Brazil Day 2

woke up at 650 aM which was way too early. quick showered and kelvin ran down to the market for fresh cheese in a jar nector of marignua juice and fresh baked bread. the cheese had a consistency of runny mayonaise but tasted good on the fresh bread. kelvin then brought us to the catamaran by 755 am and by 810 we were sailing to ilha grande. the ride took about 45 minutes and was R25 a piece each way. got to the island and started to embark for our hotel which andrea only had the google map print out with an approximation. luckily we took one correct turn and hiked into the mountain up hill with giant cobblestones.(glad i brought the backpack not the rolly bag!) got to our hotel oura verde earlier than they were anticipating. our room was not ready but they sat us down in the breakfast area and brought us fresh squeezed pink juice of some sort. Rodriquez told us about the island. his wife rita runs the b&B and he is a photographer for national geographic. we decided per rodriguez and kelvins recommendation that we would set out on foot to lopez mendes beach. 3 km long beach with white sand. only problem-- its a 6km walk there and takes about 2.5-3 hours.

no problem. rachel and i got our room complete with en suite bathroom, double bed and bunk beds changed into our hiking gear and set off for the beach of abraao so we could find the trail marked t10. along the way we grabbed a 1.5L of water a piece. sure enough the trail was quite hilly and full of mud making it quite slippery. andrea biffed it once going down a hill. along the 2.5 hour hike we passed some monkeys. they were little monkeys that looked like the little grandfather ones at the como zoo. we also met 3 guys from saopaulo who had never been to ilha grande before and spoke decent english. we also met a couple girls traveling from nyc and canada. they are here for 3 weeks. jealous! they did parati prior to ilha grande.

we came to palmas beach only to find out we had to keep going for another fourty five minutes. again, it was the same wildernessy rainforest hike you see everywhere. quite similar to puerto rico.

upon arriving to the beach, it started raining and the sun had disappeared. andrea did not go near the water but rachel took some picures for souveniours. (i am broke, dont expect anything!) then we laid on our american towels and enjoyed the... cloudy rainy brazilian day. the waves here were giant. it is a surfer beach. no we did not meet any hot surfer dudes. apparently hardly anyone on the island speaks english.... which poses a slight problem when we only speek englsh. oh well.

after about 2 hours of napping on the beach, we decided to turn around and start our trek home. it took about 2.5 hours back too. saw some more monkeys and did not wipe out. good hike. once we got back to abraao we stopped at a super market... yes, i did not mention food meaning we had not eaten since this morning...... and grabbed some coco cookies, a brazilian beer (to enjoy in the shower) and another 1.5L water. got back to our villa, showered and now we are headed down to the local beach front for some dinner and socializing. ilha grande is not known for its night life, which is fine by me, im beat!

we went to lua e mar and had their calamari risotta, quite dieliciious (and 76R for the two of us) we then walked along the beach and turned up rua bacio towards our posada, but stopped at an outdoor bar where we had 2x 600ml beer for 12 r before callng it a night. found a huge bug on the wall outside our hotel door before entering. pictures coming soon.

Brazil day 1

so Rachel and i boarded the plane in zone 3. we were assigned seats 3^rd from the back in the giant 767. 2 on the window, three in the middle 2 on the other window. Clueless as to where all the people were, we questioned taking a group of three middle seats each. Sure enough moments before they shut the airplane door, a brazilian hopped in and took our idea. Rachel then moved to a group of two seats behind mine and we stole 3 pillows a piece. seriously, there were about 100 people on the plane.

Dinner was served shortly after take off from atlanta and it was quite tastey surprisingly. we had our option of chicken and veggies or cheesey raveoli. we both chose the chicken which came complete with dinner salad, roll, a blondie cookie, and a glass of white wine (for free). Shortly after the meal, we figured out all the movies were free so we laid down across our own two seats and watched a couple movies. I got some good sleep but woke up at 2am to find the guy that took the three seats across from me asking me if i wanted to change spots with him. Gladly, i said 'are you sure' before switching. I then passed out stretched out until 7am when breakfast was served. Rachel fell asleep sitting up leaning against the window.

