World Cup 2014: Football lessons from a non-footballer

Argentina vs Bosnia, 15 June 2014, 7pm kick-off, Maracana Stadium, Rio de Janeiro

It was the first of 4 matches we'll be watching live at this World Cup - or probably any World Cup for that matter - so here are 3 things I learned as a first-timer and 'non-follower':

1) Brazilians apparently hate Argentinians - at least where football is concerned.

This might be common knowledge to football fans but it was news to me. Maybe this is why Argentinians have been so 'in your face' on the streets these past few days? I thought it was just their spirit and passion for the sport but maybe it's a case of over compensation. They're in enemy territory.

2) Bosnia was NOT the underdog.

I foolishly assumed they were. With a legend like Maradona, Argentina was naturally on my radar of good football teams. But Bosnia...do they even have a team?

Being next door to Brazil, naturally Argentina would have a bigger following...and they already made their presence in Rio felt - everywhere.  On the streets stopping traffic, in the Metro cheering in chorus, on the beach, at the restaurant, blue and white striped jerseys, hats and flags everywhere...you know the Argentinians are here. In fact, if you didn't know you were in Brazil you could be forgiven for thinking you were in Argentina.

Bosnians on the other hand...not a peep. I was unsure of what their team colours were until the players stepped onto the field. I felt sorry for them. Such a tiny country so far away...who was going to cheer for them? I felt I should...but only on the inside. I didn't want to be the lone voice cheering for the opposition surrounded by boisterous Argentinians.

As soon as the first whistle blew to start the game with Argentina in possession, the crowd booed. "What the??! How many Bosnians are here??!!", I thought.

In those opening seconds it became clear that Bosnia was not the underdog...Argentina was. Bosnia had the entire Brazilian vote behind them. So in a stadium with close to 75,000 people, there was a pretty dominant vote in favour of Bosnia...and they made sure the Argentinians knew it.

As for the match itself, Bosnia can hold their head high. If not for the own goal scored for Argentina in the opening minutes, it would've been a draw. Not bad for a country which I didn't even know had a team until we got our tickets.

3) Messi is an Argentinian football god.

They even have a chant just for him which includes hand motions bowing down to him. After he scored the goal for Argentina I could see why. Not only did he lift the team's spirit with that goal but the crowd's too. Suddenly the Argentinians got their confidence back...on the field and in the stands. It's probably no coincidence that he bears the same number 10 as other football legends before him either (Maradona for Argentina and Pele for Brazil). Admittedly, it was a pretty cool goal ricocheting off the post the way it did (but not as cool as van Persi's header against Spain in the Spain vs Netherlands game). After he scored I suddenly paid attention to this 10 in the blue and white striped jersey. He's good. Really good and it seems he lived up to his reputation.

You don't have to be a football fan to enjoy the World Cup and these little surprises make it just that bit more interesting for me. Surprises which were only possible because we were there. 

Spain vs Chile is up next in a couple of days. I'll be wearing my Spanish jersey loud and proud for that one. Mainly because Hubby follows Spain...so I might as well. And after their horrendous loss against Netherlands, Spain has to win it to stay in it. I'm also feeling just a bit spiteful against Chile after they beat Australia...even if it was no surprise.

In the meantime, we'll be sightseeing around Rio watching other games from the 'sand pit'.

Rio de Janeiro...first impressions

Mention 'Rio de Janeiro' to someone and automatically images of dancing, live music, parties, a rainbow of colour, bright lights, beautiful views, world-famous beaches, beautiful sun-kissed bodies and Christ the Redeemer come to mind. At least that's what it was for me. I was ready to samba!

When deciding to watch the World Cup this time around we thought what better place to experience it than in a country passionate and world-renowned for its football, in its darling party city. It doesn't get much better than that.

As we prepared for the trip, slowly we learned about the dark side of Rio de Janeiro...the petty crime, the poverty, the civil disturbances, the drugs. Suddenly what seemed like a brilliant idea didn't feel so brilliant. 

We arrived in Rio in the middle of the day and opted to take the bus from the airport to our apartment. The bus ride cutting through downtown Rio (something we wouldn't have seen had we caught a cab) was the most eye-opening 45-minute introduction to this city. 

I stared out the window taking in every detail as the bus snaked its way through the streets of Rio - the haphazard construction standards; unfinished buildings; the grime and dirt-coated buildings, bridges, and street signs; the graffiti-covered walls; street vendors on every corner. It was a scene that suddenly felt very familiar - this is just like Manila, I thought. Taft, Quiapo, Recto, Binondo...I had seen this before but this isn't what I imagined Rio to be. How could I have been so ignorant?

