Sao Paulo itself so far had never been described to me in a positive light. This is the financial, cultural and nightlife capital of Brazil and locals (Paulistas) stoically defend their city (especially against the Cariocas of Rio), but this city is aesthetically monstrous. The high rise concrete buildings seem never ending and even locals find it hard to navigate but underneath the surface in certain pockets, it seemed quite nice and even interesting.

So the main event of course was Carol and Dilman's wedding. This wedding had even more meaning for me, as this was probably the catalyst in the end for doing this trip. Over the last couple of days I had seen familiar faces again and had met some of Dilman's family who had come from Iraq to be here. We had all spent some time together before the wedding and were now ready to enjoy it. I was also looking forward to getting dressed up again as it was a nice break from wearing the same old clothes over and over!!

The setting for the ceremony was a nicely done up outdoor area surrounded by quaint gardens. There was a live quintet playing the background music as the party walked down the aisle and Carol looked lovely and was in tears walking down the aisle. I guess the main thing about the ceremony that stuck with me however was the blessing of the couple by the religious leaders of two different faiths; islamic and catholic. It was good to see that on occasion, such stark differences can be put aside.

It was very warm that night and I think we were all glad when we could walk into the air conditioned reception room only a few meters away, but where were we sitting? There seemed to be no place names but there was some odd colour coming from one of the tables. A closer look made us all laugh as we realized this was our (the 'London' crew's) table. It was like sitting at the UN as the flag from our respective nations was put in each place instead of our names. A clever and amusing touch but for the sake of diversity I think, I was made Greek for the evening! The reception was very nice with lots of dancing but the real show was when Dilman and his family came out dressed up in some traditional dress to dance Kurdish style to a roaring cheer from the crowd. It was very similar to Greek/Pontian dancing as I expected so I joined in as soon as I could. The night seemed to go off without a hitch and the bespoke 'caiprinha' bar was a hit with all the crowd as you can imagine. A lot of planning had gone into this day and the events around it and it seemed that it all paid off.