June 3rd or: Río de Janeiro

6am sharp the alarm went off once again. We got up, jammed some breakfast into our stomachs and set off to the "Rodaviária", the bus station. It took us about two hours to get to downtown Río de Janeiro, where we were able to catch the metro. The metro is considered safe even by the most careful people and meets european standards (mostly because of the impending world cup). Line 1 is supposed to be finished by now and way longer, but of course isn't yet. Maybe for the olympics in 2016. 

could also be in Europe: Cardeal Arcoverde

Our hotel was right at the Copacabana beach, a beach we were told that would be crowded by visitors and junk-salesmen. Well, take a look yourself:

the crowded Copacabana beach

What I also thought was really awesome were the ubiquitous fitness stations, where you can do basically any bodyweight exercise: pullups narrow/medium/wide, dips, tricep dips, core exercises. You could easily find one within 200m from anywhere on that beach. Not just that, but soccer and volleyball pitches everywhere. I know what I'd be doing if I lived there. Generally it was noticeable that people in Rio do more sports and thus look better than in Sao Paulo. But then again, it's easier to disguise a belly below a dress / suit than below bathing clothes. It is said that the "Paulistanos" (inhibitants of Sao Paulo) work hard, whereas the "cariocas" (people of Rio) aren't too much about work, but about hanging out at the beach and relaxing; basically lazy. 

We however weren't. We dropped our bags at the hotel, then got some skewers right at the beach. Not a lot of food, but good. But we still lacked the basic equipment for a good time at the beach: flip flops and a bikini. Buying flip flops in Copacabana is basically like buying beer in Germany -- you can get them anywhere and you have lots of choices aaaand they're cheap. I paid 4€ for a high quality pair. I might get another one. 

Ipanema beach after sunset

Equipped properly, we checked in at the hotel quickly and set off to a walk down the beach of Copacabana. Our goal was to observe the sunset at the neighboring Ipanema beach, but we were a little late -- the sun just goes down so early here since it's winter. Yet it was a nice, almost 7km walk to Leblon, a quarter where the "young and beautiful" people are supposed to be at night. All I can say is: nope, not true. We found a place with customized salads and great passion fruit juice, and it was the best dinner ever. We haven't had real vitamins for 3 weeks straight now, and that really felt good. We even raised our vitamin C consumption with two caipirinhas at a comfortable, classy bar with live music. There, we met Tino, a friend and fellow Enactee from Munich who is spending a semester abroad in Rio. I'm a little jealous. Daniel tried a beer with salt, tabasco, "english sauce" and limes. Sounds good? No. It was absolutely terrible and tasted like freshly thrown-up, chilled puke. But then again, if you always try everything, you will eventually find something that isn't good. That's part of the game.

I'm really starting to like the idea of getting up early. So we set the alarm for 6am sharp again. We can sleep when we are dead (or in Germany).

PS: Whenever something is crowded in Brazil (or anybody talks about something being crowded), they have this gesture where they put their thumb and their four other fingers together pointing upwards. Took me some time to understand that.