Thursday, 7 June 2007
When I'm home, I hardly ever wake up before 10am... One of the good things about working as a sportswriter for a newspaper which follows an afternoon/night work schedule... But today, I'm not home, I'm in BRAZIL (I'm still pinching me to fully realize it), I want to take advantage of the few hours I have at my disposal before going to Salvador's airport for my Rio de Janeiro flight, and besides, it may be 6:30 here, but it's close to 10am back home, so I feel I have had enough sleep, even though it was a quite... eham... "adventurous" night. Yesterday I wrote that at my hostel (pictured here) I found a chill out atmosphere, which made me like it from the very beginning. Well, I also found a Brazilian girl at the front desk, who seems like... how should I put it?... seems like "organized" is not one of her middle names. She had no idea which bed in my dormitory was empty, finally she pointed at one, and that's where I fell asleep. Not THAT later, I had a girl's hand slightly pushing me. Oops... After all, the bed wasn't empty. No big deal... In two minutes I was in another bed, but guess what! No one could tell me if THAT one was really available. You know, people were still out partying, a couple of hours after midnight, so... no one could tell me for sure that in an hour I wouldn't be woken up again. Yawwwwwn... I was too sleepy and tired to worry. In no time I was asleep again, that is... until 5:30, when my biological clock rang, unable yet to adopt to Brazil's time.
When I take pictures, I try to squeeze in as much as possible, without much success, most of the times (sigh...). Here, for example, you have the Farol da Barra in the back, the lighthouse, you have a lady jogging, and maybe most of all you have the pavement, which is in the picture for a reason. If you've been to Lisbon, you must remember their characteristic pavements, with all sorts of motifs drawn on them, making them look really nice, really... "artsy", if you ask me. Lisbon is the place I brought in mind seeing the pavement at coastal Barra, and of course I had to take a picture of it. I have taken hundreds of pictures that are way less pointless than this one, so...
I love dogs. Love them. I am not a violent person, I have only acted violently once in my after-school life, but when I see people maltreat animals in general and dogs in particular I feel this urge to break their heads (there goes my non violent profile...). I love taking pictures of dogs, and this one is one of my favourite. Look at it. With the sun still struggling to find its way high up in the sky, there are a few meters of road enjoying sun's early morning kisses, and of course the dog is lying right there, not in the shade. It looks almost... in trance, as it enjoys the sun, not to mention its ears, looking like small wings, small cute wings... Paying a little closer look, you can see on the left a TV camera, on a tripod. Some crew was getting prepared to shoot something. No hot looking Brazilian actresses could be spot around, so I went on with my stroll...
Praia da Farol da Barra, as seen from Morro do Cristo, a small hill. On my way here, I saw dozens of early morning joggers, of all ages, I saw surfers trying their luck, dog owners walking their beloved ones, as well as a police guy in a small post, whom I wanted to take a picture of, but rational I decided otherwise. Getting in unnecessary trouble my first hours in Brazil is not in my "to do" list. It's... lovely. I don't know how else to describe it... It IS lovely, and it definitely is Salvador, the "most black city in Brazil", as my guidebook describes it. Indeed, black people make up a big part of the city's population, which, if you ask me, I seriously like, because it's so different to what I am used to in my own country. I love different, I go after different, and I fully enjoy it when I find it, be it different skin colour, different food, different language, different customs, you name it...
At 8, breakfast starts being served at my hostel, so I ssslllooowwwlllyyy start making my way back. Palm trees... Possibly my most favourite trees, most probably because I have totally linked them with exotic places, dreamy places, places I gave... epic proportions to, as a teenager, making a list of my "to go to someday" places. I tell myself that Barra proved to be a rather pleasant surprise. Don't get me wrong, I didn't expect to find... cannibals coming here, but after all I had read and heard about Brazil in general and Salvador in particular, I was kind of expecting things to be more... rough. It's not even 7:30 in the morning, and the coastal road is full of... "normal" people, and the only "threat" I face is losing track of time, prolonging my walk more than what I should, given that I do have a flight to Rio de Janeiro to catch...
