Rio de Janeiro

After the long night drive, we finally arrived in Rio. There was a completely different atmosphere there. When we asked where an UBER would pick us up, they explained the way to us and told us to wait outside the door and not to leave. When the Uber arrived, we wanted to put our backpack in the trunk, but since it was too dangerous, we were told to bring our things to the front. When we arrived at the hostel, we were a little intimidated. We agreed that we would only go outside with a neck pouch, without a credit card, and only until it gets dark. We took an Uber, which we consider the safest means of transportation in Rio, to an authorized Apple Shop to have my phone repaired. However, no one could help me. Since we liked the man from the shop very much, we asked if he knew a good Churrascaria. We went there immediately, and I have to say, it was worth "waiting" the whole time. In fact, we spent the whole evening eating 😂. Since it was already pitch dark, we took an Uber back to the hostel.

The next day, we walked to the famous staircase of Rio (Escadaria Selaron) first. Since we had already embraced the Brazilian way of life, we drank half a liter of Caipirinha at a street beach at noon. Then we walked through the city center for a while and took an Uber to an Apple store. Luckily, they were able to fix my iPhone. The Apple store was located in the Villagmall. In this mall, there were only luxury brands, and it felt like even the toilet seats were made of gold. Somehow inappropriate considering that there are some big favelas in Rio. After eating something on the way, we took a cable car up to the Sugarloaf Mountain. I think it's really worth it for only €10. In the evening, we walked along Copacabana Beach.

The following day, we took an Uber up to Christ the Redeemer or to a train that took us up, as we had read that it was too dangerous to walk up. I was somewhat horrified because there were swarms of people on the mountain who were only interested in taking selfies. At the valley station, we tried to take an Uber to go to the city center to eat something, but it took forever to get an Uber, and then we sat in the car for a long time, so we were in a hurry because our bus to Paraty was leaving at 6:00 p.m. Instead of quickly getting something to eat, the temptation to eat deliciously and comfortably at the Mexican restaurant was too great. Once again, without thinking, we sat down in the restaurant, discussed for a long time what we should eat because we couldn't decide, and ate leisurely. Judith went to the supermarket to buy water, and I paid. When we were in the Uber to go to the hostel, it dawned on me that we had to drive for over 45 minutes. So I tried to explain in Spanish that the car should wait at the hostel and then we want to go directly to the train station. We ran into the hostel, looked at in confusion, got our stuff, and in a flash, we were back in the car. At 5:52 p.m., we finally arrived at the train station, where we still had to print our tickets and find the bus. We ran through the entire building with our backpacks and pushed our way through the line. During the car ride before, we were already thinking about how we could trick to not have to pay for the ticket twice 😂. And actually, at 6:05 p.m., we were in the bus and had totally forgotten how unlikely it actually was to catch this bus.