lifes crazy, sorrry for the delay.
again, going to divide my time in salvador into many parts.
here we go:
Dia 15 de Dezembro:
Awoke early to travel to BH, slept most of the time except when my head would be slammed against the window.
when we arrived, we met up with my sister who would be going to salvador with me, just me and her :D we had lunch and wondered through the huge and riduclously expensive mall. our flight wasnt until 10pm so we chilled in her apartment after my mom left. Amalia went to US this summer for a month just to pass through, staying in Chicago & Michigan. she showed me her beauitful photos, just having some sister bonding time :D
the airport is really annoying for me. i have to travel 3hrs from ipatinga to BH. then you have to take a taxi in the city to the bus station. from the bus station, takes you another 50min to actually get to the airport.
chato. bagunça.
chilled in the airport, had a snack of pao de queijo (classic snack of "cheese bread" of MG) all the flights were delayed cause of the hoildays and cause it poured down rain, so we had to wait and wait and wait.
eventually we did get on our flight and it took another hour and a half to get Salvador, Bahia.
after all this traveling, i realized how much i LOVE to travel. you think i should already know this, ariana you travel all the time when youre in Brasil, you TRAVELED to brasil. but i realized i LOVE it so much.
i love the overpacking cause you dont know what you want to wear each day; i love falling asleeep on the long car rides, listening to my ipod; i love getting a taxi and literally flying around the city, unless we are stuck in traffic; i love going through secruity in the airport, afraid that i accidentally have a pocket knife in my pocket like Dad had when we went in the empire state building, remember?; i love being placed next to some random person on the plane and feeeling as if they became like a father figure to me; i love the fear of losing your luggage but the fear instantly dissapears when you see it turning the corner.
i love traveling.
anyway, we got into Salvador, 12midnight there time but it is an hour different so my body thought it was 1am so alll i wanted was a bed, soon.
we were staying with my mother's brother, his wife and daughter. i feeel completely horrible but cant remember their names cause they are really unusual names,and i just called them, Tio, Tia, Menina (uncle, aunt, girl which is okay here haha)
Dia 16 de Dezembro:
i wake up in the morning, completely lost: where am i, who am i with, what time it is, what am i doing here.
then i remember i am in salvador, bahia.
i'm awake now, no time for sleep.
i roll out of bed and wonder through the house, trying to find my family.
there are around 20workers throughout the house, because my family is redoing their house, making it even more huge.
jim allison can tell you, that after a rough night of sleeep, i am not looking presentable, at all, and there they are, 20men, saying, ooh ola bom dia.
..maybe i should go change and take a shower?
my grandfather comes over and takes my sister, my cousin and i around the city, showing us everything.
little info about Salvador, Bahia:
Bahia is in the north of Brasil, one state above me (MG) Salvador is the captial city of Bahia, on the coast, therefore huge, beauitful and full of history. when portugal settled in brasil, they brought over many slaves from africa therefore more than half of the population is of african descent. you can tell who are the tourist or foreigners cause if you are white, you are not of Bahia.
we are driving through the city and i am just falling in love little by litttle
we stop the car and my grandfather says, okay get out, we are gonna eat some food of Bahia.
just picture the south of US, african americans who love fried food, in brasil cause that excatly what is was. i think it was ground up beans that were fried then they threw some spicy flavor then shrimp. dont know but i liked it.. knda.
ooh and Bahia LOVES spicy foood. they ask you if you want it hot or cold, meaning do you wannt to live afterwards cause of the spicy-ness or would you like to experience the flames of Bahia in your mouth.
we went to this lake people, still today, wash their clothes in the water, old fashion way. and where people swimm in, even though my grandfather said there were SNAKES !
we went to a few musems, some lighthouses, all taking wayy too many pictures, trying to capture the culture of Salvador.
we drive and drive and i fell asleeep a litttle (i realized now that i can fall asleeep WHEREVER)
that night we went out to this hotspot in town having a nice late night dinner (it was 11when we sat down, 12 when we actually ate) i had this delicious shrimp wrap ..seafood :D
Dia 17 de Dezembro:
after lunch, we headed out to this market where they sell classic things from bahia, where i bought everyone presents :D
we then went to the "upper half of brasil" where it's all the history. we had to take this elevador up to the top and i thought of when we went to Pittsburg this summer and went up the incline, one of the hottest day of the year in PA (that was NOTHNG compared to brasil, nothing) and everyone was struggling to breathe.
the elevador took us up and we walked out into this courtyard with historical homes and buildings. it looked like i walked into europe. we walked through narrow streets of stone, betweeen shops, between churches. it was so beauitful !
we wondered into this church and somehow got a grand tour of it alll. it had a courtyaard that had beauitful blue handpainted artwork of stories of the bible on the walls. then we went inside.
my mouth is still open in amazement.
i have NEVER seen something so beauitful, more beauitful than Leo Dicaprio.
every.single.inch of the church was in gold. everywhere you loooked, it had gold. i feeel like i neeed to find other words than beauitful but seriously, it was BEAUITFUL.
it almost had TOO much gold, like they went OVERBOARD. but you cant really go overboard when you are creating God's House.
I've decided that i am gettting married in this church. I dont care what my husband says or that it was a catholic church and i am not catholic, when i saw that church, i knew, i KNEW that i would have my wedding ceremony there :D
to be continueddd..
