A Short One

I´ve only got a few minutes left of my internet time, but here´s a little update. I´m still in Rio! I was meant to leave the 15th, then Natasha´s flight got delayed a full 24 hours, and I like it here, so we´re hanging around!

Last night I spent in Lapa after doing some touristy stuff during the day. It was my first day of actual sight-seeing, since during the Carnaval all the stimulation around attracted all my attention away from the beauty of the city. It´s not the prettiest city ever or anything like that, but Rio is impressive. After we walked around downtown, we caught a ferry to Niteroi, a NJ-like suburb of Rio. Nothing was there, but it was a fun boat ride.

I got a new roommate in my hostel dorm. Her name is Sandra, from Dublin. She embodies everything you think of when you think of an Irish girl, I love her. We eat and drink together, and are the few left standing of the huge crew that was staying here last week for the partying. My last pair of roomies was Athena and Jonathan, and I knew I was driving them a little crazy. They didn´t know Carnaval was going on when they booked their trip and were expecting a chill vacation, but I wasn´t about to let it happen. I´ve had soo much fun with so many people I´ve met, I´m going to miss this whole bouncing around hostels ordeal! Every day you meet someone new, and someone old leaves, I love it.

Lapa was nuts last night. This is my kind of town for going out though-you don´t go home until the sun comes up, and even then, you can slowly make your way, talking to people along the way. We went last night with a couple of the kids who work at the hostel to finally get an insider scoop on what goes on, but it turns out we hadn´t been missing anything. It´s a crazy, crazy place-the street is just packed full of people, and clubs are all there, right next to each other, playing their music out into the street to entice people in. For each step you take, you can hear Brazilian funk, electronic, hip hop, samba, salsa, reggae, rock... wild.

Yesterday 3 of the kids I´ve been hanging out with went to get tatoos. I wanted one SOOO badly, but decided not to. I have an idea for my next one and can´t just jump into it in one day, so I resisted the temptation. Plus, it would kill my beach time a little bit, trying to keep it safe. Speaking of the beach, I´m headed off there now. Besides any gory details of the night out, there´s not much to update on - Rio is fun, but I´ve seen all the stuff, and it really does feel quite sedated after the whole carnaval event. I could stay here and go to the beach every day for the rest of my life though!

Ipanema!