Saturday, 9 June 2007
8:40am
Around midday I am meeting Maria Teresa, some Brazilian I've been in touch with for a couple of months now, we're meeting somewhere at Copacabana, and this is a perfect... excuse to come back to this part of the city. I come way earlier, hours earlier, curious to walk around the non coastal part of Copacabana. A while after leaving the Metro station behind, the first thing that attracts my attention that much as to take a picture of it, is this bus stop advertisement. Ronaldinho (for non football fans who have no idea who this guy with the... funny teeth is, let's just say that he is one of the top three, I'd say, footballers in the planet, right now) is apparently participating in a campaign which asks mobile phone users not to take any shit from the mobile phone companies, when it comes to having their phones blocked.
8:50
Non football fans please bear with me, but I had to take a picture of this. "BMG, o banco dos mil gols", and, inside BMG, in small letters, someone can read "Baixinho Muito Genial". Baixinho (shorty) is the nickname of the player pictured, mighty Romário, who recently scored what he claims to be the 1000th goal of his spectacular career. BMG is a bank, the basic sponsor of Vasco da Gama, the team Romário plays for. "Baixinho very genius", says the advertisement. He is only the second player in the history of football to have reached the 1000 goals landmark, so BMG would be fool not to seize the opportunity to link their name, any way possible, with Baixinho (even though I find their way too unimaginative...).
9:30
!!!!! Who would have thought?! A video/DVD store and right next door, another shop selling stuff for athletes, both named "Macedonia"! I'm left with my mouth open... Of course I go in, I see the establishment is run by a young tall guy, and I ask him in Greek if he speaks Greek. Turns out he is the son of the guy who decades ago opened this business. He does understand Greek, but he can't speak well. He can, though, tell me in Greek the short version of his father's story, and how they still have relatives who live in Greece. What a pleasant surprise... (Writing these lines today, mid November, I wonder how his father feels, knowing that a couple of days ago four out of five political parties that are represented in the Greek Parliament, made it more than clear that they are too ready to accept a name for Skopje, that will include the name "Macedonia". I wonder if he feels as disgusted and betrayed as I feel...).
9:50
I'm loving it, strolling around Copacabana's non coastal part is lovely, if you ask me, and meeting a while ago a second generation Greek only made my morning even more exciting and memorable, but no matter how great everything looks, this is still Rio de Janeiro, a city that comes with the fame of not exactly the safest place on earth, and this photo says things about it. This is the first time in my life I see something like that, a building's door "dressed" like that, so of course I have to take a picture...
10:10
As the sign on the right says, this is Parque Garota de Ipanema, named after the famous song "The girl from Ipanema". It's a small cute park in between Copacabana and Ipanema, a perfect place to take a seat, read my O Globo newspaper and drink my guarana juice. Yes, I am taking it really easy today, after yesterday's walking marathon...
10:20
How come I bought a Brazilian newspaper even though I don't speak Portuguese? Well, "don't speak" and "can't read" are two very different things, as I'm sure you'll agree with me. The main story on the front page is about a, guess!, yep, yet another scandal. I have read lots about how corrupted the politicians are in Brazil, but if you ask me, it makes sense... I mean, this is a huge country, with something like 200,000,000 people. The way I see it, the bigger a country, the bigger the number of corrupted politicians, the bigger the "pie" every corrupted politician wants to have a piece of...
10:30
As I'm reading (Ok, kind of... Mostly checking the titles and trying to understand what every article is about...) my newspaper, sipping a couple of drops of my guarana juice every now and then, I take quick peaks at the people who pass by me. Those statuettes of Christ and Virgin Mary leave passers by anything but indifferent. I'm impressed. I'm impressed because the majority of the people passing by, stop for a minute to pray silently, then do the sign of the cross and touch gently the glass protecting the statuettes. It doesn't strike me when people of a certain age do it, middle aged and older, but it does strike me when much younger people do it, possibly because in my own country, Greece, the younger generations are not that close to the Church as the generation of my parents, for example, is...
12
Maria Teresa takes me to a "por kilo" restaurant, a rather typical kind of restaurant in Brazil, where you pay as much as your food weighs. This is my 10 reais (less than four euros) choice. The atmosphere in the restaurant is nice, as well as the fact that I am actually meeting a person I was in touch with, for several weeks before flying to Brazil.
