This day, basically the second day we were more or less relaxing (jetlag!! yippi -.-) and more or less preparing to meet later with my friend in the downtown to go to his home.
Basically the only thing we did this day was to go down to the beach and I shot some nice photos. It was so beautiful and calm (no wonder, everybody was probably working on a friday morning^^)
Then later that day we took all our stuff (she had 2 bags for a weekend, I just had my backpack^^) and we took a bus to the city center.
This was my first real bus experience (since the one we took from the airport was a van) and it was different! I tell you all the points about buses I realized during my seven weeks about this funny transport possibility^^
1.) Ok you have to enter the bus at the front. Ok you have to pay, but here is already the difference... in some buses you pay the busdriver direcly, in others there is sitting a person behind the driver (with the back to the window) who has a little cash desk...
2.) Then you have to go through a turnstile. WHAT?! yes!! Unfortunately I haven't managed to take a picture of it, but it's really weird!! I know such a thing basically just from the zoo in my hometown in Germany... never saw something like that in a bus!
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| trainbjjinrio.com |
The challenging (and fun >.<) part about thos turnstiles is, that if you have a bag (in my case my super heavy backpack) you have to find a way how to get through it
3.) Getting off the bus is another story I'd like to tell you... everywhere were I used to live or used buses (mainly meaning Europe) you have a little (red?) button telling you to 'push' when you want to leave the bus. In Brazil they exist. Point. But normally, they don't work....why??? I think in 90% of the buses I took in Rio, those buttons were more than useless! If you want to get off you have to drag cord running above the hand rail... just another awesome thing^^
4.) Sometimes you just can get off the bus at the front of it, sometimes they let you take the middle or last door, you'll never know!!
5.) And my favourit point about taking the bus is that there are no sign about where you are right now and what the next stop is called... not sure if I am spoiled with the european bus system, but you stand at the stop, you see which buses are stopping there, in London you can even see a map with all the buses in this area from where they are comming and where they are going, if you are in the bus, you have a sign at the front and a lovley voice telling you that 'the next stop is Oxford Circus' or something and you know you have to push the button if you want to get off there. Not so in Brazil... basically you have to know the place where you want to leave the bus, meaning a building, a tree, a shop...something! Anything!! So for me as a newbie is just horror!! So the first few times I never took the bus on my own...^^
6.) Ok, there is one thing I really do like about brazilian buses: the windows! Because you can open them to the side and you can get a massive breezes of wind right in your face! And I love that... (if I could I would have a fan all day long in front of my head, hehe) This is not possible in London, you can open a quarter on the top of it, but just if you are lucky and the constellation of the direction of the bus, the wind and were your are sitting are perfect, then you get a bit of a breeze...There also exist brazilian buses without windows to open, but they then normally have an air condition, a pretty good one, which sometimes is even a bit too cold, though^^
Not sure if there is something else about buses I can tell you right now, I think by and large that'll be it.
taking buses in Rio has always surprises to offer and is always different... I honestly have to say that I don't like it too much, but you normally don't have another option...
So we took the bus to the boats to the other side of the water, then another bus to go to São Gonçalo, where my friend lives.
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| airports-guides.com/ |
That day I haven't taken any pictures from the 'barcas', but in later posts, you will see some! Promise :)
Have you ever had such an interesting experience with transportation in other countries??
