Rio de Janeiro, State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Well well, Rio de Janeiro, eh? Who'd have thunk it. Its a remarkable city in many ways, not least the massive granite monoliths that protrude the concrete carpet at random, dividing the massive sprawl into more manageable chunks. Up the sides of the hills crawl the many rambling favellas, many nestling shoulder to shoulder with the richest areas of the city. The misty forests, often shrouded in cloud provide a tropical backdrop to the metropolis, while the glorious sandy beaches of Copacabana, Ipanema,
et al provide the
cariocas with a fine place to play within the city. All in all, a far cry from Ireland in the winter! Some brief notes and advice: while it seemed like an excellent idea at the time, booking a long trip leaving home on the 27th of December is probably not the smartest thing ever - there's enough stress and bustle at Christmas without having to try to get organised for such a journey. Between work and 'going away' partying and the festivities in general I was fairly exhausted heading to the airport at 4.30am for my 20 hour journey to Rio. Its taken almost two days to recover to where I'm feeling somewhat normal. It not all bad though - its 30 degrees, mostly sunny and its Reveillon 2009 on the auld Copacabana beach 2 mins down the road in about 7 hours time! Ha, maybe it was worth it after all!
