For The Love of Travel

As I walk to my metro station each day, there seems to be a juice bar (sucos) on every third block of my street,  their glass counters crammed with stunning displays of fruit and their menus listing countless varieties of sucos, freshly squeezed juices and juice blends, and vitaminas, juice-based smoothies and juices with supplements. And drinking a juice seems to be a daily ritual for Cariocas. 

Most sucos are served straight or with a little mineral water, if it’s an especially fibrous fruit. As Cariocas are very health conscious, they also love their supplements and vitaminas are hugely popular – the healthiest and most popular drink is the vibrant purple-coloured açaí (pronounced ah-sai-eeh), made from Amazon palm fruit that is blended with honey or sugar, banana, and sometimes nuts, and you will see everyone drinking this.

The orange people were out in force to support their women’s team. A raucous couple behind me…Exciting to see the women’s playoff for the Bronze medal this afternoon, USA vs NETHERLANDS.  It was a good match but neither of the teams were totally firing on all cylinders, so there were quite a few unforced errors, serves out or into the net. Both coaches looked exasperated at times. I thought no 4 for Netherlands, Celeste Plak,  played the most consistent game out of all the players on court. But USA won the Bronze!

Scary getting into Maracanazihno stadium later tonight…there was a huge football crowd leaving the larger stadium next door following a football match and there was no separation of people flow coming/going to the metro station…lots of police, militia, but no-one taking responsibility for sorting out the crowd. Was glad there was no issue on the 40m scaffold stairway!! 

My first ever experience of watching volleyball teams playing for gold..woo hoo..here’s a copy of the expensive ticket that gave me that opportunity.

Huge contingent of Chinese supporters evident tonight for their women’s team game with Serbia to establish silver and gold medals.

It started at 22.15!  Serbia won the first set convincingly and then lost its mojo somehow…serves and spikes out of court; little communication so the ball embarrassingly fell on the court or 2 players bumped into each other going for the same ball. My fave player Brankica wasn’t firing on all pistons either. Disappointing overall given their previous superlative matches. China won GOLD deservedly. And the crowd went wild!!!

Slept in later this morning to compensate for getting to bed in the wee hours of the morning, returning from volleyball match which finished at 12.45.

Quite a drama last night…we leave the stadium and get redirected (by the national militia!) away from the metro station I know, to another I don’t – “just turn right down that street they point, then left at the next….follow the other people”. Apparently Macarana metro station closes at 1am.

Yes well, within a block, people are going every which way, and there is no way of knowing where the ‘other station’ is.  And it’s now starting to rain….lovely, not!

Taking stock, saw a Subway franchise about 500m away and headed for it thinking it might have Internet. When I got there, no internet.  Saw a guy using his phone and asked whether he spoke English…mercifully a little and also some Spanish, so we got by.

Connected through using Silvio’s  iPhone hotspot, to Uber and ordered a taxi, (thank god I had downloaded that app!) and Elvaldo my driver arrived in 2 mins! Love that service!! And my fellow passenger was Katia, who had been part of the national Brazilian volleyball team a few years ago, now plays with a Brasilia State club. What are the odds?  

By the time we got to Copacabana, the beach boulevard was a carpark…beach volleyball had just finished and fans were spilling out of the beach stadium and out onto the road….40 mins later, Elvaldo dropped me off at apartment for a very reasonable $20 Brazilian Real (AUS$10).  

But the real story today…Men’s semi finals, ITALY vs USA…..Italy won  ????.  A five setter that both pleased and frustrated the audience. Many serves went out or into the net, not what you expect at this elite level…but maybe more kindly explained by ‘nerves’. Italy did it the hard way, letting the US get way ahead in points and then had to play ‘catch up’.  But they truly got their act together in the last 5th set, my Ivan ( yes I’ve appropriated him), won some amazing spike and serve points and led his team to victory.

So Italy  ?? will be in the playoff for the gold medal, with either Russia or Brazil (to be determined after a further match tonight).

It took 2 hours for Serbia’s women’s team to shatter the USA’s hope of winning a gold medal. Each team had won 2 sets, Serbia teetered on the brink of losing the fifth…..the USA team needed just two points to finish them off. But USA star Rachael Adams served into the net, giving Serbia match point, and the top-ranked Americans couldn’t hold off the final assault.

First-time semifinalists Serbia will now advance to take on the winner of China and the Netherlands in the other semifinal tonight.

The Americans will take on the loser for a bronze medal.

Brankica Mihajlović, 25 years, was dominant for Serbia, particularly in the second and third sets as the Americans struggled to do anything with her spikes and couldn’t seem to get any hits over her block attempts.  

She is now my absolute fave women’s blocker, spiker and server from all the teams I’ve seen. She was THE star player of the match.

Tonight, at 22.15, teams red (China) and orange (Netherlands) played off to the sounds of majorly supportive, if slightly weirdly dressed, fans. You’ve got to hand it to these 2 Dutch folk for hamming (sorry cheesing) it up! ?  The gold/silver playoff will be China vs Serbia.

Can’t wait.!!