To escape the European winter, we spontaneously booked a flight to Brazil.

Our first stop was São Paulo, where we stayed for a few days, visited the MUSEU DE ARTE (MASP), enjoyed amazing vegan food, and celebrated Carnival.

Afterwards, we took a bus to Paraty to meet friends and shared a nostalgic hotel room with them. On the first evening, we all went for a night swim in the pool when the power suddenly went out and everything turned dark. It felt like a magical moment — the only light coming from the hundreds of millions of stars above us, sparkling even brighter in the Brazilian sky.

A few days in Paraty felt just right, so we continued travelling to Cabo Frio for three nights, hoping to see turtles and enjoy slow, lazy days at the beach.

After a week surrounded by nature, we went back to Rio de Janeiro, where we booked the coolest shared Airbnb in an iconic Bauhaus-style villa inside a gated community on a hill. The architecture and interior looked like my real-life Pinterest board.

We wanted to extend our stay in the villa, but since it was already booked, we moved to a vegan yoga hostel located in the Tijuca Forest with a view over the whole city — simply magical, aside from the adventurous ride to get there.

Leaving Rio behind felt sad, but we were happy to return to São Paulo, since the food throughout the trip hadn’t been as good as it is there. The best açaí bowl we had during the entire journey was at BRAZILIAN NUTS. Having friends in São Paulo meant we got to meet again and enjoy our final nights in Brazil before catching our flight back home.