Rio de Janerio - Days 8 and 9? Maybe? I can't remember?
For being all alone I definitely haven't had any time to post something decent. Now I'm 4 days behind? Yikes. I'm going to the Botanical Gardens here at 11 so I only have 30 minutes to finish this and then get dressed and go! LIFE IS SO HARD HERE GUYS!!
Okay so the night I got to Rio, the bus ended up taking 8 hours to get there (its about 4.5 hours if you google maps it) and by the time I got to the hostel it was 11. Everyone was so nice and friendly welcoming me there, but I crawled into my bunk and, in a mixture of exhaustion/sadness for leaving the week before, I fell asleep super quick.
NOTE: Check out this video, it basically sums up my experience of week 1, minus everything that happened outside of the hostel walls. All of the caprihinas and coxinas mainly.
I woke up Monday morning feeling refreshed and ready to go. I had NO plans. None. I knew what I wanted to see but had no idea when I'd do them. Dear Zeus I had 6 days to do them, I can take my dear sweet time. And that's exactly what I decided I'd do, thus setting my week into motion.
(Well first I went to meet up with my friend from Sao Paulo named Mellie. I unsuccessfully ordered a "loaf of potato" in Portuguese and a water because that's literally about all I can say. Portuguese might be the worst language I've ever experienced.)
I returned back and napped for 20 minutes. Then, I sat up in bed and was immediately greeted by a girl, who asked if I was hot on the third (YES THIRD) level of bunk. Of course, I was so high up it was disgusting. They gave us sheets as blankets and I didn't use it at all. This is unusual for me! There's nothing I love more than a good blanket and cuddle session...with myself....and this was the easiest I've ever slept. So we started chatting, and it turns out she is Dutch, here on a whim with a friend because her team is doing so well in the World Cup, and she was in the same boat as me. No plans.
Carefully, I tried to not push it, but I basically asked if her if we could be best friends. She agreed, because duh, but I quickly found out she was leaving Wednesday to go to Sao Paulo to watch the Netherlands play Argentina. Mini panic attack, then quickly regained my stability. And now you'll see why.
I wandered downstairs to get this free breakfast everyone on hostelworld.com raved about, and discovered it was quite good. Rolls, butter, jam, fruit, a few different juices, and brownies. I have yet to try those so I don't know how special they are. I'll let you know. As I sat there in a daze of newfound freedom and extreme terror, this dude walked up to me and asked if I'd been to the botanical gardens yet. Nope, so I decided sure, I'd go. Turns out he was here for one more day (rats) and had been living in an apartment with friends in Ipanema and for the last 2 days he was alone and living at the hostel. The dutch girl, Joanna, and her friend, Denick (sp? I think) waddled downstairs soon after and said they wanted to do whatever we did. Then this Zimbabwean dude named Benji said he was going to the beach. We weighed our options: botanical gardens first, then beach? Or opposite? This was a first world problem if I ever heard of one. I made up my mind: I'm here to chill on the beach, ferk the rest. Except the Cristo statue. So off we went to the beach.
The beach is 2 blocks away (!!!!!!) on Copacabana Beach. Its gorgeous. I might've gasped a little when I got there. We got to a spot and I looked around and WHAT DO YOU KNOW, a guy is sitting on the beach with a Hokie Effect shirt on. I don't even think I hesitated, I got up immediately and started chatting. Turns out he graduated in 2012, and the girls he was with went to Penn State and went to high school with the girl I lived in the SK house my junior with. What are the freaking odds. It was so strange. Here's a tip, Hokies: Always wear Tech stuff wherever you go. Instant friends.
We chatted and beached for a while, a few hours for sure, and then they left to go hiking (after exchanging Whatsapp numbers of course) and we went to lunch with Kareem, the guy who was leaving that day. Not sure if you've heard of a kilo restaurant but they're all the rage in Brazil: its a buffet but at the end you weigh your plate and pay the appropriate amount. I think this could've solved a lot of problems for my high school cross country team (aka all of the barfing during meets) but that's a story for a different entry. I also need to explain about Temaki. They are essentially sushi burritos. I had 5 temaki in Sao Paulo. This NEEDS to be a thing in the states. Its incredible.
