news: 31.07.09 - 06.08.09

31.07

Marcos was sick and we stayed in the hostel in Recife. We were in our bedroom for the whole time and got ROBBED! A guy who stayed in the hostel for 4 days came into our shared room at midnight and pretended to look for a power plug to charge his phone. It gave him plenty of possibilities to check out our stuff and see if we were asleep or not.
I wasn´t and talked to him, but when we woke up at 4 am. because a peruvian guy was missing his Pantalones we noticed:
one missing pair of jeans of the peruvian
missing money of the peruvian
missing watch
missing Marcosses Ipod and Macbook - thats why we didnt have any possibility to post lately...

01.08.09
We left the hostel the next morning after calling the police and went to a hospital to get Marcos checked due to his illness.
In the afternoon we got picked up by our host from Recife to stay at his place.
Even though he was really busy he found time for us not to only pick us up but have lunch and dinner together, great conversations and a lot of fun! Thank you a lot at that point for the great time.
I explored the antigue centre of Recife ( which is not recommendable for a stay longer than 2 hours) and surroundings. It has to be said that the small streets in the city centre can be very dangerous and travellers should avoid being there at night. The district Sao Antonio has a lot of street prostitution and for me it was one of the saddest things to see young and pretty girls looking like death itself - drugaddicted and broken as a person.

02.08.09
We visited Olinda 6 km away from Recife.
Olinda is one of the most beautiful towns of Brazil due to its amazingly well restored colonial architecture. The town is perfect for a few hours of walking and enjoying not only the beaty of itself but of Recife: Recifes skyline, harbour and beach can be seen from Olinda´s highest point.
Olinda´s sacral architecture was quite astouning for me, but sadly every church was closed.
The beach in Olinda is not a tourist place and only locals visit it. Swimming and going into the water is forbidden due to high risk of shark attacks.
If you want to visit the local favela - look out for a mid-aged rastaman near the beach area ;)
At night I visited a spectacular light spectacle at the Apolo-theatre back in Recife which was produced by our couchsurfing hosts! I had a great time and enjoyed the show. It was amazing how much can be done with light arrangements and sound.

03.08.09

I spent the whole morning walking back from the city centre to find our place where we stayed and I couldn´t believe how hard it was to keep on going in the right direction due to Recife´s crazy structure. Do not leave home without a map and some phrases in portugese!!!
At night we left Recife from the Bus Terminal which is outside town and easily reachable by Metro to Fortaleza - a 14 hour drive north.

04.08.09 - The Party begins:

We arrived in Fortaleza in the morning and took another bus to our couchsurfing place.
We found ourselves at place crowded with travellers and a overwhelmingly nice and friendly host. In a ´two-room´-appartment we stayed with 2 Brazilians, 1 Argentinian, 1 Israeli. Great adventure.
At night we went to some bar enjoying the company of about 15 people, drinking, eating grilled cheese and meat,talking, singing and playing the flute and a small brazilian guitar! Great night out!

05.08.09 - The Party continues:

I woke up in the hammock the other way round I remembered I had fallen asleep in...Crazy night.
We spend a great, relaxing day on the beach - Praia de Futuro , which is a bit out of town and not a very special beach, don´t go just to see the beach and kite surfers; go if you go with many people, if you love palm tree roofs, cheap drinks, crabs for 2,50Reais and juice.
At night we went to some bar enjoying the company of about 15 people, drinking, eating grilled cheese and meat,talking, singing...( yes, I just copied and pasted the last part..)
We were invited to stay at a new friends´s appartment on the 25th floor, because it was directly on the beach and we wanted to go there the next morning. It was a great feeling being that high up - not common for europeans.

06.08.09: - The Party contines, PART II:

coming up soon ;)