(This is a delayed post – my iPhone cable broke, so I needed to conserve the battery and couldn’t upload pictures. Better late than never though.)
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| Colorful doors at the subway station in Sao Paulo |
Sao Paulo was the last leg of our trip, and I have to admit that I was ready to
get the last few days over with so I could just go home. While I recognize and appreciate the luxury
of being able to go on vacation, it’d been too much, with the sleepless nights,
constant breaking or losing things, always being sweaty, and skin turning increasingly scaly or rashy (TMI, dude?).
We were determined to make the most of the first (Jimmy’s last) day in Sao
Paulo. I don’t think people do the city
justice – I’d been told that there was nothing to do there, so I booked a
flight to the colorful beach town of Salvador but promptly cancelled after
reading how dangerous it is. Sao Paulo
is Brazil’s metropolitan hub, but the city is so large with different
neighborhoods, so there’s plenty to do and see.
We stayed in the Vila Magdalena area, which reminded Jimmy of San
Francisco (although pretty much everything reminded him of San Francisco). This is the boho neighborhood with
cool-shaped buildings and graffiti art everywhere.
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| Ouch |
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| I think this one is my favorite. |
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| In case you were wondering how cold their beer is. |
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| Thatsa me! |
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| "OMG look at that car." "Which car?" "FUH REALS?!" |
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| This one is for my friend Kathy who loves The Simpsons. |
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| Jesus is my homeboy |
We headed downtown to join the Free Food Tour and met our guide Ulysses under
MASP, the Museum of Art in Sao Paulo. People from other countries joined the
tour but didn’t really socialize.
Despite this, the guide was so nice and we had a good range of food.
This is what we ate and drank from 1-6. We missed a Brazilian soft drink in the beginning, though :(
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| Thanks, Ulysses! |
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| Jimmy thought it was hilarious when I got super excited taking a picture of this churro sign. But just LOOK at these delicious monstrosities!! |
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There were about three of these but this is the largest. It's a symbol of anti-taxes, I think. There's a Brazilian phrase, "I won't pay the duck", which means refusing to take the blame for something that's not your fault.
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Jimmy wanted to check out MASP, so we circled back to the
original meeting place. It was a fairly
interesting museum and I was impressed that they had a substantial number of pieces by
famous painters – Manet, Dali, Degas, Van Gogh, Picasso, Matisse, Diego Rivera.
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| I thought the elevator and stairs were so cool. This isn't a display.. that'd be weird. |
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| When you have RBF. |
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| When your girl squad is soo dramatic. |
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| When your baby might be trying to kill you. |
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When no one likes the girl you're dating.
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| Thug life |
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| If I wore this dress, I'd move around a lot because it's so trippy looking. |
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| This is my work dress |
After a disgusting Tex Mex dinner, we called it a day – packing and
catching up on work. Jimmy took off
really early and I switched to a different hostel in the neighborhood, since I
didn’t need a private room and wasn’t very impressed with our first hostel’s
accommodations.
There’s not much to report about the rest of the trip – the next few days
consisted of catching up on work, watching tv, and hanging out in the
hostel. Besides needing to decompress, I
was pretty limited by the lack of GPS technology to help me around. I did go out one day and found a bloco,
although it was a sweaty, long trip back to the hostel.
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| Neat-looking church |
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| I loved this place. They had a White Russian milkshake (but that's not what I'm drinking.) |
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| This burger was bomb - look at the big bite I took. |
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| Interesting looking Indian building - I think it's a restaurant. |
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| Other side of the bus. These guys are dressed as Fred Flintstone, a karate guy and a sailor. |
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| There were guys in front of the truck with rope who'd have to walk down as the truck kept moving. Like a rolling block party |
My favorite part of traveling is meeting new people and I had such great experiences in the hostel - from the discussion of American politics with the guy from the Netherlands to the Belgian guy who I'm still not sure was drunk or not to my newfound kindred spirit who I bonded with over Sex and the City, Frank Sinatra, and the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (you're my favorite). It was an ideal way to conclude this trip, which didn't start out so great, but ended fantastically.
That's a wrap!
Epilogue:
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| It was snowing when I arrived in Toronto for my layover. |
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| I found this ostrich waiting at my desk when I came back. No one will claim responsibility, but I think my boss put it there. |
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| Home sweet home |
