FLA-MEN-GO!!!

Believe it or not: little Valentina is becoming a soccer fan.
Today I went with Joao and some other friends to the Maracana soccer stadium to see a Fla-Flu game: Flamengo against Fluminense. I turned out to be a Flamengo-Torcedor (fan), so we met all dressed in Black and Red.
Best word to describe the event: psicodélico (viu Joao... foi imortalizado aqui!). It was just amazing. Standing in between thousands of totally fanatic fans, shouting songs out into the sky (half of them without REALLY understanding what I was singing), while the same sky pours water down on you in a storm-like rainfall. (But thanks to summer, it doesn't even feel that bad to be totally soaked.)
Anyway... quite an adventure. And one thing I know for sure: Flamengo playing and me in Rio... you'll find me in Maracana ;-)

And now some hard facts:
The Maracana is the biggest stadium in the world and was inaugurated in 1950 to host the FIFA world cup in Brasil. It can host up to 100.000 fans, but there has been a time when they squeezed as much as 200.000 into it. Luckily, today that wasn't the case, so I had enough space to jump and scream and dance every time a goal for 'my' team happened (which was twice... and twice I nearly cryed, because Fluminense scored... in the end, Fla is now out of the game).

some highlights

As I don't have the time (nor the patience) to write a detailed photo report about my ferias (which are not over yet), I'll just post some of the best pictures, so you get a little hint about what it has been like.

Here we go:
I found this wonderfull sideboard on an exposition in Curitibas Museo Oscar Niemeyer. And I absolutely loved the idea. So before anyone of you throws away old cupboards or else, please make sure you safe the apropiate material for my new room. Tá certo?








Well.... Brasil is hot in summer. VERY hot. I haven't seen that many 40 degrees or more days in years. But you get used to it. And to help you over the hard time there is always a Guaraná at hand (the local coke substitute).
This was the youth hostel in Paranagua. I just LOVED the translation. Figured it out? Another great room was the "sala de conviviencia", which should be the living room, but turned out to be an "room to coexist". Society just isn't any more what it used to be ;-) Just try to coexist as peacefully as possible, OK?
This is me in one of the many parks in Curitiba. In fact it is me and one of those interesting animals. Agutis or Tamanduas? Anyway, they look like huge guinea-pigs, but in the end I didn't had the courage to touch them.
That's Anja and her summer flirt Benni. Well, his name is Manfred, but we decided he was way to young and handsome for this name, so he eventually turned into Benni for the two of us. He'll be returning to Germany in March anyway, so the confusion won't last too long.

still alive

hey there,
yes, as a matter of fact, I am still alive. I even survived the 30 hours bus ride from foz do iguaçu to belo horizonte, altough I am NOT a fan of bus trips. But our spiritual friend we visited in Argentina gave me a cristall stone to transfer all negative energies to in case I get sick during the journey. Up to now it worked out quite fine ;-)
So... no fotos yet, because they are or on my camera or on my usb-stick... you`ll have to wait until february. BUT, we´ve had a lot of fun the whole time.
Joinville - two days. One looking for a tourist office, ,the other on a kind of luxury ship together with 300 old ladies...
Florianopolis - sand, praia, sun and Anja got herself a boyfriend. German student from Bavaria, including the bavarian accent. But he is quite cute and VERY well educated so we had a quite nice time together.
@ Benni: perhaps some day you`re sandboard skills come close to mine!!! hehe.
Posadas *Argentina* - we visited a friend of Anjas, the social worker she worked with during her voluntary work in Posadas two years ago. Antonia now lives on a farm 6 km away from the next paved road. no running water, heavenly delicious organic food the whole day. We would have stayed a little longer, but with 38 degrees every day it wasn`t that funny during daytime
Foz do Iguaçu - as we already saw the water falls two years ago we only headed to the ITAIPU dam this time. The biggest, most potent etc. dam in the whole world. And the Brasilians are quite proud about it.
Belo Horizonte - we`ll do some daytrips to surrounding cities and gold mines and then go on to Ouro Preto before its back to Rio.
That`s for you to have a somehow overview. We have already travelled more than 2000 km and we are still not really done... next time with more information and the German speakers: my update will be reeeally long...