A Day of Two Cities

6/28/14

We checked out of our hotel and headed for the airport. We circled around for a while trying to find the car rental drop-off, but luckily we had given ourselves plenty of time. Did I mention that the roads aren’t labeled?! [Nick: I think a big improvement for Brasil’s airport is just to have a sign that says “Car Rentals Here” in the same signs that point you to parking and departures, in order to point you in the right direction, but no.] Our flight was early, well before 9am so I tried to find a place that served decaf coffee – a pointless task for which people actually laughed at me for asking such a silly thing. While there, I had to laugh: it appears that beer and popcorn are any-time-of-day snacks in Brazil. (And open containers are allowed everywhere; it’s kind of like Vegas in that sense: everyone walks around drinking beer forst thing in the morning.) Thankfully, our flight was practically empty – a welcome change from our previous flights. Unfortunately, we missed the first half of the Brazil v. Chile game. So we decided to camp out in the Recife airport (AGAIN – we have watched so many games in this airport!) to watch the second half. We had no idea what we were getting into. Not only was it standing room only but EVERYONE in the airport had the same idea. The food court/tv area was PACKED! It was awesome! We finally found a seat and grabbed a quick bite to watch the second half. [Nick: Plus extra time, plus penalties. Brazil jut squeaked by, much to our relief and to the hundreds of people around us.]

Neymar's Penalty Kick

The funny thing was that we were surrounded by three tv’s with three different relay times, and ours was the slowest one. So whenever a goal was scored, we would hear the cheers (or the boo’s) from two separate areas of the airport before we ever saw it. It was hysterical. And thank goodness Brazil won the shoot out! The airport exploded in applause and shouting and I was so relieved that Brazil would be moving on to the next round. It would totally suck to have such a power house, with a home field advantage, not make it to the quarterfinals.

Chile's Missed Penalty

After the game, we checked into yet another overpriced cheap hotel (hard to avoid during the most expensive time to be in Brazil) and ended the night in one of my favorite places on earth: a Mexican restaurant. It wasn’t the same as you would get in TX or CA, but with menu items like “Fiesta en su Pansa” and “Camarón Cabrón”, this was a place not to be missed. The food was decent and with $4 mojitos, my belly was happily filled with comfort food :o)

Nick signing soccer ball sculpture at Recife airport