on "stalls on wheels" which are very cute. Seafood and beer are a treat to enjoy at the “restaurants” (tables and chairs on the sand) on the beach. We found a room on the street overlooking the ocean with a local family. I remember the woman quite clearly as she had a small room in which she painted Mandalas. The most beautiful ones I've ever seen. She didn't ask us much for the room, and for the location and cleanliness it was a great place to stay. Therefor I would not recommend hotels or even hostels for this little town. Try the locals!

Búzios was our last stop in our South American journey and rounded it up in a magical and peaceful way. We kept prolonging our stay as we fell more and more in love with Búzios until it was really time to go back, otherwise we would have missed our flight.

Rio de Janero, Brazil

Tall and tan and young and lovely
The girl from Ipanema goes walking
And when she passes, each one she passes goes - ah

When she walks, she's like a samba
That swings so cool and sways so gentle
That when she passes, each one she passes goes - ooh

(Ooh) But I watch her so sadly
How can I tell her I love her
Yes I would give my heart gladly
But each day, when she walks to the sea
She looks straight ahead, not at me

Tall, and tan, and young, and lovely
The girl from Ipanema goes walking
And when she passes, I smile - but she doesn't see (doesn't see)

Antonio Jobim.  One of my favorite songs.  And standing on Ipanema beach with this song in my head was priceless!
 

The heat of Rio flabbergasted me. We arrived in Rio and had to find a place to stay as we didn't book. We walked around for what seemed like hours. I wanted to collapse from the heat and having to carry my backpack. I think travel exhaustion also kicked in as we've been traveling South America non-stop for 3 weeks at that time. We found a (crap) room in the end with only a fan in the back of a hostel, with no swimming pool. Luckily after walking around a bit we met a fellow traveller who took us to his hostel with a swimming pool and we could soak our tired traveling souls in the cold water.  Then we started exploring again:

The Brazilian beaches are white sand, clean and popular.  Behind the beach lies a street turned market in the evenings.  Lights shower the beaches green at night. 

Copacabana

Busy nightlife on Copacabana

"As you sunbathe on the beautiful Ipanema beach with the postcard perfect Dois Irmãos rocks to the side of you could be forgiven for forgetting that you are also in a major city; until that is that you realize that the birds patrolling the beach are not seagulls but the notorious city dwelling pigeons! The mixture of these different elements combined with the sweltering heat (which even during winter when I arrived regularly hit 30 degrees plus) gives weight to that quote about it being a "hot, sweaty mess". " - A Flavour of Rio by Rhiannon Ball

Overlooking Copacabana and Ipanema beaches are hotels, high sky-scraper like buildings.  Behind these grand statues are shacks stacked row upon row on the "unique to Rio hills" (shaped like cones).   The shacks truly look as if it might collapse downhill any minute.  But what a true and honest sight!

A city of contrast indeed (although Lonely Planet's travel writing books advises never to use this sentence, as it is seen as a cliché), this is exactly what Rio is.  A city of contrast; the Christ statue overlooks Rio and is indeed as magnificent a splendid as some movies (e.g. Romeo and Juliet) and TV shows (An Idiot abroad) suggests.  For me, this was a highlight (although I had to pray for the fog to lift so that I could see the statue and experience its glorified view). 

Tip: on a foggy day it really is difficult (even if you're standing right underneath it) to see it, for the fog covers the whole statue and the view as well.  But as the fog lifted the whole of Rio lied beneath our feet.  Arms outstretched, this statue, in all its glory is indeed a Wonder of the world and as wonderful and magnificent as pictures and postcards suggest.  Seeing it with my own eyes was something completely different, though. 

Yes Rio has its grimy areas.  On our way to the statue we drove through a small bridge.  And we drove past a body.  Yes, a dead person.  I couldn’t look, he was probably shot.  Danger can lurk around every corner if not careful, but all in all it is a beautiful city and the views from above are gorgeous.

Tip:  staying in a hotel right on the beach with a magnificent view isn't always that expensive, it will surprise you.  The prices could surprise you and it's worth having a look. The hotel we stayed in in the end had a swimming pool on the roof overlooking the spectacular view of Copacabana beach and Sugar Loaf hill.

Tip:  At the night street market you can buy small, beautiful hand painted paintings of the Rio hills and its shacks: a great memorabilia or present that can be framed at home.   

We weren't in Rio in Carnival time, but traces of it could be seen everywhere.  To describe Rio de Janero I would use the following words:  Surprising, hot, abundant, sweaty, messy and an unusual contrast.