I'm definately not in Kansas anymore! My world in Brazil is full of extreme contrasts. I'm staying in a 3-4 star hotel with my own bathroom, two single beds, fully-cooked all-you-can-eat breakfast, room service, pool, sauna, the works and yet for some odd reason I go out during the day/night into the most dirty, smelly and rotten street parties that start at 7 in the morning and where the homeless sleep in the worst conditions. Don't even get me started on the porta-loos. Words can not express the way I felt last night. It was a whole new low for me. When I say the parties start at 7am I'm not joking. Not that I get up that early. But I can hear the music from my room. Rioians know how to party. There are bars, food and costume stalls set up all along the streets, music blasting, half naked men and women. Women dressed as men, men dressed as women, men and women dressed as fairies, animals, and other.
Firstly, I have two friends from Floranopolis staying in the same hotel as me, so partying and venturing is much easier. I'm not sure if anyone has done their homework. But Rio can be very dangerous. So travelling around the city alone is not the best idea. So for that I feel very lucky to have cool peeps to hang out with. Lauren, Olly and I have spent most of our time drinking, getting ready for parties, searching for costumes and pushing 'gringo' happy men off us. To be honest, I don't find it flattering at all. More of an insult. Men don't really care what your opinion is around here and will grab what they can, when they want. It's a dog-eat-dog world sometimes. Other times, everyone's lovely and just want to party. I nearly watched someone overdose last night. Health and Safety is not really a priority around here. I tried to step in, lots of people did. But there's just no helping some people. It made us sick and we ended our night on a low note. On a high note I made it to a football game. There were more riot police than spectators....Doh. That was my attempt to say something postive...
Carnival in the Sambadrome was amazing. The 5 loos to 10,000 people did bother me though. I stopped drinking as soon as I got to the stadium. I'll post photos soon. I've come to realise my expectations were too high. I've had no sun, lots of rain and have seen, smelt and heard way too many people peeing on the street. I'm hoping the city tour tomorrow will turn things around. I've heard great things... fingers crossed.
