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"Brazil was love at first sight" my grandfather told me. Belo Horizonte, Brasilia and Rio left a big impression. During a boat trip through the many military-owned islands on the coast of Bahia, they came in contact with a land owner of a small island. “Meeting next day at 8.30 sharp” “Can we make it 9.30?” Finally at 11.30 the person came with a brand new boat that he didn’t know how to ride to go visit the island. Luckily my grandfather is a boat pilot too, so they arrived safely at their destination to visit the place. It was about 1km long and 300m wide, just enough to put a small aircraft landing zone and a big house where they could invite 5 guests at a time flying in to enjoy the fine gold coloured sand and the freshly captured fish who would have stayed in nets under the decreasing water tide. On the way back, the tank which had never been fuelled, got completely drained and the boat could not reach its destination. The owner went for help on another island leaving my grandparents alone in the boat. My grandmother opened the “boîte à gants” and was horrified to discover a gun in there. They immediately pictured the worst and when the guy came happily back with a one litre of fuel, they were not at ease. It turned out that he was the director of a female prison in Bahia and he needed to keep his service weapon at all times. I remember my grandma telling me many stories about robberies in Brazil in her hotel room with people sneaking in through the terrace window so maybe that’s why they were looking for an island... When my grandfather asked proof of ownership in return for a money advance, it got quiet on the line. Or actually “yes yes you will get it, don’t worry” was closer to the response. But the document was never shown. Luckily the money was never transferred because this man was not the effective owner. The property owner was the ex-husband of this man's wife. So when my grandparents got that information, they dropped the Brazil plan and returned on a quest to find the perfect place in Europe instead. Now that I’ve visited the country by myself I have to tell you not much changed!
So looking back it’s easy to choose Portugal as the European version of Brazil, although when they came back it was not where they went straight away. They first did the tour of the Mediterranean sea towing their speed boat behind their car. Greece, Italy, France, Spain didn’t match their expectations. My grandfather brings up savage stories of murdered cats on the beach, terrorist bombings, mafia, and attitudes which didn’t match their lifestyle. France was nice but not exotic enough, you don’t feel really away when you live in Brussels or Paris. And I can understand that the language, culture and atmosphere bring a lot to the travel destination choice. It’s a part of the travel experience to eat differently, talk with people you don’t completely understand and get to know new points of view. I was surprised that the comment about Spain was that they talked very fast and didn’t do much effort to communicate with foreigners. Speaking Spanish myself, I am not aware of this but I can agree that not many Spanish people speak English well for example. They are very happy at the other side if you speak the local language, which is true everywhere by the way! So it is extremely important to know the language where you want to settle. As they had been in Brazil and knew some Portuguese already, they left this as the last resort maybe. Sometimes it’s nice to go and see the alternatives before you choose what you most likely will end up doing anyway, I do it too...