Breakfast was an english muffin with egg chunk with peppers in it and aslice of cheese, orange juice, and a strawberry yogurt. Shortly after breakfast we landed safely in sao paulo.

Customs were surprisingly quick and simple. must be why a tourist visa is required. the customs agent did not ask any questions, just swiped my passport and visa and off we were to find a bathroom to brush our teeth and change out of our minnesota warm clothes.

we found the ATM (andrea needed it and got 400 reals,rachel exchanged her cash in minnesota) and headed toawrds the airport bus service. 33 reals to get us to the bus station. we bought our tickets at 915 and caught the 930 bus to the bus station. no traffic or anything the expected hour long ride took a measley 25 minutes.

Once we got to the bus station, we looked for the 'mechanical stairs' and all the bus company stations. we found reunitodas, only to find out the non-stop trip to angra was full. “alll full” unsure of how else to get there, the guy—who doesnt speak english-- said 'sao paulo to barra manas to angra. so we bought a ticket for 50 reals to barra manas at 1300. not reall sure what company would get us from there to angra we figured its the best thing we could do. now we just had to waste3 hours in the bus station. rachel grabbed bobs burgers and i grabbed a ham sandwich and we sat in a little food court i kept dosing off and time went very slowly.

after what felt like an eternity, we both took our turns in the bathroom and headed to our terminal. boarded the bus and passed out. about 3 hours into the trip the bus made a 20 minute pit stop and we looked at the map to see where barra manas was in comparison to sao paulo and rio. we werent even sure if the guy was pointing us in the right direction. stupid americans. sure enough, according to the map we were in the right direction. reloaded the bus and about 5km down the road someone stood up and got dropped off in the middle of no where. crap, we didnt know what our stop was going to look like or if we had to just guess or what. luckily a nice gentleman across the aisle spoke un poco ingles and knew what stop we were looking for. he gave us his businesss card and helped us find the bus station we needed. alunzio was his name. after getting our bags from under the bus we quickly found the only bus company still open and luckily they had a bus going to angra at 1800 (it was 1801 and the bus was late) it was a2.5hour drive through the most turn filled mountains and tunnels and of course the bus driver had to take them as fast as he could.

arrived to the bus station at 830, hopped a 20 real cab to mutaro, the place where kelvin teaches kick boxing. the cabbie did not know of the place so he had to ask his cop friends where it was. we found it.

we watched kelvin finish teaching and then we went to the sea shore for japanese/french food. rachel got sushi, i got a shrimp filled crepe. very tasty. now we are at kelvins while he checks in on his ex girlfriend. early morning tomorrow.

ferry at 8am.

travel day through brazil

awaiting wifi to upload. boy, it was a crazy adventure filled day, but we are safe and sound at our couchsurfers house . tomorrow we head to ilha grande!

good bye USA (travel day 1)

Got through airport security almost flawlessly--except rachel's lip gloss required an additional search of her bag. Attempted to get on the 130 flight but it was full. Boarded our 230 flight with jimmy johns in hand and found ourselves window and middle seat next to a 30 something chemical engineer. Chatted his ear off as well as the military air force air traffic controller across the aisle for about 30 minutes while we were in queve to the run way. Shortly thereafter Rachel busted out HP1 and was head bobbing minutes later. Landed in atlanta just fine and we are now waiting for our 735 flight to sao paulo!
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Preparation

Rachel & I have booked our tickets (airfare = $1650), found our couch surfers (Kelvyn & Felicio) and received our Brazilian Visas. We leave Monday December 26, and return Thursday January 5th. Basic Itinerary: Arrive 12/27--Sao Paulo, take bus to Angra dos Reis. Stay with Kelyvn 12/28-12/30, ferry to Ilha Grande and stay on the island in a hotel. 12/30-1/4, Bus to Rio, stay with Felicio. Spend New years eve on copacabana beach, take return bus back to Sao paulo 1/5 930AM arrive back to MPLS Bags aren't quite yet packed, but regardless, bikinis + sundresses seem to be all we need Rio de Janeiro, here we come!

