Day One - Thursday 12/03/2009 (In the big brother house - oops, in Sylvia´s world) Tiredness, arriving in Rio, Brazil

Oh my god after leaving me packing to the very last min(yet again), finally finished packnig 3am thursday morning and got the train to Manchester just before 5am. It still hadnt sunk in I was leaving to go and see the world, well only just a fraction of it.

We boarded the flying bus to heathrow, it still hadnt sunk in, felt sick, maybe because I hadnt slept since tuesday night! The long haul flight was a first for me, oh my god it was massive! I must have looked like a little kid getting excited over tvs and free blankets and socks. 3 meals during the flight, I had more really cos I had jenny´s and Nats rejects. Still couldnt sleep on the flight, but whats to worry about, its not as if I have to work in the morning!

Finally we arrived at Rio, dressed in baggy black trackquit bottoms, a vest top, long sleeved top, a fleece and then my jacket (from early hours of yorkshire weather!) the heat hit me and I couldnt breathe! Quick striptease! We had arranged a free pick up with the hostel we were stayin at, 2 hours after we arrived, who knew he was waiting at a different entrance and we ended up waiting over 3 hours listening to the airport man making flight announcements in his sex voice (will upload on facebook soon).

When we finally got into the taxi to el Misti Copocabana, there were no seatbelts, first I tried to open the drivers door not realising it was the passangers and I had forgotten about the different cars! The window had been smashed in from the drivers window - oh crap! Arriving at the hostel was such a shock, first we looked like complete freshies with our new bags and our thick long clothes, everyone was young hippie looking with worn out bags. After sorting out payment we were shown to our room, oh s***, the bed had broke in our original room so they had moved us into a tiny room with 2 bunkbeds between the reception and kitchen! It was tiny, we couldnt move and I just thought it might get worse than this so get used to it! Jenny and Nat were too scared to go to the loo, it was noisy and hot, thankfully i managed to get the first bit of sleep since tuesday!

Day two Friday 13/03/2009 adjusting to Rio baby!!!

Got up tangled in the mozzie net (that didnt work out so well!) for a run and to find me bearings, I prefer not to use maps. I managed to find Copocabana beach. It was amazing, there were bike paths along the beach with people, young, old, fit and unfit running along the path. It was so tough running in the blazing hat, it was 31 degrees and started to understand why the men here look so gay when they run, they'd give Matthew McConnaghy a run for his money!

We spent all day at the beach. It was the nicest beach ive been to but I havent been to that many. We never had any trouble, people always say that Copocabana is quite dangerous but we had a good time there. I must have drank pints of sea water, I kept getting smashed by the waves it was a great laugh. I got a free henna tatoo on me belly of butterflies. They were so many of the locals trying to sell us stuff from water to earings, shrimps and bikinis, it was hard resisting but I had to save me money.

We were meant to be going out tonight but its thundering and lightning like crazy! Ive never seen it like this before, it was like from a film. I wanted to dance in the rai but I probably would have gotten electrocuted so not a good idea!

Day three Saturday 14/03/2009 Football at the Macawhatsit stadium

Went for a run again and lasted a bit longer than yestaday, slowly acclimitising to the heat but its still solid man! Ended up stopping at a bench to do some pressups and dips, I didnt care what I looked like, 15hours+ in a gym per week to 0 is pretty bad!

Woohoo breakfast is free at hostels! How cool is that, I stuffed mself so much I felt so sick - it means I wont have to buy much for lunch (Sylviaism).

We met a guy yestaday Tony who runs some tours. He was really nice so we rang him to go to the football stadium M.... to watch the local team play. It was a pretty boring game, the stadium wasnt packed and the atmosphere wasnt that great. Still, it had to be done watching a football match in Brazil! They had electric karts that come on like the golf ones to pick up injured players, they wpuld drive off then the players would run back on, I thought that was hilarious.

The journey in the van was an experience, it was scarier than the Oblivion at Alton towers! Had to hold on tight for our lives!

Back at the hostel I cooked for the 1st time, essential ingredient, soy sauce of course! We packed our backs, god we gota get used to this but i hate packing! Nat and Jen were folding up every item and tucking it into waterproof bags before placing it in their rucksack! I hoyed everything in and sat on the bag so I could zip it up! Y cant I be more tidy! I just couldnt be arsed! Our last night at party hostel el misti! It was exciting where were gonna end up next! Ive learnt how to say thank you - Obrigado!

Day four Sunday 15/03/2009 The hippie market

Jen came with me for a run today. My throat was killing me, defo been the worst since ive been here. Oh dear, white spots on toncils - no antibiotics! Quick had to text rochelle!

Stuffed meself with breakfast again before moving hostels. We mosved to the Karrisma Hostel in Ipanema. The poor taxi driver, I thought he was going to break hios back when he was lifting jennys and nats bags! The hostel was really cosy, it was more homey and it was much quietr than el misti the party hostel! Poor Nat drew the short straw and had to share a room with 3 girls, me and jenny shared with this weird couple that were not happy to see us!

Ipamema beach was nicer than Copocabana. We were sunbathing for a while then the german guy who came to the football with us came over to talk to Jenny. His name was Philip and he was funny, i used a bit of my school german to talk to him. He told us about the hippie market, we had to go and spend spend spend!

Poor Jenny needed the loo, this girls got a weaker bladder than me! We went everywhere and ended up in Maccy Ds. Couldnt resist, had to get one. We found the market shortly after. Only managed to buy a little bracelet for meself. It was raining and just annoying to shop. We bought some pasta again from the shop. The supermarkets here are amazing! So much better choice than back home for health, they had soy everything!

We met a fellow british traveller, he was a bit older than us..Monotone man. He was so british and wells spoken, he looked like a typical public schoolboy traveller with his long sleeve navy top and cream bottoms. He was so monotone, it would send u to sleep just talkng to him. He made me nervous talking to him because I wasnt speaking proper english and was using alot of slang it made me stutter! He kept goiing on abput how he hates tourists!

We went to the internet cafe but had no money! Me n jen left nat to find a cash machine, it took ages! We finally found HSBC but didnt know how to use the machines! Grrrr!

Day five Monday 16/03/2009 Walking, cycling & more walking

Ran to the beach done me exercises before heading back and feeling sick again after breakfast. Breakfast wasnt as good as el misti, jut bread. We walked to lake Lagoa Rodrego de freitas. It was beautifu, we hired bikes which were annoying cus the seats were way too small. The weather was perfect as we circled the lake, we had views of the Sugarloaf mountain and Christ the redeemer. The lake was so still and the park was so quiet, there were stalks and birds surrounding the lake with cute boats.

We walked to the botanic gardens after, it took so long and we ended up going in the circle. Thank god I wore trainers! We took a few good pics once we got there then I was bored. I get bored easily with plants, I wanted to see animal and birds but we couldnt find any. At the toilets sum Brazilian girl but on this hideous dress. It was a bright pink meragine dress - she was getting married and got changed in the toilets!!! There were ants and s*** everywhere it was disgusting but not half as bad as the dress, it was pure comedy!

We walked, walked and walked till we got onto Leblon beach. Our reward! I had my first Coco, it was weird but refreshing! After a while of sunbathing these stupid kids were harrasing jenny, we went up and moved our things to Ipanema beach, annoyinmg brats they wouldnt leave us alone! We met Adil who I remembered from El Misti, he was funny and gave us some good advice, he was living there. He wanted to meet us later but we stood him up, oops. I still had a cold.