30/12/09 - day 21.

woke up with a hangover and felt a bit sick. as i havent been drinking very much very often, i was feeling the effects of the previous night. dragged myself from my bed about 10am when i was feeling a bit better and ate some cereal i bought the day before.

an aussie dude (carl) who´d arrived late the previous night and i went into the city to check out mercado central and mercado borbon (i couldnt see biscuits of any description in there though) which are massively busy, bustling, maze-like, chaotic markets full of locals and its the sort of place you can buy pretty much anything. if you´ve got the patience.

when i couldnt take the chaos anymore, we left and went to have a look around parque central and parque nacional which were quite nice, relaxing parks with various statues, fountains and benches full of locals doing not an awful lot.

had to be back at the hostel for half 1 as they have cable tv and i wasnt gonna miss a rare opportunity to watch an arsenal game - we beat pompey 4-1. when id been out earlier, id stopped to but a couple bits of chicken from a street vendor. dont know if they disagreed with me or what but i spent most of the first half of the game feeling sick!

i was fine though and after the game went to a much less chaotic handycrafts market which called meracdo artesenal. played it safe for dinner and had pasta and sauce. watched some of an NBA game on tv then hit the sack around half 10.