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Once again I barely got 2 hours of sleep and I found myself up with loads of energy ready for another exciting day in Rio. It is Mothers Day today so lastnight I made sure to send my wonderful Mother a special message and apologize for not being there. Lilian had to go sit an exam early so I decided to go for a walk along the coast - on Sundays they close off the highway and allow pedestrians, cyclists and skaters to use all the roadways. It was wonderful seeing all the people out exercising, enjoying the weather and making the most of their Sundays. I laid on the beach a while before heading back to the apartment for an early lunch. At 1pm I packed my things and headed to Flamengo Metro to catch the subway out to Maracana - Rio's biggest football stadium. Unfortunately through a slight translation problem I thought the metro station was closed and was told to walk 30 minutes to another station making me late for my meeting with Hana. The metro was surprisingly easy to use and not very busy so I arrived only minutes late where I met the lovely Farahana - a girl from London. First thing we did was go pick up our tickets from the ticket office and then we headed to a bar for a drink. As we were 2 hours early the stadium wasn't that busy yet but as it got closer to kick off people started to load in. Hana brought herself a Flamengo flag at the entrance and we made out way into the ginormous stadium. Like always the police and military were on hand checking bags and very thoroughly searching everyone for weapons. We were on the second floor of the stadium which seated 100,000 people and upon entry I was absolutely blown away by the sheer size and quality of the stadium. The stadium was so big that looking at the field appeared to be dwarfed and with the roof open we could see the beautiful blue sky and the Rio mountains in the background. We had obviously picked the right team to support as we witnessed thousands of Flamengo supporters poor into the grounds with their home colours, huge banners, drums and musical instruments. The chanting and singing starting long before kick-off and the feeling was electric. The game started without us barely noticing as we were so intwined in the atmosphere. The crowd were crazy and every time Flamengo got the ball the singing would start and people would rise to their feet. Although you could drink at the game and the drinks and food were not so expensive there was not that many people drinking or getting roudy and I felt very safe. I am not going to say I now like football but the atmosphere was electric. Flamengo had 90 percent of the ball but did little with it and the opposing team with just 2 opportunities took 2 goals. In the end there was about 30,000 in attendance of which I imagine 20,000 were Flamengo supporters and the stadium looked empty. I imagine during world club the atmosphere will be indescribable and the fans even more crazy. The end of the game meant a mad scurry out of the stadium and even with all the people and majority heading to the subway the wait and crowds were not so bad and I managed to get back to the apartment within an hour. It was really nice that I got to share the experience with Hana and she had some very interesting stories and had travelled to some very unique places like Cuba and Venezuela so hopefully we can hang-out a bit more whilst she is in Rio. In the evening I tried to relax and do some more trip planning for Brazil.
OBSERVATIONS:
- Football is religion here
- Metro system very straight forward and efficient and not too expensive
- Football was safe with huge police and military presence
- Sundays - main roads are closed for exercisers.
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