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Published: February 5th 2014
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My last post didnt seem to have much of an end, due to the fact i wrote it a few weeks befire i left and couldnt work out how to edit it so just hit publish to sAVE any wasted effort!
So, i safely made it to Rio after what seemed like anever ending journey! We got the 6.30am train from glasgow to euston where we made our way to our hotel in peckham. Peckham was pretty grotty, dont think ive seen somewhere with so much rubbish thrown abouts the streets. Aside from that all good there,it was used as a base for us. I spent the day or rather a few hours in brighton (everything takes sooooo long to do anything in london) before getting ready to go for a night out at a place called Oval Space in Londons east end which overlooks some gas works. I didnt reALLY feel excited as i was so tired from all the travelling but i had a great night with friends seein some good djs but the club should invest in some better speakers! Most of sunday was spent sleeping and at 1am got up again heathrow bound.
Struggled to
stay awake ay any point where it was possible to sleep! After getting ripped off at fiumcino airport over transport into the city we passed a non eventful few hours. I had already been toRome a couple of times but Gary hadnt so decided to go on the tourist bus. I think my highlught of the day was getting a caffe latte and a mozarella panini! 100 euros later and feeling dejected we went back to the airport where we found a quiet spot where we slept on the floor quite content for 3hours.
Once we boarded our alitalia flight to Rio - about an hour in or even less i think i passed out and woke up periodically before we landed. not bad for a 12 hour flight! we were a bit worried as our seats were A and C but who knows mayvbe its an italian supersticion as there was no B!
The journey to rio was a lot more stressfree than i thought - we got a bus fine and managed to navigate tothe hostel. the only thing was the unbearabe heat. leggings from the flight before suddenly didnbt seem such a great idea and
i kid you not when i say the swat was literally dripping off me! may seem funny now but it wasnt at the time. The only drama was the hostel not having the right booking, we booked 2 beds in a 4 bed dorm and there was only 1 free but the guy said there was space in a 12 bed. this wasnt qwhat we wantedbut when he showed us the room we were happ s the 4 bed didnt even have a window and this one is quite spacious,
All is fine here, its quiet, tidy, but roasting. During the night i woke the whole room up by breaking the fan to wake gary to tell him to stop snoring but it wasnt even him! Got it working again so all ok but thank god the snoring guy left this morning and i had ear plugs!
Yesterday we went for a wander down to the marina but didnt last long due to the heat. Today we went to Copacabana and much of the same. Sat under the parasol for the majority of the dy until we couldnt cope with the heat anymore and retreated back to the
hostel. Feeling burnt and abit dehydrated but dribnkng lots of water.dont even know how we are burnt as put plenty cream on and sat in the shade. Oh well!
Asidefrom the blistering heat first impressions of rio are good., i dont feel as scared as i imagined but its early days and i havent been to any tourist hotspots yet,. Coming from the airport the poverty was clear but in the centre it almost has a kind of european vibe in a way. Prices arent very different to southern europe either.
Will be visiting christ the redeemer, sugar loaf mountain, tijuca national park, and visiting a favela in the next week alongside other beaches. Glad we have some time here cos our pace is similar to a tortoise as its so warm (i think it ranges from 24-36) you need to go slow.
Also the hostel seems to have a cat which makes me happy. IT looks like a boy cat, huge and very furry and soft. He was sniffing my case so must smell a scottih cat!
More to follow later................
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Elaine Shields
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1st part of blog
Seems to be going good so far...x