I had an entertaining end to the trip. I checked out of the hotel at 12pm on Tuesday for a 6.30pm flight. When the taxi driver found out I spoke English, he was delighted, and used the opportunity to practise on me. The fact that I was from Australia was even better, and he proudly busted out his AC/DC cd. “Australiano, eh? You like AC/DC?” Rather than tell him I didn’t, and I didn’t understand why people would devote their lives to glorifying all things to do with death and evil, I humoured him and said “Yeah, sure I do.” In no time I was in a taxi on the streets of Brazil , tapping my feet to the hell-bound rock beats of AC/DC. Ah, life.
This guy turned out to be a rock connoisseur. He proceeded, in his stilted, but impressively-understandable English, to reel off his favourites. Iron Maiden was a definite second, as well as Whitesnake, Queen (“FREDDY MERCURY!!”), Black Sabbath (“OzOz Born”). He said he’d been to a Queen concert in “nine-teen-sixty-five - ROCKIN’ RIO !!” (he had a habit of regularly talking in delighted exclamations, followed by a gleeful chuckle).
Next he mentioned Sydney , and I said I was from Melbourne . He then came to the conclusion that “Sydney not capital, Melbourne capital.” He looked at me, and I wasn’t going to bother explaining about Canberra , so I said simply “Yes.” So now there’s at least one non-Melburnian who thinks Melbourne is, or should be, the capital city of Australia .
After this he went back to AC/DC and I knew enough about them to help him say the names of most of the group members. Malcolm was a struggle for him to say initially, but then he got it. “Malcolm Young, Angus Young – BROTHERS!! Heh heh heh.” He chuckled in that wonderfully endearing way of his.
After this he went back to AC/DC and I knew enough about them to help him say the names of most of the group members. Malcolm was a struggle for him to say initially, but then he got it. “Malcolm Young, Angus Young – BROTHERS!! Heh heh heh.” He chuckled in that wonderfully endearing way of his.
Soon enough we were at the airport, and he was even nice enough to chase down change for the R$100 note I had to give him for the R$30 journey. I was then fortunate enough to get an English-speaking guy at luggage check-in, and as an added bonus, found out my luggage was going all the way to Melbourne . Sweet as! I then settled into the airport lounge for a nice long six hour wait for my flight to commence my journey home.
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