FroeWi – Page 14 – FroeWi on Tour

Visiting Buenos Aires

by FroeWiArgentina, Buenos Aires 24. July 201420. August 20142 Comments

Right after arriving in Buenos Aires the first highlight awaited us: the cozy apartment of our Airbnb host Martin. Its perfectly located in the district of Recoleta, which offers lots of bars, Cafés and green spaces. The first night we met Cynthia who was visiting her family in BA for a nice dinner and chatted till late night.

For the next days we had a long list of sights to visit. Most people recommended the cemetery (?!?). Also it is listed in the lonely planet as a must-see. Honestly, we were more than skeptical. But it turned out everyone was absolutely right about the cemetery – its crazy. Some of the tombs are big like houses. Most of them are build out of marble. Words can’t really describe this place.

Another highlight was Puerto Madero – Buenos Aires copy of the Hamburg Harbour City ;). To be honest, its bigger, seems to be even more modern and hosts more bars / restaurants than the Hamburg Harbour City. Especially Niels liked the area a lot. However, this was not the real highlight of that day. The evening should await us with what all of us now call their best dinner ever! “Parrilla Pena” – the place where dreams come true! Bife de lomo (tenderloin) and bife de chorizo (rump steak) as big as a very large male hand, at least two finger thick and so tasty, people start to cry J On top the waiter is super friendly, super fast and super passionate about what he does. An absolute must-do in Buenos Aires. Oh and just by the way, the food and drinks are cheap – very cheap – the starters are even for free! To finish off a perfect day we went for a bar after dinner, just to find out 2 hrs later that we actually ended up in the most famous gay bar in BA.

Look who we found, someone who did NOT win the world cup!

Buenos Aires Harbour City!

Best steak ever (seriously, by far!)

We ate it all (best meal ever!)

Best grill ever!

Best waiter ever in the Parrilla Peña!

Some impressions of the cemetery

Some graves are big like houses.

Our cozy apartment

Short trip to Paraguay

by FroeWiParaguay 22. July 201417. August 2014No Comments

After visiting the Brazilian site of the Iguazu waterfalls we had the choice between seeing the Waterfalls from the Argentinian side or paying Paraguay a short-term visit. The weather forecast wasn’t good for the next day. Since we have seen the waterfalls already Paraguay was our choice.

The adventure started: Taking the bus to Cuidad del Este (Paraguay) was easy. At the boarder we decided to get our passports stamped. It took quite a while to figure out where to go. However, afterwards everything went quite smooth. Only the Ponte de Amizade (Friendship Bridge) nearly gave Maggis an heart attack (fear of heights). The city itself doesn’t hold any tourist attractions and offers a very different picture compared to the neighbour countries: traffic jams stretch along shabby streets, the shady shops only seem to offer (fake) electronics and clothes. The only two things we bought were a sunglass case and a Paraguayan mate cup. Mate is a traditional South American tea which is prepared by boiling steeped dried leaves of yerba. You see mate drinking people everywhere.

After spending a few hours walking around the exciting streets, a McDonalds visit and generally enjoying the chaos, Eva asked the locals in perfect Spanish for the bus back to Foz do Iguazu (Brazil). After only some attempts the right bus was found 😉

The three of us enjoyed the last evening in Brazil by killing a gigantic chocolate crust pizza – sounds weird – is weird – is delicious!!!

Friendship Brigde
IMG_20140722_150125

Hipster –> Maggis 😉

Boarder crossing

World famous POLYstation! Now in 4D!

Iguazu Falls and the Itaipu Hydroelectric Dam

by FroeWiBrazil, Iguazu 21. July 201416. August 2014One Comment

After leaving the beautiful island of Ilha Grande by speed boat (Ilha Grande – Angra dos Reis),bus (Angra dos Reis – Bus Terminal, Sao Paulo), taxi (bus terminal– airport), and plane (Sao Paulo to Iguazu de Foz), our arrival time was set to 01:30 am. There a pick-up service should wait for us – and it did! The drive was “only” 20 mins and we arrived shortly before 2:30 at our B&B where Nilton (the owner) awaited us. The reviews of his place were very positive, especially pointing in his direction. The moment we shook hands we knew why.

The next morning we went to the Brazilian side of the Iguazu Falls. Wikipedia knowledge: “numerous islands along the 2.7-kilometre-long (1.7 mi) edge divide the falls into numerous separate waterfalls and cataracts, varying between 60 to 82 metres (197 to 269 ft) high”. They are amazing and bigger than you expect them to be. Especially the walk on top of the waterfall is something to remember (see picture below).

The next stop that day should be something Niels was highly interested in: one of the biggest water powerplants in the world. The Itaipu hydroelectric dam produces up to 75% of the electricity used in Paraguay and 17% in Brazil (a country with roughly about 201 Mio inhabitants!).It is the largest operating hydroelectric facility in terms of annual energy generation (yes, even more than the Three Gorges Dam). The dam itself was more remarkable to me than the Iguazu waterfalls. It is gigantic!

The coatis are all over the place looking for food

Maggis big day – fighting his fear of heights

Itaipu hydroelectric dam

Capybaras, the largest rodents in the world

Ilha Grande

by FroeWiBrazil, Ilha Grande 17. July 201417. August 2014One Comment

Ilha Grande is a small paradise around 150 km southwest of Rio. After visiting Christo early in the morning we went to the bus station and lined up. After half an hour of waiting we got told that there are no busses to Ilha Grande for today. Therefore, another transportation needed to be found. Niels ask a taxi driver who offered a very good price (220 BRL = ~ 72 €) for the 2 hrs – 144 km ride. At port of Conceição de Jacareí we took a boat to the main village on Ilha Grande. The next days we went to diffrent beaches, did some hiking and enjoyed life at several nice restaurants and bars.

The guys found the cup and the cup found the guys 😉

German beer is also famous on Ilha Grande …

… but Baule prefers the local SKOL

Old aquaduct in the middle of the forrest

A giantic earthworm crossed our way while walking (approx. 1 m long)

Rio de Janeiro – Christ the Redeemer

by FroeWiBrazil, Rio de Janeiro 15. July 201410. August 2014No Comments

Today we went to see the world famous statue of Christ. The statue itself is round about 30 m high and is located at the peak of the 700m Corcovado mountain overlooking most of Rio. The view is breath-taking…

Maracana Stadium where we saw the WM tile coming!!!

World Cup Final – 13 th of july 2014 – Maracana Stadium

by FroeWiBrazil, Rio de Janeiro 13. July 20146. August 20142 Comments

Yes we have been in the stadium, yes we have seen the German national team win the World Championship, yes it was amazing, awesome or what ever other superlative you could possibly think of! But lets start at the beginning…

Besides Neymar every single Brazilian was cheering for Germany before the game. Brazilians were even more friendly than they have been the last days (as far as that’s possible). But there have also been way above 100.000 Argentinians reported by officials in Rio de Janeiro at the day of the finals. They were everywhere and not all of them have been friendly towards Brazilians 😉 Most of the German fans met up at the northern end of Copacabana. From there we walked together to the next metro station, taking the train to the stadium. The atmosphere on the way and in the stadium was amazing. I guess everyone has seen the game itself, so no words will be lost about the ref, two yellow cards in the first half, off-side goals and so on. Lets put it that way: we nearly died 😛

Making friends with some agentinian

Meeting with with my colleague Maik

Long after the game

There is nothing more to say…