...and when she passes she smiles

Our bus from the falls ended up taking 23 hrs to Rio de Janeiro so we were pretty restless by the end of the ride. However upon checking in at our hostel we were informed that there was a futbol game happening that evening, would we like to go? Yes we would! So we quickly found dinner and jumped in a van we fellow hostel mates. The company that organizes the tour also sets up tours to a favela (which we did the next day-see next entry) and it's company name is Don't be aGringo, Be a Local! Thus this was part of the integration to become a cariocas, or local people from Rio. We got to the stadium and got seated in the first couple rows behind the goal. the game was between Flumincao, a Rio based team, and Corinthians, a Sao Paul team. Whoever won this game would win the division title. The die hard fans were already beating drums, chanting and waving flags. Everyone was sporting team jerseys and the colors green and maroon, many had tattoos of the team logo. We were handed toilet paper and small bags of flour, ready to throw onto the field when the Corinthians came on. Most of the time we stood up imitating fight songs and rooting for the Flumincao to score. Unfortunately, the Corinthians scored two goals before we made one (and none more). Nonetheless, it was a lot of fun to see a game in the stadium that will be used for world cup 2014 and Olympics 2016.

The next day the first thing we did was check the weather outside. It was overcast so we postponed going to the Christ Redeemer and Sugar Loaf lookout. So instead we went across the bay (which the Portuguese mistook as the mouth of a river- hence the name January River) to see Niemeyer's flying saucer museum forcontempoary art. We didn't go inside, just took a million photos of it (you know architects). We went back across the bay to the downtown center. Many of the streets are cobbled stoned and restored colonial buildings. we ate lunch in the area and had ox tail stew with watercress and a side of rice and beans. It felt much like New York's Wall Street. we made our way through the streets until we found an old coffeehouse called Confeitaria Colombo. It is a grand classic Victorian looking place with many decadent desserts. Ching Jen got a egg mustard (think dim sum) but Portuguese styled. It was delicious! While walking in the area we checked out Niemeyer's Catedral Metropolitan. It is a giant cone shaped building and from the outside it looks dull. But once inside it is gorgeous! The alter is in the center and there are four panels of stained glass. The rest of the facade has windows that let in indirect light, making the cathedral glow. We spent quite a bit of time there just admiring at how beautiful the space was. From there we decided to go to the nearby neighborhood of Santa Teresa. It´s a hilly neighborhood so we get there by tram. The tram is an old style tram where people can hold on to the sides and get on and off as they please. It was a lot of fun going over the aquaduct and up the winding hills. We got off at the top where the tram makes a u-turn to go back down the hill, and so we walked down to a bar and had drinks while watching trams go by. Afterwards, we found a place for dinner that serves north eastern food. We had another type of stew, but with short ribs and pumpkin and an appetizer of sausage and fried yuca. We were told that the stew is for one person, but knowing that Brazilians serve big portions, we decided to order one serving for the two of us. In fact, we had so much food that we had leftovers! We went down the hill again by tram and subway-ed back to our hostel and then to bed.