Nese. Nese.

So after a few days of rest we decided that it was time to get spending and start seeing some more of Rio. So we packed up and moved all of 5 roads down to a hostel which had more people, less space, but more importantly it organised tours to lots of Rio`s most popular sights.

On Sunday, Brazil stops as it`s Citizens go to Worship. Apologies for the cheesy line, I pressed enter before Thida could stop me!

We decided to take advantage straight away and went to take part in something everyone in Brazil enjys, football. The game was on of Rio`s 4 teams Fluminese who were to take on Corinthians (Junior has told me to say) Sao Paulo`s second best team - City if you will.

Before the game, and because there is no alcohol allowed in the stadium, we went to a street near to the stadium to soak up the atmosphere. It wasn`t too dissimilar to what you woud expect in England, the street was a seam of the red, white and green of fluminese, the fans all chanting and eating and drinking courtesy of stalls lining the road to the stadium. We were told that Flumines usually play at theMaracana
stadium - a Cathedral of football built to host the 1950 world cup final (which Brazil lost to neigbouring Urugauy), but as it is closed to be upgraded for the 2014 World Cup finals the game was held at the stadium of one of Fluminese`s local Rivals, I can`t remember which though.


Once inside though, the fans went crazy, smoke grenades, inflatable banners and no concept of seat numbers. The chorus of chants (the only one we could make out was a shortening of the clubs name, hence the post`s title) and abused directed towards the away supporters - and the match officials` decisions - was non-stop. I made the mistake of trying to beat the half-time toilet queue, a mistake for 2 reasons. Firstly the isle was non existant, instead hundreds of fans had decided to stand there for the whole game making it imposible for me, or anyone to get through for the 90 mins, and secondly because I`m not sure if it was a rouge smoke greneade or the (soft)drinks vendors trying to create customers but it was pretty much impossible to breath in the toilet.

I could see the relief on the many a Policeman`s face when the game ended 1-0 to Flumines (OK I may be exadurating a little bit.), all in all though it was great fun and a brilliant way to cap our first weekend on the continent, We will definatly be going to some more games soon!