This lunch opened my eyes to the fact that this dude, Kareem, has almost died 9 times, and he carefully went into detail about every time. He's about to get his phd in physics at Stanford (so casual, like whatever, 23 years old like SO FREAKING COOL) and has come up with a way of thinking every time one of these near death experiences almost happens. Its very methodical and compartmental and almost like he can stop time Spiderman style; I give him props, in the same situation I'd flail my arms and half-scream and be dead in an instant.
Lunch lasted about 2 hours, and by then it was 5 and time to go back and shower to prepare for this Bud Hotel party that Mellie put my name on the list for. I got Joanna and Denick on the list too, and as we were discussing, this group of 2 South African brothers, Benji (from before), and this British guy Tom decided they wanted to come too. I told them, sure, I'd email the hotel to get their name on the list.
We got semi dressed up and wandered 2 blocks to the beach to this hotel. Basically, the event here was a 2 day film festival called Kicking + Screening (haha get it! I'm going to eat you Byong Song!!!) and had about 20 minute videos of various world soccer teams. The one's we saw were about the Egyptian team and that leading into 2014 qualifying they weren't allowed to have supporters watch their games...so they were playing in empty gigantic stadiums. The second was about the 1993 (maybe 94) Zambian soccer team that was destined for greatness before almost their entire team died in a plane crash. One of the two members to not die was at the event and he spoke afterwards with Alexi Lalas, which I thought was semi cool? Idk?? Maybe not.
Well 1. the videos were SUPER SAD. I was about to bawl during the Zambia one. Especially because their 2012 team won the African Cup of Nations in the stadium where their entire 1993/94 team is buried at. Hysterically sad. To make matters worse, the two South African brothers knew the entire story and were tearing up as well. 2. However, there was all the free beer we could ever want so it kind of evened out.
I took to the South African brothers in this group because they reminded me of Caroline and Julia and really made me miss them. I've never once regretted my decision to do this alone, but now I was thinking how fun it would be to have the two of them along for the ride. These guys are pretty awesome, super chill and funny. They told me that when they got to Rio (2 weeks ago) it was their mission to make it to the top of the Bud Hotel, since there's a huge screen on the roof and it looks like a party. They were so close to making it up! (AND THEY DID MAKE IT UP! They partied on the roof with Gerard Butler and the guy who plays Gambit in X-Men. I'm not making this up. Unless they're making it up - in which case they are total liars)
A little later on (and I count time in beers here so 8 beers later) the Dutch girl Joanna and I went to a boat party that was not unlike the Jammin Cats boat cruise I did in Barbados. Except...this was just completely full of dudes and Jo and I might've been one of 8 girls on board. Okay, maybe 13 girls. The ratio was super off. Since you already know what I've told you about South American boys, perhaps you can imagine I spent a good majority of this 5 hour party (started at midnight, ended at 5) running around this boat protecting myself/hiding from creeps/helping Jo when she got sick. I met this Argentinian boy who declared that I would be the mother of his children within a minute of talking to me. Talking isn't even the right term though - I couldn't hear a thing so I was just kind of nodding and he was spastically trying to speak english. I taught him about fist pumping during the American songs and he taught me this crazy twisty dance. This dance blew my mind. You can hold hands with someone and twist around backwards and in all these directions and never break the link. He was so good at it! Also, he had total Frodo hair and I might've told him that and it was like his heart shattered. Sometimes I think I'm really funny but then I realize I'm actually holding this guy's fragile South American heart in my hands and then I squeeze and he just about died. It was lamentable. He is a nice guy though, we are still friends!
