Life is weird, the way it is throwing things at you unexpectedly… a couple of months ago, as I am getting ready to go to work, I am getting my morning “fix” of urban music on Mtv base, when…my land line suddenly rings, at 7h15 in the morning. Its Herve, my best friend, who is so excited on the phone, I can barely understand a word of what he is saying. Between two breaths of air, I hear thing like Rio, amazing, girls, and gmtv, ah, finally something I can put my finger on (did you see what I did there?) Under duress, I shift slowly from urban music to the white sand of Rio de Janeiro and wooow, I am taken aback by the view of an incredible brunette, blending drinks behind a bar, with a stunning view of the sea of Copacabana beach on her right hand side. And for a couple a seconds, I have traveled 9000 miles to be next to her…
As I am still gawping at the screen for another batch of seconds: the landline “wakes me up”, it's Herve, again, asking me how do I feel? The idiot, how could I possibly feel when I just watched a 3 min program full of Gisele Bundchen replicas (blondes or brunettes) where the biggest piece of clothing worn in, is a tank top. I am muttering something like; great, fantastic, excellent, wow, wish I was there, then we talked for a few more seconds and I hung up. Just to pick the phone up again, to call my travel agent to find out just how much the “Brazilian dream” could cost me. After playing with his keyboard for ages, he gave me some price in between 700 to 850 £ and that was just for the flight, as I was about to thank him nicely for his time, and hang up, he ask me if I would be considering non-direct flight. When I ask him what he had in mind, he tells me that by transiting to Paris, I could save 45% on it!
Now there is someone who is speaking my language, and he isn't even French!(did you get that?) I listen to his suggestion; technically, there are flights to Rio de Janeiro from anywhere in Europe, but the place where it is cheaper, at the moment, is Paris, in France! And he is back on his computer again; after a few moments, this time, I can “feel” his smile throughout the phone, especially when he gives me the final price, 432£, including taxes! The connection flight in Paris with “Air France” will increase my trip considerably, but after all, what is an extra 2 or 3 hours, when you are saving so much money? I pre book it, get dressed as soon as I can to go to work and while in the tram, I am going through various scenario in my head to justify my holiday to my team leader!
To my amazement, he agrees, no one is absent on this period, so…why not? Still not believing my luck, I don't stop repeating myself this sentence: “I am going to Rio, I am going to Rio!!!”(with a Chris Rock voice) You see, I come from the small island of Martinique in the Caribbean, and back there, any flight out was so expensive that, traveling around really was a dream! So when I arrived in Europe and I discovered prices as little as £20 for a half haul trip, I promised myself that everywhere I could go, I would go!! And Brazil was always top of the list. When I contacted Herve that night to tell him about it, he laughed, very loudly! Of course, his laugh ended when he saw the tickets that had been issued to me by the travel agent with the airport code of Rio de Janeiro written on it. Even when I will be 50, I will still remember his face, priceless!
In Paris a few days later, despite hearing Portuguese all around me, I still haven't grasped the idea that I am heading for the partying capital of South America. I managed to get a good seat at the check in, therefore I am sat next to a window, with plenty of legs space (I am 6ft3) and a free seat between me and Bernard, the 62 years old retired, divorcee French man who is also fulfilling his dream of seeing Rio “before he dies”, which is an old French adage we had for years, “voir Rio et mourir”, (to see Rio and die)! The lovely air hostess is offering us some champagne, which disappoints me slightly, as I was expecting plenty of cachaca throughout the flight! She kindly explains to me that it is usually the case when you come back from the country. Therefore all I could get now is French alcohol.
