Sunday, December 6, 2009

Salvador - Nous sommes arrivee

I officially have a flat arse now, as our bus journey from Rio to Salvador was 28 hours long. I must have woken up about 25 times and thought, 'are we there yet?'. Now we are!

The good news is I only ate beans and rice 3 times today. Shockingly, it cost me £3 for each dinner, as cooking facilities were at a minimum on the bus. To make up for it, the toilet smelt of p*ss, which was a nice and helped me doze off.

The films were pretty good - one was about Christopher Columbus and his conquering of the West Indies (as they are now). It enraged me slightly as it painted too innocent a picture of him - he was after all a savage who pillaged his way across a continent who greeted him with open arms!

One point I feel I neglected to pay sufficient attention to was how fun it was to hang around with Felipe, the guy who arranges the volunteer programs for Realgap in Rio. As always, it was great to meet with someone who was local to the area and can take us to places off the beaten track. For example, we visited a couple of social projects in the favelas and met some really nice people. It completely cemented my intention to run a charity full-time when I'm older (and richer).

I'd like to pay homage to Bill Bryson. I downloaded one of his books (I'm a Stranger Here Myself) just before we left, partly because I didn't recognise many of the other authors who were available to download to my book reader. And I think I am in literary love with him! He is so funny and sarcastic and entertaining - completely unexpected as I thought he was just a travel writer. I will definitely be buying more of his books and recommend him highly.

Tomorrow we aim to book our flights back to the south of Brazil (it's the same price as getting the bus, but much faster, bizarrely) and then sit on the beach. I don't like to rub it in, but it is over 30 degrees again.

Liverpool drew 0-0 with Blackburn I see. Can someone please inform me when the incompetent, whinging Spaniard gets sacked please? Tell him I threaten to phone Radio 5 again!

2 comments:

  1. Hi Sam, I've consulted the old buggar and he says that the whinging scousers need the indomitable whinging Spaniard and in fact he's going to play his ace card Aquilani against Florentina tomorrow nightm, meanwhile Kettering town are holding their own against Leeds in their FA Cup replay.
    I hope you are going to place some pics on facebook, just so that I can travel vicariously through your experiences.

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  2. footie update.
    Leeds are all over Kettering, and one goal up. By the way who says the Europa cup isn't worth having and incidentally Rafa has just nicked a 16 year old Icelandic defender called Emilsson from under the noses of M.U.

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