Carnaval!

---

Carnaval

Well we had a week in Copacabana for carnaval and it was absolutely amazing! We met some amazing people and had the most incredible time even though it rained for most of the week, it did not stop us from partying just as hard!

We arrived at our hostel in Copacabana at about 8pm and whilst checking in we straight away got asked by a bunch of people to head out with them! Most of the people staying there were English speaking, being mainly English with a scattering of Americans and Australians so communication was not a problem! So we dumped our bags and headed straight out to Lapa, which we were told is great for a night out!
In Lapa we visited the famous tiled steps, and they were quite hidden away, at least they seemed it to me although the streets were filled with thousands of people so everything seemed like more of an effort to get to. The streets were packed and there were lots of vendors selling churros, kind of like a dohnut but finger shaped not round, caiprihnias and various different foods. I got a hotdog and they put all sorts of stuff on it, including a quail egg! It was surreal, but lovely!
Around 2am we headed into a bar and had the best time. It was playing various samba music which is impossible not to dance along to, and there were giant cranival masks and umberellas hanging from the ceiling. We danced away and headed back when we couldn´t possibly dance any more! A very good welcome to carnaval!

Day one
The next day was not so sucessful! It started off ok, it wasn´t raining, so we headed to Copacabana beach to have a swim and a sunbathe. The waves looked quite big but I managed to get in eventually, it was when I wanted to get out that I experienced some problems! The waves break quite close to shore, and as they were big you had to be fast getting out or you got wiped out and smashed against the floor! I was trying to get back but more and more waves came closer together, I had to swim under the waves as they were getting so big, and I couldn't swim over them the closer I got to shore, but this got harder as I was running out of breathe, as I came up for air another one would be there ready to come down on me! Thankfully a Brazillian guy was swimming next to me helping me, telling me when to go under, eventually he just grabbed me and dragged me out because I swallowed some water! A wave broke right ontop of me and I was tossed around, I literally didn't know which way the surface was, it was so scary. I got back on the beach and it was so embarrasing, I had a nose bleed! Ha I had breathed in water up my nose which caused it! The guy was literally my hero, but unfortuneately he wasn´t a beautiful young Brazillian, but old, fat and wearing speedos! But nevermind a hero none the less!
Some things never change, I always have to embarass myself, and where else to publicly do that than on a world famous beach!
That night I headed back into Lapa, although I went in after Hannah and Lisa with a few people from the hostel with the notion to meet up there, I got persuaded into going out even though I was pretty tired from my near drowning experience I thought, when am I going to have this opportunity again? So I went! . I shouldn´t have gone! Within 10 minutes off getting off the bus in Lapa I lost everyone I was with! Thankfully I met 2 Australian girls and a British guy to hang around with although they were staying in Lapa so I knew I would have to make my own way back to Copacabana! I was made the official travel guide as they hadn´t been into Lapa yet, I did tell them I had only been in once but they felt ok for me to lead the way! I took them to the Lapa steps that I was quite immpressed that I managed to find, although they hadn´t heard of them so were not that enthused. It only got worse as then one of the girls got pickpocketed of her phone and from then on she was determined not to have a good time. Finally after trying to cheer her up I suggested just heading back and they agreed. I managed to get a taxi back to Copacabana eventually after quite a rubbish night!

Day 2

After the night before I was determined to have a good day and we headed to a block party iin Copacabana on Rua Santa Clara. Even though it was raining we had an amazing time. The atmosphere was incredible and most people were in fancy dress. THere was a guy dresed as a cow and his costume consisted of speedos, body paint, and 4 baby bottle teets as an udder! It was hilarious, so of course I got a picture with him.
A small group of drummers from one of the samba schools played the whole time, and we sambad away for a good few hours, it´s a great form of excerise!
That night we headed in to Lapa again, and I managed to stay with everyone! It was even busier that night so we didn´t actually get in anywhere, just wandered around and danced in the street with a bunch of people from the hostel, topping up on cheap Caipirinhas getting in at 6am.

