Last month I was in Brazil to visit my girlfriend, have a short holiday and escape from the cold weather in Holland.
My flight to São Paulo would leave at friday 5 februari at 10 am in the morning from Schiphol airport. Because I did not want to travel in the middle of the night to the airport I decided to take a hotel room near the airport. The cheapest room I could fine was at the CitizenM hotel and it was the closest to the airport. It was 99 euro for one night, no breakfast included. The room was very nice. With lot of design futures. But I don’t think I will stay there again. When you arrive at the hotel there is no real check-in desk. In the hall you will find computers which you can use to check in. For me that is no big problem, I am used to using computers. The whole process is very simple. While I was busy checking in some employee of the hotel walk to my computer and without saying anything he took over the computer and finished the check in process for me. He gave me the key and left again without saying anythings. I thought that was not very friendly. The same happened when I was checking out the next morning. And the employees also only speak english.
After a good sleep I walked to the airport, dropped of my luggage and passed the customs. Then the long wait started. To kill time I walked around the airport. Look at the duty free shops and bought a present. After that I sat down to have a cup of coffee and something to eat. When it was almost time to board the plane I walked to the gate. There was already a long waiting line in front of the security check. When it was my turn the detector kept going off when I passed it. So the customs officer want to search me by hand. After some time he was confinced that I did not have any metal object on me. Which I knew ofcourse.
The take off of the plane was delayed for about 30 minutes. This because of an argument between 2 passengers. It was a couple who’s relationship was not so good I think. The man was threatening a few times to leave the plane. But apparently she did not care. The problem is that when you have boarded the plane it is not easy to get off the plane. With some help of the stewards the situation was resolved and finally the plane would leave.
The flight it self was relaxed. Read my book, watched some movies and talked to my neighbours. Only before the coast of Brazil we had some heavy turbulence. Actually it was not so bad, but we had to stay in our seat and the safety belt. It was more like driving on a bad road. But at one point the airplane flew in a airpocket. Because of that the airplane dropped a few meters. At that point my stomach did not like it so much anymore. 
Luckily after that it was a smooth flight again.
After a 12 hour flight I finally set foot on Brazilian soil. When I left the plan I could feel the hot air already. It felt very nice, considering that it was freezing when I left Holland. Getting through the Brazilian Customs can take some time. So while I was waiting I tried to call my parents. My mother is always nervous when I go flying. So she likes it when I call to tell that I arrived safely. But to my horror my phone would not want to work. It kept saying that the sim card could not be registered. I tried different settings on my phone. And finaly when I restarted my phone it worked again. I was very relieved. So I called my parents, sent a text message to my sister and to Eliana.
Eliana was delayed so I was waiting there for her to arrive. It was nice to see her again after 6 months. Now we only needed to go her appartment. For this we took the bus to Congonhas Airport in São Paulo and from there we took a taxi to her appartment. Everything together it was a long trip, but I was happy to be there and enjoy my holiday.
Soon I will write more.