Finally the cruise ended and Jo and I and this Australian dude cabbed back to Copacabana. Jo is a lot like Mary Schafer (hi Mary if you are reading this!!) - very funny and charismatic and all the boys just love her. So this Australian boy was not about to let her go. But if he didn't let her go, as I gently tried to tell him, it would be considered rape in America, so he probably should stop. She was basically dead in the cab and he wanted her to go back with him soooo bad. Not that I'd want this true love to be broken up but I did what I felt was right in my heart and dragged her out of the cab - dead-girl-in-arms-of-a-hero-with-car-exploding-in-the-background style.
By then it was almost 6 am. I dropped Jo off in the bunk below me and I somehow made it into my super top bunk and passed out until 12:30.
When I emerged out of the room, I ran straight into the South Africans who basically had the best night of their entire life. Their dream of partying on the roof came true. And because I got them in, they determined I was now in their group and I was the leader. No joke I became their sister right then and there and this set off a lot of selfies. These guys didn't bring phones with them so now that they had someone in tow with a camera phone they could ham it up all they wanted. It doesn't hurt that they're all super cute and have great accents. It does hurt that by this day - I am pretty haggard. I left my only hair tie back in Sao Paulo so I've been walking around with crazy messy hair, no make up because I forget to put any on every day, and also little to no ferks given - all of this adds up to gross photos. And selfies? This just showcases everything! But like I said, little to no ferks, so you win some you lose some.
They were going to the beach and so was I! I wrapped myself in my Brazilian flag, my new Brazilian headband, threw on a suit and we waddled down to the beach together. As we sat on Copacabana, it started pouring. Torrential downpour, if you will. I don't think I'll ever forget when the heavens opened up and dumped upon me and these African boys on the beach (did I mention they're all white? How Mean Girls is this?) and we sprinted back to the hostel. My Brazil flag might've been soaked but my pride was fine!
This worked out perfectly since we wanted to get to the Fan Fest to watch the Brazil Germany game super early. The rain stopped after a little while so off we went, waddling down the beach. The Fan Fest in Sao Paulo sort of sucks. Its in an ugly location and there are no activities. The Rio Fan Fest is everything a soccer fan could ever want - so much free stuff to do, carnival rides, and the beer was cheap and easy to get to.
I'm not sure I want to write about what happened next....you know what happened....YOU KNOW THAT ME AND THE SOUTH AFRICANS BUILT A SAND CASTLE OF THE TITANIC. So embarassing. Humiliating if you will. I saw grown men crying because of this. And yes maybe it was also because of the 7-1 loss. Abso-ferking-lutely STUNNING and I had no words. I almost started to laugh. Here I was, completely head to toe draped in Brazil, witnessing this loss that the country will never forget. How lucky am I!! I'm totally kidding, I feel terrible. However, they'll be okay. Also, German fans here are super mean, but I guess they feel they have a right to be. Really though they all need to STFU.
Tiaan is a good guy to have on vacation because he's just a bundle of joy. All we did was laugh and drink and somehow me and him ended up leaving before the rest of the group (who were arguing about the bill) because we wanted to get back to the hostel to drink, but then we realized we left the umbrella there, so we sprinted back to get it and ended up at the hostel 30 minutes later than we had hoped for. This day (Tuesday) involved a lot of running. I wish I brought my running shoes, I truly do.
The hostel gives out free shots and cheap drinks until 1, so we drank for a while outside and finally I got to sleep, happy and satisfied from a long and random but great day.
Okay I'll write about Wednesday and my tour of the city later.
Okay so the night I got to Rio, the bus ended up taking 8 hours to get there (its about 4.5 hours if you google maps it) and by the time I got to the hostel it was 11. Everyone was so nice and friendly welcoming me there, but I crawled into my bunk and, in a mixture of exhaustion/sadness for leaving the week before, I fell asleep super quick.
NOTE: Check out this video, it basically sums up my experience of week 1, minus everything that happened outside of the hostel walls. All of the caprihinas and coxinas mainly.
