Highlights:
Excellent subway system: easy
to circumnavigate through the city.
Mercado Municipal: trying
out all the exotic fruits.
Villa Madelena graffiti
Museu do Futebol
Lowlights:
Arriving and feeling
completely dependent on Bruno since I couldn’t speak a word of Portuguese.
Visited too many museums and
boring art galleries.
Places:
Mercado Municipal: a market
that has an abundance of food stalls selling fruit, cheese, meat and almost
everything food related. There were also many mini- restaurants that you could
eat at.
Liberdade: A Japanese
neighbourhood, looks like you walked into Asia due to the typical Japanese architecture.
Ate some sushi there that was actually quite terrible.
Bank City: visited the financial
hub of Sao Paulo, where the stock exchange and the banks are located. Whilst
walking around, I saw several life-sized human-like statues positioned on many
of the building rooftops. I was told that this was the work of Antony Gormley,
who runs this exhibition internationally. I managed to see Antony Gormley's
exhibition in Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil.
Catedral da Sao Paulo and
other churches: The churches are beautifully decorated inside.
Avenida Paulista: Walked
through the city centre, admiring the beautiful architecture of the modern skyscrapers.
Torre Banespa: A high
skyscraper that gave us a panoramic view of the city of Sao Paulo
Minhocao: A highway in Sao
Paulo that is closed off on weekends for leisure, exercise, etc
Vila Madelena: A fairly
upmarket area in Sao Paulo with some great bars. There was a street where the
walls were full of amazing graffiti. The skill of these artists is impressive
and their creativity unimaginable.
Ibirapuera: An urban park
that has many museums, art galleries, etc. We didn’t get to see all of it.
Museu Pinacoteca: A
beautiful art gallery with many sculptures and paintings. There was also a
music band playing in the foyer.
Museu da Língua Portuguesa:
A museum about the origins of the Portuguese language. Very interesting, but
unfortunately it was all in Portuguese so I couldn’t understand most of it.
Museu do Futebol: An excellent
museum about football in Brazil. Very well designed. There were many
interactive stations where you could watch or listen to momentous, historic
football moments (Roberto Bagio penalty miss Italy vs. Brazil world cup 1994),
learn about different techniques in soccer and follow the history of all the
world cups. We also got to play a virtual soccer game, where we had to shoot towards
a goal. I scored!!!
MASP: Museum of Art Sao
Paulo was an art gallery with many paintings and a few sculptures. The art talk
was very complicated and long-winded. You needed to be an artist to enjoy this
gallery.
People:
Dennis Albert: 1st
Couch Surfing host, very friendly, loves his country, took the effort to show
us as much about his city as he could.
Blake: American, gay, very
friendly and helpful, helped me get back to Dennis’s place when I lost Bruno,
went to some monastery to meditate for a month.
Bryan: American,
“WOOF”ed through South America.
Tristan: French guy.
Colin: American, Huge
moustache.
Angelo Sartori: 2nd
Couch Surfing host, very friendly and accommodating, owned pasta business,
aspiring photographer, absolutely loves his country.
Activity:
The streets were bustling
with entertainment. I saw the following :a Samba band, a girl’s percussion band practising and a Capoeira demonstration all in the street.
Foods:
Pastel: a fried pastry with
mince in it.
Farofa: is a toasted flour
mixture that is added to rice. It adds a very nice texture and gives the rice
some extra flavour.
Carambola: a star
like fruit that tastes like a mix between a crunchy orange and a pear.
Jabuticaba: a fruit
that looks like a big grape, but taste like a mix between a litchi and a plum.
Fruta da Conde: looks
like a green pine cone but has a white flesh inside that taste like apple
custard.
Caqui: A tomato looking
fruit that has a rich creamy taste, but I could only eat it in small
quantities.
Sandes de Mortadella: A ham
roll that is stuffed with massive quantities of fried ham. I didn’t enjoy i as
it was too salty and oily.
Sartori’s Pasta: Angelo
owned a pasta business and we tasted a few of his pastas.
Acai with Banana &
Granola: Acai is a berry fruit that is made into a kind of sorbet. It is
unbelievably delicious and refreshing, god’s gift to man!
Drinks:
Caipirinha de Limao (Cachaca
51): Cachaca 51 (a cheap Cachaca) is disgusting since it has like a metholated
spirits taste. The drink’s flavour was good but the Cachaca was overpowering.
Caipirinha de Carembola
(Cachaca 51): same as above.
Refrigante Guarana: A local
cool drink, I enjoyed it.
Agua de Coco: Coconut water,
refreshing with a subtle coconut
flavour.
Caldo de Cana: sugar cane juice.
Words:
Valeu/Faleu = lekker,
directly translated means “of value”.
Cara = endearing term of
addressing someone.
Music:
Ivette: a beautiful Brazilian
pop singer.
Cassaele: a druggy, female
rock star.
“Eu quero tchu, eu quero
tcha”: a popular song that is played EVERYWHERE!