2pm
I've been meaning to come to this place (FNAC) for weeks now, because I have almost half a dozen CDs I want to buy, and am sure that here I will find the best prices. Half an hour later, I leave, having gladly said goodbye to the equivalent of 40-45 euros. In my little daypack I have Ivete Sangalo's "MTV ao vivo", Daniela Mercury's "Balé mulato ao vivo", Margareth Menezes' "Brasileira ao vivo", plus, the DVD of Sangalo's relatively recent concert at Maracanã. Am I one happy guy? You bet I am! Buying all these was in my "to do, no matter WHAT" list. The prices are not that ridiculous as in India, but still, something more than 10 euros per piece I find to be a bargain, at least for Greek standards... Now, I won't get into details about how MADLY in love I am with Brazilian music in general and "axé" or "samba reggae" in particular, but believe me, I am. When I start talking about Brazilian music I remind me of that guy from "Jerry Maguire" who is insanely in love with jazz, remember? Tom Cruise is all anxious to go into Renée Zellweger's house and make love to her for the very first time, but first he has to bear with this guy's "lecture" over jazz, the guy who had been staying with Zellweger's kid, while she was out with Cruise. Next time you watch the movie, substitute "jazz" with "Brazilian music", and there you'll have me...
2:30
FNAC in Rio can ONLY be found at Barra Shopping, a shopping centre at a place called Barra da Tijuca, a coastal suburb of Rio, a good bus ride southwest of Ipanema. As you leave Ipanema behind, you cross a tunnel, and when you see light again, what you have on your right is Rocinha, Rio's, I think the whole of Brazil's, biggest "favela". We made a stop, just to let some people get off, and then the bus took off again. I would be a liar if I said that I wasn't tempted to take a photo, the picture was... beyond description, hundreds, if not thousands, of derelict looking houses forming some kind of concrete water fall... The reason I didn't take a picture, is that I don't like taking pictures this way. I find there is something... sneaky and chicky in taking pictures this way, as if treating people who would be in the picture as some kind of... I don't know. I don't find it decent "stealing" images this way... Anyhow, a couple of minutes later, you take a turn and suddenly you are at Barra da Tijuca. What a contrast. No, let me rephrase that... I meant to say W H A T A C O N T R A S T. Rocinha and Barra da Tijuca are only a few kilometers, but at the same time a different planet away. Shopping centres, shopping centres, shopping centres, cool tall apartment blocks, and... did I mention the shopping centres? Barra Shopping is probably the biggest. Yes, in the picture, what you see on the left is a modest imitation of The Statue of Liberty. Not what impressed me the most here. The women, dears. That's what impressed me the most. I haven't spent that much time in Brazil yet, but I do have eyes, and I can already tell that this is a damn sexy country... I'll share my impressions on Brazilian women some other day, but today I must say that in Barra Shopping I saw countless women who could EASILY be Brazilian soap operas' stars. I say no more...
5:45
Hostels in Rio organize little "excursions" to Maracanã on match days. Check websites like travelblog.org, go to "Rio de Janeiro", and you'll see even girls posing in Maracanã, attending a "futebol" match. Still, no hostel organizes similar excursions to São Januário, the stadium of Vasco da Gama. The Argentinean guy who runs my hostel says that the area around it is rough, but I have made up my mind, and to be honest, the fact that I'm advised against going, plus, knowing that this is not really a touristy thing, only make me want to go even more. Some middle aged fellows who play cards in a tiny park outside my hostel, tell me with certainty which bus I must take to go to the stadium. We cross a good part of the city, and as we approach São Januário, more and more people get on the bus, wearing Vasco shirts. Now I know for sure that I have taken the right bus... We arrive, and oh my... is the atmosphere festive or what?! I buy a 15 reais ticket and I hand to the same guy 15 reais more for a sleeveless Vasco shirt. Today I want to be as "vascaíno" as it gets... The stands are practically full, and I am seriously impressed by the atmosphere in the stadium...
7pm
In Greece we mostly hear about riots in the stands of Brazilian stadia. What the heck, then? Here I see women all around, fathers with their young kids, husbands and wives having come with their whole family, and on our left we have some 100 Grêmio fans, fans of the visiting team, whom, though, I had spotted earlier, outside the stadium, having a snack in between Vasco fans, as if nothing was going on. Gosh... If an Olympiakos fan tried to do the same thing wearing an Olympiakos shirt outside PAOK's stadium just before a match, he would end up at the closest hospital as soon as the ambulance could make way through PAOK fans who would have eaten him alive... I'm a PAOK fan, PAOK's stadium used to be my second home, it IS about 500 meters from the home where I grew up, and I have been to more PAOK-Olympiakos matches than what I can count, so... take my word for it...
