Blumenau
Blumenau
is a funny little town in the south east of the country. Funny in that its
origins are German, having been founded by German immigrants. If you don’t
speak Portuguese you will instead be asked if you speak German, not English or
Spanish as you might think, and much of the architectural influence is German.
But most importantly, it has one of the biggest Oktoberfest in the world, and
yes we got there in October! Our original hotel let us down as it had given us
the wrong price, so we ended up in another overpriced place instead (every
hotel was extortionate because of the beerfest). Little did we know it was an
adult only hotel, replete with free condoms, free porn and a dimmer switch. We
were later told by a Brazilian that anything calling itself a motel in Brazil
is probably a good place to take a one night (or hour) hook-up.
The Oktoberfest
is advertised as the second biggest in the world, whether this is true or not I
don’t know but it is the biggest in the Americas, and had over 700,000 visitors
at the last festival. It has been going annually since 1984, when the locals
suffered terrible flooding the year before and needed something to kickstart
the economy and cheer everyone up.
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| Beer museum |
We arrived on a Wednesday and the festivities in the main
German village don’t start until 6pm on weekdays and 11am on weekends, so we
had a bit of hanging around to do. We visited the interesting Catholic
Cathedral,
Catedral São Paulo Apóstolo – a bit different from any others we’d seen in
Latin America as it was such a modern design although it was built in 1958.
After that we headed up to the beer museum which is a small but informative
place showcasing brewing techniques and other beer paraphernalia. Then it was
game over. We were introduced to a couple of Americans, one of whom could speak
Portuguese, and a couple of Brazilians, one of whom could speak English, and
they told us about the free beer that would be served up by the beer truck just
outside the museum. We ran out for our beer and strolled down to the pub to
carry on.
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| Free beer! |
Around 5pm the parade through the town commenced. This was
around 2 hours long and by then there were hundreds of people on the streets, singing
and dancing and drinking of course, while the floats and entertainers went
past, along with free beer, the Oktoberfest Queen, dancing girls, free beer,
Santa and Mrs Claus, brass bands, fairground rides on wheels, free beer and men
on stilts, to name but a few. Did I mention the free beer? After the parade has
passed we followed it to the German Village, around 2km from the centre where
the main marquee was.
We paid around 13 Reais to get in, although those that
were dressed up got in for free. There were several stages with live bands
playing, and numerous bars selling all types of beer. We sat down at a huge
table opposite a couple of middle aged Brazilians and although none of us could
understand each other’s language, (our Portuguese friends were meeting us later
after they’d showered – they were on the pull), the language of drunk is
universal and they were my adopted Brazilian parents by the end of it; the lady
even stroking my cheek, as she left! It was another messy night but it was a
lot of fun and what we were there for!
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| Parade |
The following day – our 5th wedding anniversary
by the way – we were almost too hungover to move. Almost. We had to leave our
room to get some food so we included a few hairs of the dog to fix our heads.
We didn’t go mad, and we were home by 8pm, ready to set off on the bus to
Florianopolis the next day, around 150km from Blumenau.
Florianopolis
Florianopolis
is a popular holiday destination for Brazilians, but it gets pretty cold in the
winter. We should have checked the weather forecast. Overcast, then rain, then
thunder. We’ve had it all except sunshine. Florianopolis is the capital of the
state of Santa
Catarina, with half the city is on the mainland and the other half on Santa
Catarina island.
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| Florianopolis |
We were staying in Canasvieiras
in the north of the island, which had a gorgeous beach and a real seaside feel
to it. Shame about the weather. It rained for 3 out of 4 days so we spent the
days relaxing, working and planning our onward travel, including booking
everything for Christmas in NYC! The weather picked up on our last
day so we got one beach day.
#blumenau
#oktoberfest
#florionopolis
# canasvieiras
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