World Cup diary

[gkmacca]

Pictures just in:

Dreamy disembarks:

Takes leisurely train journey to Recife:

Discovers he has taken the wrong route and finds himself in Australia:

Boards the right train this time:

Blends in seamlessly with the locals:

And is pleasantly surprised to find many of his countrymen getting ready to attend the match:

 

[Dreambeliever]

Day 1

What an incredible day!!! Extremely hard to put into words what it was (especially for someone who is so bad at posting 😉 ) but I'll try!

I started off the day by walking from Itaim bibi ( pretty happening place) where I'm staying, to the train through the richest part of SP. It was like walking through a Brazilian Beverly Hills. One mansion had an amazing mural outside of Brasil in 58 and 94.
Continued on into the city and went to Fan fest for a look and the city centre was buzzing with Brazilians and Croatians. Although I finally started to see all other nations present like England. Columbia are still the most common gringos and craziest!

From there we caught the train out to Corinthians stadium and everyone had to walk from one stop away. That walk was incredibly special and probably something like what the walk to the atiturk was like in Istanbul.

A sea of yellow and blue with murals of each of Brazils wc wins on high rises as you sledder along a winding walkway.
Everyone singing shouting, blowing horns and taking pictures.
Then as the stadium comes into view you are blown away by it's impressiveness and size! I pretty much fell in love with stadium there and then.

Onto the game and our seats were in row zc so 2nd to last on the top tier behind the goal that Neymar scored the peno.
The Brazilians around us were super friendly even though they spoke no English. When Neymar scored at 0-1 the entire stand swayed back and forth from everyone jumping. I really thought it was going to collapse! Incredibly scenes. The highlight was Brazilians chanting "hey Rousseff, please fuck off" in portugese. Also after Neymars peno I turned around and could see the entire city over the railings and the entire skyline was alight with fireworks. Was amazing.
I stayed around after the game saw Jurgen and the boys training on the pitch before heading back Vila mandelina which again was jam packed for a 4 block radius. Think carnival with football shirts.

I then stumbled accidentally onto the famous sports memorabilia bar that has every inch of every wall and the ceiling covered with photos and flags of everything football.
After 15 mins searching founds some Liverpool stuff. Incredible bar for any football fan. Found a great pic of pele and maradonna playing the guitar together as young players.
Then I spent the rest of the night as a Sudo Brazilian/Colombian jumping into every chant as flairs and fireworks went off all night. Even witnessed a mass brawl break out which looked like something out of a Wild West movie but eventually it subsided.
Today I fly to Recife and see kolo take on Japan. Cannot wait to do the chant!!! Expect a video!!
I could have written a book (that Ryan would have scratched his eyes out reading) on the last 24 hours but trying to keep it shortish

 

[Dreambeliever]

Pictures just in:

Dreamy disembarks:

Takes leisurely train journey to Recife:

Discovers he has taken the wrong route and finds himself in Australia:

Boards the right train this time:

Blends in seamlessly with the locals:

And is pleasantly surprised to find many of his countrymen getting ready to attend the match:

Hahahaha

Only met about 5 Irish so far

 

[Red Astaire]

Cheers for the accepting FB thing @Brizzle - I can't believe I missed this. @Dreambeliever looks like he's having a blast. Lucky bugger. Quick tip mate if in doubt check for an adams apple! 😉

 

[Fox]

Pat how the hell do you justify the time off and cash for a trip like this

Good on you.

 

[Aidan O' Neill]

Fair play Pat. I'm stupidly jealous (as I'm sure most on here are). Keep the updates coming. I must befriend SCM on facebook for a look at some of the pics.

 

[ILD]

Pat how the hell do you justify the time off and cash for a trip like this

Good on you.

He has a good job and doesn't drink.

 

[Athens]

He has a good job and doesn't drink.

No kids either.

 

[Boozer]

Yeah, I think Lewy is a Lewis, the admin Lewis is me though.

Yeah, Mark does tally with the person that accepted me. I've only been on here 8 years, so I've not got round to peoples real names yet.

 

[Dreambeliever]

Pat how the hell do you justify the time off and cash for a trip like this

Good on you.

I told my boss 3 years ago I was going to the World Cup 6 weeks and have saved my holidays for it since then. I've also sacrificed things a lot the way but basically saved from 3 years ago. And before spending the money, flights, accommodation and tickets came to 6.5k Aussie as I booked before the draw had taken place 🙂

 

[Dreambeliever]

Fair play Pat. I'm stupidly jealous (as I'm sure most on here are). Keep the updates coming. I must befriend SCM on facebook for a look at some of the pics.

Put up a decent few there. I'm shocked more haven't gone. Once in a lifetime experience of a Brazilian World Cup!

 

[Dreambeliever]

He has a good job and doesn't drink.

And I'm semi decent at poker so it helps.
I won my flight cost in March in the melb champs 🙂

 

[Dreambeliever]

Threw up some pics from today on fb. Will write the update in the morning. Great day

 

[Ryan]

Dreamy, apologies in advance, I just can't ignore this and stay silent any longer cos it's fucking eating me up...