7:10
Yes, it's dark, and these are the referees you see in the middle of the dark pitch. There was an electricity failure the moment the first half reached its end, and for an hour now the people who are running the show are trying to make up their mind, go on with the match or call it a day. Vasco is winning by three goals to nil, Grêmio is playing with lots of substitutes because in a few days they have a very important international match, I am not sure they want to oblige themselves to stay at Rio for an extra day, or come back, say... next week, to keep playing a game which is, either way, already practically lost, so, after negotiations, the match will go on, after all.
7:20
As for me, I am a photo vulture, so I just take advantage of the situation to take some photos I wouldn't have taken if it wasn't for the electricity failure. The fans are anything but discouraged by what is happening, they put on their own show, one I am more than happy to immortalize with my camera.
Romário's goal number 1001
It's the 13th minute of the first half, and Vasco have won a penalty. Click and see what it is like being in a Brazilian stadium the moment the home team scores... In the end you'll notice the picture jumping abruptly. It's because the crazy girl in front of me (she has some foul mouth, I'm telling you, she swears all the time) has totally lost it and almost punched the camera off my hands... (There seems to be some problem, can't upload the clip, tried four times...).
Singing, clapping
Fans keeping their spirits up, waiting for the match to restart. They say a picture equals 1000 words. I concur. Thank God, though, I have a photo camera which also takes clips with sound. If a picture is as good as 1000 words, then add a couple of zeros and you have what a clip is as good as... (Same uploading problem, trying to find a solution).
I reach my hostel late at night. The atmosphere is festive. Most people are getting prepared to go out. Waiting to have a shower I get to talk with a Brazilian girl, a Vasco fan(!), who was at the stadium earlier(!!). I'm invited to go with her and her friends out, most probably to Lapa (some party area), at first I agree, but after a while my anti-social half wins my adventurous and explorative one, I find a lousy excuse and go to bed. I don't like this part of me, but I have kind of learned to live with it. I think I am too old to change me, a belief that proved to be wrong, later on during this trip... Dimitris at Frankfurt, on his way BACK to Greece, was a seriously different person to Dimitris at Frankfurt, on his way TO Brazil, sociability-wise...
8:40am
Around midday I am meeting Maria Teresa, some Brazilian I've been in touch with for a couple of months now, we're meeting somewhere at Copacabana, and this is a perfect... excuse to come back to this part of the city. I come way earlier, hours earlier, curious to walk around the non coastal part of Copacabana. A while after leaving the Metro station behind, the first thing that attracts my attention that much as to take a picture of it, is this bus stop advertisement. Ronaldinho (for non football fans who have no idea who this guy with the... funny teeth is, let's just say that he is one of the top three, I'd say, footballers in the planet, right now) is apparently participating in a campaign which asks mobile phone users not to take any shit from the mobile phone companies, when it comes to having their phones blocked.
8:50
Non football fans please bear with me, but I had to take a picture of this. "BMG, o banco dos mil gols", and, inside BMG, in small letters, someone can read "Baixinho Muito Genial". Baixinho (shorty) is the nickname of the player pictured, mighty Romário, who recently scored what he claims to be the 1000th goal of his spectacular career. BMG is a bank, the basic sponsor of Vasco da Gama, the team Romário plays for. "Baixinho very genius", says the advertisement. He is only the second player in the history of football to have reached the 1000 goals landmark, so BMG would be fool not to seize the opportunity to link their name, any way possible, with Baixinho (even though I find their way too unimaginative...).
9:30
!!!!! Who would have thought?! A video/DVD store and right next door, another shop selling stuff for athletes, both named "Macedonia"! I'm left with my mouth open... Of course I go in, I see the establishment is run by a young tall guy, and I ask him in Greek if he speaks Greek. Turns out he is the son of the guy who decades ago opened this business. He does understand Greek, but he can't speak well. He can, though, tell me in Greek the short version of his father's story, and how they still have relatives who live in Greece. What a pleasant surprise... (Writing these lines today, mid November, I wonder how his father feels, knowing that a couple of days ago four out of five political parties that are represented in the Greek Parliament, made it more than clear that they are too ready to accept a name for Skopje, that will include the name "Macedonia". I wonder if he feels as disgusted and betrayed as I feel...).
