Greetings loved ones....
So the good news is we made it here, great news is Rio is amazing but bad news is our hostel is not so much?
The plane journey was long and boring but the prospect of having 6 months to do exactly what I wanted and when I wanted was very exciting so this made up for the food/hideous chicken flavoured mush that was served up to us on a nice little tray that day! We had a stop over for a few hours in New York JFK airport which was fine but then our plane got delayed and the airline very flippantly informed us that "something was wrong with the plane", but they weren't sure what - they said maybe a leaking engine which as you can imagine filled us with hope and good positive energies about being stuck in that less than perfect tin can 30,000 feet in the air for the next 10 hours.
From the airport we jumped in a taxi and headed towards our hostel in Botafogo which we booked a few days before at home (now is probably a good time to tell you that this hostel - Club Sarrefua was about a third of the price of other hostels over new years period so we were a little dubious as to how it would turn out but just kept our fingers crossed). Botafogo - which literally means 'set it on fire' is a beachfront neighbourhood in between Copacabana and Flamengo, it is a nice part of the city so we are told which is relatively safe and we were pleased to see that both the police station and hospital were both only a few hundred yards of the hostel on Rue Bambina, you know got to be prepared for the worst and all that! Outside the old building was pretty and inviting - however this is a classic example of why we should never judge a book by its cover! Inside the downstairs area was.....we shall call it warehouse chic and with its tall ceilings and shabby mish mash of furniture, painting and general paraphernalia it was 'Brick Lane - esque'. So why was such a gem like this with decent prices not packed over New years period in Rio I hear you ask? All was revealed as we went up the spiral staircase. It is one massive room upstairs with 62 bunk bed in one room and its occupants were me and Hannah and the boys that worked in the Pool Bar/Crack Den situated in the basement below. The beds look as if they were built by a struggling but ambitious fiver year old and you can literally push the top bunk and it wobbles so naturally both me and my lovely travel buddy Hannah opted for a top bunk so as not to be flattened during the night. The mattresses are literally pancakes I AM THE LEMON so I have a really nice bed slat imprint on my back now. But hey a bed is a bed is a bed but a rat in the bathroom which poor old Hannah encountered one evening when brushing her teeth is a different story, this combined with a leaking roof (perfectly situated above the bed I cleverly chose out of 62), noisy but friendly nonetheless builders and constantly hearing weird monkeys chatting somewhere in here is making us want to relocate...I will keep you updated!
On the friday night we had a very slow BBQ where most of the food went to the cooks themselves and left us little gringoes pretty hungry! Samba that night in the Favela Tabajaras was really cool though for the Beija Flor night! Obviously I cannot Samba, that is a given and whilst us group from the hostels were most certainly the pink elephants in the room we gave it a good go and I found the best/only thing we could do in this situation was jump/hop/skip from foot to foot and just keep smiling.....the trick is simply this - Don't look down!!!!!! because it is when you do this that you realise how mentally retarded both you and your feet look. Me and Hannah got a motobike taxi home which was really fun and later in the week when we met some lads and told them the boys on the bikes kept on telling us to hold them tighter and tighter which we assumed was for safety reasons, the lads said this never happens to them and the boys on their bikes actually told them to let go and move back! Oh the joys of being a blonde with blue eyes in Rio.....
New Years or Revelion as it is called here was actually amazing! After meeting at the hostel we spent it down Copacabana beach along with 2 million others all just drinking, dancing, chatting and swimming, it is without a doubt one of my best! The atmosphere was so happy and friendly and down the beach I didn't see one fight which was obviously lovely but a bit of a culture shock because had this been England there would most definitely have been lots of fighting with that much drink involved! Actually I tell a lie later that night we saw some local women leaving a random jewish nightclub and then one of them whipped of her flip flop (probably a havaiana) and starting chasing this lady hitting her with it but that doesn't count because it was just funny! Anyway I digress - back to the beach at the stroke of midnight we were in the sea with a bottle of champagne and fireworks which went on for nearly an hour - a very good night all in all with a perfect mix of caipirinhas, good people and a cheeky bit of David Guetta DJ'ing on one of the stages at the beach - better start thinking how that can be topped next year??
