Travel for Love

I grew up in Pittsburgh. Here, the important sports are (American) football and, to a lesser extent, hockey. We do have a sorry excuse for a baseball team and some people pay attention to Pitt (University of Pittsburgh) basketball. My exposure to sports other than those, including soccer, was very limited. I never knew anyone who was a soccer fan growing up, and probably didn’t realize how popular it was in other countries until I was in college.

In 2006 the World Cup came and went, and I was rather indifferent. I do remember seeing the end of the final game between Italy and France after happening upon a crowd of people around the TVs in a mall food court. I stopped to watch the historic last few minutes of the game, surprised I barely even knew the World Cup was going on. I saw the end of the game, remember something about a head-butt, and continued with my shopping.

But my indifference towards soccer has changed. Perhaps being in a relationship with a Brazilian who has the expected level of fanatic-ness has something to do with it. I must say, Roberto’s passion for soccer has rubbed off on me quite a bit. Whenever Brazil plays it becomes a group social event with BBQ, drinks, cheering frenzies and friendly wagers. I have a blast attending these kinds of functions and, with my patient teacher, have learned quite a bit about the sport, players and history.

As a traveler, I’ve also learned to appreciate soccer in a different way. Even if the US is slow to catch on, soccer is truly the world’s sport. As I learn while traveling with Roberto, soccer is somewhat of a common ground between its fans from all walks of life. So many people from around the world share this common passion that it’s hard not to be intrigued. Soccer tends to creep in to the travel experience when we don’t plan for it, such as watching Real Madrid vs. Barcelona while in Madrid last April, watching little boys kick the ball around barefoot in Cairo, and seeing the remnants of celebrations (and cars painted) in the streets of Istanbul after their Fenerbahçe got really far in the Champion’s League.

So I am enjoying this year’s World Cup, especially now since I know about many of the players (and certain infamous coaches who shall remain nameless) and have a good understanding of how the tournament works. I am SUPER excited to see Brazil play this week!

So, Americans, give the sport a chance this World Cup. Enjoy the games!

(footballfancast.com)

This time last year, actually one year ago today, I was on the plane on my way to Brazil for the first time. There were so many thoughts and emotions about finally seeing Roberto again, anticipating actually being there in Brazil, and seeing his hometown that they all just blended together into a surreal nervous anticipation.

I landed in Sao Paulo after an overnight flight on May 28, 2009. It was so foggy (smoggy?) that morning that I saw nothing of the city, and the captain announced that our 777 would be landing on auto-pilot. At that point I had to exit security and check back in on a different airline to fly to Floripa. It was tough for me to figure out where I needed to go and I was surprised to realize NO ONE spoke English! I had a pretty long layover, including waiting outside security until they opened the check-in for my flight and paying an overweight baggage fee.

Finally I landed in Floripa, which was gorgeous. Roberto was there waiting for me and, just like that, it was as if we’d never been apart. I’m happy to say it’s been that way every time we meet each other after several months apart; we just fall back in place together like normal. I think that’s because we talk so much every day but who knows. We spent one night there in Floripa in a cute little pousada before heading down to Criciuma the next afternoon.

When we finally got of BR-101 close Roberto’s parents’ house it was already dark. Their house is up on a hill, and the whole place was lit up when Roberto pointed it out to me as we approached. My first impression of Brazil was fairly inconclusive and I really didn’t know what to expect at this point. I was nervous!

Throughout the time Roberto was here I kept telling him I wanted to meet his family and see where he came from before we got really serious or decided to get married or something. He’d told me all about them, I’d seen pictures, and even talked to his mom on the phone, but I still had a need to see it all for myself. I had to make sure it was all not so completely different from where I came from. I needed to know if, if I had to, I could live there.

Maybe I expected all this to be crystal clear as soon as I showed up and that’s why I was so nervous. Like, if the house was clean enough, big enough, new enough I would suddenly be ok. Or if it was terribly disappointing then this whole trip would be ruined. It really was a lot of self-inflicted pressure for no reason!