I woke up Monday morning feeling refreshed and ready to go. I had NO plans. None. I knew what I wanted to see but had no idea when I'd do them. Dear Zeus I had 6 days to do them, I can take my dear sweet time. And that's exactly what I decided I'd do, thus setting my week into motion.
(Well first I went to meet up with my friend from Sao Paulo named Mellie. I unsuccessfully ordered a "loaf of potato" in Portuguese and a water because that's literally about all I can say. Portuguese might be the worst language I've ever experienced.)
I returned back and napped for 20 minutes. Then, I sat up in bed and was immediately greeted by a girl, who asked if I was hot on the third (YES THIRD) level of bunk. Of course, I was so high up it was disgusting. They gave us sheets as blankets and I didn't use it at all. This is unusual for me! There's nothing I love more than a good blanket and cuddle session...with myself....and this was the easiest I've ever slept. So we started chatting, and it turns out she is Dutch, here on a whim with a friend because her team is doing so well in the World Cup, and she was in the same boat as me. No plans.
Carefully, I tried to not push it, but I basically asked if her if we could be best friends. She agreed, because duh, but I quickly found out she was leaving Wednesday to go to Sao Paulo to watch the Netherlands play Argentina. Mini panic attack, then quickly regained my stability. And now you'll see why.
I wandered downstairs to get this free breakfast everyone on hostelworld.com raved about, and discovered it was quite good. Rolls, butter, jam, fruit, a few different juices, and brownies. I have yet to try those so I don't know how special they are. I'll let you know. As I sat there in a daze of newfound freedom and extreme terror, this dude walked up to me and asked if I'd been to the botanical gardens yet. Nope, so I decided sure, I'd go. Turns out he was here for one more day (rats) and had been living in an apartment with friends in Ipanema and for the last 2 days he was alone and living at the hostel. The dutch girl, Joanna, and her friend, Denick (sp? I think) waddled downstairs soon after and said they wanted to do whatever we did. Then this Zimbabwean dude named Benji said he was going to the beach. We weighed our options: botanical gardens first, then beach? Or opposite? This was a first world problem if I ever heard of one. I made up my mind: I'm here to chill on the beach, ferk the rest. Except the Cristo statue. So off we went to the beach.
The beach is 2 blocks away (!!!!!!) on Copacabana Beach. Its gorgeous. I might've gasped a little when I got there. We got to a spot and I looked around and WHAT DO YOU KNOW, a guy is sitting on the beach with a Hokie Effect shirt on. I don't even think I hesitated, I got up immediately and started chatting. Turns out he graduated in 2012, and the girls he was with went to Penn State and went to high school with the girl I lived in the SK house my junior with. What are the freaking odds. It was so strange. Here's a tip, Hokies: Always wear Tech stuff wherever you go. Instant friends.
Good morning rio, how was your niiiiighhhttt?
We chatted and beached for a while, a few hours for sure, and then they left to go hiking (after exchanging Whatsapp numbers of course) and we went to lunch with Kareem, the guy who was leaving that day. Not sure if you've heard of a kilo restaurant but they're all the rage in Brazil: its a buffet but at the end you weigh your plate and pay the appropriate amount. I think this could've solved a lot of problems for my high school cross country team (aka all of the barfing during meets) but that's a story for a different entry. I also need to explain about Temaki. They are essentially sushi burritos. I had 5 temaki in Sao Paulo. This NEEDS to be a thing in the states. Its incredible.
This lunch opened my eyes to the fact that this dude, Kareem, has almost died 9 times, and he carefully went into detail about every time. He's about to get his phd in physics at Stanford (so casual, like whatever, 23 years old like SO FREAKING COOL) and has come up with a way of thinking every time one of these near death experiences almost happens. Its very methodical and compartmental and almost like he can stop time Spiderman style; I give him props, in the same situation I'd flail my arms and half-scream and be dead in an instant.
