Our trip to Belo Horizonte started with an eight hour night bus. Getting the ticket was somewhat of a hassle having to go to three different ticket stations before we finally got to the right place. Whilst in the queue though we met some really nice Canadian / Portuguese fellas who were also over for the World Cup. They were also on their way to Belo Horizonte for the England game. I would have got my photo with them to tick off Portugal for my World Cup Fan Challenge but with all our bags it would be quite the hassle. Our night bus was not without incident as around two hours into the trip one of the back tyres blew. I'm not sure what we hit if anything but the tyre was in a right mess. It meant a bit of a delay but that didn't bother us too much as it meant a longer snooze. Eventually we arrived in Belo Horizonte of as the cool kids call it BH. Belo Horizonte translates to Beautiful Horizon as the city is built on several hills and is completely surrounded by mountains thus giving it a beautiful horizon.

We took a stroll to the hostel where we once again reunited with Tom and Rory. After a quick power nap we took ourselves to the game. As you know we were there to watch the dead rubber game of England vs Costa Rica. We may have already been out but this was the only world cup game Earl and myself would be at and we were hoping England would go out with a bit of style. Unfortunately they didn't and we saw a 0-0 draw. However we could take positives from the day I had ticked Ivory Coast off my World Cup Fan Challenge, one I thought might be a bit of a struggle. The Mineirao Stadium we were at was also was also a really nice stadium and we had some cracking seats on the front row of the second tier. The England fans were also in good form creating a good atmosphere, with constant renditions of Engerland, Engerland and the national anthem. Unfortunately there were a bit of handbags when The English contingent refused to take part in the Mexican Wave upsetting the Costa Rica and Brazilian fans. This resulted in a bit of beer throwing between the two parties. Personally I thought that's just a waste of beer. After the game was my real highlight of the competition so far though as we spotted the legend that is Chris Kamara. He was being swamped by English supporters and he was having a ball. Even taking a massive selfie with him and loads of fans, I think my arm might be on the photo somewhere, not long after though Earl managed to get a snap with me and the man himself. Unbelievable!!

We made our way back to the hostel where we watched my now favourite World Cup team Colombia destroy Japan 4-1, had dinner and then made our way out. It would be our last night out with Tom as he would be returning to Rio the next morning and then back home to Bristol. Our first stop of the night was a place called The Lion's Den where I had myself a Strawberry Caipirinha, we then made our way too the Savassi, which is a square in BH where everyone gathers to drink and party. It's essentially BH's version of Vila Madelena but not nearly as busy, but still we sank a few beers, Caipirinhas and Smirnoff Ices. Unfortunately the night was ruined by some boisterous English Fans. Maybe I'm just getting old but the England fans nowadays were 18 and pretty disrespectful damaging stuff, throwing beer around. It was no wonder that England has a bad reputation and is a disliked nation. It's unfortunate that these people let the whole nation down.

The next day I wanted to go to BH's fan fest. Honduras was playing Switzerland. I'd not ticked off Honduras yet and they were out of the tournament, this was their last game and so this I thought now would be a good chance to get them ticked off. Unfortunately though after a bit of a trek to the fan fest we discovered it was closed! Disaster. I felt like England, coming up short. Still the world cup was not over, I had hope I had spotted a random Ivory Coast shirt at the England game so who knows, I could spot a Honduras Shirt anywhere. Unfortunately it didn't happen for the rest of the day. We decided to make our way into central BH where we walked around Parque Municipal. Which was just a big park and soaked in the Sun, we then explored the city mainly looking for a Supermarket or Supermercado as they are known in Portuguese. They didn't seem to exist though in BH, we found plenty of shops selling cheap s***ty Brazil shirts, and pharmacies and even a confectionary supermarket, but there was no sign of an actual supermarket. We did find a small one eventually four hours after arriving in central BH. We made our way back to our hostel where we watched the France vs Ecuador game, and then we chilled out for the rest of the night. I watched the repeat of the Argentina vs Nigeria game which I missed earlier and caught up on my Blogs.

The next day after a breakfast of bread jam, a banana and cheese balls we sorted our stuff out and got checked out. We were off to Brasilia later that night on another night bus, but first we had a few hours. Of course football was on, so as usual I dragged Earl to find a local drinking establishment so we could watch the Germany vs USA game. We headed into the centre of BH and struggled to find a bar with any atmosphere or even any football fans at all. All we were coming across was restaurants which you paid for the weight of what's on your plate. And to be honest most of the buffet food didn't look to appealing. But it was getting close to kick off and decided on a little place where we enjoyed a Skol. At half time we tried to find somewhere else and were met with the same situation just weigh your plate restaurants. We did find that one of the restaurants did 50p beers though so that won and we watched the rest of the game there. Afterwards on our walk back to the hostel Earl noticed a massive indoor market, he is quite the market lover and wanted to go in with nothing better to do I joined him. On entry we found why we couldn't find any bars they were all inside the market, it semt like the market was the place to be. It had several bars downstairs, then upstairs it had a bigger bad with two big screens and even live music. I'm not normally a big fan of markets but this was maybe the best one I have ever been too. You could literally buy anything there too from puppies, to fresh fruit and veggies to football shirts to real live peacocks. If you are ever in BH I highly recommend going to the Central Mercado.

After taking the market in we made our way back to the hostel where we had dinner and watched the first half of the Russia vs Algeria game, it was then time to head to the bus terminal as we were on the move again. This time we were off to Brazil's capital - Brasilia! So until then take care and stay safe

Adi

xx