Praia Porto da Barra, and Forte Santa Maria (the white building in the back). Take it from me, these four guys really knew how to handle the ball with their feet, head and chest, sometimes shoulders too. Here I am, at one of Brazil's biggest cities, a coastal one (as almost all of big Brazilian cities, actually), where people can go to a number of beaches within the city limits, sit on the sand, get in the water, and play beach games. I can't help it, I think of my own city, Thessaloniki, and how amazing it would be if we had something similar. We do have an eastern suburb with a small sandy beach, but the water is so filthy that I wouldn't jump in even if I saw a 100 euros bill two meters' far from the shore (Ok, I would, shoot me, I'm only trying to make a point here...).
Breakfast time. Everything about my hostel is cute, even the little yard where people can have breakfast. Coffee with milk, a small sandwich, some sweet, local juice, and water melon, my top-top-top favourite fruit (with cherries losing the race for less than a millimetre). I can go back and try the other juices they have as well, which I do once this glass you see in the photo gets empty. I bring in mind yesterday's American guy at Frankfurt. Oh yeah, he was right, a good breakfast is essential while on the road, but nope, I am not changing my mind, I still think morning sex is an undisputed number one in "things that REALLY make your day while traveling, things you enjoy right after waking up"...
It took almost an hour to reach the airport from Barra, and what I mostly paid attention to as we were going through one Salvador neighbourhood after the other, was that this is a SERIOUSLY black city, which, as I have already written, I love. My "Gol" flight to Rio de Janeiro will leave on time. For something less than 140 reais, just over 50 euros, I get to fly to Rio, saving myself from the... torture of taking a bus, which, not only would eat up a whole day of mine, but also wouldn't save me any money, since I would end up spending pretty much the same money. The airport is relatively small, but... good small, not bad small. It has a... cozy atmosphere, I find, and a number of souvenir shops that tempt me to start spending money. I get a grip, reminding myself that in about three weeks for today, I will be back here, at this very same airport, this time waiting for my Frankfurt flight. No reason to jump into buying souvenirs that early, even though I almost lose it when I enter a CD store I find there, and suddenly find myself surrounded by a dozen CDs I have written in my "to buy" list, before leaving Greece. "Keep your money for FNAC", I tell myself, betting that at Rio I will find the same CDs for better prices (turned out, I was right...).
My first Rio de Janeiro photo. My hostel (El Misti) was supposed to be offering a pick up service for people booking more than three nights, but no one is at the airport to pick me up. I take the bus and clearly ask the driver to drop me off at Botafogo, the area where my hostel is. We go, and go, and go, until at some point we cross a tunnel. I start smelling a rat, I don't remember seeing in the map another tunnel before the one that links Botafogo and Copacabana, which meeeeaaaans, oh yeah, the driver forgot to drop me off, and as if sensing my worries, he turns back and with a rather apologetic look says something like "I forgot you, you should have gotten off at the previous stop". So, he drops me off one stop later, which is... way more messy than what you think, because walking to my hostel is NOT an option. As it usually happens in life when we get in trouble and have no clue what to do, help I find. I ask a young couple how can I go back to Botafogo, and lucky I, the girl speaks English! (Yes, the exclamation mark is necessary, go to Brazil in the near future and you'll see why...). They spend more than ten minutes with me, talking to each other, trying to figure out the best way for me to go back, and in the end they practically take me by the hand and lead me to some place where I can catch a bus. That I do. I tell them a really honest, relieved and grateful "mmmmuito obrigado" ("thank you very much"), I board my bus, and in less than ten minutes I am checking in my hostel. They had internet connection problems the whole day, this is why I saw no one at the airport picking me up, which, sorry to say, I find a lousy excuse, because they should have a list of who is coming when, and shouldn't depend on their internet connection or their PCs to have access to that list. Aaaaaanyhow, the hostel is cute, the common area is great, the beds are a bit crammed, but who cares?! For less than 8 euros per night, I consider this place a bargain. I leave my stuff in the dormitory and in no time I am out. First impressions? Weird... I chose Botafogo because it's in the middle of everything (you have easy access to Copacabana on one side, Maracanã stadium on the other side, while Pão de Açúcar is only a few minutes' walk away. Plus, it's described as "safer" than Copacabana/Ipanema, let alone Lapa. Still, the first thing I see half a minute after leaving my hostel, is a group of young men fighting each other practically in the middle of the street. It doesn't exactly feel unsafe, but... it makes me keep my eyes wide open, paying extra attention to my surroundings. Later on I would realize that this was only a tiny incident, as I spent four days at Rio without facing ANY safety issues. I spot a juice corner, and my mind runs back to abacaxí, a juice I tried last night at Salvador. For 4 reais (I remind you that one euro is something like 2.6 reais), I have a "copão", a big copa of abacaxí. This is when I start realizing that Brazilians tend to use this "ão" ending (expressing big size), even in things that size-wise, don't... deserve it. Still, the juice is faaaaaantastic, a great welcome to Rio.
