The third day I got lucky, I could visit a room in a shared apartment. Everything was perfect. Or so it seemed, until the moment that a cat came walking around the corner. The one animal I am allergic too… Nevertheless, living with a cat is worth it because of my two Brazilian roommates, Gustavo and Fernando. They speak English and show me the most amazing stuff.

My roommates decided to take me to Belo Horizonte, a city in the middle of Brazil. Here, more than 4 million people gather every year to celebrate carnival. A description of carnival in Brazil would be almost the same as in the Netherlands, but the experience is completely different. Basically, every street is filled with thousands of dressed-up people walking in parades, behind colourful wagons with music, life, bands and fanfares. The cluster of people consists of men and women jumping up and down in their swimwear, students drinking their beer, families with little children and street vendors pushing their cart through the crowd.

Besides carnival, my roommates took me to the city of Porto Alegre last weekend and to their little town Nova Prata, where we had the real Brazilian BBQ, saw a waterfall and deadly spiders and crossed through the jungle in a classic Chevrolet.