We pulled up to the lit-up house and all sorts of extended family was there to greet me warmly and fuss over me. I walked in to a loud, fun Brazilian BBQ party. As I went in to the house surrounded by the warm welcome of a group of strangers who took me in as family, I felt silly for all the pressure I had put on this visit. For what? It was all so simple and natural – the common bond of people from all over the world was bigger than some quick assessment I could make of a place. How could I be nervous about that? Then again, part of me didn’t feel silly about the pressure because it was all ok. I knew.

It’s not unusual that our most memorable travel experiences are often coincidental events that don’t show up in guidebooks.

My mom and I spent a night in the Le Meridian Pyramids as part of a 2 day tour of Cairo and Giza. I have plenty of other things to blog about from that tour, but first I want to share one of the most memorable (and completely random) things we witnessed in Cairo: An Egyptian wedding!

It was late in the evening after a full day of hectic travel through Cairo. I was intrigued by the hotel lobby when we checked in because there just seemed to be people there from everywhere. We decided to go down for a drink after checking in to our room (with a view of the pyramids! incredible!), and sat back for some good old fashioned people watching. Indeed, we hit the people watching jackpot that Saturday night!

View from the room!

The lobby of the hotel was very “majestic,” with marble floors, a giant chandelier, and a grand marble staircase as the focal point. While we sat in the open lobby bar, we noticed some interesting activity. Hotel employees were setting up big lights on the staircase, people in fancy formal dress were scurrying around, and we started spotting random band members carrying drums or warming up on trumpets.

All of a sudden, out of nowhere, the lobby lights turned off and the bright spotlights lit up the staircase. A band appeared at the base of the stairs and the drummers began drumming a slow beat. Conversation abruptly halted in the lively lobby and every eye focused on the top of the stairs as a beautiful Egyptian bride surrounded by her bridal party appeared on the open second floor.

The tempo of the drums increased as she made her way to the top of the stairs all lit up by the bright lights. We noticed a crowd had appeared at the bottom and bride’s attendants began to line the staircase holding giant candles. The bride and her dad (and maybe her brother??) paused dramatically at the top of the steps bathed in lights. She wore a typical Western white strapless wedding gown and her hair was down and uncovered.

A slow song began to play as the bride made her way down the stairs, increasing in volume and tempo as she got closer to the bottom. The crowd was getting excited and friends and family were snapping photos and video, as were the other guests in the hotel. I tried to be discrete with my iphone but there were quite a few tourists pushing their way right up front to get a good shot of this ceremony. It was then that we noticed the groom was waiting at the bottom of the stairs for his bride.

All of a sudden, the bride reached the bottom of the stairs and joined hands with her new husband. The band exploded into a loud fast paced song of celebration, all the lights turned back on, and the friends and family cheered and danced around the couple in a frenzy. The music continued for about 10 minutes while the bridal party did traditional dances circling the couple. Old ladies wiped away tears, men hugged and shook hands, and the whole group danced and cheered in celebration of this dramatic moment.

As suddenly as it began, the dancing stopped and the band was lining the stairs. The whole group began a procession up the stairs into one of the ballrooms to celebrate the night away. The lobby returned to normal and it was business as usual, except for us wide eyed guests still marveling at what had just happened.

I think it’s so neat how this wedding was an incredibly public celebration! I am not sure what part of the ceremony we witnessed – was there a religious wedding earlier in the day at a mosque? Was the couple married before the bride reached the bottom of the stairs? What did this ceremony symbolize?

All I know is we felt very special to witness such an incredible celebration and sneak peek into a fascinating culture. And boy were the rest of the folks on our tour jealous when we told them what they’d missed!

Warning – boyfriend gushing below!

Roberto and I have taken lots of trips together over the past 2 years. We traveled all over the US when he was still here, traveled around Brazil a lot, and visited Europe, the Caribbean, Hawaii, and Argentina. We have settled in to a nice comfortable travel style where we compliment each other’s strengths and weaknesses: he drives and I navigate (ALWAYS!), he carries the heavy stuff and I hold onto the important stuff (netbook, ipods, passports, reservations), and when we buy drinks we put them in each other’s backpack pockets for easy access. We make most decisions together and we both have a go-with-the-flow attitude when visiting places, often making spur of the moment decisions.