Your mates eyebrows are simply fucking unbelievable. Jesus mother of Christ did those things need their own passport?! Does he have to comb those things out of his eyesight? They look like two big fannies on top of his eyes. For the love of God be a mate and tell him to get a pair of fucking tweezers out, it can't be healthy having those things on your face.

Again, I'm sorry - I just couldn't let it go one more day.

 

[FoxForceFive]

Hahaha. I had a similar reaction when I saw them!

 

[Hansern]

Hahahaha, that was my reaction aswell

 

[LeTallecWiz]

Dreamy, apologies in advance, I just can't ignore this and stay silent any longer cos it's fucking eating me up...

Your mates eyebrows are simply fucking unbelievable. Jesus mother of Christ did those things need their own passport?! Does he have to comb those things out of his eyesight? They look like two big fannies on top of his eyes. For the love of God be a mate and tell him to get a pair of fucking tweezers out, it can't be healthy having those things on your face.

Again, I'm sorry - I just couldn't let it go one more day.

Post.of.the.year contender.

 

[Dreambeliever]

Day 6 Recife

Ok so day 5 was basically a travel day getting a flight from SP to Recife so missed both the Mexico Cameroon and holland Spain game. Got to our apartment with a struggle for Australia chile and watched it there. It's amazing the lack of English speakers in Brazil! It's one of the worst countries I've been too in terms of virtually nobody having any English whatsoever. Makes things very difficult.
Anyway that night our flatmate (a French exchange law student) took us to 'downtown' night club where we saw two local bands and danced to classic pop rock with Brazilians til 4am. A really authentic experience where I spent the night 50/50 bumping and grinding with local women/checking for my wallet and phone
The next morning was struggle town with a record breaking 5 hours sleep. Hiato ( a Japanese film maker from Tokyo knocked on our door and asked if we were going to the games and if he could go with us as he was alone) so off we set to the fan fest, with stares and shouts of gringo as we walked through the real bad area of the city.
Fan fest is pretty cool and gets a whole lot of people together. There we meet a Canadian (Neil with Irish parents) who was as much Irish as us. Great banter and a great guy and he tagged along with us as well. Towards the end of the first game I saw an Ivory Coast shirt wailing towards us so broke out the yaya/kolo chant and the guy came running over and an impromptu chant broke out to the amusement of all the Columbians who then joined in. I cannot emphasis enough how friendly every fan has been. It's unreal.
Beeni the Ivory Coast guy also joined us on route to the stadium which was In the middle of nowhere 90 mins from the city by train then bus then 2km walk.
We left for the stadium after the Greece game as everyone told us the traffic would be really bad later and brazil is not well organized. Our plan was to go out there and watch the 2nd half of Uruguay and the England Italy game at the stadium or a local bar.
What a disaster that was!!! We get dropped off literally in the Amazon on a road half completed 2kms from the ground with no buildings anywhere. We get to the stadium and are greeted by hundreds of fellow gringos desperately searching for a tv. We are informed there are no TVs and we have 5 hours to the game! And we can't even get Into the ground for 2 more hours!! As every one panics and benni walks off cursing I go on a scouting mission and spot a building hidden in the hills of the forest. So with 5 guys in toe (we picked up 2 New Zealand poms on our search ) we began climbing into the forest. My gut told me they had to have a tv up there. On w we got close I realized it was satellite feed for the game and the place had heavy security.
I had 3 guards talking nervously in Portuguese at me with 5 muddy drunk sweety gringos behind me. 5 mins later a guy with English came out and told us we had to leave. I explained that we were football loco and just wanted to watch the last 30 mins of Uruguay and costa Rico. He did a quick head count and then quietly snuck us into the a security shed at the back where a room no bigger than 3x3 meters had a tv and 5 local security guards watching the game. We all squeezed in and what followed was one of the trip highlights.
They had fuck all English we had zero Portuguese but we all loved football and an underdog story so we sang screamed laughed and watched football with these lads. One guy we discovered through hand gestures had money on costa Rico so when they went 3-1 up we had a pile on and then every gestures the beers were on him. Historical laughter followed. At the final whistle we took selfies and posed with the guards before we set back down to get into the ground hoping they would show England vs Italy. Definitely an experience I will never forget.
Then the heavens opened up and it was tropical rain and we got saturated!! Queue skipping like a boss as there was zero organization we got to the front of a 20,000 people line to get into the ground and were like the first 100 people in. Inside the security check point was like being at a theme park, loads of things to see and do but again to everyone's heartbreak the TVs were not showing the England game. With another stroke of Benitez like luck I found a guy with a handheld tv that was showing the game so we huddled around him undercover with beers in hand watching England bomb against Italy. Sterling aside England were muck!
After this we went into the game which was 98% Japanese and boy do they love their football and tight tops hubba hubba. With Hiato we had an easy in to talk to women and when Japan scored I was in the middle of Honda Honda chant before I started a 'I think I'm turning Japanese, I think I'm turning Japanese, I really think so' chant Great scenes. However it must be said the Ivory Coast band did not stop the entire 2 hours. I thought the Ivory Coast were excellent and will make the q/f with a bit of luck.
After the game the long trek home in the rain took 3 hours. I got to bed at 430am and was up at 8am and now on route to pippa before natal tomorrow for USA vs Ghana. I'm fucked
Pictures on fb

 

[Dreambeliever]

Dreamy, apologies in advance, I just can't ignore this and stay silent any longer cos it's fucking eating me up...