Praia do Botafogo. The same feeling of wonder is coming back... Yesterday I was trying to fully realize that I am in Brazil, flesh and bones, but today I am not just in Brazil, I am in RIO DE JANEIRO. I find it overwhelming... Overwhelming indeed... Here you have a guy who lives to travel, who has taken some of the most important decisions of his life based on his traveling needs, a guy who only in his wildest dreams pictured himself going to Rio de Janeiro one day, and now... I'm here, flesh and bones... I am... happy. That's what I am... My miserable, pathetic lonely life back home is thousands of miles away, my job too, my mediocre relationship with my parents, the lack of friends, the fact that I compromise with a way of living I don't have the guts to break free from, none of these matters, because I am in RIO, and right here right now I feel 100% alive. This is what matters... And the best is yet to come... Tomorrow is Copacabana and Ipanema day!!!
6:30am
When I'm home, I hardly ever wake up before 10am... One of the good things about working as a sportswriter for a newspaper which follows an afternoon/night work schedule... But today, I'm not home, I'm in BRAZIL (I'm still pinching me to fully realize it), I want to take advantage of the few hours I have at my disposal before going to Salvador's airport for my Rio de Janeiro flight, and besides, it may be 6:30 here, but it's close to 10am back home, so I feel I have had enough sleep, even though it was a quite... eham... "adventurous" night. Yesterday I wrote that at my hostel (pictured here) I found a chill out atmosphere, which made me like it from the very beginning. Well, I also found a Brazilian girl at the front desk, who seems like... how should I put it?... seems like "organized" is not one of her middle names. She had no idea which bed in my dormitory was empty, finally she pointed at one, and that's where I fell asleep. Not THAT later, I had a girl's hand slightly pushing me. Oops... After all, the bed wasn't empty. No big deal... In two minutes I was in another bed, but guess what! No one could tell me if THAT one was really available. You know, people were still out partying, a couple of hours after midnight, so... no one could tell me for sure that in an hour I wouldn't be woken up again. Yawwwwwn... I was too sleepy and tired to worry. In no time I was asleep again, that is... until 5:30, when my biological clock rang, unable yet to adopt to Brazil's time.
6:40
When I take pictures, I try to squeeze in as much as possible, without much success, most of the times (sigh...). Here, for example, you have the Farol da Barra in the back, the lighthouse, you have a lady jogging, and maybe most of all you have the pavement, which is in the picture for a reason. If you've been to Lisbon, you must remember their characteristic pavements, with all sorts of motifs drawn on them, making them look really nice, really... "artsy", if you ask me. Lisbon is the place I brought in mind seeing the pavement at coastal Barra, and of course I had to take a picture of it. I have taken hundreds of pictures that are way less pointless than this one, so...