The bus turned onto a Main Street and out of the maze...streets were wider, buildings taller and better constructed, less graffiti...we were on Ayala Ave in Makati. Still, l felt like I was in Manila...and on it went. 

The entire stretch of Copacabana, where we stayed, was Roxas Boulevard with a beach. The back streets of Ipanema were the side streets of Makati. They sure know how to put on a good show, I thought. This city was not at all what I expected it to be, and Portuguese is nowhere near as easy to understand as Spanish (or German for that matter!), but we were in this larger-than-life city and I was keen to find the Rio de Janeiro I had in my head.

Olé Olé Olé Olé... World Cup 2014

The eve before Hubby and I leave for Brazil to experience this hype called the World Cup. It's a bucket list thing for him... and I'm tagging along. I don't know much about football, teams or players, but I know enough not to call it 'soccer'...and that Spain has a cute goalie - go Casillas!

A million things running through my mind. One of which is... it would have been easier to just take the kids with us.

I'm mentally exhausted...will the kids be ok? Are their schedules sorted? Do they know where they need to be and when? Do they have what they need? Have I notified their schools and coaches of an alternate emergency contact? Will the business be ok? Have I trained Cat well enough? Is she responsible enough? What happens if something comes up that I haven't trained her on? Will the kids miss us? Will we miss them? Have I told my mum everything she needs to know - kids' training and game schedules, birthday parties, doctor's details, Medicare card, everyone's phone numbers, our itinerary...? Will she be ok looking after them or will they drive her to the looney bin? Or will I drive her to the looney bin with my 3-page handover document?

Maybe we should have just taken the kids with us....

With all this going on, I haven't been able to devote any mental space to planning our trip. Since we aren't just packing up and taking everyone with us this time around, we had to divide and conquer - I would look after the "Home" arrangements and Hubby would take care of the "Away" details. So I don't know what time our flights are, where we're staying, how we're getting from A to B, what money we have (or don't have), what games we're watching and what we're doing when we get there!

I'm an advocate for family travel and now I have an even stronger reason why - because it's so much easier to just take everyone with you!

Back To Reality...almost

With only 3 weeks left in our journey, thoughts of going back to reality slowly creep in.  We've been living in some sort of suspended reality for the past 2 months, I'm afraid that our suburban Sydney life will hit us like a slap in the face.

The thought of taking on the role of taxi driver to the kids' sporting activities, the bills that need to be paid, easing Cat and Bee back into their schools, running the business with Mig at home with me. In a way I'm looking forward to going back with renewed energy and perspective on things -  like the fact that our family really doesn't need so much crap to be happy nor do we necessarily need a 4-bedroom house. I guess I've known this for a while but the past 3 months travelling and living out of 2 suitcases proves it. On the other hand, I ask myself how I can go back to the same, crazy, frenetic way of life we were living before the trip after seeing what we've seen, being where we've been.

I'm more grateful now for the fact that I can call Australia home. For all the whinging and whining that goes on, I now realise how polite and disciplined Australian society is as a whole. Grateful for the efficiency of the system, the work-ethic, the laws, the general respect for and enforcement of those laws. Not to mention a great way of life that respects an employee's work-life balance allowing them to take 4 months off from work to actually enjoy life. Some may see it as lazy, I think it's smart. Early in my advertising career, a former boss once told me that the team's work ethic was 'Work hard, play hard'. This has stayed with me and I like to think that Australian society lives by that same motto.

It's easy to take all this for granted when it's the way of life you've grown accustomed to and you think the rest of the developed world operates in much the same way. Now I find it's not necessarily so. 

Then there are other things that need reconciliation. I find peace in the countryside, yet we live in and are dependent on a big city. I'd like to simplify our lives, yet we are living in one of the most expensive cities. Sydney is no doubt one of the world's prettiest cities, and we are now paying the price for it. Travelling through Europe makes me realise just how expensive Sydney has become. People said Austria was expensive, yet my jaw didn't drop with the prices. It's on par with Sydney...sometimes cheaper.

These are the things I need to reconcile in my head and heart when returning back to our reality. 

The hills are alive...Salzkammergut Region, Austria

I snuck out for an early morning walk while everyone was still asleep. I should be looking for a grocery but decided to look for the lake instead. We arrived at our lakeside village of Strobl late last night so we couldn't see it. Now that I've found the lake, the grocery can wait.

