...in Rio.

       So we got to Heathrow about 11:30am – left the car with Althea and headed, as is traditional, to the Wetherspoons for a full breakfast and pint. As we'd just had quite a large breakfast we just went straight for the drink. An hour later I was on my third pint, Bindya on her third brandy, spending euros that we'd found at home. I took this chance to check my emails on my phone, only to find out that our Hotel had no idea about our booking with them. This did not make us laugh. About 12:40 we realised that our flight was closing and had to run to the gate. We got on the plane and had a seat in front of the toilets so we could recline as far as we wanted without worryiong about the person behind. The German girl in front of me also liked to recline as far as she wanted without worrying about the person behind, so much so that at one point she got up and told me that me knees were poking into her back. “Yes.” I said, “Yes they are” and made some gestures to indicate my general length. My loving wife then expressed her opinion on the situation to me, not realising that Frau was fluent in some of the more colourful parts of the English language. We discussed the situation for a bit, Frau suggesting that I should have got some sort of 'special seat', presumably for freaks such as myself, and that she 'only wanted to get some rest'. She was then unable to comfortably rest for a good couple of hours while my knees poked into her back until I got bored and moved them.



       We watched Alice in Wonderland which we both liked, Clash of the Titans which B thought was OK but I fell asleep, then Date Night, which made us laugh so much, everyone else around us started to watch it. We got our Hindu meals before everyone else – Chicken Tikka Masala with Peas Rice, Chickpea and potatoes, raita and lime pickle with Kheer for pudding. We drank lots of the free booze – our steward knew our drinks before we'd finished watching the first film.






      We landed about 8:50 and there was an announcement, “There was a problem with the baggage trolley as we loaded the plane so some of you will not have your bags when you get off. You will find out who when you get into the terminal.” How we laughed as we strolled off with all of our carry-on luggage, straight out of the terminal, past all the people holding signs without our name on them. I made a phone call the the Hostel and they still denied having any sort of booking for us, or actually having any rooms. Undeterred, we got in a taxi and went there anyway. First impressions of Rio not great – industrial, empty, no people walking the streets, even though it was only 9 ish. We arrived at a small side alley which the driver assured us held our Hostel. Got in to the hostel, handed over my piece of paper with the booking on and they said, “Oh. OK.” and gave us our room. The room was quite bare and basic, but it had a bed and a shower, which we proceeded to use.
 
 
Our first offical day in Rio and after a good night rest Neil woke me up and then we headed for breakfast. As Britsh folk we queued up for our breakfast but we soon realised this did not work as it was a free for all. Neil loved the strong Brazilian coffee whereas I had Guava juice (fresh) alonhg with watermelon and ham and cheese toasties!!!! Neil then suggested we go out exploring Rio and get “our bearings” and so without a proper map, not speaking the lingo we headed into the unknown. Neil in his usual confident self seemed to know what he was doing as we headed down to Botofogo beach (The local one to use which had great views of Pao de Acucar (Sugarloaf Mountain) and Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer)) but I soon realised this was not the case and we were lost. We were trying to head down to Ipanema but realised that we were heading to Copacobana via a long walk and through (Neil's choice) a graveyard. The graveyard was like nothing I had seen before it was full of statues of Jesus, Mary and Tombs made of marble or depending of the finacial situation of the family. Families are buried together in one plot and the place was silent compared to the busy, nosiy and smelly city outside. We finally realised that we should get a bus and so armed with Neil's lingo which consisted of Ola, Gracias and Por Favour we got on a bus and headed to Copacobana. When we got off the streets were busy and seemed more touristy, but then we saw it.....the beach....it was fantasic, white sands, blue sky and a magnificant blue yet lively sea. We kicked out our flip flops, rolled up our trousers and headed down the beach. It wasn't as busy as I imagined and those things they say about it being full of beautiful men and women was certainly not the case that day...apart from maybe one or two....not that I was looking. After walking for most of the morning we sat down and decided to finally do some reading with the lovely christmas presents (of guidebooks) we were given by family and started to look at what the *@#£ we were doing and what were were going to do next. This was when Neil actually realised that he wasn't speaking Brazalian Portuguese at all but actually Spanish...this was a major blow to him and he lost all confidence in speaking at all at this point...(ok maybe a little exaggerration). We then decided at this point to grab a beer at a cafe on the beach, after all, it was now after midday.







We realised then that we had only brought enough money to pay for this beer and our bus fares back – not enough for lunch – and so we did our traditional visit to the supermarket and bought bread, cheese slices and crisps for our famous 'Holiday Cheese and Crisp Sandwiches'.


I thought it was best that we have this on the beach as we are not allowed to eat or drink in our rooms however the wind was too strong so we ended up eating sand too :(.






Feeling perkier, confident and 'having our bearings', we decided to get a bus back to our hostel, however this didn't go as smoothly as we'd liked. We got the wrong buses, stood on the wrong side of the road and so we went to speak the the tourist information centre. The man, with little English, gave us a map, general directions and told us to get the 127 or the 128 bus. The 128 driver said he wasn't the right bus, the 127 driver said something Neil didn't understand but we got on it anyway. Neil then decided that he knew better and got us off the bus too early. At this point, a tired, burnt, grumpy Bindya appeared. Neil, feeling the pressure, decided it was his duty to get me back before I hit him.
 
       Yeah well we did make it back safely (as I knew where I was), rested a little, then headed back out to Ipanema to find this buzzing nightlife we'd been hearing so much about.   After walking for hours and arguing (again) about who took the wrong turn etc. we finally settled on a place to have some beers and a bite to eat.  This was when I realised that I'd been kind of guessing the exchange rate based on a dream I may or may not have had and actually everything was probably not quite as expensive as I'd thought it was.  Still the beers were small and the heads were big.  We did another bar called Barthodomeu which was full of locals and fairly good value where we ate cassava and were served by A Very Angry Waiter.  We also had our first Caipirhina which made us both drunk so we treated ourselves to a taxi and headed home.  Not wanting to make the same mistake this time, we had to walk back the way we came for 10 mins after getting out the taxi. Tomorrow - football at Maracana stadium!!!