I arrived in Rio late Tuesday night and I could feel the Carneval feeling from the moment I stepped outside of the bus, but I was way to tired to go and look for blocos (street parties). I couldn't find the terminal for the local buses, it was already late and dark and I was alone in the big city that I had heard was very dangerous. I decided to take a taxi and it turned out to be really cheap! I arrived in the hostel and went to sleep after having a chat with my lovely roommates.

The following day I woke up, a bit too late, but ready to see what Rio had to offer. I spent the day with a German couple from my room, we went to have lunch and then to a shopping center nearby our hostel. I ended the night at the top of Sugerloaf mountain, or Pão de açúcar, watching the sun slowly disappear behind Corcovado and the Christ statue.

I had chosen El Misti hostel Botafogo, as my Rio accommodation and that turned out to be a wonderful choice. The hostel itself was quite dirty and anything else than spacious, but the people were amazing. My second day, Thursday, was spent at the beach. I went to Leblon and of course to Copacabana together with a lovely girl from Peru, got lost on my way back and ended the evening drinking Caipirinhas with Steph, Fabio and Tiago, amazing people! Just another great Rio day!

Tiago and I got along quite well, even though he's one of the most annoying people I've ever met in my life. We went to Lapas colorful stairs and Corcovado, where Christ the Redeemer is, together the next day. My plan was to go to Foz do Iguaçu after Rio, but I decided to go with Tiago to Ilha Grande instead, because sometimes you have to be spontaneous.

Tiago is a wonderful guy, but he's got the Latin way of planning (which means never plan anything and if you would plan something, change your plans a hundred times and most important, always be late). Because of this, we ended up staying in Rio for one day longer than planned, which was ok and turned out to be a great choice since we had time to go to the Macana football stadium and go out in Lapa one last time.

As a Scandinavian, I'm used to make plans, stick to my plans, be on time and never let people wait. I'm slowly learning to leave those habits behind. South Americans are not very fond of this kind of thinking. To meet in an hour actually means to meet in two hours and then sort stuff out for the next hour before you can leave somewhere. But I guess it's a good thing to get a little bit more laid back and relaxed.