The stillness of the crystal clear water and the tall trees, the gentle chirping of birds in the distance, the hum from the cars passing by on the highway, the smell of log fires drifting from the village, the cool (but not freezing) crisp mountain air. As I sit on the shores of Lake Wolfgangsee in Austria, my senses are in overdrive, but in a good way. Not in the chaotic Marrakech kind of way, but in a calm, serene, peaceful kind of way. Not a soul in sight. I can hear myself think. It's pure bliss. Not to mention the playground on the foreshore and the clear water to splash about in (if it's warm enough) which I'm sure the kids will love and never want to leave. I wonder if this place has a good postal system?

We thought using this place as a base for visiting Salzburg would allow us to see both the city and Austrian countryside. Now I sit here and think we may never make it to Salzburg...or to our next planned stops in Germany! On our way here, we had a glimpse of what this region has to offer at Lake Traunsee. We've been lucky enough to see so many beautiful places on this trip but the view of Lake Traunsee coming down the A1 from Vienna took our breath away. We had to stop.

Lush green foreshore, clear glassy water with a huge snow-capped mountain backdrop all seen through a filter of haze. It was as if I was looking at one of those huge wallpaper backdrops of stunning scenery. Even the photos I took looked slightly surreal. It's the kind of scenery you only see in movies - mainly because some location scout has trekked half way around the globe to find it and some cinematographer has made sure it appears picture-perfect on screen. Well, ok, we have trekked half way around the globe to get here too, but you know what I mean. It was right there, in all its raw natural beauty. No camera tricks.

Unfortunately the gates to the lake front were closed so we couldn't get to the water's edge. Maybe because it was late in the afternoon? Funnily enough the locals seemed oblivious to its beauty. At one point I was taking a photo of the lake through a closed gate. As soon as I left a lady went up to the same spot to take a look at what I was taking a picture of. Hello??!!

Further along the highway at Lake Traunsee Hubby spotted a roadside eatery with several people outside. What's happening there, we wondered. Pleased with the Lake Traunsee discovery we were feeling adventurous so we made a u-turn to find out. It was the most picturesque 'carinderia' (eatery) I've ever seen set between the highway on one side and the picturesque lake and mountain backdrop on the other. We ordered what others were having - fish and chips. But this wasn't your normal battered fish and chips. This was the whole fish served like they normally do in the Philippines. Yum! No guide book ever tells you about this kind of stuff, I thought. Hubby, Kat and I dug in. Bee and Mig just stared at the dead fish on the table. They couldn't get over seeing the fish like that and refused to eat it, despite repeated assurance from all of us that it was delicious. Note to self: kids clearly need more exposure to other kinds of fish dishes - not just filleted battered fish and fish fingers!

While the shore in front of me at Strobl isn't quite as picturesque as Lake Traunsee, I can't wait to explore the rest of this area, maybe even return to Lake Traunsee.  Village church bells ring in the distance reminding me of the time. I'd better find that grocery before everyone wakes up hungry.

Venice, Italy - The World's Prettiest...Shopping Mall?

After reading some advise on online travel forums, we decided to stay in Verona and do a day trip to Venice.

We didn't have any set itinerary for Venice. The only thing that was a 'must do' on our Venice list was a gondola ride. I just wanted to bask in the 'prettiness' of all the canals and little bridges. To be totally honest, I didn't get to do any research on Venice before we got on our train and were on our way so we arrived at the Sta. Lucia train station in Venice pretty...well, clueless. We're getting pretty good at finding our way from 'clueless' and I find it more fun to discover places as we go so this didn't faze me.

As soon as we stepped out of the station we found ourselves facing the Grand Canal overwhelmed with a myriad of options for 'water rides'. It's a bit like standing in Circular Quay in Sydney trying to find the best option for a ride to Manly. There were water taxis, tour operators offering canal tours, public water buses, and then there were the gondolas.

While it wasn't the cheapest way to get around Venice (€80 for 40 minutes) we decided that if we were going to get in the water in this city it had to be on a gondola. After all, we didn't come all this way to get on something that looked like a Manly ferry! (I also secretly wanted to get on one of those slick wooden taxis ala Angelina Jolie in The Tourist but I wasn't dressed for the part).