Day 3

We managed to get cheap tickets to watch the samba schools parade through the Sambadrome! I automatically had assumed that the tickets would be ridiculously expensive, so the thought of going to the Sambadrome had never crossed my mind! Our hostel was selling them for 150 Reais but we manged to get them for 60 Reais from another hostel just down the road!
We arrived at the Sambadrome at 6pm even though it didn{t start until 9pm, as we were told that it would fill quickly... it didn´t, it was empty! We stayed until 4am before we got too tired and headed back with 2 more schools to show!
We were sat in section 6 where it was just concrete steps to sit on, but it was still incredible! It was also the last block in the Sambadrome, so when the parade started it was 30 minutes before it reached us! The floats, costumes, dances and music were unbeliveable! Some of the things that they did, the people who came up with the ideas must have been crazy! All the different schools had different themes ranging from medicine, films and even hair. My favourite by far was last years winners, whose theme was films. They had floats about Harry Potter, and Avatar float, a Jaws one that had an actuall pool filled with water on it and a swimmer would get in, then Jaws would come up and pul them under. There was also an Indianna Jones one with some one dressed as Indianna, and a giant boulder came out and rolled towards him! It was amazing, I didn´t think that they would be that big and detailed. I also didn´t realise how many things that they get judged on, obviously things such as the costumes and the floats, but also they got marked on how smoothly the whole thing ran, if there were any gaps within the parade, and they had to get evert single member of the school over the finish line withn 1 hour and 20 minutes or they were deducted marks.
I couldn´t get over some of the things I was seeing, it was a great night which was made even better as it surprisingly didn´t rain!

Day 4

Everyone in the hostel had told us that we should go to a buffet restaurant where you pay by the kilo, as they are really good as you can have a bit of everything, so we decided to give it a go! This was a very bad idea, as my eyes are definitaly bigger than my belly, and I loaded up my plate with a little bit of everything, got to the machine to weigh it and it was worth 34 Reais! About 15 pound! Everyone else was a bit more controlled than me and payed around 22 Reais, but nevermind it was an experience, and I won´t do it again!
Tha night the whole hostel tried to arrange to all go out together, but trying to organise 30 people is very hard as we found out. We all left thinking that we were heading to a club around the corner when we found out that an American guy at our hostel had gone online and found somewhere called the Balcony Bar, that was apparently ´The place to go in Rio, with drinks offers, and the guys will love it!´ So we headed towards there agter much confusion, and arrived only to discover that it was overrun with prostitutes! We were in the local prostitute hangout! All the girls were giving us filthy looks as if we had come to steal all their business. It was very awkward, but as we had walked quite a way to get there we decided to stay and try to have a good time.
We definitaly understood the review of why the guys would love it!

Day 5

The hostel offered a free lunch today that was described to us as ´pig in a pot´..... with rice. It was a bit daunting as when we spooned our portion out, it was pot luck which part of the pig you got. It was actually quite nice but very salty, and I still don´t know what part of the pig I got, but as they say, ignorance is bliss!
After lunch we went to another block party in Ipenema. There was a band playing on a stage that looked like a giant beer can, and we danced away on the beach. We had a great time and watched the sunset over Ipenema beach, it was gorgeous!
I had an interesting éxperience´ in the toilets at the beach. As the queue was so big, we had to go in the cublicle 4 at a time, and basically watch each other pee. As I waited, one girl clearly decided that she couldn´t anymore and peed on the floor right next to me in this tiny cubicle. I was wearing flipflops, I was not impressed! Worst of all, I had to pay for that experience!
Once again we headed into Lapa to party the night away and we met Lady Gaga!....... Well a man dressed pretty badly as her, with a broken handle from a telephone dangling off him. He was so funny singing to us, of course I got a picture!

Day 6

It didn´t rain during our last day, so we took full advantage and headed to Copacabana beach to sunbathe. I bumped into my hero again on the beach which was strange, and we dodged some more waves together!
In the evening a bunch of us from the hostel all went out for a meal together to a place that did all you can eat pizza. It was lovely, and for dessert they brought round sweet pizza. There was banana and cinnemon, and chocolate and strawberry amongst others! I was in heaven, and once again ate far too much! It was a great night with great people.

I thourghly enjoyed our week in Rio for Carnaval, even if it did rain for most of it. We met so many lovely people whom I hope to bump into further along in our travels. I´d love to come back to Rio, although maybe when it wasn´t Carnaval to see what it is like then, as sometimes weaving inbetween the insane amount of people seemed a bit like a chore!
Viva Carnaval!

---

Comments

[Rebeck]

Sorry about another essay! photos soon! x