9:50
I'm loving it, strolling around Copacabana's non coastal part is lovely, if you ask me, and meeting a while ago a second generation Greek only made my morning even more exciting and memorable, but no matter how great everything looks, this is still Rio de Janeiro, a city that comes with the fame of not exactly the safest place on earth, and this photo says things about it. This is the first time in my life I see something like that, a building's door "dressed" like that, so of course I have to take a picture...
10:10
As the sign on the right says, this is Parque Garota de Ipanema, named after the famous song "The girl from Ipanema". It's a small cute park in between Copacabana and Ipanema, a perfect place to take a seat, read my O Globo newspaper and drink my guarana juice. Yes, I am taking it really easy today, after yesterday's walking marathon...
10:20
How come I bought a Brazilian newspaper even though I don't speak Portuguese? Well, "don't speak" and "can't read" are two very different things, as I'm sure you'll agree with me. The main story on the front page is about a, guess!, yep, yet another scandal. I have read lots about how corrupted the politicians are in Brazil, but if you ask me, it makes sense... I mean, this is a huge country, with something like 200,000,000 people. The way I see it, the bigger a country, the bigger the number of corrupted politicians, the bigger the "pie" every corrupted politician wants to have a piece of...
10:30
As I'm reading (Ok, kind of... Mostly checking the titles and trying to understand what every article is about...) my newspaper, sipping a couple of drops of my guarana juice every now and then, I take quick peaks at the people who pass by me. Those statuettes of Christ and Virgin Mary leave passers by anything but indifferent. I'm impressed. I'm impressed because the majority of the people passing by, stop for a minute to pray silently, then do the sign of the cross and touch gently the glass protecting the statuettes. It doesn't strike me when people of a certain age do it, middle aged and older, but it does strike me when much younger people do it, possibly because in my own country, Greece, the younger generations are not that close to the Church as the generation of my parents, for example, is...
12
Maria Teresa takes me to a "por kilo" restaurant, a rather typical kind of restaurant in Brazil, where you pay as much as your food weighs. This is my 10 reais (less than four euros) choice. The atmosphere in the restaurant is nice, as well as the fact that I am actually meeting a person I was in touch with, for several weeks before flying to Brazil.
2pm
I've been meaning to come to this place (FNAC) for weeks now, because I have almost half a dozen CDs I want to buy, and am sure that here I will find the best prices. Half an hour later, I leave, having gladly said goodbye to the equivalent of 40-45 euros. In my little daypack I have Ivete Sangalo's "MTV ao vivo", Daniela Mercury's "Balé mulato ao vivo", Margareth Menezes' "Brasileira ao vivo", plus, the DVD of Sangalo's relatively recent concert at Maracanã. Am I one happy guy? You bet I am! Buying all these was in my "to do, no matter WHAT" list. The prices are not that ridiculous as in India, but still, something more than 10 euros per piece I find to be a bargain, at least for Greek standards... Now, I won't get into details about how MADLY in love I am with Brazilian music in general and "axé" or "samba reggae" in particular, but believe me, I am. When I start talking about Brazilian music I remind me of that guy from "Jerry Maguire" who is insanely in love with jazz, remember? Tom Cruise is all anxious to go into Renée Zellweger's house and make love to her for the very first time, but first he has to bear with this guy's "lecture" over jazz, the guy who had been staying with Zellweger's kid, while she was out with Cruise. Next time you watch the movie, substitute "jazz" with "Brazilian music", and there you'll have me...
2:30
FNAC in Rio can ONLY be found at Barra Shopping, a shopping centre at a place called Barra da Tijuca, a coastal suburb of Rio, a good bus ride southwest of Ipanema. As you leave Ipanema behind, you cross a tunnel, and when you see light again, what you have on your right is Rocinha, Rio's, I think the whole of Brazil's, biggest "favela". We made a stop, just to let some people get off, and then the bus took off again. I would be a liar if I said that I wasn't tempted to take a photo, the picture was... beyond description, hundreds, if not thousands, of derelict looking houses forming some kind of concrete water fall... The reason I didn't take a picture, is that I don't like taking pictures this way. I find there is something... sneaky and chicky in taking pictures this way, as if treating people who would be in the picture as some kind of... I don't know. I don't find it decent "stealing" images this way... Anyhow, a couple of minutes later, you take a turn and suddenly you are at Barra da Tijuca. What a contrast. No, let me rephrase that... I meant to say W H A T A C O N T R A S T. Rocinha and Barra da Tijuca are only a few kilometers, but at the same time a different planet away. Shopping centres, shopping centres, shopping centres, cool tall apartment blocks, and... did I mention the shopping centres? Barra Shopping is probably the biggest. Yes, in the picture, what you see on the left is a modest imitation of The Statue of Liberty. Not what impressed me the most here. The women, dears. That's what impressed me the most. I haven't spent that much time in Brazil yet, but I do have eyes, and I can already tell that this is a damn sexy country... I'll share my impressions on Brazilian women some other day, but today I must say that in Barra Shopping I saw countless women who could EASILY be Brazilian soap operas' stars. I say no more...
