Brazil is a very civilized country. Example number one: if you order several beers, they bring them to you in an ice bucket. Proof number two: if you only order one large beer, they give you one of those individual coolers that European restuarants save for wine. Just saying.

It’s also a very social country. If you order a large beer (60 cl), they ask you how many glasses you wants. The assumption being, of course, that you’ll share it with friends. Never have I felt so Swedish as when I ordered a large beer (it’s just 60 cl!), with one glas. I was at the Carioca de Gema, a great bar/club in the Lapa district, and the band played samba, and I happily refilled my tiny beer glas, and I marveled at the naive thought that the beer would ever get a chance to get warm.

And then my eyes met those of a dark haired beauty across the dance floor. But that, as they say, is another story. Suffice it to say that she taught me all I know about samba and that we’ll always have Rio.