Recently there has been a bit of tension between Australians and Brazilians. The Australian Olympic team were among the first countries to check out the new Athletes Village in Rio ahead of the Games starting next week - and they didn't like what they saw.
Problems with electrical and plumbing meant that the Aussies who were supposed to move in Sunday didn't - instead moving to nearby hotels until the issues were resolved. The tension went even higher when the mayor of Rio, in an attempt to make light of the situation, told a press conference that the Australian team just needs to be given a kangaroo to be make the situation OK.
Australia's team leader, Kitty Chiller, on the problems with the accomodation
While Australians generally have a good sense of humour and can laugh at ourselves about most things - you don't mess with our sport. Sport is like religion to us in Australia. Competing - and winning - on the world stage is very important to us. OK, its probably too important but I won't get into that now. The point is, preparation for our sporting teams is no laughing matter.
Fortunately, the problems that the Aussie team brought up have now been addressed, the athletes have begun moving into the Rio Athletes Village.
It got me thinking about the relationship between Australians and Brazilians though. While they're clearly two very different countries (seriously, why don't Brazilians like brunch?) there is a lot of common ground. From my personal experience there's a lot of reasons why people from both countries should get along.
Brazilians and Australians love the outdoors
Pretty much the first thing that people from other countries think of when they hear Australia or Brazil is the scenery. Both countries are well known for their beautiful beaches and people who love to spend time on those beaches. More than that though, both countries being so large mean that they have a huge range of natural features such as rain forests, mountains and beautiful coastline.
People from both Australia and Brazil love to get out and spend time in the outdoors too. Whether its on the beach, or as is the case here in Porto Alegre, in a park, residents of both countries love to take advantage of the natural beauty.
Brazilians and Australians love a Barbeque
While the type of meat and the style of the barbeque might be different, the result is generally the same. Aussies love to get together on weekends and stand around the "barbie" with a few beers in the backyard, at the beach or in the local park. Brazilians, with their churrasco, are very similar although many buildings have their churrasco pit built in to a special room rather than in the backyard.
Brazilians and Australians drink a lot of bad beer
While it is possible in both countries to find some good beer, the majority of beer consumed in both countries is awful.
In Australia until less than 20 years ago, each state was dominated by one local beer producer which meant each brewery had its own little monopoly. While each brewery produced a few different brands, they were mostly the same week tasting lager that needs to be served very cold - so that you cant taste it. More recently the beer market in Australia has opened up, with breweries competing all over the country and craft breweries popping up everywhere. Despite this, the big brands such as VB, Tooheys, XXXX and Carlton still dominate.
Here in Brazil there is a similar situation, though the craft beer market is considerably newer. Most of the big brands here are little more than frozen corn water and a served "estupidamente gelado" (stupidly cold) to ensure you can't taste it. In the last few years with the economy doing a bit better (er, when it was) a huge amount of craft breweries and brew pubs has opened up. Unfortunately they still need to import a lot of the ingredients, which means that, while you can get a good beer here, you'll be paying a lot more for it. Still worth it!
Brazilians and Australians love thongs
Brazil is the birthplace of the Havaianas - the simple rubber "flip flops" worn by beach bums around the world. With Australia sharing a similar love of the beach, we're also big fans of the pluggers. We may never get the level of passion they have for them here in Brazil - people often give their guests custom Havaianas at weddings in here - you'll be guaranteed to find someone wearing them anywhere you go in Australia.
In Australia we buck the trend and call them "thongs", rather than flip flops. I was going to change the heading of this section but realised that Brazilians beach bums of a different kind are also fans of thongs.
Brazilians and Australians love sport
Like Australians, Brazilians love their sport. While they don't get behind as many types of sports as Australians do, those that they do support they are die-hards for. The sporting king here is obviously football, but there is big support for Volleyball too, and then anything else that you can turn into a beach sport - Beach football, beach volleyball, foot volley and even beach rugby!
As I said earlier, Australians take sport seriously. It's often said Aussies which watch two flies crawling up a wall if you could bet on it. We watch and play anything - Australian rules football, three kinds of rugby, actual football, cricket, basketball, swimming, sailing, cycling etc. During the Olympics we all pretend we also know about things like diving and gymnastics too.
So while Australians and Brazilians do have a lot of differences, there are a few things that mean Aussies and Brazilians are generally a good match for friendships (or even more!)
I hope all of the Australians and Brazilians (and everyone else) enjoy the Olympics and if you're going (like I am), take care and I hope you have fun. Just a week to go!
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