Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
When the sun eventually decided to come back out and play, we were very happy ladies :) and it was perfect timing as on the Sunday there was a huge football match at the Maracana stadium...Flamengo V Botofogo.
I don´t know how much everyone knows about Brazilians and their football but they take it prettttty seriously, and these are two rival teams (much like Tottenham and Arsenal). A whole bunch of us from the hostel jumped on the bus and headed straight for the mayhem. We managed to buy cheap tickets on the day (30R...so like 10 pound) as the stadium can hold something stupid like 120,000 it rarely sells out.
We decided to go for the tickets that gave us height in the stadium as we had been warned that a lot of the fans do like to throw things, especially when upset or celebrating. For example, a dead chicken! We weren´t taking any risks of a dead chicken landing on our head so we paid an extra few Real and got some awesome seats.
When in rome...so we just HAD to buy Flamengo football shirts ( we didn´t want or need to look more like Cringo´s than necessary). Once the game got started there was a lot of screaming and shouting, loud drums and some pretty passionate Brazillians waving huge flags and dancing covered in body paint. Both teams played amazing, but Botofogo did manage to score within the first ten minutes which sent a lot of people around me (mainly fat topless men ha) into an outrage.
(I do not understand how these guys were playing football as well as they were, it was sooo hot! i felt like i was about to pass out just watching the match.)
With our chosen team still loosing by half time we were getting a little paniced that we had bought the wrong shirts, this was only encouraged when the Flamengo´s managed to miss a penalty and a few free kicks. THEN A MIRACLE HAPPENED....in the last 30 seconds of extra time, when many a angry Flamengo supporter had stormed out of the ground the Flamengo´s scored! WOW! The crowd went crazy, the drummers started beating louder, the chants got stronger and the screams were deafening! Was such an amazing thing to see and I am happy we didn´t loose...i can deal with a draw!
Once the game had finished it was all about finding our way back to our hostel in Leblon (a good hour away) as quick as possible and safley! But then again...THE BRAZILIAN FOOTBALL EXPERIENCE WOULDN´T BE COMPLETE WITHOUT WITNESSING AT LEAST ONE RIOT!!!
As we were walking to the metro i spotted two guys on the other side of the road kicking the life out of each other. Before i even had a second to recognise what was happening the policemen surrounding the stadium were running down and hitting the guys with their battons through the fence - this resulted in more men rushing forward savouring the opportunity to start beating up the police. When a hundred or so guys started running forward (straight tow ard where we were may i add) is when Kate - my loving friend (haha) grabbed my hand and pulled me to one side! I got totally glued to watching what was going on that i didn´t realise that i was standing amongst these rioters. To make matters more stressful, a helicopter decided that it wanted in so it flew so ridiculously low to the ground that i did think it was about to land.
NOW - standing on the edge of this copper were policemen with guns..willing to shoot anyone in their way! I don´t think my description of this scene is doing what happened any justice, it was the craziest thing ive ever seen. We were all fine, i had to be pulled back a few times by a couple of the guys from our hostel because i kept wondering forward trying to get a glimpse of the action (ooooops). We eventually found the right turning for the metro when someone let off what sounded like gun shots! As you can imagine we all jumped out of our skins and started pelting it to the metro..thank god it was only fire crackers!
The whole experience was immense, i loved every second of it, even the riots and guns haha!!!
There are certain things everyone thinks of when they hear RIo de Janiero, the main one is Christo - the big statue of Christ the Redeemer. As it is best to see if on a clear we were happy when the sun remained shining on Monday. A few of us from the hostel decided to go together. For some reason buses in Rio take forever, everywhere is like an hr away because of the traffic and on a boiling hot day the bus only irritates you. Anyway...
We had to take a train, and a very old one at that up a mountain to get up to Christ. Looking down through the window was a perifying experience, at one point i'm sure the train started rolling back. Once we hit the top, the journey was totally worth it, all you could see for miles was the beautiful view of Rio. It was breathtaking, and then you look up to see Christ towering over the city. It was a very powerful image.
As it's such a tourist attraction it was absolutely packed with people pushing everywhere trying to get a photo next to Christ with their arms out, we managed to get ours! wooop! ha!
The view is stunning, in one direction you have tall skyscrapers and in another you have the ocean and beaches. Rio is by far one of the most beautiful cities i've ever seen, something very magical about it!
Once we'd done our tourist attraction for the day we decided to check out Leblon beach...where the waves are definately NOT calm. Leblon is a beautiful beach, and its where the rich go. The beaches in Rio work by Posts:
Post 8 - Gay section
Post 9 - For the BEAUTIFUL people (and o my are they beautiful)
Post 10 - For the single people (basically full of hairy fat men all wearing Speedos, not a pretty sight)
Post 11 - For the families
Post 12 - For the Rich
It's a strange system but it works...the only issue with all of them bar Post 9 is the speedo wearing, i will never get used to this. They wear them because of their tan lines, but there are only so many fat and hairy men you can see wearing speedos without begining to feel slightly ill! ha! (i apologise if anyone reading this wears speedos).
The only place i found acceptable for Speedo wearing was on Post 9 where we went on Tuesday. Everywhere we turned was just beautiful beautiful brazilians, men and women. I have never...all of us were just looking around smiling. We stood out like sore thumbs as tourists as they are so brown. There is a joke amongst brazilians that in Sao Paulo they work, and in Rio de Janiero, they work out! The beaches are packed all day everyday, know one goes to work, its just sun sun sun! love it!
As Tuesday was our last night in Lemon Spirit hostel, Leblon before we moved on to our hostel in Copacobana for Carnival we got a whole bunch of people together and went to a bar called Emporio. It was a small and very travelly bar which was perfect for us. Although we did bring along some holiday makers with us who weren't feeling the whole travel flex so decided to leave before we even ordered the first beer! We had an awesome night though, drink is so cheap and everyone is so friendly!
Wednesday was the big move to MELLOW YELLOW in Copacobana for Carnival which we booked way back on Nov, we'd heard good things about this hostel...mainly because its the biggest party hostel in Rio (trust us) so we were very excited!!!
- comments