Good Bye

Well my friends and foes, it has now come to an end. As I am writing this (my last piece) I am sitting in a room back in London, with three months abroad behind me. I have returned with mixed feelings; as nice and fantastic it is to travel around, I sometimes miss the comfort and particular lifestyle of being in one place, pottering about and and getting on with your life. Having said that, I am not looking forward to start working again. Actually looking for jobs is quite fun, but when you get to the stage where you have a job, things start to get a bit depressing. And you go out drinking with your friends every weekend to forget reality, and you walk home in the middle of the night wondering why. On that jolly note, I'm just going to recap a little on what I did in my last week in Barcelona.

I had a good last week. It so happened that quite a few of my old friends from Sweden were in Barcelona that week. I could tell you that they were all there to visit me, but that would be a lie. Anyhow, I ended up going out every night till the early hours, walking home everytime because I'm too cheap to take a taxi. On one of these nights, I met a delightful robber. I was walking the streets of Barcelona (completely lost, I might add) at about 5am, when suddenly a fellow sidled up to me. Hola, he said, and then went on to saying something incomprehensible. No hablo Espanyol, I said. Parlez-vous Francais? He asked? Oui, I replied. Then he started a conversation (whilst walking) that went on for about 5-10 minutes, high-fiving me every 45 seconds or so. After some time he told me he was going to demonstrate a football trick, and as he spun around me, I noticed his hand sliding in to my pocket. I grabbed it, and he snatched it out without taking anything. AND THEN, he just kept walking and talking, like nothing had happened! It was extremely awkward. And I, diplomatic and good natured as I am, started asking him some questions to break the ice! It was surreal. Anyway, I was a little worried he was going to try something again, so I thought I must scare him off. So when he asked what I was doing in Barcelona, I said "I'm here with my Juijitsu camp". After that he said good night and left me alone.

So, summing up my experiences. Meeting other travellers has made me realise how much there is to see, when you listen to their exciting stories and adventures. For example I've acquired a taste for South America, and would love to 'do' the continent properly. So this trip has been an "amuse bouche" for me, just a little taster of future adventures to come. Also, I definitely recommend travelling alone, for all of you who haven't. It is a bit daunting at first, but now I really appreciate it. I've learnt so much, especially about myself. I still don't really have a clue who I am, but I'm certainly closer to knowing than I was 3 months ago. I would also like to think that I've matured more during this time. Now, I still enjoy crude jokes and drinking lots of beer, but I mean on a more profound level.
And now awaits the real world, a world where going up at two in the afternoon and drinking and eating out every night is frowned upon. This is where I leave you, together we coexist in this generally grey environment, surrounded by stray dogs and odours of urine. But it is the beautiful moments we strive to live for, and that is where we belong.

So long, and thanks for reading.

Barcelona

Jesus, just realised that I've been here almost two weeks and haven't written anything about it yet! It has gone so fast, feels like i just arrived...
This is quite a special part of my trip. I am staying with my lovely second cousin who lives here in Barcelona, which means that I meet quite a lot of local people and not many tourists. For the duration of my travels it has been the opposite, mainly because I've been staying in hostels where usually about 75% of the people there are English, 10% Dutch, 10% Australian, and 5% unidentified weird nationalities. But it is also special because I am doing things that are moving more and more towards a routine; a word that has become foreign to my ears. I'm not only closer geographically to home, but also emotionally and actively. I've started to cook instead of going out to a restaurant, something I haven't done in almost 3 months! And it felt good, eating something home made. You get bored of eating out everyday, and I never thought I would consider that. I almost feel ready to go back home. (having said that, after two weeks at home I'll probably be attempting to kick myself in the face for writing this... travelling is really what it is all about!)

