Advertisement
Published: March 20th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Maracana, Rio de Janeiro
Plenty seats, nae people. Well apologies to those who don´t like football as there is a lot of it this time... but your consolation is that its been pissing rain everywhere I´ve been recently.
Who says I am a technophobe? Well everyone actually. Although it has taken forever to upload these videos here they are! Best with sound.
So, after the glacier traffic jam in Patagonia came back to Buenos Aires to catch some sun and football. Took in River Plate v. San Martin, with a Dutch lad met on me travels. A decent game and good atmosphere made all the more memorable by the torrential rain which meant match abandoned with 9 mins left ... what the feck?? I come to South America so see a match abandoned due to rain.. are you having a laugh???? And no, Argentina doesn´t have a rainy season. And to add insult to injury, I had lost my bag en-route so my only clothes were now soaked.
Spent 2 smelly days in BsAs doing not very much between torrential showers. After an emotional reunion with my bag, headed over to Urugauy with the Dutch lad to catch more football and visit Sacramento de Colonia -
Montevideo
Plaza Independencia a beautiful Colonial town which is particularly nice and quiet when its pissing rain.
Took in 2 games in Montivideo, both in Copa Sandander Libertadores (South American Champions League). First game, Danube v. Estudiantes (Buenos Aires) in Estadio Centenario, historic stadium where first world cup final was played (for the football geeks amongst us). Stadium so empty. Danube are from the interior of Uruguay and only had around 4000 fans there. We joined the 10,000 Estudiantes fans and had great crack watching them come back from 1-0 to grab last minute winner mainly thanks to an ageing but still class Juan Sebastian Veron. Oh.. and it pissed rain there too.
Next night took in National v. Flamengo (Rio). Better atmosphere in a small but packed wee ground.. and hey.. it even didn´t rain for that day at least. Not overly impressed with Montivideo. Stayed in the old town and typically dodgy area near the port. Found an odd bar here that doubled as a fishing shop, or the other way round, I am not sure, either way fish bait must be one of the few things in the world beer doesn´t go with. Managed wee walk around and
Montevideo
Bar and bait-shop saw the tomb/memorial of Artigas, Uraguays Liberator. Although Montevideo has beautiful colonial buildings many are in decay and found it a little depressing to be honest. Although much smaller it hasn´t got the same vibe as Buenos Aires and felt more like a town than a capital city.
Back to Buenos Aires and more fitba.. Racing v. San Lorenzo - good atmosphere and always nice to visit genuinely squalid and stinking parts of town. Next game was the classico - Boca Juniors v. Independiente and the famous Bombonera stadium. I got the kick off time wrong and ended up QUEING to get into the ground almost 3 hours before kick off!! Still the bonus about being a total fuckwit and getting in early was that you didnt have to stand in the drop zone of the Independiente fans and dodge spit and bags of piss for 3 hours. Great atmosphere and finally a full stadium and the biggest flag I have ever seen (well 2 actually). Took the general advice for Buenos Aires and left the camera at home so it´s over to Youtube again... some helpful soul took this pretty close to where I was.. be patient, its
a big flag - and there is another one hiding behind it!
Big flag...
Capturing the atmosphere...
&feature=related
And if you are interested fitba, a subline goal from Riquilme.
&feature=related
Flew back up to Rio to meet Berry (mate from home) who had very generously accepted an offer to do some work down there for few weeks. Stayed with Bob again and spent a couple of days on the beach with tinnies before the enevitable torrential rain arrived. More fitba at the refurbished Maracana stadium (largest in the world for the non football geeks).. again nearly empty but vast improvement with seats. Saw Flamengo beat someone and then immediately afterwards Fluiminese played aswell - Bizarre! These Brazilians obviously have a lot to learn about football violence if they can have the two top teams in Rio play in the same stadium within 10 minutes of each other.
Headed north to resort town called Buzios with crowd of Bobs friends. Obviously would have been better had it not rained for the first 2 days..I am fecking jinxed I tell you.. just point me towards a drought and I will bring the rain. So while it
rained we resorted to parlour games and a complete pumping for Berry at connect4, chess and poker - we are hard core I tell you. Still, good crack up there and such is the difficulty of my present condition I can say things like "it was nice to get out of Rio" with an almost straight face.
So endeth the football diatribe. For those who got this far, hope you are all well. The time is going quick. Only have a month or so left and should use my last few weeks wisely.. or not.
later.
Advertisement
Tot: 1.228s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 47; dbt: 0.0358s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb