Made it...

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So England were out, it was raining and due to our predictable laziness the bus we wanted to get to Rio was sold out, not a great start to our final day in Salvador. Anyway after booking a later bus we split up to contemplate the loss and basically potter about.

The night before we had met some French girls and boys and after meeting them after Englands demise i thought the best way to avoid the dwelling of the defeat was to get involved in the next game. After returning to the square where we watched the prior Brazil game tension was high and police were searching everyone, being French they decided to speak English for the game which was a good idea as the mood was tense anyway. During the game i was attempted pickpocketed several hundred times, mostly rubbish attempts but the annoyance of being constantly crushed in deliberately then having hands in every pocket was getting too much, this only worsened after the game with plain clothes police getting involved and giving the guilty some healthy beatings. Good.

After the France win, the French and I went in to temporary hiding and were seriously advised to avoid telling people that they were French. What insued was a great night although fighting, which hadnt be seen before, was common in the street and bars. After finding my self on the roof of a derelict theatre in downtown Salvador listening to the beats of the trance music being played below in the early hours, i call time on Salvador and walk back, huridly through the rotting buildings of downtown to the semi-safety of our neighbourhoood.

We wake up to the sound of drums, as usual, but this time it was a huge parade going on outside our hostel. The entire area was filled with marching bands, drummers and flags and unsurprisingly all the banners of Brazil football shirts had been removed overnight. It nice to see that other than the few fights the Brazilians still had a huge party after going out of the cup and it was continuing today.

We get our bus at 3pm and the for the next 27hrs watch bad films.

Finally we get to Rio, its late so we get a cab to Mellow Yellow, the biggest and best hostel in Rio, and maybe the world. We arrive and move into our 24 bed dorm and head straight to the bar where we meet some friends of Toms who are staying here, all very weird. After several drinks and losing a pub quiz we head out to a an indie rock n roll club which turns out to be a house with various rooms. All in all a brilliant night and a worthwhile 22nd birthday celebration for Tom.

After stumbling out of the hostel at 11am we head to Copacobana beach which is 5 minutes away, ive seen so many pictures and walking by the Copacobana Palace Hotel, famous for Carry Grant films, felt brilliant. The beach coundnt have been better, the sand goes on for miles and are bookended in by the lush green of the hills with the Christ statue visable high in the background. The day is spent playing football with some locals and doing very little. Being at a large hostel means we have been made a lot of friends here which is cool, as it takes my mine of the fact that time is nearly up on this trip which is too sad to think about right now.

Anyway, ill put some pictures up soon, we have a busy few days of flavela tours, markets and things before meeting Lee and Gareth at the weekend.

I am here....

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