Last Day in Brazil

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As an aside from my travel journal let me clarify a few things. First of all my first impression of Brazil as a third world country was far from correct. The majority of the country is a nice place. The first city I went to, Fortaleza is in a poorer part of the country and although it's really fun and has amazing beaches it definitely shouldn't be the first place you should go to in Brazil. The rest of the cities I went to (Manaus, Rio de Janeiro, and Brasilia) are more outsider friendly and give less of a culture shock. All that being said, you should definitely visit Fortaleza, but do it after one of the other cities.

6/28
I woke up late in the morning, but Jorge was running late so it was all good. I ate breakfast at the hostel while I waited for him. We walked 20 minutes from the hostel to the middle of the Monumental Axis, which is the strip through the center of the city where all of the sights are, and then walked east. I saw the National Library of Brazil and it was nowhere close to Hunt Library. I saw the Metropolitan Cathedral which was beautiful. The structure above ground was the roof and you had to walk underground to get in. Once inside you could look up and see a ceiling that's almost entirely colored glass. I saw their version of the White House, but in Brazil the president only works there instead of living there. I saw their version of the Capitol Building, which was a rectangular building with one bowl right side up and another bowl upside down on the roof. The sidewalk on the street was just a jump away from the building and they only had one security guards walking the roof. When he got behind one of the bowls I jumped onto the roof and ran around before getting back onto the sidewalk. So now I can say I've walked on the roof of Brazil's congress. I saw a sign next to the building that said it closed at 11am on the days that Brazil played, proof that the country shuts down when their team plays. I saw the It__ Palace and the Three Powers Square. We took a taxi to the other end of the Axis an walked back towards the center. We walked through a very large park were I picked up some dirt for a friend, went in a military cathedral, and went up in the TV Tower to see the whole city. The Brazil game started soon so we went to a local market to eat lunch and watch the first half. I think I'm the only one that cheered for Chile. At halftime me and Jorge parted ways and I walked back to the hostel to finish watching the game. It was so intense! It went to extra time and then penalties! Imagine watching a World Cup game where Brazil went to penalties while you're in Brazil... yeah people there went nuts. After celebrating with the locals for a bit I went to take a nap. The Brazil team better get their shit together because Chile wasn't even close to the hardest team they'll face. I woke up to watch the Columbia v Uruguay game and cheered for Colombia. My flight got changed to an earlier time so I decided to stay in instead of going out with Phil from Guernsey so I would definitely wake up on time. I are pizza with Adrianna and hung out with Phil from Germany before going to sleep.

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