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Published: February 12th 2008
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The Sambodrome
Its parade time!! So last time I wrote, you may recall that Chris and I totally lost Brad, Ben and the others...but we managed to turn the situation around and have a great night and following morning, getting to bed around 9am! (after finishing me brekkie of course!)
Well you can imagine how happy we were to see them when they called at our hotel at 11am. This is Rio baby....who needs more than 2 hours sleep! Obviously first things first, we told them how awesome our night had been and how we were better off without the pair of them...losers! Still I suppose everyone deserves a second chance, so we decided to be friends again (only after they begged though!)
In any case, there´s no time for sleep as tonight is the first night of the Carnaval parade at the Sambodrome. For many of you, this will be the main images you always see of the Carnaval. The Sambodrome is basically a large road, with football style terraces running down either side. 12 rival samba schools battle it out for 2 nights to decide who is the best. 6 each night and they get roughly an hour each. The schools work
all year round on making their costumes and floats, and it must take a huge amount of work to choreograph. Especially as of hundreds of people take part for each school. Also the fans are very loyal, in fact they almost rival the footy fans over here!
So with everybody reunited, we fill up plastic bottles (no cans or bottles allowed) with booze and head upto the Sambodrome! Im drinking a bottle of white wine, from a mineral water bottle...who says im not a classy guy! (pay attention girls, I know how to treat you on a first date!) The weapon of choice for most of the others is Vodka and Lemonade stuffed in bottles ranging from 2.5 - 2 litres in size. So you can imagine how pleased we are when en-route we hear a rumour that you arent allowed bottles of any description in! So we do what any sane poeple would do and all start necking them! For some of us (I know what you´re thinking, but not me for a change!) this pretty much spelt the downfall for the evening!
We sat in the gringo stand (all the expensive seats are sold months in
Salguera Rules!!
3am and im still not flagging! advance), which is pretty much right at the end of the parade, the view is a bit further back but you can still see it all and enjoy the festivities. So the first school are up at 9pm and the stands very quickly start to fill. Its a really good vibe and everybody seems to be in a good mood for it. We opt to cheer on Salgueiro, mainly because on one of my many toilet breaks, Ben and I accost a local lady holding several flags and ask for one!
All of the floats are hugely impressive and range from animals such as Birds, Jaguars and a Gorilla to a mock up of the Maracana stadium. There´s even a really odd float which is a baby rolling in the flowers, that changes very quickly into a dead feotus. Clearly these guys aren´t aware there´s a party going on!
The parade is everything you expect it to be and more, colourful, loud, and typically flamboyant (well what else would you expect from the Brazilians!) My only grumble is that some of the floats featured women with get this, their breasts fully exposed. Now you know me...im dead against
Its all part of the show!!
Yes that is my head to the right with the hairband on! this, as it degrades women. I didn´t know where to look! (I tried Brads camera to take my mind off it, but for some reason it seemed to be stuck in 10x zoom mode...funny that.)
Well as the night wore on there were bound to be some casualties....the worst being Ben. (bet you´d already guessed that though) For some reason he was so wasted that I think he was under the illusion he was at a footy match. Hence having to listen to him sing ´we´ll be running round the Tottenham with our willys hanging out!!' for about 2 hours. Now any of you that have tried speaking to him before when he´s like this will know it´s a complete waste of time. as luck would have it though, he didnt just have us to contend with....so obnoxious was he that half of the people stood behind him actually started throwing things at him. Which I only actually realised when I attempted to talk to him and saw things flying past us! Well I did what any good friend would do, thats right, I went and spoke to someone else...slating Spurs eh, that´ll learn him! Still what goes up
Another parade float...
Just a tad better than the english papier mache ones eh!! must come down and at about 2.30 in the interests of his own safety and the fact he is hanging Brad escorts him home!
Meanwhile, Shaun the Kiwi and I chat to some locals in an effort to get some of the costumes from the parade to try on! We don´t seem to be getting on very well, but everyone loves a chancer! Our efforts are rewarded when later on a Brazilian dude Shaun has been chatting to hunts down a few costumes which we duly try on. (see piccies!) Shaun and his partner Sarah actually leave the stadium with two of the costumes at the end of the night...wouldn´t mind seeing that customs conversation; ´anything to declare?´...´yes im wearing a large Jaguar´ We left at around 5ish, unfortunately not realising there was another float to go!!
Top night out though and definitely recommended gang.
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