Went to Maracana Stadium to witness the real Brazilian Football Match todae. "It's gonna be a calm n peaceful match which u can bring kids n galfrens along" according to our Brazilian host: Pedro. In fact, watching football matches can be rather dangerous in Brazil. Coz some of the matches ( in fact, MOST of the matches, depending on the social status of the main supporter of the particular team,) involve violence and chaos pre/post matches.Jimmy, Pauline and I took a ferry to Assemblia coz we r meeting Pedro there. The ferry terminal was such a lively joint!! There was a car sale there and hey! Check out the street performance which is part of the carnival. Marketing strategy which successfully attracted MY attention.
We took the slow ferry aka 'loveboat'. Its half the price (R$2.10) of the aerobarcas aka fast ferry's fare. I was SOO excited to see the big ferry and the fully furnished small cafe in the ferry!
In fact, the loveboat aint as slow as expected, and i enjoyed it more than the fast ferry as we are allowed to stand/sit on the deck which enables us a better view!!
There was a long-winding weekend flea mkt at the ferry terminal where we alighted. There sells everything from Brazilian handicrafts and clothes to imported goods and some antiques which are older than i am.
Pauline bought some accessories made by watermelon seeds n its real awesome! The Brazilian are nice and frenly people. Checkout the stall owner with his mobilised lemonade container. He even posed for my camie even thou i din buy any drinks from him!!
Pedro picked us up at Assemblia, and we went to a Restaurant called 'Planet Shiok' ( or sth like dat.. i cant really remember..) for Margherita (vegetarian pizza) and Frango ( fried chicken in pot!) and of coz some beers. 
Pedro prepared us with some last min lesson on the brazil league background and history.
The big Rio teams are Flamengo, Botafogo, Vasco and Fluminense, so any games between these teams can be a thriller. Especially matches involving Flamengo whose main supporters are the Favela residents. 
Jimmy witnessed one where the police riding on the horse, controlling the post match rage with the batons or whips. It was kinda awful even by hearing it.
The match started at 4pm. The Macarana Stadium is a blue building and it's really nothing special, looking from the outside. However, once you are in there, you will have no doubt with its World Status of No. 1 Stadium. And if you are a die hard football fan this has to be lose to heaven on earth. Even if you are not, it is gonna be a fantastic day out too. Tickets cost us as little as 15 Reals, according to our host, Pedro. The atmosphere simply could not be explained and has to be experienced. 
With a seating capacity of 200 K, the stadium really lives up its name. No doubt the building itself is kinda old and lack of maintenance, the stadium came life when the game took place. We watched the derby being played between Fluminense and Internaticional, a team from south. The atmosphere was really great! The game itself was wonderful - very colourful and drums and fireworks were constantly playing. We were in the Fluminense section as Pedro and his fren are loyal supporter of Fluminense team. The flags were waving and all the locals were so engrossed with the game, as well as Pedro who sat beside me. Haha.. i too was so crazy following the ball and ended up with a stiff neck at the end of the game. 
It was a good game which is suitable for a family outing. The Brazilians are so fiesty and passionate about the game and the guy in front of me looked like he had had a death in the family when International score the winning goal in the last 2 minutes! It seems to me, football is not only a sport, a game but a pasionate religion dat is soo deeply rooted in every Brasilian. According to Pedro, a brazilian guy is not allowed to change his supported teams once he made up his mions on a team since his childhood. Aguy who change his supporting team will be regarded as a betrayal and detested by his peers. As for gals, hee.. we are allowed to change our liking, most of the time influenced by father, brother or boyfriends.
The score was 2-3, a dramatic result due to the last min on-goal by International. Luckily its a game between the local (Rio) team and the team from south (not many supporter of International as its too far away from its host field) , at least there wasn't a punch-up in the car park! Pedro and his fren are a bit dissapointed with the result and they promised to bring us to another game and they shall make sure Fluminense is playing with an easy enemy next time. =)
After the game, we went to Lagoa, a nice park beside the big lake with a lot of restaurants.
A romantic lovers' hangout place during week days. The food was fantastic and the live performance was great too. Took the barcas home and ya..... wat a wonderful Saturday.
Labels: Brazil, Days of My Life