En Route to London

Woke up at 9, arranged my 3500 pictures, showered packed and woke up Toufic. We ended up walking to the park, grabbed sushi (I had bang bang chicken)from sushi king and strolled through dublin. Saw st patricks cathedral, the dublin castle, temple bar, O'connell street and henry street before grabbing my bags and narrowly catching the bus to the airport. My host in london is supposedly meeting me at the airport. I catch my flight home at 1040 am to arrive to MSP at 330 pm. Got to the airport and through security no problem. Hopped in line right away only to discover all the emergency exit row seats were reserved with paper. Took another seat and waited as the airplane filled up. Doors were shut and emergency exit row was still open so I asked the flight attendent if I could sit there, sat next to 2 foolish irish guys who had a fear of flying. They busted out their irish whiskey and chew candy as soon as the airplane was being pushed back. Apparently they knew the flight attendent also so they purchased 3 more rounds of whiskey and were quite noisy. Hilarious dudes. Arrived and got through customs no problem-- I just had to turn in my boarding pass from the irish isles. Earlier in the day, I had emailed pete explaining customs took forever last time and to not get to the airport too early. I was waiting about 20 minutes and he showed up on his phone with his sign with my name on it. We made it back to his car and headed towards his house. Stopped at a lovely restaurant on the lake and then grabbed a pizza for the way home. Stayed up talking and learned about the rules of cricket before falling asleep at 230am. 730 am was quite early but showered had breakfast and pete dropped me off at the airport. Got through checkin (no emergency exit row or window seat, but got an aisle seat up front) and now my 38 day Eurotrip of a lifetime comes to an end. Here ENDS "AMERICAN GIRL IN EUROPE BLOG. Follow me as i tour around Europe this summer! stops include: London, Athens, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Salzburg, Munich, Karlsruhe, Heidelburg, Frankfurt, Lubeck, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Paris, Barcelona & Dublin"

Dublin Day 2

Woke up at 645 am to make my 745 am bus from dublin to Galway to begin my full day tour of the west coast of ireland including the cliffs of Moher! Slept the entire 2 hour bus ride and easily found the tour group. Boarded the coach bus and now I'm really touristy :-) there is an asian family of 5 and 3 other couples none of whom speak english or the same language... Drove through the small towns of Oranmore, Clarenbridge and Kilcolgan before stopping for 15 minutes inside Dunguaire castle and then for 30 minutes in Kinvara where I stopped at the local Cafe for a Chai latte. We then went through ballyvaughan, blackhead and doolin where we stopped for lunch. I had baked salmon and mashed potatoes. It was quite tastey. Then we made it to the cliffs of Moher. I walked to the south through the "private property dangerous cliffs" section then towards O'Briens tower before my hour of time was up. Hopped back on the bus drove through lisdoonvaria and kilfenora one of which is famous for the matchmaking festival. Then to the leamanahg castle and we stopped at poulnabrone dolmen which is a tomb burial ground from 3000 years ago. Our bus tour then brought us home to the Galway bus station. We arrived at 525 pm and the next non-stop bus service to dublin left at 715. Sooo, I walked around the square twice before choosing to stop at murty Rabbits- an irish pub established 1764. Actually I checked it out and as I was leaving the bar tender asked if he could be of help. I ordered a cider at sat next to an older irishman to watch the horse races. Galway is known for their week long once a year horse races that is held just a few miles up the road. Apparently there was 45,000 people there yesterday. Mr old irishman also bought me a cider before I had to leave for my 715 non stop bus to dublin. I ended up keeping the glass as a souvenir and got one of the last 3 spots on the bus. The wifi wasn't working so I asked the girl sitting in front of me who was waving her iPhone around if I could use it since I was from the states and had to get ahold of my friend who was meeting me at the bus stop. meanwhile the chick sitting next to me goes "you're from the states?! What part?" Turns out she is from San fran and is in radio and TV and her husband was from Blaine. We talked the entire 2.5 hour bus ride home and I grabbed her facebook when we got off the bus. Her tour guide leader was waiting for them to greet them off the bus (McCoole tours) and Toufic was no where to be found. I used the tour guides phone and started towards the harp bridge for toufic. Found him, got home, changed, and went to watch some crazy irish at the nearby pub. Got home at about 2.