Andy “The Spitfire” Smith – if I was a professional darts player that’d be my nickname and walk on music.
So I’ve been back in London for a whole week already. Love this city, best in the world.
But I’ll always remember Rio as one of the most beautiful, fun, exciting cities I’ve visited, especially during the closing stages of the World Cup, wow, it was incredible, I feel so lucky to have been there. Check out my 4 drunken videos from Copacabana beach on World Cup final day, one of the best days ever, unlucky Argies, we’ll always have the celebration for the offside goal, one minute of joy, more than England gave us in the whole tournament…
And the semi finals were great too, I already mentioned the Brazil thrashing, but the Argentina penalties win v Holland was amazing, I watched it in the FanFest with Ride2Rio Hugh plus another England fan that we adopted, before heading to Leblon (the posh bit of Rio) where I left my bag – with tablet inside – in a bar (but got it back two days later- who says crime is rife in Brazil?) and met a drunken David James. Where’s Arsene?
The morning after the final I woke up with a big chunk cut out of my right heel – don’t remember that happening – but proceeded to limp up the mountain to Christ The Redeemer with the lovely group of English people from the convent where we were staying. However, when we got to the point where you’re meant to take a minibus up to the the statue there was a huge queue (approx 3 hours long!) and we weren’t keen on joining it, so instead dodged into the jungle and climbed up a steep bank full of biting ants to reach the road beyond said queue and then continued walking up the steepest part of the road to the top! Well played Joe, nice idea.
I can’t seem to add photos, but you’ve seen Cristo before, right? The next day we did a hang-glide, stunning, again I could add the full video but you get the idea. And then people went home, the World Cup was over and even the Argies were finally leaving Rio – then two days later I flew home, #SambaCycle over and out.
It all seems like a blur already, I need to sit down and read this entire blog from start to finish, I will next week. Meeting mates back here in London/Watford has been superb and blimey they keep telling me they’re proud of me, cheers fellas, but it was just “something I did” because I had the opportunity to escape real life for a while. Bring on the #SacrebleuCycle before France2016 – who’s in?