So far here in Barcelona I've done pretty much everything you'd expect someone to do. Been to Sagrada Familia, the big market Mercat de Bouquerias (or something..), MACBA museum (modern art), Parc Guell, strolled around Barri Gotico, etc. Oh and yesterday I found this tiny museum that was all about new inventions. Now, I don't mean useful inventions like the airplane, the telly, or the Star Wars Trilogy. No, what they displayed were clever little things that we actually don't need but can be fun to own, so we can show our friends and waste a few minutes of conversation concerning its use. One thing I actually liked was a handkerchief with the message "My phone is off for you" on it. Apparently, the handkerchief is made out of a type of material that blocks the phone signal (I don't know what kind of material that is, to be honest. Maybe something NASA invented then binned because they realised it wouldn't really change the world...). But is quite a nice little idea. However, most people probably couldn't handle it. Being unreachable. I say, can we just please leave each other alone for five F****** minutes?

Today I am going to the beach to try and save the last bit of tan that I lost in Argentina. I've borrowed a bicycle card, which has been great. Perfect and pleasant way to get around the city!

So long

Summing up Buenos Aires

It's been a while since I last wrote - so I'll try to remember what I actually did in my last week in South America... I can begin by telling you the good news regarding the weather that I've been so vigorously damnating all the time; it actually got quite warm in my last week, almost Pleasant. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it. My plans to buy a new sweater diminished to a futile quest and was soon a faded infant of a memory, and I strutted around the city in my sun glasses and thin summer clothes.

I actually did some things in this last week, I don't want you to have the impression that I just sauntered around the city in my flip flops and shades! For example, I went to the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Which I would call the National museum of Fine Art, if I wasn't such a pretentious prick). It was a huge two-storey museum with a mixture of Argentinian contemporary art and late 19th century world art. It was very good, and above all, it was free. 
I also went to a tango show, which wasn't free, but very good nonetheless. In addition to that, there was a 3 course meal included plus an unlimited supply of wine. The Tango was very good, they presented it in a way that explained how the dance has changed from as early as the 1920's to present day. At the end they started dragging people up from their chairs to join the tango-ing (is that even a word?), which strangely enough coincided with me having to go to the bathroom.

The last thing I did before leaving BA was very unexpected - I said good-bye to my childhood hero and alter-ego: Harry Potter. I saw the last film on the premiere, and felt a bit sad at the end. Not only because of the cringingly shit ending, with Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint's insomnia-like make-up to make them look like adults, but also because it's the end of an era. I followed Harry and his endless battles against The Dark Lord, who failed to kill a kid, his chubby ginger friend, and a girl. Never again will I read those books, which have been such a big part of my childhood. Maybe it is a good thing. Time to grow up.

Until next time, Thank you.

Buenos Aires

I have now spent one week here in Buenos Aires, and although I'm having a cracking time there is one thing that slightly spoils the fun: the weather. I suppose it was my fault for doing so little research before my arrival, but I thought South America never really gets cold. I mean, I'm from Sweden, these people don't know what cold is. But as I was sitting on the 3 hour flight from Rio the captain made an announcement, which was the following: "Ladies and Gentlemen, we are now beginning our descent in to Buenos Aires, where the weather is nice and clear with a temperature of 7 degrees Celsius". Christ, I thought, that is like an average English winter! So, it has been a cold week. I've been trying to find something warm to buy, but so far there has been no luck on that subject. I'm going to move on now, too much time is spent talking about the weather!
Buenos Aires is different to Rio in the sense that the sightseeing is cerebrated on strolling around in the different areas of town, where as in Rio it was more substantial. One thing I have seen however, is the magnificient grave yard where Evita Peron is buried. I have never seen anything like it before; every "grave" was like a small house, and they were lined up with small streets running parallel to eachother. It was literally like a small city. I will upload photos later.

I have also been to an area called La Boca, which is a quite poor area but looks nice because of the brightly coloured houses. A ate a nice barbequed lunch there too!
I have to say that the main attraction here is the food. Or, more precisely, the meat. I went to a famous restaurant called La Cabrera with a group of people the other night, and it was one of the best steaks I've ever had. 400 grams of red tasty meat, served with loads of different sauces. A side order of French Fries was unnecessary, the meat alone is enough. It was so good, I returned the next day!

