Athena- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - New Year's Eve

Happy New Year! Lula, Tiffany, Me & Megan

Beyonce's new CD played as we got dressed to go out for New Year's Eve (NYE). Celebrating NYE in Rio was a big reason why we came to Brazil and the time had finally come. We now danced to Beyonce as we fixed our hair and make up. Tiffany made drinks. We put on our white and sort of white dresses. Here in Brazil it's a tradition to wear white on New Year's Eve; it symbolizes a peaceful upcoming year. People also wear other colors: yellow means money, green good health, red to attract love and passion. But most everyone wears white and maybe a splash of the other colors.


Megan and I enjoying some boiled corn

The big tradition here is to head to Copacabana beach to bring in the New Year. We debated finding a party in a club to go to, but decided to go the traditional route. When we headed out to the beach, which is luckily just two blocks from our apartment. There were a lot of people out, a ton of families and large groups of friends on the beach. It reminded me of tailgating for an (American) football game. There were 3 or 4 stages with different bands playing. They were all Brazilian bands and we didn't know what they were saying. Earlier in the day we saw bus loads of cops getting dropped of in the area. All in all we heard there were 10,000 cops in the area. I'm not sure if that's true but we certainly saw a lot of them. Vendors were on the sides of the street selling various foods and drinks. Some people were just walking around selling bottles of liquor (I'm not sure who would buy a bottle of liquor from a random stranger, but whatever). Nearly everyone was wearing white; it felt like the world's largest white party.

We were excited to walk around, see the sites and checkout the crowd. We weren't so excited about the porta-potties. Lula tried to talk her way into a party at one of the beach front hotels. Security was very tight and they were only allowing guests in. Despite her best efforts, Lula couldn't convince the guard to let us in. We walked around for a little more and then, honestly, our excitement waned. We felt we had seen all there was to see at the beach. There were a ton of families around so the atmosphere was more calm- it definitely didn't have the crazy party feel that we imagined it would be. I think it's more fun if you have a large group of friends and a spot on the beach. We tried to look for a bar to chill for a little bit, but many of them were closed because of the large crowds. So we headed back to our apartment for a little break. On the way back Lula, asked about a party at a hotel close to us and the price was $600 USD. No thanks, that's too rich for our student bank accounts!

Part of the fireworks display

With our energy dwindling, and second guessing ourselves for not going to a party, we chilled in our apartment for about a half hour or so. Then we headed back to the beach to get ready for the fireworks. When we got back to the beach it was absolutely packed. I mean PACKED. We could hardly walk, the crowd was much bigger than when we were out earlier. We managed to find a spot between to other groups, much to their annoyance, but oh well. Then finally, among thousands of Brazilians dressed in white, we began to countdown to 2014. The crowd counted in Portuguese and we counted in English. When midnight came everyone began toasting and champagne flowed freely; we actually got a mini champagne shower. Everyone toasted and we exchanged kisses (on the cheek), keeping with our U.S. tradition of kissing someone at midnight (unfortunately none of the locals volunteered for this, lol). Then the fireworks started and lasted a long time. Several cruise ships were anchored just off of the coast. I imagine their passengers had a great time celebrating on board and watching the amazing fireworks. The display lasted forever and we kept thinking the grand finale was happening, but then it wouldn't end and more fireworks went off. When the grand finale finally happened we were very much in awe. This was one of the best fireworks display that I've ever seen.

I'd like to say that we stayed out late partying on the beach, but we didn't. It's not like back home where you know where to go for a good time. There were so many people around that I thought if this were back home someone would start fighting or shooting right now. But it was very peaceful here. We survived the crowds for a little while longer and then headed back to our apartment. It was great to be a part of such a wonderful Brazilian tradition and it was my first NYE on the beach.  I think it was a great way to start off 2014. Here's to a peaceful and prosperous New Year. Feliz Ano Novo!