Brazil - The Wedding

Dinner for some

In the evening, we should all meet at a certain place for a beer or two before going to get some dinner. We all agreed to meet

around 10pm at a bar. (We very quickly learned the Brazilian concept of precision - At 07:00 am precise = sometime the same day)

We waited and waited. Finally we had some dinner

So nobody was surpriced when Freddy and Martin did not show up on time. As time went on, we began to wonder a bit, and after 2 hours of waiting we ordered some food as we were starving. Then came the rain and the other guests rushed inside. We however stayed and finished our meal but the waiter was a bit irritated. We had to give him a generous tip.
Freddy and Martin didn't turn up at all, and we were somewhere between slightly worried and quite annoyed when we left to go home.

Now, Freddy and Martin was staying with Erik & Consuelo while they were in Rio. While Freddy and Martin was out, Erik had to leave to fix some things at the club where the wedding was to take place. Erik, who is a very considerate person, left a key in the reception just in case he might be back late. The key is a very special and expensive one, so he put it in a box and wrapped some paper

around it before dropping it in the reception on the way out.
In Brazil, it is tradition to give wedding presents before the wedding, the presents are just send to the couple. So, when Freddy and Martin came back and was given a package in the reception, they assumed it was a wedding gift - and did not unpack it. They sat outside the door and waited for Erik to return.

When Erik - at halv past eleven in the night - returned to his apartment, he found two pieces of mad Homo Sapiens on his doorstep; his father and his brother. The story goes, that it did not calm they down very much to learn, that they had had the key in their possession during their, as rumors goes, extremely boring stay outside Erik's front door.

There can probably be deducted some morale from this story, I just can't find it :=).

Buying beer i Brazil

In Brazil they have this returnable bottle system with a twist. You can't buy a beer at a supermarket without having empty bottles to return. This gives problems for newcomers like our Danish friends who had just moved to Brazil. How do you get started in this arrangement ?

Luckily they got hold of six empty bottles to get started but this meant several beer-runs a day to the local grocery. On our trip up North there had been an traffic-accident on the road. A truck carrying empty bottles had tumbled over and there were glass everywhere. We thought of stepping off the bus while we were waiting for the road to get cleared and snatch some of the unscarred bottles for our friends.

Wedding day

Saturday, October 14'th

The Bride and Groom

Then came the day of the wedding we all have come to attend. It was late when we got up that morning, the Hotel-restaurant had closed their morning- service. We telephoned the others to make some plans for the day, we decided we would meet around noon next to the Opera in Rio. Some of us went to a small market near the Opera beforehand to see if there were some good barging to be made.

When we were all together we had some lunch and decided to take a round-trip by

a small Street/Tramp-car up in the Santa Theresa area. It is close to one of the large Favela. A nice drive, not many people out in the streets because the rain had started again. This used to be a high class residential area in Rio but now the houses are in decay. But you can still get the feeling that this once was grandiose place to live.

Our travelbook warned us about going up in these areas but we didn't encounter any situations where we felt intimidated. Perhaps this was because of the weather and people stayed in-door I don't know.

We got home in a good time to change for the wedding. We had planned to go in one cab and had reserved one in advance but it shoved up half an hour late, so two cabs was needed to be there on time since Steen and Rasmus was staying in an other Hotel. And then we were the first to arrive.

The wedding

The wedding was to be held at the "German Club" in Rio. We made jokes about all the nice landscape paintings in the club like "If you turn that picture around I bet You that there is a portrait of Adolph H.".

An hour later the Ceremony begun and we were a bit unsure where to sit but since the Groom was Danish we sat in that section to make some balance. This was a combined Christening and Wedding and it was very beautiful held in both Brazilian and Scandinavian languages so all could understand. The daughter was christened Caroline, a name that goes well in both countries, and then the wedding - very emotional, Consulo noticeable in suspense.

Afterwards there was a splendid buffet and we Danes shoved the Brazilians some traditions from Scandinavia, like when the bride leave the room all girls

rush to give the groom a kiss and vice versa when the groom leave the room. The Brazilians doesn't seem to have special traditions, other than perhaps to leave early. A 11PM we were almost the last ones left, except for the close family of the bride.

The "Just Married" car
The brothers went outside with a can of shaving foam and decorated the waiting cab with the "Just Married" words and some tin cans in string from the rear bumper. Then came the couple and there was some rise throwing and off they went.

Sunday, October 15'th

The night was still young and the brothers of the bride teamed up with us and we all went to this bar close by for some beers and stuff. At half past 1AM we were all tired and went home to our hotel.

When the couple returned home the next day it was time to unwrap the wedding presents. Unlike in Denmark presents are sent in advance to the happy couple but we wanted to give our present in person. It was a nice evening and the rain finally seem to have stopped for a while.

"Pão de Açúcar" seen in the twilight from the apartment-balcony of Erik and Consuelo

We have bought the couple a nice Thermo-Cofee pot, danish design and it was put to use immediately. It was also the time for departure; Marianne was leaving the following morning for Iguaçu and the Amazonas and Rasmus

and Steen was going for Recife while we (Sverre and Peer) was going by Leito bus for Salvador. We enjoyed a quiet evening on the balcony while the sun set with a beautiful light on Pão de Açúcar (the Sugar Loaf rock).

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