Ola from Rio!

Day one is in the books! Traveling here took FOR-EV-ER. Seriously, straight up Squints from Sandlot talk here. My journey started at 7pm on Thursday from Philly to DC, then continued the next day heading out of DC at 3:25pm to Fort Lauderdale. After a couple hours waiting, we were en route to São Paulo, Brazil. But first... An 8 hour flight. Most uncomfortable flight ever, for real. It got hot, and my knees were smashed against the seat in front of me the majority of the flight. Sleeping was not really in the cards, but I think I managed a couple of hours. Once in São Paulo, we waited an hour for our luggage, only to drop it off at another luggage area. Extremely bizarre way to do things, but I digress.

Last leg. Rio. I managed to get a power nap in, and an hour later we were here! We got our luggage, then an uber, and headed to our apartment where we met our host, Diego. Nice guy. He showed us quickly the apartment and then he was off. We washed up, changed clothes, and headed out to get lunch and the remainder of the tickets we had at will call. We had planned on eating at a place called Tacos and Wraps, but they were unfortunately closed, so we had to settle for Hell's Burguers. They had three menu items: cheeseburger, bacon cheeseburger, and double cheeseburger. So... Cheeseburger it was. The only redeeming quality of this place to me was their Jack Daniels sign hanging in the restaurant.

A brief walk and real-life Frogger led us to the ticket pickup. Cosport is the most ridiculous company ever, and luckily we are not the only ones who think so. We waited an hour to finally pick up all of our tickets, and then we grabbed an uber back to the apartment to get ready for the first event of our trip... Football!

Yet another uber ride and short walk to the stadium, and we were there. Security was a breeze (and a joke). There were practically zero people at this game. We took a lap around to see what there was to see (nothing), before I settled for some popcorn and a beer. Fun fact, with a beer you get a souvenir glass! Unfortunately, my souvenir glass has judo on it. I guess at least it isn't table tennis? There's still time, though.

There really was a limited number of people at this match for China vs South Africa. But the people who were there cheered them on, and it was a pretty good game. At the half, I hit a wall. 20 minutes into the second half, se decided to call it a day, despite there still being ANOTHER game to watch. Busy day. As we left, the security line was outrageous! Every single Brazilian was there to see their women national team play. Just a little late to the party.

Solid day overall, though. So far, Brazil hasn't been anything we can't handle. And lucky for me, Megan has said its already surpassed her expectations because she kept her standards low for this. She believes the media hype. I tried not to. We'll see how the next 15 days go, though...

Until next time!!