I take my hat off though, we thought it was awesome. It definitely makes the coveted list of places I recommend! Again we were unlucky to only have 1 1/2 days there but we packed in a city hop-on/hop-off bus tour, a visit to a modern art museum, the botanical gardens as well as the Aussie game.
Curitiba was very Melbournish. It has lots of nice parks, a lot of foreign influence, great food, a cool Brunswick st type area in the historical part of town and it was very well organised for the Cup.
We also experienced local hospitality when we found ourselves arrive at our accommodation after dark in a somewhat sketchy part of town, only to believe this wasn't houses at all but rather closed shop fronts. We went into the chemist to regroup and get some help, which drew a small crowd of generous locals williing to help. One guy went off to see if he could find the place and the residents, while a lovely mum/daughter combo offered up their phone .... Not to mention their place to stay at if all else failed! In the end it all worked out and mum drove us all for dinner at the local mall with Rachaela - the daughter. Thanks again!
The Aussie game was one to forget. I'm not sure what happened with the team, but up front nobody took Tim Cahill's mantle to be the guy wanting to score, the midfield were to timid to push forward or deliver passes that the forwards could run onto and the defensive marking was woeful. The Spanish did not play well, but they were able to cruise like a training run, make some nice passes and put the Aussies to the sword. It was absolutely a bizzare performance as the loss of Cahill and Bresc (well as a starter) seemingly stole the mental confidence from the rest of the team. It was this game where I would have loved to see Archie Thompson and Mark Schwarzer make cameo appearances off the bench to help steady the side. My analysis is that perhaps a few of the old heads being reserves wouldn't have been such a bad idea.
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