Olinda

Hello!!

Left Salvador on the nightbus at 7pm! Richard decided he wanted to go to an island nearby, which I didnt really want to go to - Brazil is so expensive and we´ve been here nearly 5 weeks now so I decided i wanted to get a move on! Also, I really wasnt having much fun with Richard at all and wasnt enjoying being around him, found it quite hard work so decided i wanted to go off on my own again!

The night bus was actually really nice - it was a really nice bus and we got snacks and blankets etc! There were tvs on the bus too - playing celine dions greatest hits video!! hehe!! At first it was a bit annoying as i was really trying to go to sleep and the Brazilians around me kept trying to sing along - the lyrics were displayed on the screen so i think they thought it was karaoke! hehe! :o) In the end I decided if you cant beat them join them so i started singing along too! :o) They got soooo excited when the titanic song came on and they started shouting titanic at eachother and laughing! hehe! Realised i quite love a bit of celine though! :o) Although after a while they turned that off and put on some Brazilian band so then i went to sleep! Luckily, i had 2 seats to myself so managed to get some sleep, although half way through the night a little old lady passed me to go to the loo, escorted by her son, she was really loud and kept waking everyone up and on the way back the guy moved my stuff off the chair next to me and pointed to the old lady and the chair! I think he was saying they were going to come back and the little old lady was going to sit next to me - i know its really mean but i was like no way is that loud crazy woman sitting next to me for the next 8 hours!! So by the time they came back i was lying down again, across both seats pretending to be asleep! hehe! :o) oops! I know it was mean but i knew she would try and talk (actually she didnt really talk she shouted) to me the whole way and i was so tired! In the morning when i was awake she hobbled past me to go to the toilet again and on the way she poked me in the head and said something! I decided ignorance is bliss and just pretended she was saying good morning to me in a way i hadnt heard before! :o)

Getting to the hostel from the bus station was a bit of a mission! Had to first take the Metro (which took ages) and then try and find the bus! Nearly had a heart attack on the bus as we soooo nearly ran over a dog which was just standing in the middle of the road - obviously too shocked or ill to move! The drivers here wouldnt even stop for a person (im sure they actually usually accelerate when im crossing the road!) so i knew they wouldnt stop for a dog! I was nearly already crying because i was so sure we were going to hit him but luckily at the last minute the dog moved and the bus driver slowed down a bit! phew! :o) Luckily the bus driver told me when to get off the bus otherwise i wouldnt have had a clue! When i got off the bus this man kept following me, i tried running away from him because i thought he wanted money but then i realised he was trying to convince me to stay in his hostel - i realised it was the one i was trying to find anyway which was cool because he took me there! :o)

I really didnt like the hostel i stayed in though! The toilets were really disgusting and the shower was freezing! Also there was just noone there! I think i heard some French people at one point but never saw them again and apart from that it was just Portuguese people who couldnt speak English! :o( So i decided to do a tour of the city with a tour guide to make sure i saw everything in the day i was there! The tour was really good and the history lesson was actually really interesting! :o) Although it was hard work trying to understand the guys English as he had such a strong accent! Olinda is a really cute city - all the houses are so colourful (apparantly the houses didnt use to have number so letters just got sent to the ´yellow house'or 'red house'etc! hehe! :o) Its a really old colonial town so all the streets are cobbled, with lots of markets, and lots of little churches and monastrys! On sunday evenings theres always a big festival with music and lots of food, cocktail, jewellry stands etc! Couldnt find anyone in the hostel to go with so ended up going on my own! Id asked the guy at reception during the day if the hostel organised a group to go to the festial together and he said yes, meet upstairs at 6pm so thought that was really cool! But then when i asked him again at 6pm and he pointed me out of the hostel and around the corner i was a bit confussed and then eventually it turned out that when he said upstairs he meant up town and that the whole thing generally starts at 6pm! So there was never a group of people going! :o( But anyway, im glad i went it was interesting and tried some local food etc and watched samba dancing! I only stayed a few hours though as i seemed to be the only tourist/ white person there and everyone just started at me the whole time! The first guy that spoke to me told me i was beautiful and asked if i would marry him (dont worry Michi i said no!!) and the second guy was asking me if i wanted to buy drugs i think! So wasnt a very good start but it was fine! But yeah everyone was just staring constantly, not in a scary way, just in an interested way ( i think/ i hope! :o) ) but the way back to the hostel was down lots of small dark cobbled streets so decided i shouldnt stay too late anyway!

The next day i left early to get back to Recife to get the 32hour bus to Belem! The journey was ok actually! Luckily i had a good book with me and got 2 seats to myself for most of the way! Nearly didnt make it to Belem though, as when the bus stopped for breakfast at a bus station somewhere, i didnt hear/understand how much time we had so just incase i went back to where the bus had dropped us off 10minutes later! The bus wasnt there anymore, but that happens quite a lot (have had quite a few heart attacks over it though!) as the bus goes to be cleaned or seviced etc and then comes back! Every now and then i would wander back to the shops just to make sure i could see people from my bus and that the bus was picking us up where it dropped us off! Eventually the woman who was sitting in front of me was waiting where the bus dropped us off too so i assumed we were in the right place and sat down to wait! Ages later the bus still hadnt come back and i could tell she was getting worried and wondering where everyone else was too! She then asked a cleaning lady who pointed to the other end of the bus station so we quickly ran over there, was so scared the bus would be gone, but luckily everyone was just boarding! phew! that could have been a humongous disaster! :o) The rest of the day was quite funny as all the Brazilian people around me decided to try and talk to me even though they couldnt speak any English and one of their little boys came to sit next to me and wanted to play with my hair, my phone, camera etc! He then found my photos which everyone wanted to see! The Brazilians are all so friendly and so interested in you - they wanted to know who everyone was on the photos (by then the lady in front had said she spoke some English and was translating for everyone!) - all the ladies kept saying Michi was ´beautiful, very beautiful´(dont get big-headed Michi - its probably just a coincidence that that was the only English word they knew! ;o) hehe!)! When we finally got there just after 11pm some of the ladies put me in an official taxi and made sure the taxi driver knew where he was going - so nice!!

Will do a seperate blog about Belem soon! But time is running out in the internet cafe so better go! Have booked my flight to Manoas (in the Amazon) for tomorrow - 8:30 in the morning! Ouch! :o) And i will probably stay there a few days before getting the boat to Colombia! Hoping to meet some people in the hostel there who are also getting the boat! The hostel is run by Australian people there so am really looking forward to having a proper English conversation and hoping they can give me advice about which boat to get etc!!

Ok, take care and keep in touch!! :o)

Lots of love and hugs xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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