Thank you Brazil! Welcome to the USA!

On Tuesday, April 24th, Tim and I slept in and then walked to the beach. There is also a lighthouse there. It was very nice. The sun was setting and a rainbow was hovering over the sea. We had a coffee and watched the hustle and bustle. Apparently, there was some kind of celebration or tribute to the Navy. There were a lot of soldiers there and everything was cordoned off, they stood in line. It was interesting to watch, even though we didn't know the reason. We spent the rest of the day leisurely.

Wednesday, April 25th was our last day in the apartment. We decided to visit the nearby shopping center. And of course, I found something to buy. There is always a reason to shop:D And this time it was the fact that we are flying to a cold country and I only have one pair of long pants:D Tim was a very good shopping companion and as a reward, we had a nice coffee. It was fun! :) In the evening, we had dinner and then were picked up by a friend of Silvia's with Uber. That was funny. He didn't know what we looked like and we didn't know what he looked like. He only spoke Portuguese and we spoke a mixture of English and German, and all this without internet connection :D But it worked, we arrived at Silvia's home.

Today (Thursday, April 26th) was also our last day in Salvador and in Brazil as a whole. We went with Silvia to the airport because our first flight didn't include any baggage. Silvia tried everything to book it as cheaply as possible. But after 4 calls to the call center, each with a 20-minute waiting time, 2 attempts online, and even trying in person, we gave up :D However, we decided to boycott Latam Airlines from now on! :D So we just paid at the airport in the end. It only cost 20€, so it is acceptable. After we settled that, Tim, Silvia, and I went to Praia de Itapua. It is a beautiful beach with a lighthouse, white sand, and clear water. We walked along the beach and had a coconut. It was a wonderful ending. Life is simply better at the beach :)

At around 12:00 o'clock, we left and picked up Silvia's son from school and had lunch in the school cafeteria. They have barriers at the entrance of the school that can only be opened with the children's fingerprints. Pretty cool! ;) In the afternoon, we packed and relaxed a bit. In the evening, we went with Silvia to her training session and watched. A friend then drove us to the airport at midnight and we took off at 3:00 o'clock, we were so tired!

Thank you very much, Silvia, we had a great time with you! :)

On Friday (April 27th), we were on the go all day. We landed in São Paulo and had a 6-hour layover :( We spent the time eating, talking, drinking, going to the toilet, and then doing it all over again because we were so tired. We landed in Panama again in between and then arrived in New York at 12:35 am. The flight from Panama to New York was terrible for me. I was seated in the middle with an extremely unpleasant neighbor and a, let's say, 'demanding' child behind me :D Thank goodness I was able to sleep, otherwise I probably would have jumped out of the airplane! When we arrived, the ordeal wasn't over yet. We had to go through passport control. So we had to queue up and scan our passport, do fingerprinting, and give a passport photo at a machine. In addition, we had to answer some questions about our trip and stay. We then received a printed receipt. It either had a clear marking or an 'X' or an 'O' on it. Depending on that, we had to join the correct queue again, which was divided into US citizens and non-US citizens. My nerves were starting to fray. We had been on the road for more than 24 hours, and out of the whopping 51 counters, only about 10 were open. Of those, 2 were for diplomats and 5-6 were for US citizens, and 2-3 were for everyone else. After there were no more US citizens, the border officers didn't open the counters for us, but actually closed the counter. WOW! That is really cheeky. After an incredible 2 and a half hours, it was finally our turn and I was on the verge of exploding, and Tim was on the verge of dehydration. Then the border officer asked snappy questions as well. I actually breathed a sigh of relief when we were through. The baggage carousel wasn't labeled anymore, so we found our backpacks lying somewhere on the floor. We then wanted to quickly get a luggage cart. But guess what, it cost 6 dollars. So we strapped the backpacks to our backs and quickly left. First, we wanted to grab a drink, use the restroom, and withdraw some money. It was already 3:30 in the morning. We then made our way to the hotel using public transportation because a taxi would be too expensive. We switched from one subway to another and actually arrived in Brooklyn at around 6:00 o'clock. The metro wasn't nice. 80% of the passengers were homeless. Something like that always affects you. Thank goodness we were able to check into the hotel and the package from my mom, with a warm jacket, was also there. Because it is quite chilly here. Everything just fell into place and the worries of 'How do we get to the hotel' or 'Is the package here' or 'Can we already go to the room, what if not?' were all unnecessary. Thank goodness! :D So after more than 28 hours of travel, we finally arrived and then we took a nap in the heavenly bed for 3 hours :D Then we showered and set off.