Lunch lasted about 2 hours, and by then it was 5 and time to go back and shower to prepare for this Bud Hotel party that Mellie put my name on the list for. I got Joanna and Denick on the list too, and as we were discussing, this group of 2 South African brothers, Benji (from before), and this British guy Tom decided they wanted to come too. I told them, sure, I'd email the hotel to get their name on the list.
Hanging out at the bud hotel
We got semi dressed up and wandered 2 blocks to the beach to this hotel. Basically, the event here was a 2 day film festival called Kicking + Screening (haha get it! I'm going to eat you Byong Song!!!) and had about 20 minute videos of various world soccer teams. The one's we saw were about the Egyptian team and that leading into 2014 qualifying they weren't allowed to have supporters watch their games...so they were playing in empty gigantic stadiums. The second was about the 1993 (maybe 94) Zambian soccer team that was destined for greatness before almost their entire team died in a plane crash. One of the two members to not die was at the event and he spoke afterwards with Alexi Lalas, which I thought was semi cool? Idk?? Maybe not.
Alexi and the Zambian soccer guy
Well 1. the videos were SUPER SAD. I was about to bawl during the Zambia one. Especially because their 2012 team won the African Cup of Nations in the stadium where their entire 1993/94 team is buried at. Hysterically sad. To make matters worse, the two South African brothers knew the entire story and were tearing up as well. 2. However, there was all the free beer we could ever want so it kind of evened out.
I took to the South African brothers in this group because they reminded me of Caroline and Julia and really made me miss them. I've never once regretted my decision to do this alone, but now I was thinking how fun it would be to have the two of them along for the ride. These guys are pretty awesome, super chill and funny. They told me that when they got to Rio (2 weeks ago) it was their mission to make it to the top of the Bud Hotel, since there's a huge screen on the roof and it looks like a party. They were so close to making it up! (AND THEY DID MAKE IT UP! They partied on the roof with Gerard Butler and the guy who plays Gambit in X-Men. I'm not making this up. Unless they're making it up - in which case they are total liars)
They made up a game where Everytime someone said "one" we had to finish with "two, three, drink!" This game continued for three days straight.
A little later on (and I count time in beers here so 8 beers later) the Dutch girl Joanna and I went to a boat party that was not unlike the Jammin Cats boat cruise I did in Barbados. Except...this was just completely full of dudes and Jo and I might've been one of 8 girls on board. Okay, maybe 13 girls. The ratio was super off. Since you already know what I've told you about South American boys, perhaps you can imagine I spent a good majority of this 5 hour party (started at midnight, ended at 5) running around this boat protecting myself/hiding from creeps/helping Jo when she got sick. I met this Argentinian boy who declared that I would be the mother of his children within a minute of talking to me. Talking isn't even the right term though - I couldn't hear a thing so I was just kind of nodding and he was spastically trying to speak english. I taught him about fist pumping during the American songs and he taught me this crazy twisty dance. This dance blew my mind. You can hold hands with someone and twist around backwards and in all these directions and never break the link. He was so good at it! Also, he had total Frodo hair and I might've told him that and it was like his heart shattered. Sometimes I think I'm really funny but then I realize I'm actually holding this guy's fragile South American heart in my hands and then I squeeze and he just about died. It was lamentable. He is a nice guy though, we are still friends!
Finally the cruise ended and Jo and I and this Australian dude cabbed back to Copacabana. Jo is a lot like Mary Schafer (hi Mary if you are reading this!!) - very funny and charismatic and all the boys just love her. So this Australian boy was not about to let her go. But if he didn't let her go, as I gently tried to tell him, it would be considered rape in America, so he probably should stop. She was basically dead in the cab and he wanted her to go back with him soooo bad. Not that I'd want this true love to be broken up but I did what I felt was right in my heart and dragged her out of the cab - dead-girl-in-arms-of-a-hero-with-car-exploding-in-the-background style.