Your mates eyebrows are simply fucking unbelievable. Jesus mother of Christ did those things need their own passport?! Does he have to comb those things out of his eyesight? They look like two big fannies on top of his eyes. For the love of God be a mate and tell him to get a pair of fucking tweezers out, it can't be healthy having those things on your face.

Again, I'm sorry - I just couldn't let it go one more day.

Ha ha you are a bad man Ryan! He's the guy who plays for Moreland. Denis Irwin's nephew.
I've tried to but he's having known of it.

 

[cloggypop]

'I think I'm turning Japanese, I think I'm turning Japanese, I really think so'

That song is about wanking!

 

[Athens]

Was your mate also in Father Ted?

 

[darkstarexodus]

Thanks for the updates Dreamy. Ive been showing the pics to my girlfriend and we are reminded of our trip to Brazil a couple years ago.

Massively impressed with your trip so far. Making the most of it for sure.

 

[Dreambeliever]

Thanks for the updates Dreamy. Ive been showing the pics to my girlfriend and we are reminded of our trip to Brazil a couple years ago.

Massively impressed with your trip so far. Making the most of it for sure.

I'm almost dead and it's only day 7 of 35!!!
We are in Pipa now it's amazing

 

[Dreambeliever]

Day 7 Pipa

Bit of a gap between posts, been too busy to write. So day 7 was spent in Pipa which is basically Brazils paradise. Amazing beaches, stunning weather and friendly people . The town itself which is more like a big village has a 1900 feel about it with dirt roads and huts everywhere.
Getting there was an experience. The bus from Recife to natal stopped at a town called Goianinha which you normally get a 30 min shuttle bus to this remote seaside heaven. However in our case the bus driver pointed us to an old guy at a petrol station. There were 4 of us so we assumed he was a local taxi. When we went to the back of the petrol station he kicked what must have been his wife and kid (along with the shopping) out of the car and ushered us into the biggest shit bomb ever. He then proceeded to break every traffic law in existence as we tore along back roads to Pipa. In fairness he got us there in one piece but it certainly was an experience.
We checked into the hostel with the ridiculously hot girl showing us around. Spent the day exploring the beaches bars and town in between watching the games. France look a real threat!
Meant to go out after the Argentina game but the old 1 hour power nap turned into 12 hours and we woke up the next morning

Day 8 Natal - USA vs Ghana

We got up early the day of the game as we were told the bus from pippa to natal was pretty irregular and expensive ($110 us for a 2 hour bus ride). We got to the bus stop and a local told us that the bus wouldn't leave for an hour so went for a morning stroll along the beach. On our way back we spotted two white guys talking with American accents getting into a car. I asked them if they were driving to Natal and if they had room. And just like that we got a free lift to Natal. I've been all over the world and been on some of the shittest roads known to man but Jesus did the "highway" to natal take the biscuit. With a speed limit of 100kmph we had everything from speed bumps, traffic lights and pedestrian crossings along the highway, not to mention potholes the size of a Nissan micra!!! Once we arrived the car rental place the guys rented the car from refused to let any of us walk and promptly drove us all to our respective hotels free of charge. Again I was blown away by how nice the locals were.
Natal was our one splurge as we couldn't find cheap accommodation we got a 5 star hotel with our own private pool overlooking beach!!
After checking in we hit the beach to watch Germany Portugal. We watched it with a bunch of super friendly Germans with better English than me. We are the 'regional' meat which I'm guessing was goat before heading to the game in a local bus with 28 USA fans.
Past the stadium we found where all the USA fans had gathered. There was easily 2/3 thousand fans covering that streets outside a massive bar. It was like the 4th of July with banners,songs, outfits and a massive party atmosphere. We watched the Nigeria vs Iran game here and joined in with a spine tingling rendition of the usa national anthem (I'll post the video to fb)
Into the game we went after taking the march to the ground with the fans and again it was more like a theme park than a football match!! Met a few fellow Irish fans and a giant Norwegian flag specifying they didn't qualify either. The old Tri colours was on full display before we took our seats. I also picked up two game specific cups which I've been collecting at each game. A great momento!
The game itself was all about the USA and their incessant singing of we believe we can win and USA USA USA!! They truly were incredibly impressive!! When Dempsey opened the scoring the roof came off and when they got their winner in the dying minutes I was mobbed by everyone and anyone. It was insane.
After the game we hit the main party strip of natal and after a few hours of chatting to locals and hookers alike we struggled back to our hotel where the 2 girls next door were in our pool so we joined them until 5am . I actually could have died this night and been a happy man. It was pure fantasy!

 

[nealmac]

Just saw your latest pics on FB Pat. I'm so fucking jealous right now.

 

[Dreambeliever]

Just saw your latest pics on FB Pat. I'm so fucking jealous right now.

Still loads to go up, finding the time is hard. This World Cup doesn't leave much room for sleep