Busy week

Maybe it's the jetlag but I feel like part of me is still in Brazil (in addition to my other half, Andrea).
After 18 hours of travel I got back to Ireland 2 hours late on Monday. Cold and tired, but in one piece. I flew to Frankfurt on Tuesday afternoon. Flew back on Wednesday, 3 hours late, so landed Thursday AM (today). On getting home I had to repack my bag, this afternoon it was off to London, and now I'm in Crawley. Home again tomorrow (I hope... - not booked yet!)
By Saturday I'll have spent more time on planes and in airports this week than I spent sleeping! I'm still on Brazil time (-3 hours) and "holiday" time (-2 hours), so everything a bit surreal in the mornings.
I need a holiday!

Devassa

Devassa
Originally uploaded by IRLBRL.com.

Last night in Brazil. having a few cocktails. Very low res camera phone, but that is probably a good thing! "Devassa" is the name of the place, this means slapper in Brazil apparently.

Giuseppe Grill

Giuseppe Grill
Originally uploaded by IRLBRL.com.

The new place for a great steak in Leblon! Good food, comfortable and stylish, great service. (I am not recieving a discount for saying this. actually pricey enough by Brazilian standards.)



We are here with Miriam & Adriano. Good friends of ours, we invited to dinner.



Had a quiet day today, NOT looking forward to getting home! But 3 weeks is enough. Going to "Devassa" on Saturday to celebrate St. Patrick's day. Them flying home Sunday night.

Pastel de Nata

Pastel de Nata
Originally uploaded by IRLBRL.com.

Mobile blog with picture!

Mobile blog with picture!
Originally uploaded by IRLBRL.com.

Coming to you from "La Mole", a restaurant that has been in Leblon for 50 years. (If there's no picture it didn't work!), via O2 roaming, imail and flickr.

New Pictures from Rio!

Hosted on Picasa Web Albums, check out some photos from last Sunday...

Rio Classic Cars

Sugarload Mountain

Siriguela

I'm having a great time. A couple of days ago we went to Academia da Cachaça (I love that place!) After my usual Caipirinha (Cachaça, Lime, Sugar, Ice), the waiter suggested that I try a different flavour (Andrea was acting as interpreter). He described a fruit from the North East of Brazil called "siriguela". I have to say, the siriguela caipirinha was great.

Siriguela are small orange coloured fruit, about 2cm to 3cm long, with a comparatively large stone, maybe related to plums (they are structurally similar though smaller), I don't know. The juice tastes like tangerine, though with less acid, and the meat and skin is not as tasty and a little fibrous. The waiter explained that the tradition in the North East is to drink a shot of straight cachaça and then eat a siriguela (like sucking lemon after a tequila). He even brought me a free glass of neat cachaça so I could try this myself.

By the time I got to the end of the meal I was a bit tipsy. Put salt in my coffee instead of sugar and had to send it back (confusing little packets everywhere). Andrea and Violeta had to roll me home.

P.S. I think the scientific name for siriguela is Spondias Purpurea L. and it is also called purple mombin, red mombin, Ciruela, Cerigüela, etc.
[ Wikipedia - English, Portuguese ]

Eclipse Party

We didn't really have an eclipse party, so put those pictures of nerds with telescopes out of your mind. We had a regular party and the eclipse happened to be at the same time. It was very easy to view in Rio, totally clear sky, a couple of hours after sundown, lovely warm night. We had an excellent viewing platform on the balcony.

These pictures are pretty miserable, I'll explain the technical details in a follow up comment.

Meanwhile, I asked our Ireland correspondent, via SMS, what she thought of the view from the West of Ireland. She reported from Ballina as follows: "..its too bloody cold to go out 2 watch it! I'm having beers in the broken jug instead."

Rio De Janeiro

OK, sorry for the posting gap. 4,000 miles have been travelled since last time. Our holidays in Rio have started! The weather has been sunny and about 32 degrees since we arrived. My cough is almost gone, but I can't have a caipirinha until the antibiotics are finished.

So far I've been running and swimming in the sea, reading books, walking around Leblon and Ipanema and eating out. Having a grand time. Nothing else to report so here are some pics I took in the last couple of hours to try and give you an idea with Rio is like today.

Leblon from above, photo taken from the waiting room of Andrea's dentist.

Felini's, a "kilo" restaurant where they you pay by the weight. Essentially a buffet where you serve you self and they weight your plate on the way back to the table. Better than it sounds, the food in Felini's is excellent! I don't think the charging model would work in Ireland though.

A couple of pictures of Leblon beach. I'll be going for a run there shortly!

Yes, they are here also! The token concession to local culture is that many of them have little stand-up espresso bars where you can order a cafézinho. In case you are ever stuck, the Brazilian Portuguese for a Big Mac is "Big Mac".