England vs Italy

It’s old news, I know. But England ended up losing to Italy 1-2 here in Manaus. I was lucky and went to the game. There were lots of English and Italians in town for the game, which made the atmosphere of the stadium exceptional.

We parked about 1 mile from the stadium and walked in.  There was a stream of people buying over priced beer or something else cool to drink from the street vendors as they meandered up to the stadium.

The Arena de Amazonia is, I have to say, beautiful.  The Brazilian government spent a heck of a lot of money to have it renovated, but the final product is spectacular.

I had seats way up top near the midway point of the field.  The view was actually fairly good and it gave you a great sense of how this stadium was constructed.

 

We were sitting among a bunch of Italians.  I was wearing my Portland Timbers team jersey and told everyone, “I’m a neutral fan here, I just want to see good football” and one of the Italians in turn told me, “you will be a fan of Italy when they win”

There were also some English around. These two chaps were very striking in their coats.  But as soon as the game started they took them off because it was just too darn hot.

It was an awesome game to watch and a wonderful experience with the rowdy English and passionate Italians. Here is a slides show of all my World Cup Brasil related photos.

Created with flickr slideshow.

Not a good time to be sick..

Nope, it's not the brown bottle flu, trust me.  But it's not terrible either.  I have a bit of a cold which I felt coming on Tuesday night and kicked in on Wednesday.  I'm alive and don't feel TOO bad, but I'm taking it easy today trying to get over this cold before the Carnival festivities happen this weekend.

Wednesday my friend Rangel was supposed to pick me up early in the morning and we were going to head out on the Rio Negro in his friend's boat. Well, the weather was not the best for boating yesterday.  It rained pretty much nonstop all day. I am in the middle of the rain forest and it is the rainy season, this is what I keep telling myself.  So Rangel picked me up around noon and we headed over to his parents house for lunch. 

After lunch we headed to another house, one of Rangel's friends, to drink some beer, eat some BBQ and watch the Brasil vs England friendly. Ah, but according to Rangel, I shouldn't call it a friendly.  Any soccer game that the Brasil national team plays is not a friendly, even if it doesn't count for anything. Yes, soccer / futebol is extremely important to Brasilians.

But to get back to talking about the BBQ. We had one of my favorite meats here in Brasil, Picanha. The Wiki link doesn't have a picture, so here's what it looks like.

I'm pretty sure it's what us Americans call Brisket, but the way it's cooked here over an open flame BBQ with just a basic salt rub gives it a different flavor compared to what you would taste, say in Austin Texas. And to tell you the truth, I think the Brasilian style is MUCH better. It's cooked over the fire on a spit for about 30 minutes, turning every 10-15 minutes. Then you cut off the outside inch or so that has finished cooking, serving it up to eat, then put it back over the fire to cook some more. You keep repeating this until the last few inches of meat at the center has finished cooking. This meat, with a simple bread roll and no BBQ sauce to take the flavor away, is pure heaven to eat.

As for the futebol game, Brasil lost to England 2-1. Brasil's back line could hardly get the ball out of the backfield without lobbing it to their forwards.  Brasil looked lost most of the time and England did a good job pressuring them on all fronts to make sure they stayed lost. Maybe it was the cold, they were playing in England.  But I recognized a 1/4 of the Brasilian players from English Premier League, they play in the cold all the time so that shouldn't be much of an excuse. At least Brasil doesn't have to worry about qualifying this World Cup since they are hosting the event, but they better pick their game up by the big games in 2014 otherwise there are going to be some not very happy people here in Brasil.

By the way, the U.S. did not do much better today against Honduras and it was NOT a friendly, but a qualifying match for the 2014 World Cup. That doesn't make me too happy since they are now crawling out of the bottom of the bracket to start off.

Well, I'm going to go back to taking a nap.  My head is stuffed up and I could use another aspirin or two.  No worries, I'll be well soon enough.  At least I better be, there's a little party starting this Friday called Carnival!

In Salvador, Safe and Sound

After 22 or so hours of travel, I'm finally here in Salvador, Brasil.  No major hiccups, everything went smooth.  I even sat next to an ex KUFO Portland DJ who went by Richard on the flight from Chicago to Sao Paulo.  He was headed to Fortaleza then driving 3 more hours from there to some remote bungalow hideaway on the coast that his friend owns. Sounded pretty cool to me.  We talked a bit about how KUFO was shut down and it sounded like the new owners did a great job of running it into the ground.  He words, "They didn't have a f'n clue how to run a rock station".

As for no major hiccups; there was a slight one here at the airport in Salvador.  I had requested a taxi through the hotel to pick me up when I arrived in Salvador.  I walked out the departure exit and didn't see my name anywhere.  Wondered around a bit and figured there was a screw up, so I sat down and fired up my laptop to get the hotel address.  Just as I was getting ready to go over to the taxi stand to order a cab, a guy holding a sign with my name on it walks by.  It turned out he was over at the domestic gate exit and for some reason my flight, which was from Sao Paulo to Salvador, arrived at the international gate.  The poor guy was standing around waiting for me and thought I ditched him while I thought he ditched me.  He explained to me in Portuguese what happened and I picked up "Doméstico" and "Internaciona" and knew exactly what he was talking about. 

My plan tonight?  Sleep.  My plan tomorrow? Enjoy the beach which is 20 yards away.  Day after tomorrow?  I'll figure that out sometime tomorrow.