Carnival

Carnival...well what to expect? – There is no way to imagine it before you really experience it...

First impressions? On the plane from Frankfurt people already seemed to be more cheerful than normal passengers, and we knew the weather was expected to be hot...hot hot hot.... At the airport we were greeted by perfect pleasant hot weather, as well as– a Bahian girl in a Bahian dress...


Everything was perfectly organised by Smirnoff, so after 30 hours travelling from Shanghai, we could just relax on our way to hotel and enjoy the beach views from a van...

It was still hard for us to imagine what was about to happen - what is this Carnival everybody is getting so excited about? huh?

One of the first Carnival tasks was to pick up the Carnival shirts, called abadas, which act as tickets. We had to be extremely careful with them, as they had unimaginably great value, a bag full of one sized shirts! Hmm interesting.

So, what the whole Carnival nation does, is customise the t-shirts. We were saved by the spellbinding qualities of a few seamstresses, working 8 hours a day in a small, specialized hotel room to make your individual breathtaking creation in just in few moments. They worked magic.

So we had our first meeting and 70 Smirnoff guests were divided into a few small groups. Each group got a guide were briefed on how to stay safe in the crowd– called pipoca. Why? You must imagine that every shirt is a kind of valuable ticket, a sign of belonging to a special group – either of a certain camarote (like a club or a lounge), or a street block. It is a street parade within a certain group and music – accompaning parade trucks. You wouldn’t want to lose your ticket.

And what is interesting to know, is the fact that in every city, Carnaval is different. It has a different style and tradition.... In Rio (which I haven't seen, but have heard about from Brazilian friends) it is more like a competition of samba schools, which you could compare to our soccer league...they train for a whole year to give a professional, amazing and many hours long samba performance. Meanwhile in Salvador, everybody is invited to take an active part – meaning to literally go to the streets and to challenge yourself with a neverending long samba dancing challenge....And only in Salvador there are like 2 or 3 routes of Carnaval - one is even 7 hours long!

For the first evening and then two other nights of Carnaval we were invited to Camarote Espresso2222, which belongs to Gilberto Gil and his wife:

he’s Brazilian minister of culture and a singer all in one. This lounge is more special than all others, as you cannot buy tickets to get there – it is for invitations only.
That's why you can meet many prominent personalities like actors, singers, artists, or just high society of Brazil there.

But we all became one in the face of Carnaval. I was just standing at one of the 3 huge balconies (actually in the vip area ;-)) and admiring the breathtaking energetic street performance.

You could see a neverending river of happy joyous crowds moving their bodies sensually, joyfully and fantastically to the samba rythms, opening your heart to love and joy, unseparated from anybody, just feeling part of this joyful, floating mass. Just singing and cheering with everybody. Just freely flirting with the space and with Carnaval!!! So much joy, beautiful people!!