One wedding, many drinks and no funeral.

Autumn has officially begun! Hopefully soon I will be able to start opening my flat’s windows to let the fresh air in. For the past 5 months those windows have been tightly shut and the air conditioning working at full blast. Autumn also means Spring (in the other hemisphere) and Spring means holidays in Brazil!!! I am off to Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba and Buenos Aires on October 10th for 15 days!

As I talk about holidays, of course you are all curious to know about my stunt in Helsinki and Copenhagen! Well, it was great. More than great actually, it was AMAZING!!! In only a few days I had more fun and saw more old time friends than in the past 5 months. It also happened that I drank more alcohol than in those past 5 months as well…

The last time I was in Helsinki was in 1992. In 13 years so many things changed but I remained friends with Kaisa, from Finland. We were pen-friends (long time before email and SMS) and there was a time, when both of us were 14 that we knew all about each other’s lives. It was really nice to meet her for the second time after all those years. And can you imagine she is a journalist and used to present the morning news on Finnish TV!!!

Helsinki has also changed a lot and nowadays there is plenty to do there during the day and at night. It is also more cosmopolitan but still very clean, small and organized! Quite ideal I have to say, apart from being under ice for so long during winter!

On the last night there I went out with Kaisa and Ile (Kaisa’s great boyfriend). We first had dinner at the best Russian restaurant in Finland than went on visiting bars across town. Dinner was amazing and we all clicked and had great conversation over gerkins with honey and sour cream, bear sausages, Arctic salmon, chicken Kiev, herrings, potatoes, onions and Vodka, of course! After the Vodkas and the first two drinks outside the restaurant (Finnish black shit and some other bubble gum tasting drink) I don’t remember really well what went on. There have been some pretty funny pictures taken and we are all laughing quite hard, which makes me think that we were indeed having a great time!

Naturally everything I can’t remember from that night I can remember from the next morning, when I had to wake up early to catch a flight to Denmark and my head was spinning, my body in pain and all I wanted as to stay in bed and cry! But the sun was shining (for the first time in those two days) so I forced myself out of bed and walked to the Parliament Square to take a few pictures. Almost got run over by the tram. Could not focus really well. Than off on a bus to the airport. Once the bus started moving and turning my head did the same and of course I promised myself I would never ever drink that much again, or at least not mix drinks as much (who thinks this promise will last???).

A few headaches and trips to the loo later I was in Copenhagen. Managed to get to the hotel in the outskirts of town by train and bus. The place was beautiful, with a big garden and the rooms with balconies facing the trees and grass. Luckily enough I was the first to arrive so there was ample time to shower, shave and rest. By the time my friends from Brazil arrived I was looking normal again.

The friend who got married is Flávia Martins from Curitiba. I am very good friends with her sister, Juliana and met Flávia at a bar in Curitiba. She wanted to go work in hotels in London and I kind of put ‘wood in the fire’ and off she went. She than met Lars at the Sanderson (hotel were both were working) and well, now they are married! During their London years I met Flávia a few times for coffee in Marylebone area on my first flights with Emirates.

Weddings are always great events to meet people you have not seen in ages. This one was by no means different. I love this!!! I love to be able to meet somebody after 10, 15 years and still be able to share stories, have a drink, laugh and simply be friends. There were also people I had just met and this confirmed my theory that if you have a good friend who in turn has a good friend, you can automatically get along.

The wedding was a small one by Brazilian standards but by all means it was the most stylish and traditional wedding I have ever been to. At the church we had to sing old Danish songs. The priest wore those typical protestant outfits and preached in Danish and English (how cosmopolitan is that!!!). At the end of the ceremony we all toasted with Champagne outside of the church (forgot to say that men were all wearing tuxedos) than went to the hotel to sit on tables at that amazing garden to chat and wait for the time to leave to the restaurant were the party would be.

And what a party! And what a restaurant!!! Just for a kick start, the place was in a neighborhood of Copenhagen hidden under lush vegetation. Big trees, bushes, beautifully manicured gardens, all smelling of millions of Danish kronors. Small castles, glass houses, etc… I like that!!! And the restaurant was a 300-year-old house with a 1-star Michelin chef who cooked the most amazing dinner ever! And the service was exactly how I learned in hotel school back in Switzerland, Perfect!!! Add to that speeches about the bride and groom’s childhood, a love declaration by Flávia’s father, sang in a Louis Armstrong song-poetry style, good company, wines to die for and you have the perfect party. There was every samba and axé music after we had all too many glasses of Burgundy.

However all that is good has to end some time and on Sunday I had to return to Dubai. This was already my second hangover in 3 days and making it to the airport, than to Paris, than a full night flight to Dubai was no easy task. By the time I got here I looked 45 years old! But every single minute of it was worth it! And to make maters even more exciting, on Tuesday night I was out in Manila, Philippines. Got back home yesterday and than I really looked like a walking dead. I did manage to get lots of sleep last night and once I finish this post I have to get ready to fly to Jeddah for one of those hectic Saudi flights full of Muslim pilgrims… and life goes on!!!