Travel
weekend walks: porto alegre goal walk
The mayor describes Porto Alegre as “a port where a community with multiple cultures and different ethnicities live in perfect harmony”. This is a really pleasant way to describe the city. It seems rather harmonious but obviously it is tough to know for sure with one of the world’s biggest event currently going on.
Today was game day in Porto Alegre – France vs Honduras and the “Goal Walk” from Mercado Público through to the stadium (Estadio Beira Rio) was filled with French supporters donning the flag and their faces painted red, white and blue! 
But let us share with you some of the historical district that we saw on our walk. The City Hall was inaugurated in 1901. There is a beautiful fountain at the front made of Spanish tiles and given as a gift by the Spanish Community in 1935. The fountain now appears to be a landing pad for pigeons. 
Alfândega Square is one of the most famous squares in the city. There is a park area that has local craft markets around along the pathways and an Art Museum at one end of the entrance. Today we didn’t have enough time to visit the museum but will be sure to get there during our time here. 
Nossa Senhora das Dores Church is the oldest church in the city, and took almost a century to complete. Its blinding white exterior drew us in to walk up all the steps to have a peak inside. And inside was beautiful. The inside smelt like any other Catholic Church: candles burning and “woody” if we can describe it like that. Out of respect for those inside, we didn’t take photos, so you will have to take our word that it was beautiful 🙂 The ceiling was painted in a soft green and the altar was rather extravagant. It was encased in white columns with gold tips and really was the “centrepiece”. 
We finished up our walk at the FIFA Fan Fest for the rest of the afternoon cheering at a big TV screen, sitting on muddy grass 🙂 Hope you enjoyed coming on a brief walk through a Brazilian World Cup Host City with us! 
Wise Monkeys Random Piece of Trivia: The 30°S Parallel South of the Earth’s equator passes through Porto Alegre hence that is the city’s latitude.
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weekly photo challenge: extra, extra
The Daily Post challenge was to “share a photo that has a little something extra.” Michelle said: “A beautiful photo is one thing, but a photo with an unexpected detail has personality and pop” and she suggested possibly sharing something with a humorous element.
We tend to not post photos of ourselves on our blog but we just had to share this photo of us on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh back in 2006 with a “cheeky photo bomb” (pun intended) that we never noticed until we were revisiting our travel photos recently.
Hope this is not in poor taste… and you find it as funny as we did! Certainly, a little extra on the side in this photo! 😉 (Thank goodness for photoshop)
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the long road to brazil
“It’s not about the destination but about the journey!”
Famous last words definitely not uttered by us! Especially not after the journey it took for us to get to Brazil.
We left Sydney Airport on Wednesday night, June 11 and didn’t arrive to Cuiaba (the first city that the Socceroos play in) until 11pm Cuiaba time (about 1 pm Sydney time June 13). Two days lost in transit.
And to be fair, all the flights were relatively comfortable and food onboard was actually palatable. But it was the sleeping upright and the lack of a shower that really made us feel seedy!
It was 14 hours to Dubai, a 2-hour wait, another 14 hours to Rio, a 7-hour wait and then 3 hours to Cuiaba – so you can imagine how wrecked we were.
But all that aside because when we witnessed the LOVE this country has for football we knew we made the right decision to come here for the World Cup. While we waited at Rio De Janeiro airport for our flight to Cuiaba, the opening World Cup match was on: Brazil VS Croatia.
As we walked around the food court in the search for our dinner, everyone’s eyes were fixed on the little TV screens scattered around. There were hundreds of people all facing the same direction. It was deadly quiet as the spectators anticipate Brazil’s recovery from their own goal scored earlier. But when Brazil were able to equalise and then lead the game – to watch the crowd erupt in celebration was enough for us to forget the flight! It reminded us why we were really here. We could just feel the passion in the air and the buzz of relief when Brazil won that game.
What an opening game to witness amongst the locals!
And today is GAME DAY for us – Australia play Chile in their first round match and we have just been handed our Category A tickets complete with access to the VIP tent before and after the game! HOORAY!!
Now, its only 7 hours from kick-off, we cannot wait for the atmosphere and experience. 
Gosh, so it took this trip to Brazil to make us realise the ONE thing we really don’t like about travelling… the transit itself which is long forgotten anyway because as soon as we reach our destination, we embrace what lies ahead!!
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weekly photo challenge: room
A ryokan is a traditional Japanese inn. On first entry into the room – there is no bed. While guests are out of an evening, the house keeping will sneak in and prepare the futon on the tatami mat flooring.
This was our room in a ryokan in Hakone, Japan. Surprisingly, it was a very comfortable sleep we had!
wise monkeys abroad 