Salvador de Bahia

Finally I'm in HOLIDAY! I love this feeling of being free, to wake up whenever I want, to go where I want, to do what I want!
So, I'm now in Salvador since two days. I'm staying in the place of a CSer called Alberto. His apartment is great, and he was so lovely to leave me his own bedroom! However to get to his apartment was a bit tricky: in the airport I asked how to get to the estacion de transborte... No one could help me. So I asked a guy who told me that I had to take the next bus. I also asked the driver, who just liquified me with a "sim sim, transborte". Of course, it was the wrong bus.
Fortunately there was a nice girl sitting next to me who told me that I could go out with her and then take a bus called S. Joaquim to the main bus station in the city. After all my friends from Brasilia kept on telling me how dangerous Salvador and Rio are, that I have to be VERY cautious, that I should not walk around with my bag, etc.. I got totally afraid about my bags and I was suspicious about everyone, even this nice girl. I was looking at her with very intense eyes when she wanted to help me to get my bags out of the bus... Poor thing!
After a while in this other bus stop (I guess not even God knows where...) I got a bit more relaxed: no one seemed to pay really attention to this gringa sitting on the bank, sweating like a pig and holding her bags. However, after 30 min of waiting I was really starting to worry that this bus will never come, and that I will have to pass my vacation in the middle of nonwhere! But the nice girl showed up again to see for me (soooo cute!), saying that the bus sometimes "demorra um poco". Finally this bus arrived, I reached the main station, got into my third bus and reached my destination after 2h and 30 min (instead of 45 min...).

There was a friend of Alberto welcoming me, Rui. He's from Portugal and we had a long nice chat.
Yesterday I had the chance to visit the old city, Pelourinho. Beautiful, but compared to other placed I've visited in Mexico, like Campeche, I have to say that it's not as great as there. However, the people are great. Of course, they try to get money from you in all possible ways, as it's a very touristic region. But with a nice smile and a "Nao, obrigada" they usually leave you in peace. Much better than the people in Tanzania that keep on followig you everywhere! :-)

I made some nice pictures and per chance I found a place where people where building up a stage. I asked if they where going to make music and they told me that after 5pm they will have something like a concert. I met Alberto to drink somehing and to see the sunset and I then pushed him towards this place. It was great! They have a whole project going on (www.eletrocooperativa.org) and I met some really nice people there (now I have new friends on Orkut.. (Orkut is something like Facebook that they use here in Brasil))! As I speak english, a few wanted to practice their english with me.. It was really nice. They also invited me to their school, but as I'll probably go to an island tomorrow or sunday, I'll not be able to ass by.

After the concert Alberto went home to get a second helmet for me and while I was waiting I had to defend my self from every guy that was walking by. I think that every white woman with a small ego, should stay alone in a street of Palourinho at night: I kept on hearing "you're sooo beautiful", "I want to see you again", "I didn't know that angels can fly so low"... After a while I was a bit tired of this, so I just asked a family sitting on a bar, if I could join them. It was a family from Madrid, very nice and funny. The father asked me if I like Brasilia, and he told me that he had a very bad time there, because of the dry weather (apperently in winter the humidity goes down to 10%!).
When I was almost forgetting the fact that I had to wait for Alberto, he finally re-appeared. We went to eat some "siri" and to dance. We also had fun by telling to a drunk girlt hat I was from Salvador and he was visiting me, coming from Spain. She was sooo drunk that she didn't get the fact that my portoguese is too bad for a native.. Afterwards we made a round with his bike through the city. It was great! The combination of beach, skylines, favelas. The dust, the heat, the colours, the smell... I think that was the time when I felt in love with Salvador. And today this love just grew more and more.

For today I was totally looking forward to go to the beach, as the heat is almost killing me. But, of course, it started to rain. So I thought that i could go and watch for a suitcase. To make it short: I had a whole tour though the city, I took the same bus twice, I made new Orkut-friends and after hours of travelling in circle I finally found my suitcase. :-) It was really funny! The guys that sell the tickets are very nice. I wouldn't change my day, even if I could!

When I arrived to the shop I was looking for, the guy told me that the suitcase costs 180 BRL. I told him that i cannot afford for more than 60. After some time he told me that I could have it for 80, and I said that then I had to think about it. He finally sold it to me for 70 BRL. It seems to be a very good price, as so far everyone told me that he usually payed 150-200 BRL for such a suitcase. They all asked me from where I've got it. I just hope that it will not fall apart after the first flight! ;-)
Now I'll have to look where I want to go in the next days and on Wednesday I'll go to Rio. I can't wait!