Vitoria

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We decided it was time to move on from Buzios - we were getting far too accustomed to the easy life! So with our backpacks tightly packed we boarded the bus to Rio. A short three hours later we were at the general bus station. We had some difficulty reserving our tickets for the trip to Vitoria online, so we had to pick them up from the ticket desk. Thankfully we found a ticket guy who saw the humour in our lack of Portuguese and as we surrendered our passport, he completed the necessary paperwork on our behalf.

We were curious about the travel arrangement on the night bus to Vitoria. Visions of sharing bunks with chickens and goats sprung to mind, however, when a luxurious coach pulled up at the assigned platform, we breathed a sigh of relief. With our bags stowed above us, our legs resting on the foot stand, ourselves fully reclined and tucked in in the complementary blankets, we began our 8 hour trip through the night to Vitoria.

Fast forward to 7am the following morning, when two groggy backpackers emerged into a busy bus station. Bleary-eyed and grumpy, we had slept, but only a light sleep. This, coupled with the fact that we got very little sleep on our last night in Buzios, made us anxious to find accomodation, and fast! As if sent from God, an english speaking tourist office official had set up a stand in the middle of the bus station. After he had explained the 'many options' his 'beautiful town' has to offer, we asked him to point us in the direction of the area with the 'cheap hotels' - a linguistic nuance that we would later reflect on.

He highlighted an area on the map, and gave us the name of a hotel. After a bite of breakfast and a cup of coffee we hoicked up the backpacks and set off in search of the holy grail that would allow us to get some proper sleep. Twenty minutes later, weary, with limited patience we decided that we had walked far enough and we walked into the first hotel we found that was open at 8 in the morning. The man offered us a double room that we could use immediately for 50 reais. We jumped at the chance and handed over the cash. Two minutes later with the door double bolted we were in our sleeping sacks happily drifting off to the land of nod.

Lying there 4 hours later I opened one eye and saw tiles. Hah, I thought, one month out of the job and I'm still dreaming about tiles.... however as my eye caught sight of the rubber mattress cover that had escaped from under our bed sheet, I began to ponder. As I cast my eye further up the wall and took in the wipeable silver paint that was above the tiled backsplash, the reality of our situation began to dawn on me. It is a strange feeling when you realise that you have woken up in a brothel! As I looked to my left and saw a body, I was at least grateful that on closer inspection it was Philippe. However his presence also meant that this was growing less and less likely to be a kinky nightmare. When Philippe awoke he confirmed the diagnosis and we rolled around the place laughing. We marvelled at what a difference 24 hours makes and at how we could have missed the interesting decor that morning. As we pleaded sheer exhaustion as our excuse, we had a decision to make. Given that we had already paid our money and that there was a strong double lock on the door we said feck it, and chalked it up as another 'experience'.

Carrying all our valuable documents we emerged from the hotel at 3pm. 'Is it Saturday?' Philippe asked. "Yep, why?", "Because everywhere is closed". Sure as anything as we looked up and down the street the shops fronts were sealed and the street was eerily quite. Hoping against hope to stumbled upon an open internet cafe we began wandering around the Historical District. While we didnt find any internet access, we did see a beautiful cathedral with the nicest stain glass windows I have ever seen. We also stood by the harbour where the Portuguese first landed in 1535. We knew from our friendly tourist guy that Vitoria is essentially split into two areas - the posh beach area and the less polished historic area. Seeing as nothing was open on our side of town, we decided to get a bus to the beach side. Having somehow lost the map of the town, we boarded the first bus we saw that said "Praia" (beach). 15 minutes later we hopped off in what looked to be an affluent area. We located an internet cafe in a posh shopping centre and spent a frustrating hour trying to book our plane tickets from Salvador to Sao Paolo at the end of the month. The website wouldn't let us book the really cheap flights without a brazilian PPS number, and the page in English had prices that were quadruple the ones on the portuguese site. We left the computer dissatified and hungry. With not an open restaurant in sight, we grabbed a taxi to the large Commercial Shopping Centre. Seeing the Golden Arches, I perked up. This day might not be a complete write off after all.

When we got inside the centre we realised why the rest of the town was dead - they were all here! We spied a massive food hall area upstairs and were spoiled for choice. Resisting the golden arches and burger king, we got well fed and then, as we rounded a corner to leave, we came across a tour operator. 10 minutes of broken English, woeful Portuguese, a dollop of Spanish and the odd Italian word, and we had two flight tickets in our hand. Buoyed by this success, we took a bus to the bus station to book tickets to get out of this town.

No tickets to Porto Seguro until Monday. Crap. Any tickets to anywhere else? We decided to go to Domingos Martins until Monday evening, and then return to Vitoria for another overnight bus to Porto Seguro. But first we had to get back to the room. As we got in a taxi from the rank outside the station, we were hit by a strange smell. Alcohol. Great - our taxi driver was pissed, not only that but he had 'forgotten' to put on the meter. 5 minutes later, grateful to be at a standstill and still alive, he asked us for ten reais - no way. Eventually we paid it, just so as he woulkdnt kick off, but it summarised our experience here in Vitoria.

Add to that the fact that we both had to wear ear phones for the whole night to drown out the door bell every half hour and the regular showers next door, and as you can imagine we were happy to board the bus to Domingos Martins the next morning!

More soon - hope you are all well,

Sinead & Philippe

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Comments

[anneke]

pfff
my o my, what a story you guys. Have fun and enjoy it! grtz Anneke