Surf´s Up
Trip Start
Oct 30, 2009
1
92
95
Trip End
Oct 25, 2010
Florianopolis, State of Santa Catarina, Brazil
Monday, September 27, 2010
Once we arrived, we liked it so much that there was no real point in leaving. We ended up staying in Tucano House Hostel for over 2 weeks...basically great people and great fun, felt like1 big family there. Definitely 1 of the best Hostels we stayed in over the last 12 months, such a cool place.
So 2 weeks...we must have done lots of things, right???? Well okay it was nearing the end of our trip and the sun was shining so God help us if we were not going to relax! That being said, after 3 months in Australia and tonnes of opportunities across the globe to try surfing...it was finally time to take on the tide...and man did we fail!!! I got to enjoy about 5 seconds of actual standing time inside about 2 hours of trying...from the corner of my eye it was pretty clear to say that Aidan was also having technical difficulties. At least we tried it, ticked the box, and realised the beach is for relaxing, not looking like a fumbling idiot in front of 100s of Brazilians enjoying the show!!!
Although we did a lot of relaxing we also had some great fun, not least attending the biggest Oktoberfest outside of Germany!!! Unbelievable party which we have dedicated a blog piece to on its own (next entry). We had actually never heard of this until a day before going when thankfully the only Brazilian I knew, Suri, let us know about it and off we went! So definitely a lot of thanks to Suri for confirming this was the place to be!
Of course as mentioned we did a lot of beach time. (which of course explains our amazing tans in the photos...emmm...) It would have been crazy to hit Brazil and not immerse ourselves in the beach culture because they love the beaches!!! It is also not hard to see why...amazing sun, good waves and let`s be honest...a spectacular array of beautiful...eh..people, yes people, that`s the word! Not your average Dunlaoghaire crowd anyway!!!
It was a sad day when we finally left Floripa, and also a shock to the hostel as we kept showing up every 2 days at reception asking to stay more...so it was appropriate to end it with a day taking a cruise around the bay and BBQ'in with good friends along the beach. Great memories guys and now onwards to the beast that is, `Rio!` God save us!!!
AIDAN
Great time just chilling out in Tucano house, which as Eoin says is definitely one of the best hostels we've stayed in throughout the trip.
It was cool to see a different place in Brazil and although there isn't a great deal to do in Florianopolis, it's one of the most relaxing and chilled out times I've had in the entire trip.
The surfing was hilarious, with our guide giving me directions in portuguese it was no surprise that it didn't come naturally to me. It was good fun though and made me realise my dreams of being Ireland's next pro surfer might be a little ambitious...
We tried our hand, or should I say feet at Forro, a traditional brazilian dance originally from the North of Brazil, only to be embarrassed by a few Brazilian guys, one of which was like Patrick Swayze on the dancefloor!
Our day of all day drinking was funny, this was to prep everyone for Ocktoberfest, but ended up with me being barred from a local English bar for insulting the guy who was hosting the pub quiz.
I mean it's well documented our intellectual prowess at pub quizzes throughout this trip, but this guy was just bordering on the ridiculous with questions like "What did Ghandi say to some guy sitting on the side of street in 1943?". With questions like that I felt it was my duty to speak up, although I was a little too vocal in my protest...
We had a fantastic time there largely in part to a great crew of friends while we were there: Kasper, Stefano probably the funniest german guy I've ever met, the Danish guys Mikis & Emil, Rebecca, Sondra, Kris.
We stayed so long it felt like a home away from home.