By then it was almost 6 am. I dropped Jo off in the bunk below me and I somehow made it into my super top bunk and passed out until 12:30.
When I emerged out of the room, I ran straight into the South Africans who basically had the best night of their entire life. Their dream of partying on the roof came true. And because I got them in, they determined I was now in their group and I was the leader. No joke I became their sister right then and there and this set off a lot of selfies. These guys didn't bring phones with them so now that they had someone in tow with a camera phone they could ham it up all they wanted. It doesn't hurt that they're all super cute and have great accents. It does hurt that by this day - I am pretty haggard. I left my only hair tie back in Sao Paulo so I've been walking around with crazy messy hair, no make up because I forget to put any on every day, and also little to no ferks given - all of this adds up to gross photos. And selfies? This just showcases everything! But like I said, little to no ferks, so you win some you lose some.
South Africa, Zimbabwe, and England, all in a row
They were going to the beach and so was I! I wrapped myself in my Brazilian flag, my new Brazilian headband, threw on a suit and we waddled down to the beach together. As we sat on Copacabana, it started pouring. Torrential downpour, if you will. I don't think I'll ever forget when the heavens opened up and dumped upon me and these African boys on the beach (did I mention they're all white? How Mean Girls is this?) and we sprinted back to the hostel. My Brazil flag might've been soaked but my pride was fine!
It's all me up in here
This worked out perfectly since we wanted to get to the Fan Fest to watch the Brazil Germany game super early. The rain stopped after a little while so off we went, waddling down the beach. The Fan Fest in Sao Paulo sort of sucks. Its in an ugly location and there are no activities. The Rio Fan Fest is everything a soccer fan could ever want - so much free stuff to do, carnival rides, and the beer was cheap and easy to get to.
I'm not sure I want to write about what happened next....you know what happened....YOU KNOW THAT ME AND THE SOUTH AFRICANS BUILT A SAND CASTLE OF THE TITANIC. So embarassing. Humiliating if you will. I saw grown men crying because of this. And yes maybe it was also because of the 7-1 loss. Abso-ferking-lutely STUNNING and I had no words. I almost started to laugh. Here I was, completely head to toe draped in Brazil, witnessing this loss that the country will never forget. How lucky am I!! I'm totally kidding, I feel terrible. However, they'll be okay. Also, German fans here are super mean, but I guess they feel they have a right to be. Really though they all need to STFU.
Before all hell broke loose and Brazil ate it
Look the titanic!
After the loss, we went back to the hostel, picked up the dutch girls and this british guy, and went to dinner. Dinner turned into a case study of Brazilian waiters and how they refuse to accept any English at all. Every order was all screwed up and they ended up charging us for 6 more beers than we got! It was all good in my opinion, I didn't care and would've eaten anything. (I'm getting quite sick of the Brazilian cuisine, however. Its ALL BREAD AND CHEESE! My arteries are so clogged!!) But the Zimbobwean boy Benji was FURIOUS. Yelling at the manager and all that. Tiaan and I sat on one end of the table and drank every time Benji got mad. We ended the night pretty drunk! It was awesome, thanks Benji!
What a great pic of my buddy tiaan!
Tiaan is a good guy to have on vacation because he's just a bundle of joy. All we did was laugh and drink and somehow me and him ended up leaving before the rest of the group (who were arguing about the bill) because we wanted to get back to the hostel to drink, but then we realized we left the umbrella there, so we sprinted back to get it and ended up at the hostel 30 minutes later than we had hoped for. This day (Tuesday) involved a lot of running. I wish I brought my running shoes, I truly do.
The hostel gives out free shots and cheap drinks until 1, so we drank for a while outside and finally I got to sleep, happy and satisfied from a long and random but great day.
Okay I'll write about Wednesday and my tour of the city later.
Wow. All I can say is wow. I laughed a lot. I believe you are making your mark on lots of countries.
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