The nightlife is very good too, there is a very wide selection of night clubs and bars that the hostel I'm staying at helps you to plough through.

Good Bye, for now.

Pictures and summary

I have now been in Rio for 3 weeks, and it is time to move on. In this post I’m going to tell you what I did my last few days, show some pics, and summarise this visit.

Since I’ve done pretty much everything there is to do in Rio, I had to figure out what to get up to these last days. The last thing one the list of activities you must do when visiting Rio was a favela tour. On the day I was scheduled to do the tour it was heaving down with rain, and clever as I am I showed up in my flip flops and shorts (white). I did have a rain jacket, but that was the extent of my preparations. I was a little concerned about bringing my rather expensive Nikon camera to the favela, but according to the tour guide nobody gets their possessions stolen there. This is due to the fact that this particular favela is controlled by the drug cartels, and if they see someone steal from a gringo (foreigner) they will shoot or severely injure that person – in front of you. If the favela gets a bad reputation no people would come to visit, which means the drug dealers wouldn’t get any money. Apparently the most dangerous time to visit a favela is when the police is there, because then they just start shooting drug dealers who in return shoot back, and civilians get caught in the crossfire. The tour guide said it was fine to take pictures of anything except the drug dealers, as they might shoot you. This notion worried me slightly; how do I know if someone’s a drug dealer? Do they wear matching stripy clothes? Or do they just have a sign on them saying “drug dealer”? In the end however the tour guide just let us know whenever we couldn’t take photographs. The ride up to the top of the favela was exhilarating; one by one we got on the back of a motorbike and shot up the winding streets of the favela. I loved it. I think I feared for my life about 60% of the ride, but it was quite exciting when they had a competition of who’d get to the top first! In the favela itself we went to an art gallery where the artists have had no formal education, so all the art is pure talent. I was tempted to buy a really nice painting, but it was in the 75 euro region so I decided against it. We also went to a school, a bakery, and even got a little samba show featuring a small child dancing.

In the evenings I’m trying make the best of my last Rio experience. It has included among other things a card game, with a stupid rule that you can’t say the D word (starts with D, ends with Rink). If you do, you have to keep your chin on the table until someone else says it. As it turns out, I’m abhorrently crap at not saying that word, so I was forced to look like an idiot for about one hour. I’m sticking with saying ‘alcoholic beverage’ now, in the event that I would have to play it again.

So, the inevitable summary of this city. Rio de Janeiro is an amazing city, with many things to do and see. The people are lovely, although they don’t speak much English (as discussed earlier). My hostel experience has been a mixed one; staying in a room with 11 other people is a good way to meet new people, but if you’re looking for a good night’s sleep it isn’t ideal. People snore (some snore REALLY loud), people stumble in at various times of night intoxicated by the consuming of alcoholic beverages, turn the lights on, talk loudly… you get the picture. I also haven’t had a single hot shower since I arrived in Rio, but that is probably just because the standard of my hostel is quite shit. Forgive me for the upcoming rants of cursing, but it is in quotation so I guess that makes it acceptable. So anyway, another weird thing about this hostel is that one of the staff members is referred to as “the fucking crazy motherfucking Argentinian”. Not only is he entitled this name by his fellow colleagues, but he even calls himself this. I thought it was a one-off thing, but I’ve noticed that he introduces himself as this (in various modifications, sometimes it’s just “the fucking Argentinian”) every time someone new checks in. I don’t know, but I sort of think it reduces the level of professionalism of this accommodation service.

The Brazilian food is a lot blander than I had expected. Their main traditional dish is literary black beans and rice. I don’t wish to slag off black beans and rice, but to me it’s just a bit disappointing and uninventive. Another weird traditional food is Farofa, which is fried flour. I thought it sounded quite interesting up until the point when I tried it, realising it actually just was fried flour. Who came up with that? It sounds like I’m just slagging off an entire nation and its culture, but that’s not the case at all. I love Rio, and I would definitely return.

