July 14, 2014
Today is day 34 for us here in Brazil.
Germany are World Champions! Deutschland Weltmeister! No matter how you say it like honey dripping off the end of your tongue. Four years of planning this trip with tons of go, no go decisions along the way and we’ve finally culminated with me not only attending my first and perhaps last World Cup Final but I got to see my beloved Germany take the trophy home. I really couldn’t be any happier. The crowd and environment were truly electric from the start of the closing ceremonies through the presentation of trophy. The stadium literally stood packed full of both German and Argentina fans until well after the trophy was presented. What a sight it was to see. I’m so glad I finally got to experience it.
Now onto today…
Today we’re up early and attum. We’re off to see Christ the Redeemer this morning. I made reservations Saturday morning and barely got a morning reservation for today! The place is hopping I tell you.
So our landlord called two taxi companies and none could provide taxis. Late already we headed down to the busy corner and tried to hail a taxi for way too long. None were available. Every taxi was occupied. Finally we decided to head across the plaza and see if we could catch one there. No success for way too long again. Finally a taxi let somebody out right in front of us and we snagged it. We were off to our appointment albeit it seriously late.
Then we hit traffic. A wall of it. There are two ways there so we u-turn and go the other way. Another wall of traffic. So we sit. And sit. And sit. Finally we get to our appointment about 45 minutes late. We’re a no show. However, they were kind enough (aka we got there early enough in the day still) that they rescheduled us for an appointment two hours after our original one. So we sit around for roughly half that before we finally figure out that yes indeed, if there is space on the train, they’ll take you regardless of your appointment. So finally around 11AM this morning we began our climb of the mountain to Christ the Redeemer.
Man oh man this sucker is up there! He’s much more imposing that close up as well. Has to be, being the son of god and stuff like that. The views of Rio are absolutely spectacular from this vantage point as well. Unfortunately, you have to experience this with roughly double the capacity of the place. Everybody and their dog is up there. They’re laying on the ground trying to snap photos from that angle. They’re doing selfies from every corner. They’re blocking the stairs down to the viewing area to take pictures of their friends below. They’re hogging every sliver of concrete rail available. This jesus dude is pretty freaking popular apparently! We did manage to muscle a view pictures before calling it Christ Almighty. Caught a quick drink in his cafe & bar overlooking the ocean before heading back down his mountain.
Then the fight for a taxi began again. We tried this side of the street. That side of the street. Up. Down. Thought I had one but self righteous taxi driver said get in the line across the street. Finally and literally 30 seconds later not so self righteous as long as the money spends taxi driver showed up right behind him and after dumping his previous patrons we were off to the races.
The races to sit in traffic. Jesus (sorry, I just saw you and now I’m using your name) this town is nuts today! So we sit in traffic where traffic normally isn’t according to our taxi driver. I believe these guys because they do this for a living and they hate sitting in traffic more than anybody else. Finally, around 2PM local time our taxi driver drops us off at the same plaza where we departed 5 hours earlier. We’re 7 hours into this day and we’ve done 1 thing that I thought we’d have wrapped up well before noon.
Lunch was at Terzzeto Cafe. It was good. I liked it despite throwing their food all over my shirt. This shirt has taken a beating on this trip.
The afternoon was lazy. I’m pooped and hitting my wall at this point. Hung around the room and did basically nothing other than screw off and nap a bit. Sometimes you just need that.
Dinner was a return trip to Felice Caffe. I really dig this place. It wasn’t quite as good as the first time but I still really dig it.
Hope to see you here again tomorrow.
Tchau!
[…] Brasil! – Day 34 – Rio De Janeiro, Brazil July 15th, 2014 — “July 14, 2014 Today is day 34 for us here in Brazil. Germany are World Champions! Deutschland Weltmeister! No matter how you say it like honey dripping off the end of your tongue. Four years of planning this trip with tons of go, no go decisions along the way and we’ve finally culminated with me […]” […]