While I am grateful for such a good travel companion in general, I also get to enjoy some benefits and unique aspects of traveling with a Brazilian. These things would likely not be the case if I were traveling with another American.

Note that while many of these topics are characteristic of Brazilian culture I’m not trying to generalize or stereotype – really I’m just talking about traveling with MY Brazilian, and can’t speak for the rest of them!

The Language Thing

Of course, I rely on Roberto like crazy when I travel to Brazil. Sadly, I am not coming along as far as I’d like with learning Portuguese partly because he’s just so darn good at translating everything for me. I would truly be lost traveling in Brazil without his help!

But he’s even super useful outside Brazil! His Spanish is also very good, so I can thoroughly depend on him in Spanish-speaking countries too. This really helps when we run into people who don’t speak any English, or quickly exhaust somebody’s English phrases. This has the added benefit that Roberto can have more in depth conversations with locals, get better travel advice, and really just warm people up by speaking their native language.

I usually sit back and listen during these conversations, understanding maybe half of what’s being said in Spanish and not much more in Portuguese.

Of course, being fluent in a couple romance languages doesn’t help much outside Europe and the Americas. We’ll both be equally lost when we travel to other places like Africa and Asia.

Conversing with the locals…

Brazilians are Everywhere!

We’ve run into Brazilians in the most random of places. There was that family from Sao Paulo we met on an airboat in the Everglades, the group of Capoeira dancers in front of Sacre-Coeur in Paris, and the group of Brazilian women sitting behind us on the motorboat in the Bruges canals.

This is fun because, they are always delighted to find other Brazilians and start sharing life stories. Usually they’ll talk to us both in Portuguese and I’ll follow along as best I can nodding and smiling until Roberto gets around to telling them I’m American. Then typically one of them will address me in English and tell me about their sister/uncle/friend/primo who lives in Miami/NYC/Boston.

It’s nice to feel a sense of community among Brazilians who meet out in the world. It’s a bit different from meeting Americans because I don’t think we have the same kind of pride in our culture as Brazilians do. Not to say we aren’t patriotic – it’s just different with American cultural influence being so far reaching. Brazilians don’t have a familiar churrascaria in every major city the way we have McDonald’s, so they seem to find much more joy out of meeting people from back home.

The Common Thread – Soccer

Since the rest of the world loves soccer for reasons us Americans can’t seem to understand, traveling with a bona fide member of the soccer-loving community has its perks. For every region we’ve traveled to, Roberto seems to know enough soccer facts to engage the locals in an in depth conversation about their popular teams’ rivalries and recent matches, best players and coaching woes, and that country’s performance in the most recent world cup and their predictions for 2010.

Bonding over a soccer match in the DR.

What this means to me? Well, Roberto’s bonding with folks over their passion for soccer is a great way to meet people and make friends. He’s broken the ice through soccer with just about every cab driver we’ve ever had, often then moving into some great tidbits on what to do in the area and what to avoid. We’ve had tons of fun getting to know waiters and bartenders through soccer which usually leads to free drinks and chef “experiments” not to mention great advice on local nightlife.

I think some of the waiters in the touristy areas enjoy us (Roberto) making an effort to get to know them, and talk about something meaningful to them rather than which tourist sites we should see next.

In General

In general we’ve found that foreigners (this was true in the US too) are often super intrigued by Brazilian culture and want to learn more. They have ideas of a beautiful and exotic land with gorgeous people and a fun loving culture (well that sounds about right!). Brazil isn’t often in the forefront of international news so these assumptions live on. This is an interesting contrast to American culture, which most other countries are exposed to plenty. There’s no mystery to being American.

It’s been a great experience for me to travel with Roberto and begin to understand global perceptions of Brazil, the US, and international relationships from various perspectives. I like to think of it as an unexpected perk of having a multicultural relationship!