Sorry for the delay.  Been super busy in Paris and there are actually not that many Internet cafe's around here. Many many more Internet cafe's in the 3rd world countries!

Paris is great - will write up about it properly in the next day or two.

So the last time I wrote we were about to head in to pick up our tickets for the Carnaval parade. Let's just say that was an adventure.


So we got up Saturday morning and decided to head to another Bloco (Street Party) this time on Copacabana beach, as with the last ones it turned out to be just as crazy, the dancing and music was already pumping when we arrived at 9am.  We decided that it was a bit early for a dance and headed into Centro to pick up our Carnaval tickets.

We jumped on the train to head in. (Great train system by the way) and this is where the fun began.  We walked out of the Centro train station and walked smack bang into the middle of another Bloco.  Unfortunately for us this time around it was one of the oldest and biggest bloco's - Bola Preta started in 1918 and last year they believe there was around 2 million people there!
here are some photos from this years:
http://sobreisso.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Bola-Preta.jpg
http://f.i.uol.com.br/folha/publicidade/images/1106595.jpeg
http://www.paraiba.com.br/2012/02/18/33470-bloco-bola-preta-arrasta-25-e-bate-galo-da-madrugada-como-maior-do-mundo (click to enlarge)

we battled our way through the crowd and finally made it to the office where we had to pick our tickets up from.  We had to queue for about 45 minutes (Brazillian's love to queue - I think it is a sport to them) and finally got our tickets.  We decided to then go to another train station and avoid Bola Preta, but of course there was anopther Bloco going on that we had to get through first.

Saturday we decided what else could we do - Go to another Bloco, so we headed back to the main avenue where the beach was and there were another 3 bloco's there, so we danced and partied until we had had enough.

Sunday we spent relaxing and getting ready for the parade.  Lazed by the pool and went for a walk along the beach. There is only one way to describe the parade - UNREAL!

Firstly we arrived at around 8:30pm and it was still 30 degrees.  It was so so hot and the parade ground is a street with a massive concrete grandstand on each side, so after sitting in the sun all day they were really hot. Anyway we got in and found a seat amongst all the locals and a really great time.

The first samba school started at 9pm (or just a bit after) and pretty much everyone stands and dances the whole time.  You sit for about the 10 minutes in between the end of one school and the start of the next.  Each school has 1 hour and 20 minutes to get along, + the breaks and their were 7 schools to see. So for the mathematicians - it went for a long time!  We ended up leaving after 4am and only the 5th school had just started.  I also think that most people were still there!

The costumes and dancing was amazing though and we are so glad we went. have so many photos, but they don't really do it any justice.  The floats that you see are enormous and the costumes that samba dancers wear are incredible.

We then flew out on Monday to Paris.  We had a stopover for the day in Zurich and headed into the centre of Zurich for the day.  It is a really beautiful city. very very old and very cold (ice and snow around). We arrived in Paris around 9:30-10.  Our hotel is a beautiful area, since we were late we grabbed some dinner and a nutella crepe and had a big sleep in thanks to very little sleep after the parade and then on the plane.

Been very busy since, spent today up the Eiffel Tower and then headed to the Palace of Versailles.