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Well I've done so much since the Rio carnival that i'll have to condense it all so you (and I) dont get bored. So the carnival itself was wicked, absolutely mental and great fun. The hostel i stayed in (Alpha) was a bit pants, dirty and not very nice staff but the people i met there were great fun and we all got dressed up to go out to the street parties and clubs in Lapa at night and a few of us found ourselves in the Botafogo block party which was lots of people drumming and singing and marching along behind a float that went round the streets of the Botafogo district. For me that was what carnival was all about. we also went to the sambodrome and watched all the samba schools in their amazing costumes and ridiculously OTT floats. it was great but after the first 4 schools i couldnt take much more and we sloped off. it struck me as very strange as the schools were all adults and the costumes and everything must have cost a fortune. i think it represents Rio quite well with its extravagance while there are people in the favelas living in pooh.
but the whole atmostphere was pretty carnival and we caught the end of the gay parade in ipanema were the atmosphere was REALLY carnival and by night we usually headed to Lapa where everyone was drumming in the steets and dancing to the samba music and one night we found a club spewing out western tunes and we'd had plenty of caiparinhas so we rather enjoyed that.
after carnival i flew to santiago in chile which was great as i got to go to the concha y torro winery but bad because i got absolutely hammered the night before my flight and nearly missed it and then had to suffer 14 hours of hungover misery (with a short stop in buenos aires where i lay on the floor with my water bottle pretending i was tired not hungover, clutching my walking boot that id forgotten to pack into my checked luggage. i looked a bit of a tit frankly). arrived in sydney half alive but managed to find my hostel and went to bed.
before i left chile i went to valparaiso which is supposed to be one of the best cities in chile which doesnt say much for chilean cities to be honest! it was interesting as its on like 15 hills and you have to go up and down funiculars to get anywhere but i was ALONE in my hostel which was in a bit of a dodgy area anyway so i was tucked up in bed by 10 both nights i was there and didnt experience the killer nightlife the place is supposed to have. i think chile is actually far better than its cities would have you believe and one day i have to go back and do all the natural wonders it boasts. but the wine was great.
sydney is...well...sydney! its a great city, clean, shiny and somehow very positive feeling. i liked it but i also didnt like it for the same reasons that i love my slightly grimey, grey and gloomy london. its a bit too new and shiny and it lacks the magnificant old buildings and the sense of history that rio and santiago have had and it feels altogether too convenient and modern to feel very foreign. its hard to explain. its a great place to visit but i couldnt live there.
then I headed to melbourne to see the immense extended family that has grown up around there. managed to book flights to the WRONG airport totally the other side of melabourne and was a complete pain im sure but it was so lovely to see everyone and see all the new additions to the family and i had such a nice time especially as i havent seen anyone in 10 years when i was a very shy 13 year old and cant really remember much about it. also learned excellent gossip about my parents lives before me..!
then back to sydney where i still am (flying out tomorrow) which grew on me a bit today as i went on a tour of the opera house and learned a bit about its history which was all controversy and interest (still a history student at heart!) and then i saw sharks at the aquarium which i loved. its illegal to hold a koala in new south wales which upsets me a lot. i will have to go to a different state next time.
feel like this is the end of chapter one now. tomorrow the asian adventure begins..!
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