São Paulo – Guarulhos. We land and already know everything and where to go, it’s a little bit like a trip into the past. Or not. In 2009 when I first came into this circle of friends I found a place to crash in the shared apartment of Felipe, Fernando, Daniel. After that my brother and I joined the wedding of Mariana and Fabricio at the beach in 2011. A dream wedding. In 2014 Matthias and I stayed with Danilo and Paula and celebrated New Year’s Eve with the whole gang, at the beach of course. Matthias learned how to make authentic Brazilian Caipirinhas. Now it’s 2018 and more friends got married, have kids and dogs. Marcelo now lives in Barcelona, Danilo and Paula live in Mainz, Germany. All three of them are in Brazil as well by coincidence. They stay with Felipe. We will sleep at Mariana and Fabricio’s place.
We ring the bell. A hearty “gringos” sounds through the intercom. And there it starts with the hugs. Brazilians love hugs and touching. 😊 We are knocked out by having been up all night and lay down for a bit. At night we meet most of the gang in a bar. There is lots of beer, Caipirinhas, cigarettes. The next day there is a hangover lunch (nobody wants to meet earlier). We order typical Brazilian food and again beer. Oh my goodness. And like the night before everybody is talking all over the place, people are laughing a lot. How much I missed that! That’s why I love the São Paulo gang.
In the afternoon we meet everyone again at Mariana and Fabricio’s place. The mounting of the hammock crashes down. Again everybody laughs. Again there is beer, again everybody is talking in a chaos. And like every other time I pack my stuff in the background while the other still sit together and chat. And again there is this feeling, that you don’t want to go. The Brazilians have grown too much on me. They are all very different, but I like each and everyone of them very much. Saying goodbye is hard as ever. A lot of hugs, a lot of touching. Fabricio drives us to the airport. This time not like in an action movie with crazy overtaking maneuvers. We have enough time and drive relaxed. I have tears in my eyes when we say goodbye. Damn, every time I am sad at this airport. São Paulo – Guarulhos, horrible. But there is already a new date set. 2021, for the tenth anniversary of the wedding of Mariana and Fabricio there will be a big party. At the beach of course. Where else?
