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Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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This place was Amazing
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It was up mid-morning for the free breakfast. The breakfast is served until 1pm which says a lot about the type of hostel! I was however there at the early hour of 10am. I had originally intended going to the beach to get some sun, but I bumped into some people who were going to the Jesus Christ statue, so figured it would be good to go with a group. We all planned to get a taxi, but then found the hostel had a tour going at 3:30pm. In the meantime I ended up at the beach anyway, had some lunch and waited around for the tour. At 3:30pm our group waited, but there was no sign of the mini-van. Apparently it had broken down, so we waited for a replacement. An hour later it made its appearance and we headed off at Grand Prix speeds to the hill that houses to the world famous statue. We pulled up just before the sun began to set...very fortunate timing. The view from the top was incredibly beautiful and I wandered around just soaking in the sights of the gorgeous city of Rio, taking photos and realizing how fortunate I was to be in such a place. We then all piled back in the mini-van and back to the hostel. Our guide told us of an all-you-can-eat restaurant close to the hostel, so a group of us went there. The one difference with Brazilian buffet restaurants is that in addition to the usual buffet layout of food, they have a swarming mass of waiters with great big slabs of meat and carving knives coming up to your table cutting slices off. Every minute you have a different waiter flogging off a different cut of juicy meat. They included, pork, chicken, sirloin well done, sirloin medium rare, sirloin rare, rump well done, rump medium rare, rump rare. You might get the idea. We helped ourselves to the buffet section, ate too much meat and eventually, against our instincts fended off a never ending stream of waiters who all seemed disappointed that we weren’t taking their meat. The one I felt sorry for most was the sausage man. Its hard to want sausages when there is such fine steak available! After eating until we all had pains in our stomachs, it was a much needed walk back to the hostel bar, then a taxi to a proper Brazilian street party in a district called Lapa. The party was like a mini carnival. The group I was with explored the party, feeling slightly out of place and a little threatened. Rio is far from the safest city in the world but we got through the night unscathed...apart from the punishment we took from drinking too many Caprinhas from a street vendor.
Posted
Aug 07, 2005
by bhunter
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