Brasilia Part 1

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6/25
I stayed up all night until I left for the airport at 4am. I sat next to a cute Canadian on the flight to Brasilia, but I slept the whole flight. I got to the hotel and they tried to charge me for my room when I could've sworn that I already paid for it. After checkin my statement I realized I made a mistake. While they were getting my room ready I took a nap in the lobby. They took so long to get my room ready that I missed a bike tour that I had already paid for 😞 so instead I showered and washed some of my clothes in my shower. The beds and the water weren't much better in the hotel room than in the hostels. But it was better in the sense I had my own room as opposed to sharing a room with 8 in Fortaleza and 9 in Manaus. I took a taxi to the hostel that Tatiana and Lucas were at, which also the hostel I would be at my last 2 nights in Brasilia. The taxi driver not only didn't know how to get there but also didn't know how to get anywhere! From what I've gathered from other people, the roads and address system in the city is so confusing that when poor people come from other cities to be taxi drivers in Brasilia they just memorize routes to popular places instead of knowing the city's layout. This guy picks me up and I tell him the address. He didn't know where that was so I pulled up a picture on Google maps that had been cached. He said ok and drove for about 10 minutes until we pulled into another hotel. He went in to get the lady at the front desk to translate for him and tell him how to get there. We drove for 10 more minutes before he told me he was lost. I made him pull over to a magazine stand so I could buy a map. After trying to express navigational directions I finally had enough and used directions from Google with international roaming. Wtf man, seriously. The rest of the taxis from then on were a little better but I still had to navigate for a few of them. I was only there for 4 days and I knew the city better than the cab drivers... absolutely ridiculous. We had some drinks at the hostel's bar during the game and I met Phil from Germany, Phil from Guernsey, and Kirsten a cute woman from Perth. Phil from Germany will be in Buenos Aires the last day I'm there. Phil from Guernsey had been traveling for 6 months before the World Cup. He went to Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, and El Salvador before coming to Brazil. Kirsten is at the beginning of her travels lasting a year. She's going to Rio after Brasilia and then Bolivia. We played some drinking games at the hostel before going out. I met Adrianna who worked at the hostel and is a Brasilia native. She saved up to travel to the US and became a nanny in NY and NJ for a few months. Next year she'll be going to University of Wisconsin for an exchange program. We went to a local club and partied for a few hours. I bought a shot for Kirsten because it was her birthday, and she got extremely hammered. Lucas was kissing some girl he was dancing with and she told him to get a friend for her friend. By the time he got me we looked at the girls and they had replaced us by kissing each other. I ended up in a dance off and won. apparently I was so good at dancing that since I was a gringo (white guy) a local girl determined that I had to be gay so she tried to get me to dance with her guy friend. We got back to the hostel at about 3am and I got a taxi back to my hotel.

6/26
I woke up and got some breakfast at the hotel. The plan was to get into the stadium and try and grab an open seat in the lower level next to Tatiana and Lucas to watch Ghana v Portugal. I shared a taxi with two women from Arizona. The whole walk to the stadium I wore the US flag as a cape. Once I got in the stadium I realized I wouldn't be able to get from my seat in the upper level to the lower level. While looking in the crowd for Tatiana and Lucas I was greeted my Jorge, the Uruguayan I hung with in Fortaleza. We found better seats than our own and stayed at the midfield line the whole game. I flew my two US flags and my Mexico flag. I met two Mexican women sitting beside me and let them borrow my Mexico flag for the game. I also met a group below us from Canada. All of greater North America was here. Once I found out USA was losing to Germany I cheered for Portugal until they were up 1-0, then I cheered for Ghana until it was 1-1, then again for Portugal until it was 2-1, then for Ghana the rest of the game. The only way USA wouldn't go through is if Ghana won by 2 or if Portugal won by 4. After the game me and Jorge walked 25 minutes to the hostel. We met up with Kirsten, Tatiana, Lucas, and some others to go get lunch at Xique Xique, which we just called Shitty Shitty, although the food was really good. Hung out the rest of the night with Phil and Phil and Kirsten after Tatiana and Lucas left for Salvador. When everyone went out to the club I got a taxi back to my hotel.

6/27
I was going to wake up early for breakfast and a quick workout, but I was way too tired so I just slept in. I packed up everything, checked out, and took a taxi to the hostel to check in. I ended up getting the bed next to German Phil. Kirsten was leaving that afternoon so I hung with her and Phil from Guernsey before she left. Phil needed to find somewhere to get jeans since his were destroyed after months of travel so I went with him around town looking for somewhere to buy clothes. After a pit stop to a market for lunch and several buses and a 20 minute walk later we ended up at a huge mall. Phil got some jeans and then we walked around and browsed through some more clothes shops and a book store. I saw some interesting books but they were all in Portuguese. Should've learned freakin Portuguese, oh well. We walked to the central bus station to see what stuff the street vendors had, then took a bus back to the hostel. I emailed Jorge and planned to your the city with him tomorrow morning before the Brazil game. I ate dinner and spent the rest of the night playing drinking games with, and getting to know, the two Phil's and some other hostel mates. We talked about unrest in the Middle East and Africa, gun control in America, why world travel is awesome, and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and how it should go to the US, Canada, or Australia.

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