Hotel Novo Mundo Rio de Janeiro

... hazelnut frappucino and I begrudgingly obliged ;) Also I ate out a lot in pay by the kilo buffets. This is an unusual concept but every second restaurant was one of these... the food is all good quality, lots of fresh salads and vegetables and bbq´d beef (naturally) and chicken and strangely normally a lasagne too. I was excited to get a greater variety of vegetables, too much potato is too much; but wasn´t ready to have a go at the beef just yet. Anyway, you go ...

... us wiht our own guide, Colin, a beefy guy with an American accent, a Ramones shirt and tatoos of naked ladies covering both arms. This was looking interesting already. A pretty eye opening experience - ruled by drug barons, the inhabitants of the favelas live better than we expected (they do have power, gas, sanitation, a somewhat intermittent water supply nd even cable tv). However, what they don't have access to is quality education, so university is ...

... sets you in a trance all the while every Carioca (Brazilian fro Rio) knows all the words and doin the Samba dance like theres no tomorrow! Thats what its like! The best way i can compae it, is to place called The Apache Cafe that I used to go in Atlanta Georgia for Live music on wednesdays. These clubs in Brazil were like that. Not the same music but the same feel, everybody there was into the music, not there for the showing of their pretty clothes etc ...

... live music; it is always interesting to see a city by day as compared with the tunnel vision of visiting neighborhoods at night. <br><br>Santa Teresa is an old neighborhood reaching to the top of the hills above Centro filled with old Portugese mansions, cobblestone streets and now many artisan shops. It is reached by foot, car or bus, but the more traditional route is to ride the ancient Bonde (cable car, like the ones in SF). Costing R$0.60 (USD0.30) to ...

... Pl*net *nyw*y, so its h*rd to know where to go. We went b*ck to the hotel *nd s*t on the roof top terr*ce *nd w*tched the sun set behind the Christ the Rede*mer St*tue which w*s *m*zing - re*lly surre*l to be here *ctu*lly. We went for * lie down *nd Ror fell *sleep *t 6! I w*sn´t f*r behind him *nd we woke *g*in *t *bout 9.30 but decided we were too tired for dinner so skipped it *nd woke *t 7 this morning! We didn`t think we would be jetl*gged but we ...

... decided to crack out a bit of YMCA and Girls just want to have fun and It´s Raining Men... some classics there!! A text from mum made me laugh when I told her the situation...´ah any good craic on the bus?!´ yeh the craic between us and the Brazilians was flying! So 19 hours of craic and YMCA and we finally moved at 11.30am taking our journey from 24 hours to 43 hours. However, we would not be defeated as the best was yet to come... no honestly we actually enjoyed ourselves!

... was that they seemed to understand ´highlighting-kit-with-cap´ over the international word for condom... Seems more Brits come in asking for the former? I doubt it. The two women were probably in cahoots and every time I talked to one, the other would be behind my back pulling faces and mouthing the words ´Stupid gringo´!´ Oh well, Nikki got her condoms and Sara lost all her self respect... t´riffic.. as long as someone was happy eh...?

... trip just gets better and better everyday... Side note - a few mornings ago a lady beging for food fully came up on our terrace and took some mans full plate... Karine etait vraiment pas impressionne - de mon cote I wasn t about to have an altercation with some homeless women over a pice of bread, cheese and ham... Poor man when he got to his plate he was a little confused... Another funny story - today Karine ...

... with no problems and waited the 40 minutes until the 10am departure. <br><br>At 10am we walked out to the stand to see... absolutely nothing. <br><br>The bus eventually rocked in at about 10:25am, so it was a good job that we weren't trying to connect with a flight or something.<br><br>The journey back to Rio was ok, taking ...

... we were in for something special. <br><br>It was already much noisier than the game we saw in Buenos Aires and there was ************e here yet!<br><br> <br><br>I've been to Anfield many times and have always been impressed at the large flags that are sometimes passed ...