5:45
Hostels in Rio organize little "excursions" to Maracanã on match days. Check websites like travelblog.org, go to "Rio de Janeiro", and you'll see even girls posing in Maracanã, attending a "futebol" match. Still, no hostel organizes similar excursions to São Januário, the stadium of Vasco da Gama. The Argentinean guy who runs my hostel says that the area around it is rough, but I have made up my mind, and to be honest, the fact that I'm advised against going, plus, knowing that this is not really a touristy thing, only make me want to go even more. Some middle aged fellows who play cards in a tiny park outside my hostel, tell me with certainty which bus I must take to go to the stadium. We cross a good part of the city, and as we approach São Januário, more and more people get on the bus, wearing Vasco shirts. Now I know for sure that I have taken the right bus... We arrive, and oh my... is the atmosphere festive or what?! I buy a 15 reais ticket and I hand to the same guy 15 reais more for a sleeveless Vasco shirt. Today I want to be as "vascaíno" as it gets... The stands are practically full, and I am seriously impressed by the atmosphere in the stadium...
7pm
In Greece we mostly hear about riots in the stands of Brazilian stadia. What the heck, then? Here I see women all around, fathers with their young kids, husbands and wives having come with their whole family, and on our left we have some 100 Grêmio fans, fans of the visiting team, whom, though, I had spotted earlier, outside the stadium, having a snack in between Vasco fans, as if nothing was going on. Gosh... If an Olympiakos fan tried to do the same thing wearing an Olympiakos shirt outside PAOK's stadium just before a match, he would end up at the closest hospital as soon as the ambulance could make way through PAOK fans who would have eaten him alive... I'm a PAOK fan, PAOK's stadium used to be my second home, it IS about 500 meters from the home where I grew up, and I have been to more PAOK-Olympiakos matches than what I can count, so... take my word for it...
7:10
Yes, it's dark, and these are the referees you see in the middle of the dark pitch. There was an electricity failure the moment the first half reached its end, and for an hour now the people who are running the show are trying to make up their mind, go on with the match or call it a day. Vasco is winning by three goals to nil, Grêmio is playing with lots of substitutes because in a few days they have a very important international match, I am not sure they want to oblige themselves to stay at Rio for an extra day, or come back, say... next week, to keep playing a game which is, either way, already practically lost, so, after negotiations, the match will go on, after all.
7:20
As for me, I am a photo vulture, so I just take advantage of the situation to take some photos I wouldn't have taken if it wasn't for the electricity failure. The fans are anything but discouraged by what is happening, they put on their own show, one I am more than happy to immortalize with my camera.
Romário's goal number 1001
It's the 13th minute of the first half, and Vasco have won a penalty. Click and see what it is like being in a Brazilian stadium the moment the home team scores... In the end you'll notice the picture jumping abruptly. It's because the crazy girl in front of me (she has some foul mouth, I'm telling you, she swears all the time) has totally lost it and almost punched the camera off my hands... (There seems to be some problem, can't upload the clip, tried four times...).
Singing, clapping
Fans keeping their spirits up, waiting for the match to restart. They say a picture equals 1000 words. I concur. Thank God, though, I have a photo camera which also takes clips with sound. If a picture is as good as 1000 words, then add a couple of zeros and you have what a clip is as good as... (Same uploading problem, trying to find a solution).
I reach my hostel late at night. The atmosphere is festive. Most people are getting prepared to go out. Waiting to have a shower I get to talk with a Brazilian girl, a Vasco fan(!), who was at the stadium earlier(!!). I'm invited to go with her and her friends out, most probably to Lapa (some party area), at first I agree, but after a while my anti-social half wins my adventurous and explorative one, I find a lousy excuse and go to bed. I don't like this part of me, but I have kind of learned to live with it. I think I am too old to change me, a belief that proved to be wrong, later on during this trip... Dimitris at Frankfurt, on his way BACK to Greece, was a seriously different person to Dimitris at Frankfurt, on his way TO Brazil, sociability-wise...
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