Bit of a firecracker theme today

Oooh so much to write today and this keyboard is too stiff to write as quickly as i want so fogive me if i scream. Had v busy day yesterday as got myself onto a Favela ('slums' of Brazil) tour and ended up finding it amazing. Friends from the hostal here had told me it wasn't voyeristic (which had initially put me off going) so booked myself on and ended up learning loads about the Favelas. I guess I had thought that they would be full of foul water, evil gun toting drug barons and general misery and despair. And whilst its fair to say I wouldn't want to live there, it was nowhere near as bad as I had imagined. Bit scary driving through Rocinho (the biggest in Rio with about 60,000 inhabitants!) and having these young boys (14, 150 being pointed out who were in the drugs gangs and were on watch duty (with hidden machine guns) and rather amusing watching the policeman watching tv on a set bought for him by the drug baron. Altogether a really cool afternoon

Then came the much anticipated footie match (turned out to be the cup final!) and it was every bit as amazing as we had expected. All had to leave at 6.30 and so thought the internet must have got it wrong with a ko of 9.45pm! But no. When we finally got there at 8pm the stadium was already really full with loads of people going crazy. And there was us, this big group of rather white, overawed foreigners all following in a little line behind the lucky girl who got to make sure we all stayed together! It was brilliant as we were right where all the brazilians sit (had thought we might be in the expensive bit) and whilst i didn't want to think about what might happen if there was a problem (think probable Hilsborough) the atmosphere was amazing. For the next 3 hours (kick off was eventually at 10!) there was non-stop singing, shouting, flag waving, flares, fireworks and washing powder throwing, not to mention the constant men with beer/food/shirts etc. Just so cool. rather randomly though, once the match started, everyone really calmed down. Obviously needed all their concentration to spur the team on to victory!

Unfortunately it was a rather dull game with 0-0 and as the other team had won in the first leg (we decided there were a number of ways to improve the game and are thinking ofsunmitting our ideas to the Brazilian FA - getting rid of2 leg cup finals is the first recommendation!) we ended up losing. But despite this the crowd still roared with approval and the fun started again! All very different. What also struck me was just how fun police there were (about 6 and all on the pitch, behind a 15ft metal fence away fromthe fans) and how many people were allowed onto the pitch. 30secs before kickoff you couldn~t make out the team for everyone else and then the minute half time blew, a million journalists were on the pitch interviewing the players! Crazy

So after all that excitement had a gentle day exploring the artistic neighbourhood of Santa Teresa which mostly consisted of me riding a tram quite a lot and then eating in a restaurant which didn't seem to like non-couples as only 4 items on the menu weren~t for 2 people and 2 of those were soldout!!! As a final aside am having much fun ordering food here as the words are v different to spanish and i dont have a dictionary. Every meal is an adventure;.

But phew, said i had a lot to write!