"Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl..."

Mountain behind our apartment

Oi gente! Hello everyone!

So 2 weeks ago I went to Rio. Wow. It is so difficult to describe how incredible a city it is. It has absolutely everything you could want. Beautiful beaches, amazing nightlife, friendly people, the list goes on and on. Having only 4 days there just wasn't enough to even experience an 1/100th of Rio but what I did experience was unbelievable. Right so my weekend:

Right so Victoria, Emily and I got a bus from good old Belo Horizonte on Thursday night at half 10. When we got on the bus, I was shocked. There I was expecting a Megabus but actually the seats all had pillow head rests, air con, lots of space. We were living a life of luxury compared to normal buses in Brazil. I was excited to have a nice sleep and wake up in Rio......well, that was until I remembered what country I was in. Remember how crazy I said the buses were here? Well this was no exception. We were bombing down mountain roads in the dark at like 100mph, overtaking petrol tankers on tiny mountain passes, bags were falling down on peoples heads from the racks and more than once whilst finally drifting off, I was literally lifted off my seat, going over some bump. It felt more like one of those rollercoaster simulators than actual public transport.  Anyway enough ranting for one post.

So about 4am, we arrived in Rio. All the roads to Rio are up in the mountains so suddenly after passing through a very dodgy tunnel, Rio de Janeiro just jumps out at you. We had an amazing view of the city from our bus of doom and the skyline view was at least a nice distraction from the dangerously close cliff edges. We arrived at the bus station and got a taxi to our apartment which was 1 block away from Copacabana beach (I can literally taste your jealousy and it is delicious), had a few hours kip and hit the beach. After a few hours of swimming, tanning ourselves and just relaxing in the amazing weather (I believe it was snowing back home??? :P Ok I'll stop now.) we decided to head in to town to get some sightseeing done. We went to a place called Lapa to visit the Escadaria Selarón,  the famous tiled steps created by artist Jorge Selarón who spent decades tiling the steps outside his house as "a gift to the Brazilian people". They truly are amazing and a must see in Rio.

That night we decided to go out clubbing in Lapa. We got a cab to the centre of Lapa and arrived outside a huge strip of very busy clubs. It was exactly like Zante, Kavos, [insert random Greek island] etc and I was absolutely buzzing. We call Victoria's brother but it turns out we are in the wrong place so we jump back in to the cab. We arrive 5 minutes later to a place which Victoria fairly described as looking like a "crack den". To be honest, whilst she thought crack den, I just thought of West Croydon on a Saturday night. We'll anyway it turns out that this creepy crack den turned out to be a really cool underground club. It played the weirdest mixture of music from classic rock, indie, samba and Brazilian rap. From what I understood of the Brazilian rap, the majority of songs were about football and Carnival. Figures. Very odd but there were selling 3 beers for R$13. That's about £4 so I was a very happy chappie.

Train up Corcovado mountain

The next morning we got up early and got a bus to go see Cristo Rendentor or Christ the Redeemer (the big Jesus!). We had to queue for ages to get a cable car up the mountain Corcovado but eventually we went up. It took about 20 minutes and the views from there were incredible. That was until I reached the top. Wow. It was incredible but not one for those who are afraid of heights. It was really windy that day and I can honestly say I know what its like to live in a cloud. We were so high up we had to waiting for the clouds to pass because we literally couldn't see anything! We finally pushed through all the people and took the classic tourist pose but it was worth all the waiting. It has to definitely be one the best experiences I've had and its one less thing on the bucket list!

That evening we went to Ipanema beach to watch the sunset, went out for dinner and had picanha (huge Brazilian style steak, rice and beans) and ended up drinking Caipirinhas at a bar on Copacabana beach. It was moments like this that made me think of all of my friends who were studying really hard, pulling all-nighters, working on dissertations, doing work placements, applying for grad schemes.......wait I've forgotten what I was saying I'm so bored. Now back to my interesting life. (I kid, I kid.....well mostly!)

Sunday was an extremely strange but incredible day in Rio. Charlie , Victoria's brother and his girlfriend Helen used to work with a woman called Giselli who had moved back to Brazil and lived in the outskirts of Rio. We had been invited to a party at her house so we got on a bus and headed out of town. When we arrived at the party, we suddenly realised that it was Giselli's fathers 70th birthday party. And we had just gatecrashed. The gringos had arrived. Instead of being silently judged and ignored like most English people would have done, we were welcomed in with open arms and quickly plied with copious amounts of alcohol and food. We got shown to a table and within 30 seconds, we had filled glasses of beer and a massive plate full of churrasco (Brazilian BBQ). It is easily some of the best meat I have ever tasted in my life.  At one point, an uncle of the family gave me a litre beer, went away for two minutes and asked me if I wanted a new beer. He said he was just making sure that I had a beer. Brazilian families are so hospitable and Giselli's family could not have made us feel more welcome.

This was within 5 minutes of arriving.

Churrasco!

The girls with Zaca, the Birthday Boy.

Well having arrived at around 5pm and being constantly plied with alcohol and food, by about 7pm I was definitely feeling on the merry side. This is turn made me believe that dancing to the live samba band was the best idea in the world. I joined the family who I barely knew and showed them how Samba was really done : British style. This is turn led the band's singer to include the lyrics "the gringo on the dancefloor" in his song, but by this point I was enjoying myself too much so had little time for embarrassment. It was incredible to really experience how the Brazilians party and see what Rio life is like outside of Copacabana and the tourist traps. And I've got to say it was phenomenal.

Well that's about it from my Rio adventure. I'll post again really soon because I have so many  observations about Brazil to tell you about! Enjoy the pictures!

P.S Just a quick thank you to all of you for reading my blog. Finally had over 1000 views and it is very much appreciated!

Andy C