The full-back used his time off over the weekend to see some close members of his family, and he reflected on life in England as a whole following his arrival last summer.
He said, “I saw some of my family over the weekend; I went to London with my parents because they’re going back to Brazil after being here for the last month, so it was nice to spend time with them.
“We went to the theatre and went for some food and walked around the city, so it was very relaxing.
“I’m really enjoying life in England and Brighton so far; the people are really nice and there are a lot of similarities between here and Brazil.
“In Brighton people are relaxed and always stop to chat, whenever I take my dog to the park people come up and want to talk – that’s a Brazilian thing too, so it’s really nice.
“The city is a lovely place, you have the sea, places where you can relax and unwind and then there’s always something going on in the city, there’s a really nice balance.”
Bernardo’s second season at the club has seen the arrival of Graham Potter as head coach, and the Brazilian assessed the side’s start to the new campaign with four top-flight matches played.
“I think we’ve done quite well so far, maybe if you look at the table it might not seem that impressive, but we’re showing a different style of football already and I think we can go on to achieve really good things this season,” he continued.
“The fans can see what we’re trying to do and we’re still in the middle of a process where we’re developing every day.
“We are trying to do new things and I think we’re close to getting there, we have more possession and try to play from the back as you can see already – the most important thing is we keep working hard at it every day.”
Last time out Albion fell to a defeat against title-holders Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium, a game which saw the versatile defender make his first Premier League start of the new season – operating in a slightly different role higher up the field on the left-hand side.
“The flexibility is something I’m used to in my career. I played as a defensive midfielder during my time in Austria and in Germany at my previous club I played a lot of games at right-full-back.
“It’s interesting, I enjoy playing higher up the field like I did against Manchester City last time out in the Premier League, but I know I have to keep working hard to adapt and get better.
“I know what I can bring to the team and I’m always trying to help the side whilst trying new things, it’s good for my development as a player.”