Hey!

In the meantime, I'm back already in UK to finish my semester, but firstly I will write about my travel in Brazil. I've been so busy and we traveled so much with not having WiFi that much so I didn't find time earlier to keep you guys updated. I'm sorry!

Day 5, Tuesday April 11

I just arrived in Belo Horizonto and since my mom and I messed up booking flights, I flew on my own so I got a taxi to the city centre and found the hotel where the rest of the group already arrived earlier that day. The hotel looked very nice and we had a view on our balcony over the 'sky line' of Belo Horizonto. Whenever I settled down, we went out for dinner in a really good veganistisch restaurant. By the way, my moms cousin is vega, so I will be eating salads for the next two weeks. But I'm not complaining. The food over here is so good that I'm not even craving to McDonalds yet so that's a surprise to me. However, I'm not so sure whether to continue this vega trend when I'm home again.

Day 6, Wednesday April 12

Today is THE day: Inhotim. We will be celebrating Ron's birthday in this beautiful park located an hour from Belo Horizonto. It was amazing and emotional as well as the parc was really really beautiful. There were lots of musea with photography exhibitions and modern art and I loved it so much. It looked like we were just walking through a jungle. Unfortunately, I didn't spot any monkeys which was really sad. However, it was really amazing and it was a day I'll never forget. Shout out to you Ron. Thanks so much.

Day 7, Thursday April 13

My mom and I took the bus to Ouro Preto today to have some relaxing days in an old cute little town. We sat in the bus for about two hours and it was nice to catch some sleep without mosquitoes that keep you awake all night long. Ouro Preto was so pretty, lots of beautiful churches. We had dinner outside on this really nice terrace and drunk some tasty cocktails. So blessed to be here .

Day 8, Friday April 14

Today, we visited Mariana. We took the train from Belo Horizonto and had a beautiful ride with a panorama view. We saw lots of mountains, wild horses on our way. Whenever we came back to Ouro Preto in the evening, there was the Easter Concession going on which as so interesting to see. Ouro Preto is known for having lots of events going on during Easter so we were lucky to be there. It was a really great experience!

Day 9, Saturday April 15

Our alarm was set on 5am since we had to catch our flight from Belo Horizonto to Sao Paulo. We got a taxi from our appartment to the bus station, sat in the bus for two hours, got another airport bus to Belo Horizonto airport and waited over there for our plane to Sao Paulo. It was a day with lots of traveling and waiting. Whenever we arrived, we visited the appartment of my moms cousin. It's on the 18th floor and it has two balcony's with hammocks. So amazing. We did a little sightseeing through the city and celebrated his 50th birthday at 12am with some drinks in a bar.

Day 10, Sunday April 16

We celebrated Ron's birthday at another vega restaurant with a nice lunch. We bought him a huge chocolade cake so that was a nice surprise. Afterwards, my mom and I did some shopping for friends and family back home. We bought flipflops, Haviana's ofcourse, so much cheaper than back home. Each Sunday, they close the high way in Sao Paulo so my mom and I walked on the high way in the shopping street were a lot of musicians played their instruments. The atmosphere was so relaxing! The people here are so friendly. Suddenly, one guy came up to me and asked me where I came from. We started having a nice conversation and he asked me to take a picture with him. So nice! I made a couple friends here already, some waiters of (vega) restaurants who added me on Facebook. It will be nice to stay in touch and have good memories of this trip.

Day 11, Monday April 17

We had our first rainy day which was okay since it's actually winter in Brazil right now. We can not complain since the weather has been over 25 degrees every single day. We did some sightseeing again, visited market halls were we got some typical Brazilian fruits and went to a piano concert in the evening. I had my first meat burger in the evening, which tasted really really good obviously.

Day 12, Tuesday April 18

It's our last day in Sao Paulo. I've loved the city, however it was so crowed. So many people, so many skycrapers. People sometimes call it New York City 2.0 which I can totally understand. I've visited great things, spent lots of time with the group but it's time to say goodbye now. My mom and I will end our trip in Paraty, were I can finally see some beach. It was so nice to get to know each other and since they all live in different places in the world, I should start planning out some trips to go visit them all. However, I'm so ready for the beach. CU tomorrow tan!

Day 13, Wednesday April 19

I'm currently laying in the sun, on the sand and just had a dive in the water. The temperature is very pleasant compared to the beach back home in Holland. This morning, we visited some waterfalls in the jungle which was really cool to see. We will be having lunch on the beach shortly. They have lots of bars here, made of bamboo. And besides, lots and lots of palm trees. Really relaxing day!

Day 14, Thursday April 20

I woke up with a really bad sun burn from yesterday. The sun here is very bright as Brazil is close to the equator. So instead of getting a nice tan, I'm red all over. But it's okay. Yes. Really. Because I'm having a 5hour boat tour today to visit nice beaches where we can go snorkeling. So really excited. The weather was supposed to be bad but I guess they have a different definition of bad here. It was 30 degrees celcius and very hot so ideal weather to go swimming. We got food on board and there was a photographer who took pictures so I enjoyed it a lot.

Day 15th, Friday April 21

It's the end of our trip. We will be taking the bus to Rio today and fly back tonight to Amsterdam were we arrive tomorrow afternoon. This trip has been a huge pleasure and I hope to come back sometime to South America. I'm so in love with all the people I've met, so friendly, it was a blast to be here and go on this journey with my mom. Thanks to you too. Now it's time to go back to reality, back to uni, back to studying for finals.

And here I am, studying. Exactly. In two weeks my classes will be finished already. I've had my last day of classes yesterday and will be studying for my finals now. I only have to turn in portfolio, essays and the magazine I created so I guess I can deal with that. We threw a party with my roomies this week because of Kingsday which was fun since we bought orange snacks! Lots of people turned up wearing something in orange! Tonight, I'm going to my favorite pub with my German friends who are sadly leaving tomorrow already.

I've had a great time here in UK, met really nice people and most important; I figured out that I really enjoy writing and photographing for magazines so I hope to find a great internship next year to finish my uni with.

So far, until later. I will be posting one more blog in the end of May before I fly back to Holland. I don't get my grades until the end of June so let's just hope I pass because I will be traveling by then as well. (Obviously).

X

Femke