6:50
I love dogs. Love them. I am not a violent person, I have only acted violently once in my after-school life, but when I see people maltreat animals in general and dogs in particular I feel this urge to break their heads (there goes my non violent profile...). I love taking pictures of dogs, and this one is one of my favourite. Look at it. With the sun still struggling to find its way high up in the sky, there are a few meters of road enjoying sun's early morning kisses, and of course the dog is lying right there, not in the shade. It looks almost... in trance, as it enjoys the sun, not to mention its ears, looking like small wings, small cute wings... Paying a little closer look, you can see on the left a TV camera, on a tripod. Some crew was getting prepared to shoot something. No hot looking Brazilian actresses could be spot around, so I went on with my stroll...
7:10
Praia da Farol da Barra, as seen from Morro do Cristo, a small hill. On my way here, I saw dozens of early morning joggers, of all ages, I saw surfers trying their luck, dog owners walking their beloved ones, as well as a police guy in a small post, whom I wanted to take a picture of, but rational I decided otherwise. Getting in unnecessary trouble my first hours in Brazil is not in my "to do" list. It's... lovely. I don't know how else to describe it... It IS lovely, and it definitely is Salvador, the "most black city in Brazil", as my guidebook describes it. Indeed, black people make up a big part of the city's population, which, if you ask me, I seriously like, because it's so different to what I am used to in my own country. I love different, I go after different, and I fully enjoy it when I find it, be it different skin colour, different food, different language, different customs, you name it...
7:20
At 8, breakfast starts being served at my hostel, so I ssslllooowwwlllyyy start making my way back. Palm trees... Possibly my most favourite trees, most probably because I have totally linked them with exotic places, dreamy places, places I gave... epic proportions to, as a teenager, making a list of my "to go to someday" places. I tell myself that Barra proved to be a rather pleasant surprise. Don't get me wrong, I didn't expect to find... cannibals coming here, but after all I had read and heard about Brazil in general and Salvador in particular, I was kind of expecting things to be more... rough. It's not even 7:30 in the morning, and the coastal road is full of... "normal" people, and the only "threat" I face is losing track of time, prolonging my walk more than what I should, given that I do have a flight to Rio de Janeiro to catch...
7:50
Praia Porto da Barra, and Forte Santa Maria (the white building in the back). Take it from me, these four guys really knew how to handle the ball with their feet, head and chest, sometimes shoulders too. Here I am, at one of Brazil's biggest cities, a coastal one (as almost all of big Brazilian cities, actually), where people can go to a number of beaches within the city limits, sit on the sand, get in the water, and play beach games. I can't help it, I think of my own city, Thessaloniki, and how amazing it would be if we had something similar. We do have an eastern suburb with a small sandy beach, but the water is so filthy that I wouldn't jump in even if I saw a 100 euros bill two meters' far from the shore (Ok, I would, shoot me, I'm only trying to make a point here...).
8am
Breakfast time. Everything about my hostel is cute, even the little yard where people can have breakfast. Coffee with milk, a small sandwich, some sweet, local juice, and water melon, my top-top-top favourite fruit (with cherries losing the race for less than a millimetre). I can go back and try the other juices they have as well, which I do once this glass you see in the photo gets empty. I bring in mind yesterday's American guy at Frankfurt. Oh yeah, he was right, a good breakfast is essential while on the road, but nope, I am not changing my mind, I still think morning sex is an undisputed number one in "things that REALLY make your day while traveling, things you enjoy right after waking up"...
10:20
It took almost an hour to reach the airport from Barra, and what I mostly paid attention to as we were going through one Salvador neighbourhood after the other, was that this is a SERIOUSLY black city, which, as I have already written, I love. My "Gol" flight to Rio de Janeiro will leave on time. For something less than 140 reais, just over 50 euros, I get to fly to Rio, saving myself from the... torture of taking a bus, which, not only would eat up a whole day of mine, but also wouldn't save me any money, since I would end up spending pretty much the same money. The airport is relatively small, but... good small, not bad small. It has a... cozy atmosphere, I find, and a number of souvenir shops that tempt me to start spending money. I get a grip, reminding myself that in about three weeks for today, I will be back here, at this very same airport, this time waiting for my Frankfurt flight. No reason to jump into buying souvenirs that early, even though I almost lose it when I enter a CD store I find there, and suddenly find myself surrounded by a dozen CDs I have written in my "to buy" list, before leaving Greece. "Keep your money for FNAC", I tell myself, betting that at Rio I will find the same CDs for better prices (turned out, I was right...).