Now is probably a good time to raise the point that South Americans love fireworks -whether its at football matches, new years or just when your bored and feel like it so here in Rio me and Hannah have taken to playing the game - Firework or gunshot because as much as they love their fireworks brazilians also seem to love a gun unfortunately! We hear bangs all the time here and we just probably naively think/hope/pray it is some crazy with a firework. However we have been here for only 10 days now and have already seen a dead body as we drove down a busy street on Copacabana and heard on the news that a American tourist had apparently been shot in Botafogo (yes where we are staying) but people have told us that most incidents like this are drug related so as this is not something that interests me I will keep my head screwed on and we will be fine. For example we went to a Favela - Santa Marta on the hillside behind Botafogo the other day with a guy from our hostel and it was brilliant, we walked all the way to the top through tiny little steps, back alleys, peoples gardens and it was fine, all everyone wanted was just to help and chat. The young lads were kite flying from the rooftops, the girls skipping around singing and yeh there was a very distinct small of weed in there but thats pretty much the smell of most places in the city in my experience, more often than not in our hostel itself. The Favelas as a whole have been cleaned up a lot and the drugs reduced so that they are safer places both to live and visit what with the Olympics and World Cup both coming up in Brazil tourism is high on the agenda! As long as you don't go up there with a great big blinging rolex or a massive SLR round your neck then it's cool. The top had a stunning view over Sugar Loaf mountain which must be amazing for them to wake up to every day!
We have been spending some time at the hostel we stayed at a few years ago when we were in Rio and another one close by and have met some old friends and made some really nice new ones. Rogerio who works at the hostel has been showing us the nightlife of Rio once again and we have literally been out every night since we have been here - whether it was a Samba night, a party in a Favela, rooftop BBQ or a latin party all have been brilliant but this combined with copious amounts of caipirinhas, local beer and late nights is knackering so tonight is a well deserved night off! They have a strange and very dangerous (on your pockets) system here in a club where you are given a receipt at the beginning of your night and each time you get a drink it is added to this instead of paying as you go - you have to pay at the end otherwise you can't leave and you are literally stuck there FOREVERRRRRRR! not quite that bad, but difficult to keep track! We have heard some very interesting chat up lines/compliments so far....here are a couple of the gems; "Millie you look like a fish man" which I was pretty confused by to say the least but after some interesting sign language, puzzled conversations and with the inevitable help of google translator it seems that Cassio (a brazillian lad staying and working at our hostel) was merely trying to say that I look like a mermaid which I suppose he did in a round about way! Cassio has had some crackers - the other day he informed us he would "brush our teeth" Another one which I am still confused about was being told I was a beautiful little boy....I think we should leave that one there!
To sum up Rio so far which is aptly named 'Cidade Maravilhosa' or 'Marvelous City' I would say that it is crazy, fun and beautiful! The city is amazing and brilliant to walk through, the tunnels which connect the different neighbourhoods are not so much though - its pretty much like ice skating on a pool of human faeces (now there's a pretty picture) in flip flops whilst playing dodge the homeless! The beaches are beautiful and lots of them, the food is cheap and tasty if not a little too much egg chucked in to everything for my liking. The atmosphere is happy and its been fun and interesting learning the way of life and cultures here! The people are extremely friendly and welcoming and so far have gone out of their way to ensure we have a great time. The weather has been bizarre - torrential rain one minute and scorching sun the next but that's the tropical climate for you and variety is the spice of life as they say! Even though i'm not a religious person its good to see the Big Man himself watching over us every day and to wake up and see one of the seven wonders of the world each day on our doorstep! Im very much looking forward to my next 2 months here!!!
So the good news is we made it here, great news is Rio is amazing but bad news is our hostel is not so much?
The plane journey was long and boring but the prospect of having 6 months to do exactly what I wanted and when I wanted was very exciting so this made up for the food/hideous chicken flavoured mush that was served up to us on a nice little tray that day! We had a stop over for a few hours in New York JFK airport which was fine but then our plane got delayed and the airline very flippantly informed us that "something was wrong with the plane", but they weren't sure what - they said maybe a leaking engine which as you can imagine filled us with hope and good positive energies about being stuck in that less than perfect tin can 30,000 feet in the air for the next 10 hours.