We explored the lanes and alley ways of the city before getting on our gondola and after a while corner after corner just started to look the same. Shop after shop it started to get pretty boring. They weren't little shops or artist galleries with artisans selling their wares either. I like those as they add to the charm and character of a place. These were chain stores, designer brands, and sidewalk stalls filled with every possible souvenir item made in China.

We didn't really have a clear idea of what we wanted to do in Venice but we certainly didn't go there for the shopping. Apart from a gondola ride though, it seems that's really all there is to do there. Were we missing something? We decided to continue walking and at least get to the Piazza on the map. After all, the piazza is always the heart of any town, city or village. At least we should see that, I thought.

Piazza San Marco was worth the walk. It is a beautiful open space surrounded by historic buildings. The kids loved running amongst the pigeons and classical music filled the air. Perfect place to sit for a cup of coffee while the kids played. I picked a table at one of the outdoor areas that had a quartet playing and sat down. Shortly after a spiffy looking waiter dressed in a tuxedo came over and handed me the menu together with a little 'flyer' announcing the table charge of €6 per adult for the music. OK, fair enough. At least they were upfront about the cost of the ambience. I opened the menu and that's when I almost choked. My 'little cup of coffee' was €9, a glass of wine was €18, and a cocktail was €26. Oh, and don't forget the extra €6 per adult for the music on top of that! In comparison, a cocktail at the restaurant in front of the Arena in Verona was €7.50. I couldn't get myself to pay €9 for a cappuccino and decided to get hot chips for the kids instead. They were still pricey at €8 (€14 including the music charge). Most expensive patatas fritas we've ever had.

I already had an opinion of modern day Venice before getting to Piazza San Marco. It's a beautiful place, certainly very photogenic and they know it. It's very touristy and annoyingly so in Piazza San Marco where fleecing their visitors with ridiculous prices seems quite natural. And if you would prefer to sit on the ground in the middle of the Piazza to take in the surrounds, local police will make you stand up (as witnessed). In fairness though, prices around the rest of Venice for food, drinks and gelato were pretty reasonable.

Part of me thinks I should just be able to overlook these things and enjoy the place for what it is but for some reason in Venice I couldn't. Even the gondolas, which I naively thought were owned by the individual gondoliers and their families as a tradition, are now owned by a few big companies and your gondolier is likely to be an employee.

Maybe we missed something vital? Maybe we didn't give it enough time? Not quite what I expected from such a beautiful place.

The 'Merchant of Venice' just took on a whole new meaning for me in this overly commercialised little city that seems nothing more than a beautiful shopping mall.

I think I just died and went to Tuscany

We couldn't get out fast and far enough from Rome if we tried. Hubby and I were dying to get out of Rome and the Chianti region in Tuscany couldn't have been a better next stop.

I'm sitting here soaking in some Tuscan sun on the balcony of our rented apartment in a little village called 'Lano' - about 25km north of Siena. The owners are a husband and wife couple probably in their 60s or 70s and live on site. They speak Italian, German and French. Very little English in there too...but better than our Italian. It's a working property with olive trees planted all around so they make their own olive oil. I think they make their own wine too but I haven't seen any vineyards. We sampled a bottle of unlabelled (homemade?) Chianti red wine they gave us on arrival and it was pretty good (I'm not usually a fan of red wine).

We arrived late in the afternoon yesterday so apart from a quick drive into the town of Casole d'Elsa for some groceries, we haven't really explored the surrounds. The views of the rolling hills from that little medieval town were breath-taking...as I'm sure all views around this place are. For now I'm just happy to sit here while the kids sleep.

Having visited several cities, towns, and villages over the past 9 weeks 'on the road' through Europe it's easy to get a feel for what makes your spirit soar and what makes it scream. There are places, then there are places that you simply feel you belong. It's not so easy to get a sense of that caught up in the daily hum-drum of life but on this trip it's become clear to me that my favourite places aren't the big cosmopolitan cities. I find more peace in the little villages and country towns that we've visited. The little white village of Gaucin in Spain, the Cotswold town of Chalford in England, the medieval village of Roussillon in Southern France...and now our Tuscan stop in Italy.

All these places are so far removed from our daily suburban life raising a family back in Sydney, Australia that it's hard to imagine reconciling where I find peace with where we actually are. Many families have done it with a sea-change or tree-change, but with Hubby's profession very 'big city-centric' (fortunately my business just needs a good postal system) I'm not sure whether our family is brave enough to follow in their path.

So for now, I'm happy to just let my spirit roam free in Tuscany.