Hogmanay!! Brazilian style ;)
Trip Start
Dec 23, 2008
1
5
12
Trip End
Jan 13, 2009
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Rio de Janeiro,
State of Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
It was kind of like groundhog day here - nothing has changed, and I bumped into my friend Larissa on the street as if I´d never been away - how random that was!
Went to the hostel I used to work at for the warm up party with Julia and also two girls I knew from last time, Chelsea & Carly, and also their friend Guy, plus two of his friends. Us girls all had ´special´glasses to wear - you´ll see why in the photos! Julia & I had bought ours earlier in the day and we were disturbed to find the lady telling us to ´have a nice holiday´! (We used to fit in here - we must look like tourists now - I mean, we thought all the locals wore these glasses?!)
We had a few drinks then headed to the beach - the others in our small group went back to the apartment for something & Julia and I headed to the main stage. We didn´t bank on being able to find them again in time for midnight - which we didn´t - and met up with them again later. After working our way down, we were adopted by a family who let us stand and celebrate with them, so that was cool. Everyone had champagne, which was sprayed everywhere at midnight - we would have been soaking, but we were drenched already as it rained - very heavily (but it was warm rain!)
The fireworks were out in the river - on boats - and the atmosphere was amazing the whole night. When everyone was dispersing, Julia needed the loo, so said she´d run ahead and meet me on the pavement - fat chance! I realised just after she ran off how daft an idea that was - and one that I had agreed to - I think we both thought that we´d find each other easily since we knew the place so well! I went up to the pavement and waited a bit, then figured Julia would do the same as me, and head back to where we were staying - there was no way we´d have found each other!
And then - would you believe it - after living here for 5 months and nothing happening to me, I got robbed! Nothing to be alarmed about - just the rest of the champagne bottle I had in my hand! Everyone had them, the Brazilians, the tourists, and this local guy asked me if he could have some of mine, and I´d said ´no´- Julia and I had been sharing ours out all night so there wasn´t much left, and it was a bit of a walk back! Next thing, he´d swooped it from the bottom and down out of my hands and run off into the crowd! Cheek! Still, I don´t care - at least it wasn´t my camera - I would have been upset about that!
So, when I got back to our area, I found the rest of our group, except for Julia and one of the other girls, but both turned up separately within half an hour of me, and we headed back down to the beach again for a while.
So that´s it - probably the best New Year Party atmosphere I´ve ever experienced - Rio 2009!!