So tomorrow I’m off to Buenos Aires, which I have heard so many good things about. Not only is it cheaper than Brazil, but apparently the food is amazing. Can’t wait to sink my teeth in a rare-cooked steak! In the meantime, here are some pictures!

Monkey in Jardim Bôtanico

Sunset from Sugar Loaf Mountain

Samba in the Favela

Christ the Redeemer

Ipanema Beach

Magic in Rio

Time flies my friends, time flies. With only 5 days left in Rio I feel like I've done almost everything, but it also feels like I just arrived. Since I last wrote I've been up to quite alot. As I said in my previous post, I was going to go to Búzios. I asked the reception in my hostel if they could take 2 nights out of my reservation, and then book me in again for friday when I would return from Búzios.That was all fine, they said. When I had packed the following morning and carried my bag down to the reception to check out, there was another receptionist there. Where are you going? she asked. Búzios, I said. I'll be back on friday. Friday? That's going to be a problem. Apparently it was some Brazilian holiday this weekend, and therefore the system couldn't accept any check-ins on friday or saturday. (Weird, but that seemed to be the case anyway). Slightly annoyed, I said well whatever, I'll find somewhere else to stay. This was proven to be very difficult, everywhere is full during the holiday. But it sorted itself out in the end, I just stayed in another hostel in Ipanema. Trying to find the bus station to go to Búzios was bloody difficult. The people in Brazil don't speak any English. And I mean no English at all. I asked a police man: Bus station? He didn't understand a word. Got there in the end though, and it was very beautiful. I stayed at a hostel that was just on the beach, you could literary just walk out the door onto the sandy beach. It was very expensive though; I was going out with a few people I met there, and the entrance fee of a club was 120 Reais (which is about 50 euros).

Back in Rio I've been up Sugar Loaf Mountain, where you can see the entire city. Went up just before sunset, and it was truly fantastic. I'll upload some photos in the end of this coming week. I also went to the Modern Art Museum; I was really looking forward to it because I had heard that they had a great photo exhibition, but   when I arrived there they had taken it off. The rest of the exhibition was all right, some things were a little too abstract; I find it a bit annoying when someone presents a piece of metal and calls in art. But there were some good stuff by Miró and Picasso, as well as contemporary brazilian artists.

The best thing about travelling alone is that you meet loads of new people, but it also means that you can choose to just be on your own for a day if you feel like it, and then in the evening go out with a bunch of people. It's very good for the creativity as well. I written quite a bit of music and the work on my book is developing nicely. All is good!

Rio de Janeiro

 I've been in Rio for almost 10 days now, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it! What have I done so far? Well, I try to mix the cultural visits with pure relaxation - and since I've got so much time here it's possible! Culture-wise, I've done Christ the Redeemer (a magnificient statue of Jesus, if you didn't already know that), the Botanical Gardens (which host more than 6000 different species, including 600 varieties of palm trees and 140 different kind of birds. I also saw loads of monkeys, and I will upload the pictures at a later date!). I have also been in the old area called Santa Teresa, where you take a tiny tram that takes you over the Lapa aqueduct and through the narrow streets of Santa Teresa. Amazing! I have also had time to go to the beach when the weather is nice and sunny, sun bathing and talking to new friends or simply reading a book. Today I am going to a football game between Flamengo and Botafogo that the hostel has organised for us guests, and I reckon it's going to be quite an experience!

Last friday I went to a street party in Lapa, which felt quite surreal since a whole area in the middle of town had been closed off to make way for young people to drink and eat in the street. It was fun, but completely packed with people! So you didn't want to lose the people you'd come with, because the chance of finding them again would be diminishingly small.
Last Sunday there was this favela party - basically a night club situated in a favela. It was a cool experience; unlike an ordinary night club everybody was dancing samba, and you bought your caipirinha from small stalls for £1.

I really enjoy Rio so far. I might go away for a few days next week to small town 3 hours north, called Buzios. I've heard it's like a paradise, and if I go to hell when I die I would just like to get a taste of heaven first.

But for now, I bid you farewell