So headed out to a street party with some folks from another hostel. Everyone is painted or dressed up in crazy ways, I even have a mask from Elena with bright yellow feathers, don't have any pictures as I was advised not to take anything in my pockets. So on the way we grabbed beers from street sellers with polystyrene boxes full ofid ice. The costumes are either very well done or just enough to give you an idea of what they are meant to be, captain america with a face mask and shield, men in fancy dresses and high heels, people decked out as mushrooms from Mario, devils, fairies all dancing to the samba beat and having a good time. We finally get to the float with a live band and a big samba band behind them, driving slowly through the streets. It gives me a taste of what carnival is going to be like and its going to be great fun. We carried on following the float till about 1, that's 1pm not early in the morning.
Me and Elena then decided to try to see Christ the redeemer, we did not fair so well. We tried to take the metro, once we had fought our way through the crowds the station we wanted was closed, we headed to the next nearest station but that had extra barriers up and made Paddington at rush hour look like a piece of cake. The walking alone had taken about 2 hours because of the number of people on the streets. Back to the hostel for a nap, I didn't wake up till the morning, whoops.
Second day, much better we walked most of the way to the train station for the redeemer after getting off the bus rather too early. There is a tram to the top of the mountain but it was having issues so we got on a minibus, which felt like a bit of a scam as they picked us up and took us to pay the fare, then dropped us off and we paid another fare to get on another minibus to take us into the national park in which the redeemer stands. Awesome views from the top :)
Time to head back to the hostel and get ready for carnival tonight.
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