Salvador da Bahia

The celebrations of Brazilian Valentine's Day went on until the early hours of the morning. Fireworks and Brazilian music could be heard repeatedly. It didn't bother me at all, I was able to sleep soundly :-)! Today, we had all the highlights of the old town of Salvador on the agenda. After a very delicious breakfast, we started walking in great weather. But first, I needed a fresh coconut. They taste especially good in Brazil and are full of water :-)! Then we strolled through the narrow streets and took countless photos of the colorful old houses. The streets we walked on were all secured by the police. There was a police officer on every corner. It was a very safe situation for us.

Next, we went to a gigantic church. It was nominated for one of the seven wonders of Brazil. There was a worship service going on. I especially liked that the pastor involved the congregation. There were shouts and applause from time to time. It wasn't as stiff as it is with us :-)! The interior of the church looked overwhelming. I've never seen anything like it before.

Next, we went to an old market hall. It is located in the lower part of the city. There is a connection through an elevator between the upper and lower parts of the city. That meant we had to whiz down to the lower city by elevator. The ride cost the equivalent of 3 cents and lasted less than 20 seconds. And there we were in the lower city.

Next to the market hall was the harbor. There were already many strange characters bustling around and we were approached repeatedly if we had any spare change. I found that very annoying. I would have liked to spend more time at some of the stands in the market hall, but the vendors were a bit pushy :(! After a short while, we didn't want to stay in the market hall anymore and quickly headed back to the upper city.

We wanted to go to the beach and asked the hotel for a recommendation. We were taken there by an Uber. We drove through a small part of the ghetto again. But then followed a street where we thought, this is like a movie. It was pure luxury. Really amazing, you make a turn to the right or left and you're back in the ghetto again.

When we arrived at the beach promenade, we had some delicious ice cream first. The first section of the beach was relatively small and overcrowded with people. We walked along the promenade to the lighthouse and chose a small and quieter section of the beach. There we relaxed for a while.

Just before we headed back, we sat down outside at a bistro. A musician came to our table and introduced himself as Carlos. He spoke German quite well and enjoyed talking to us. He played two songs for us and as a reward, we treated him to a beer. We said goodbye to Carlos, and then the neighboring couple started talking to us. They wanted me to spray something on my wrists to ward off bad vibes. It turned out that the guy (Erich) was a German/Brazilian and also enjoyed speaking German again. At the end of our conversation, he gave me the bottle as a gift.

While we were waiting for our Uber, I said to Daniela, what if this is a drug? HELP, my imagination was running wild and I tried to wipe off the stuff from my wrists. Hmmm, Daniela said, you were watching over her things while she was taking photos on the beach. Maybe it was meant as a thank you. Then our Uber driver arrived. People, there was a sermon on the radio and the driver crossed himself three times and touched his rosary. Then the song Ave Maria followed. Ummmm, Daniela said that reminded her of a psycho film. Now her imagination was running wild. So the ride was really something special :-)!

For dinner, we went back to the old town because there are fabulous restaurants there. In the square where our restaurant was located, there was a live band playing today and people were dancing to the music. A great atmosphere...

In that sense, we're enjoying the rest of our evening and sending warm greetings.