From the airport we jumped in a taxi and headed towards our hostel in Botafogo which we booked a few days before at home (now is probably a good time to tell you that this hostel - Club Sarrefua was about a third of the price of other hostels over new years period so we were a little dubious as to how it would turn out but just kept our fingers crossed). Botafogo - which literally means 'set it on fire' is a beachfront neighbourhood in between Copacabana and Flamengo, it is a nice part of the city so we are told which is relatively safe and we were pleased to see that both the police station and hospital were both only a few hundred yards of the hostel on Rue Bambina, you know got to be prepared for the worst and all that! Outside the old building was pretty and inviting - however this is a classic example of why we should never judge a book by its cover! Inside the downstairs area was.....we shall call it warehouse chic and with its tall ceilings and shabby mish mash of furniture, painting and general paraphernalia it was 'Brick Lane - esque'. So why was such a gem like this with decent prices not packed over New years period in Rio I hear you ask? All was revealed as we went up the spiral staircase. It is one massive room upstairs with 62 bunk bed in one room and its occupants were me and Hannah and the boys that worked in the Pool Bar/Crack Den situated in the basement below. The beds look as if they were built by a struggling but ambitious fiver year old and you can literally push the top bunk and it wobbles so naturally both me and my lovely travel buddy Hannah opted for a top bunk so as not to be flattened during the night. The mattresses are literally pancakes I AM THE LEMON so I have a really nice bed slat imprint on my back now. But hey a bed is a bed is a bed but a rat in the bathroom which poor old Hannah encountered one evening when brushing her teeth is a different story, this combined with a leaking roof (perfectly situated above the bed I cleverly chose out of 62), noisy but friendly nonetheless builders and constantly hearing weird monkeys chatting somewhere in here is making us want to relocate...I will keep you updated!
On the friday night we had a very slow BBQ where most of the food went to the cooks themselves and left us little gringoes pretty hungry! Samba that night in the Favela Tabajaras was really cool though for the Beija Flor night! Obviously I cannot Samba, that is a given and whilst us group from the hostels were most certainly the pink elephants in the room we gave it a good go and I found the best/only thing we could do in this situation was jump/hop/skip from foot to foot and just keep smiling.....the trick is simply this - Don't look down!!!!!! because it is when you do this that you realise how mentally retarded both you and your feet look. Me and Hannah got a motobike taxi home which was really fun and later in the week when we met some lads and told them the boys on the bikes kept on telling us to hold them tighter and tighter which we assumed was for safety reasons, the lads said this never happens to them and the boys on their bikes actually told them to let go and move back! Oh the joys of being a blonde with blue eyes in Rio.....
New Years or Revelion as it is called here was actually amazing! After meeting at the hostel we spent it down Copacabana beach along with 2 million others all just drinking, dancing, chatting and swimming, it is without a doubt one of my best! The atmosphere was so happy and friendly and down the beach I didn't see one fight which was obviously lovely but a bit of a culture shock because had this been England there would most definitely have been lots of fighting with that much drink involved! Actually I tell a lie later that night we saw some local women leaving a random jewish nightclub and then one of them whipped of her flip flop (probably a havaiana) and starting chasing this lady hitting her with it but that doesn't count because it was just funny! Anyway I digress - back to the beach at the stroke of midnight we were in the sea with a bottle of champagne and fireworks which went on for nearly an hour - a very good night all in all with a perfect mix of caipirinhas, good people and a cheeky bit of David Guetta DJ'ing on one of the stages at the beach - better start thinking how that can be topped next year??
