After we lost our first match yesterday against EROS with 1:5 and ended in a draw (0:0) in the second group match against the Kudos, we now have to win the intermediate round to advance into the second group stage. That match will be at 9:45 am brazilian time (2:45 pm MESZ) against no other than our friends the Bold Hearts from England. Of course this is unfortunate but the seeding decided this. After the GermanOpen and the IranOpen it will already be the third competition (and continent) at which we have to play against each other. We hope that both teams will be spared from hardware problems and bugs and that only the tactics will decide the winner in the end.

We have Internet again:

https://plus.google.com/hangouts/_/gs6oavcrckk3olw7w5jmbw7zfia?hl=de

We are streaming our first match against EROS. Hopefully the connection stays.

https://plus.google.com/hangouts/_/g5yfux572rtyqhfmbofz5z5kv4a

This afternoon the World Cup has been opened with a small opening ceremony. A brasilian orchestra accompanied the event.

Less than 24 hours left till the beginning of the first matches of this years World Cup. And we finally have network too. Yay!

Arrived in our first two hotel rooms we recognized that we only had about an hour left till the begin of the breakfast. We used the time to play together “Green Stories”. Marc and Sheepy emreged as real experts on this field.
Dead on time (as german as possible ;)) we went to the doors of the breakfast halls at half past 6. In there was a breakfast buffet we could not have dreamed of. The term international breakfast correspondends really well: There are cakes, cookies, scrambled eggs, bread, cheese, ham, fruits, yoghurt, … We ate really well till erveryone was satisfied. Afterwards we wanted to explore the beach a bit more. So everyone got “beach ready” and went over the road. The sea was warm and clean so we spend some time in it before we lay down on the beach to dry. After everyone had showered away the salt and the flight, we had our first team meeting at the hotel pool, cooling the feet in the water.

Then we began some work. However, the tiredness took its toll, after all we had been more than 24 hours en route. So we spend the time till 2 pm with differing productivity. The chaos at the real check-in got everyone awake again. Although we only booked single beds, we got some double beds. The communication on how to change that proved difficult. As we expected after our experience in Mexico, nearly no one in the hotel speaks English. And our Portugese is despite Jessicas vocabulary cheat sheet only more or less adeqauate for the grocery. A cleaner was our salvation, as she understands English and with additional help of hands and feet we did successfull communication. We used the alteration time of our rooms to do our grocery shopping. A tourist information with three friendly and very good English speaking women was a great help with finding a supermarket. And we meet a lot of helpfulness at other times as well: At the attempt to change money (which unfortunately was only possible from Real in Euro or Dollar) a child of an employee jumped in as a translator.
The following effort to find a restaurant proved more difficult than expected, as there was no combination of vegetarian and cheap meals findable. Given that we were quite hungry, we finally settles on the other side of the world at McDonalds.

On the way back we did the first big grocery shopping: Water, Bread, cold meat, cheese,… Furthermore we discovered a market where there were a lot of exotic fruits. We bought grapes, bananas and a mango, as well as pepper and limes and received two fruits as a gift, that we had never seen before. Back in the hotel we googled that they were a custard apple and a Caju. Some of the grocery was then eaten on the hotel roof with a view to the sea and the beach promenade. And then finally after a long, long (did I say long?) day, we went to bed, to begin a more productive day on friday at 6:30 a.m after some good sleep.

To kill time at the gate (2 hours) we wanted to give our robots the opportunity to stretch their legs. As an error occured in the demo script, we placed Wheatley in an airport buggy to show him the terminal. In the meantime Nils fixed the bug.
The departure was on time and was followed by a short flight to Paris. We just had a short stay at the Charles de Gaulle airport, but we managed to pass most of the checkings quickly (more than two boarder supervisors wouldn’t be a bad idea for the amount of travellers…) and so there was time left for a short shopping. We bought chocolate and a french riddle magazine for amusement during the transatlantic flight.

For the long stay on board the riddle magazine alone was not a satisfying amusement. For this reason we were coding or we used the in flight entertainment system and the handed blankets and pillows for sleeping. The quality of the meals was very delicious, but the particular amount of food left some team mebers hungry. In particular in the vegetarian meal there were some kalories missing, but in return for this it was served clearly ahead of the others. We were especially glad for Dennis that everything worked well with the gluten free meal despite of some trouble we had during registering for it. At approximatly 4 pm brasilian time the first extensions of the south american continent appeared under our plane.

After the arrival in Rio de Janeiro the happenings of the last days were brought back to our memories: already at the passport cotrol the supervisors congratulated us to the win of the FIFA world championship. Behind the passport control we found Fuelco, the mascot of the FIFA world championship. Of course we took advantage of the situation and had a souvenir picture taken.

It seems to be unusual in Brazil that luggage is checked through to the final airport and so we had the chance to convince ourselves that also our luggage made it to the right country. Our plan was to directly check in our luggage again, pass the security check and spend the last five hours waiting time till the next flight at the gate. Unfortunatly the baggage check in opened just 2 hours in advance of the flight. For this reason we had the chance to send an expedition team to get in touch with the local food sources. A rich variation of food was located in the third floor of the aiport building, but the explorers were not able to get closer than 5 meter to each sale booth. Employees seemed to appear from nowhere to indefatigable promote the advantages of their english menu. After all team members were provided with food there was time to look and listen around. The latter appeared to be complicated as most of the announcements were made in Portugese. In general the knowledge of English was spread in different variety throughout the employees. Fortunately the see(curity)-check could be passed quickly. Last insight before the flight: Water from the water fountain could be probably used without any further treatment for a German swimming pool.
The flight to João Pessoa was a night flight and thats why not just our team but also most of the other passengers tried to sleep.
We left the aircraft at 1:20 a.m. on time, fetched our complete and intact luggage and met our contact person from the local transfer agency (who appeared to speak English very well). Surprisingly we already made it to the hotel at 3 a.m. We expected a lot more delay and a longer check out and for this reason we thought a room for another night is not necessary. We tried to make the best of the situation, left the luggage in the hotel and spend the time till sunrise at approximatley 5:30 a.m at the beach next to the hotel. During this time we took time by the forelock and made a first short meeting about the tasks for the next days.

As two of us dropped in at the hotel to ask for a toilet, the concierge surprised us with the offer to take two of the four rooms in advance and a breakfast for all of us for just a little extra charge. An offer we could not refuse.

And once again: GlaDOS, Wheatley, Atlas, Tamara, Wilma and Fiona at Hamburg Airport. This time the trip goes to a land, that was in the headlines the last weeks: Brazil. Shortly after the end of the FIFA World Cup, the RoboCup World Championship takes place in the northeast of Brazil – and of course, the Hamburg Bit-Bots are present!
Because of the air connection we will travel nearly 24 hours until we arrive and that’s why we are sitting in the midnight at the airport. First realization: Until half four am. you are not allowed to go into the departure lounge, but you can wait in the arrival area and there is even power and wifi. Most passengers – that arrive that early – use their time to take a nap, instead of working.
Shortly after the check-in and the security check, which was pretty uncomplicated, we are now at the gate and waiting for the plane. Let’s see, what’s coming up next.