Oh. My. Stars. Brazil for the World Cup final has been amazing! To be on Copacabana Beach watching the final with thousands of other fans at FIFA Fan Fest was completely surreal. It was the craziest thing I have ever seen- it was completely packed for blocks around the beach. Even our subway car on the ride over was packed. There were vendors up and sown the streets, offering to paint faces, selling flags, headbands, leis, beer, caipirinhas, t-shirts, flip flops- anything you could want representing your country or any other country. As we found our place on the beach (yes, we watched the game with our toes in the sand!) people would come by with coolers of beer, caipirinhas on trays, bottles of booze with little cups for shots, popcorn, peanuts, water, even chocolate World Cup Trophy replicas. 
Vendor with a portable grill! It was so unlike any sporting event I have ever been to in the US- there didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to where vendors were, no licenses for selling things and the prices were much, much cheaper. We got a beer for $5.00 reals (about $2.50 US). There were people from all over the world wearing jerseys from their countries, but mostly there were Argentinians. There were also tons of police- we saw buses full of the them, the subway was full of the them, they were clustered on the beach, it was impossible to walk more than 20 feet without seeing a group of police. Many of them in full on riot gear. It was fun, loud, sometimes a little scary, and overall a completely overwhelming and amazing once in a lifetime experience.
Riot police after the game ended
We are staying at a Bed & Breakfast in Niteroi which is across the bay from Rio. We recently got some new neighbors at our Bed & Breakfast- Germans! A brother and sister are staying across from us, he lives in Brasilia and she was already planning a visit to come see him. It just worked out perfectly that Germany made it to the final (and won!) while she was here. Because he lives in Brasilia, he speaks Portuguese. A word about Portuguese- I have always heard that it is very similar to Spanish and I thought that my Spanish would be enough here. Maybe not for perfect communication, but I figured I could figure out a menu and communicate basic ideas. Nope. Not even close. I get maybe one out of every three words I read and I am lucky if I can pick up a word at all during a conversation. We have come across very few English speaking Brazilians, so we do a lot of pointing. Having a German neighbor who spoke Portuguese was definitely an advantage and they let us tag along with them. We were not really for one team or the other, Germany has been fun to watch, but we are going to Argentina next so we thought it would be fun if they won, overall though were pretty neutral, but after going with our neighbors, we were Germany fans for the game! Thank goodness we were able to go with them, it was not easy to get from Niteroi to Copacabana. We hopped on a bus right outside our B&B, rode to downtown Niteroi where we took a ferry across the bay and then went to find the subway (metro? underground? I am not sure what they call it here) to take us to Copacabana. We had to ask for directions several time and we would have been lost without our neighbor. As we got closer and the crowds swelled we knew we were on the right track. We thought that after Brazil had been so thoroughly crushed by Germany that Brazilians would give German fans a hard time, but we underestimated the Argentina/Brazil rivalry. After Germany won, I am not sure who was happier, the Germans or the Brazilians.
Our subway ride back was full of Brazilians, beating on the walls and roof of the car, chanting and singing (the gist of it was- “a thousand goals to Pele and Maradona is a drug addict”). The whole time we were there, it was mostly the Brazilians and the Argentinians going at each other, everyone more or less left the German fans alone. That is, of course until Germany scored. We had been a little worried about the game going into extra time- the longer people were there, the drunker they got and drunk people and World Cup are not a good mix. Especially because the German fans were vastly outnumbered by Argentina fans. After the goal it got a little crazy. I don’t know what happened, but all of a sudden people were running and the crowd we were in scrambled backwards. We had taken our flip flops off to enjoy the sand and as we ran backwards, our shoes were left in the sand. As we saw chairs being thrown out of the corners of our eyes, we decided that we could forget about the shoes. Fortunately, the fight or whatever it was didn’t last long and we were able to go back and get our shoes. We were not really able to relax after that though and decided it was probably time to get out of there. As we were walking off the beach we heard a series of really loud bangs- probably just fireworks but we were not about to stick around and see. Our German friends took off their flags and leis and shoved them into their pockets and we hurried off the beach. The game ended as we were getting out of there. It was such a bummer- their team had just won the World Cup and instead of getting to enjoy the moment, they were hurrying off the beach. We stopped at a restaurant near the beach, where there were not as many Argentina fans. We did get to watch the German team getting the cup and had a late dinner enjoying the atmosphere, which had once again turned peaceful (I guess all the unruly people had been arrested or went home). We went back out to the beach afterwards to see the festivities- it was an incredible sight! German fans packed the streets, parading and signing. There were still thousands of fans out and the party went on for blocks and blocks all along the beach, there were people playing soccer on the beach, vendors everywhere, sandcastles, and still tons of police but overall it was a very happy, peaceful crowd that we encountered. We walked around for while, trying to look everywhere at once, enjoying all the different languages we heard- we even heard one group cheersing “to Canadians in Rio!” and trying to take it all in, not an easy task. Finally, we had to go home, it was a long way and the buses stopped running at midnight. Not to mention, it had been a long, super exciting and crazy day. One that will forever stay in my mind. I had to pinch myself several times- yes, I really am on Copacabana Beach at FIFA Fan Fest in Rio, during the World Cup final. It was an awesome, awesome experience!!
Streets of Rio of the World Cup Final
Vendor with a portable grill! It was so unlike any sporting event I have ever been to in the US- there didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to where vendors were, no licenses for selling things and the prices were much, much cheaper. We got a beer for $5.00 reals (about $2.50 US). There were people from all over the world wearing jerseys from their countries, but mostly there were Argentinians. There were also tons of police- we saw buses full of the them, the subway was full of the them, they were clustered on the beach, it was impossible to walk more than 20 feet without seeing a group of police. Many of them in full on riot gear. It was fun, loud, sometimes a little scary, and overall a completely overwhelming and amazing once in a lifetime experience.
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