7:40pm
My first Rio de Janeiro photo. My hostel (El Misti) was supposed to be offering a pick up service for people booking more than three nights, but no one is at the airport to pick me up. I take the bus and clearly ask the driver to drop me off at Botafogo, the area where my hostel is. We go, and go, and go, until at some point we cross a tunnel. I start smelling a rat, I don't remember seeing in the map another tunnel before the one that links Botafogo and Copacabana, which meeeeaaaans, oh yeah, the driver forgot to drop me off, and as if sensing my worries, he turns back and with a rather apologetic look says something like "I forgot you, you should have gotten off at the previous stop". So, he drops me off one stop later, which is... way more messy than what you think, because walking to my hostel is NOT an option. As it usually happens in life when we get in trouble and have no clue what to do, help I find. I ask a young couple how can I go back to Botafogo, and lucky I, the girl speaks English! (Yes, the exclamation mark is necessary, go to Brazil in the near future and you'll see why...). They spend more than ten minutes with me, talking to each other, trying to figure out the best way for me to go back, and in the end they practically take me by the hand and lead me to some place where I can catch a bus. That I do. I tell them a really honest, relieved and grateful "mmmmuito obrigado" ("thank you very much"), I board my bus, and in less than ten minutes I am checking in my hostel. They had internet connection problems the whole day, this is why I saw no one at the airport picking me up, which, sorry to say, I find a lousy excuse, because they should have a list of who is coming when, and shouldn't depend on their internet connection or their PCs to have access to that list. Aaaaaanyhow, the hostel is cute, the common area is great, the beds are a bit crammed, but who cares?! For less than 8 euros per night, I consider this place a bargain. I leave my stuff in the dormitory and in no time I am out. First impressions? Weird... I chose Botafogo because it's in the middle of everything (you have easy access to Copacabana on one side, Maracanã stadium on the other side, while Pão de Açúcar is only a few minutes' walk away. Plus, it's described as "safer" than Copacabana/Ipanema, let alone Lapa. Still, the first thing I see half a minute after leaving my hostel, is a group of young men fighting each other practically in the middle of the street. It doesn't exactly feel unsafe, but... it makes me keep my eyes wide open, paying extra attention to my surroundings. Later on I would realize that this was only a tiny incident, as I spent four days at Rio without facing ANY safety issues. I spot a juice corner, and my mind runs back to abacaxí, a juice I tried last night at Salvador. For 4 reais (I remind you that one euro is something like 2.6 reais), I have a "copão", a big copa of abacaxí. This is when I start realizing that Brazilians tend to use this "ão" ending (expressing big size), even in things that size-wise, don't... deserve it. Still, the juice is faaaaaantastic, a great welcome to Rio.
8pm
Praia do Botafogo. The same feeling of wonder is coming back... Yesterday I was trying to fully realize that I am in Brazil, flesh and bones, but today I am not just in Brazil, I am in RIO DE JANEIRO. I find it overwhelming... Overwhelming indeed... Here you have a guy who lives to travel, who has taken some of the most important decisions of his life based on his traveling needs, a guy who only in his wildest dreams pictured himself going to Rio de Janeiro one day, and now... I'm here, flesh and bones... I am... happy. That's what I am... My miserable, pathetic lonely life back home is thousands of miles away, my job too, my mediocre relationship with my parents, the lack of friends, the fact that I compromise with a way of living I don't have the guts to break free from, none of these matters, because I am in RIO, and right here right now I feel 100% alive. This is what matters... And the best is yet to come... Tomorrow is Copacabana and Ipanema day!!! 
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