Now is probably a good time to raise the point that South Americans love fireworks -whether its at football matches, new years or just when your bored and feel like it so here in Rio me and Hannah have taken to playing the game - Firework or gunshot because as much as they love their fireworks brazilians also seem to love a gun unfortunately! We hear bangs all the time here and we just probably naively think/hope/pray it is some crazy with a firework. However we have been here for only 10 days now and have already seen a dead body as we drove down a busy street on Copacabana and heard on the news that a American tourist had apparently been shot in Botafogo (yes where we are staying) but people have told us that most incidents like this are drug related so as this is not something that interests me I will keep my head screwed on and we will be fine. For example we went to a Favela - Santa Marta on the hillside behind Botafogo the other day with a guy from our hostel and it was brilliant, we walked all the way to the top through tiny little steps, back alleys, peoples gardens and it was fine, all everyone wanted was just to help and chat. The young lads were kite flying from the rooftops, the girls skipping around singing and yeh there was a very distinct small of weed in there but thats pretty much the smell of most places in the city in my experience, more often than not in our hostel itself. The Favelas as a whole have been cleaned up a lot and the drugs reduced so that they are safer places both to live and visit what with the Olympics and World Cup both coming up in Brazil tourism is high on the agenda! As long as you don't go up there with a great big blinging rolex or a massive SLR round your neck then it's cool. The top had a stunning view over Sugar Loaf mountain which must be amazing for them to wake up to every day!
We have been spending some time at the hostel we stayed at a few years ago when we were in Rio and another one close by and have met some old friends and made some really nice new ones. Rogerio who works at the hostel has been showing us the nightlife of Rio once again and we have literally been out every night since we have been here - whether it was a Samba night, a party in a Favela, rooftop BBQ or a latin party all have been brilliant but this combined with copious amounts of caipirinhas, local beer and late nights is knackering so tonight is a well deserved night off! They have a strange and very dangerous (on your pockets) system here in a club where you are given a receipt at the beginning of your night and each time you get a drink it is added to this instead of paying as you go - you have to pay at the end otherwise you can't leave and you are literally stuck there FOREVERRRRRRR! not quite that bad, but difficult to keep track! We have heard some very interesting chat up lines/compliments so far....here are a couple of the gems; "Millie you look like a fish man" which I was pretty confused by to say the least but after some interesting sign language, puzzled conversations and with the inevitable help of google translator it seems that Cassio (a brazillian lad staying and working at our hostel) was merely trying to say that I look like a mermaid which I suppose he did in a round about way! Cassio has had some crackers - the other day he informed us he would "brush our teeth" Another one which I am still confused about was being told I was a beautiful little boy....I think we should leave that one there!
To sum up Rio so far which is aptly named 'Cidade Maravilhosa' or 'Marvelous City' I would say that it is crazy, fun and beautiful! The city is amazing and brilliant to walk through, the tunnels which connect the different neighbourhoods are not so much though - its pretty much like ice skating on a pool of human faeces (now there's a pretty picture) in flip flops whilst playing dodge the homeless! The beaches are beautiful and lots of them, the food is cheap and tasty if not a little too much egg chucked in to everything for my liking. The atmosphere is happy and its been fun and interesting learning the way of life and cultures here! The people are extremely friendly and welcoming and so far have gone out of their way to ensure we have a great time. The weather has been bizarre - torrential rain one minute and scorching sun the next but that's the tropical climate for you and variety is the spice of life as they say! Even though i'm not a religious person its good to see the Big Man himself watching over us every day and to wake up and see one of the seven wonders of the world each day on our doorstep! Im very much looking forward to my next 2 months here!!!
Home sweet home
our treat of a toilet inside
warehouse chic
amazing views all over the city
standard
also standard
The Big Man
Kite flying in the Favela
We made it to the top of the Favela. Looks as though we are in a cage, we're not?
Me and Hannahpants on one of the many nights out!
Rooftop BBQ courtesy of Diego and Rogerio
New Years at Copacabana beach - brilliant fireworks!
David Guetta playing
some of the 2 million people at New Years - amazing atmosphere
2 English, a Scot, a Peruvian and an Argentinean = fun times!
That is all.
I can still hear monkeys.
Love this blog! hope you keep us updated regularly! Paula xx
ReplyDeleteThanks Paula, glad you liked it! I will defo try and keep it up now for you guys to keep writing for you guys! Having a brilliant time, Rio is amazing and crazy- you would love it! Xxx
ReplyDelete