Blogging from Brazil: May 2012

Sao Paulo is what some people call the New York of Latin America. It is currently the seventh largest city in the world with a population of almost nineteen million people. This past weekend my friends and I decided it would be a good idea to take advantage of our six day weekend by going to visit said city.

Day 1: We arrived in Sao Paulo at 5:40 in the morning after a seven hour bus ride. We then took the metro to Tanyu's cousin's house, where we resided for our short stay. We stayed in the neighborhood of Liberdade, a predominately Japanese neighborhood. We kicked off the day by going to Ibirapuera park and the Mercado Municipal where we had its most famous food, the mortadella sandwich. We went to the exact same place that Anthony Bourdain went, for anyone that watches the travel channel. After the Mercado we went to an international market that is on the street 25 de Marzo. It was quite busy, but we were on a mission. Alissa (another foreigner here in Juiz) had conned us into getting tickets to see the ballet. Although the men were reluctant, we decided we would make that sacrifice. We bought the tickets, went back home, dressed up and headed back to the Teatro Municipal. There, we endured one hour of what Alissa referred to as "modern dance". To say the least, it was a great experience and I thank her for dragging us along.

Day 2: After taking in a little bit of culture, we decided that it was time for some fun. We took a bus to the Sao Paulo Zoo where we spent a few hours taking in all sorts of wildlife. When I say wildlife, I am also including the enormous school groups of young elementary children running around yelling and laughing. After the Zoo we headed over to the Museo de Lingua Portuguesa. A museum that is only about the Portuguese language. I am going to be honest here, I did not really learn that much, but man they had some really cool displays. Lots of visual entertainment and definitely worth a visit with a student price of three reais. We finally returned and decided to call it a night.

Day 3: This day we decided to live the good life. We went to Avenida Paulista, which is the business district of Sao Paulo. There we proceeded to window shop at the mall and pretend like we had the money to buy something. Our next destination was Tandoor, an Indian restaurant. You see, in Brazil they don't have as much ethnic diversity in their food choices so this was a real treat. The food was ok for the price and lacked in spices in my opinion. We didn't just stop there, we decided that a good way to finish the night was by paying a visit to the hotel Unique. At this hotel they had a bar, the Skye Bar to be exact, that was at the very top of the building. There we took in the ~320 degree view of Sao Paulo and pretended that we could actually afford this lifestyle. We then took the metro back home and looked fondly upon the glamorous life we once lived.

Day 4: This might have been the best part of our stay. We went to the semifinals of the Copa Paulista and watched Santos play Sao Paulo. Here is Anthony's play by play of the game.

Game begins. São Paulo on the offensive, Santos absorbing pressuring and then breaking forward quickly to find Neymar’s feet as often as possible. PK. Neymar 1, São Paulo 0. São Paulo rallies to find a header rejected by the post off a set piece. Neymar recieves the ball on the left side of the field, just in front of where we are fortunate enough to be sitting, and toys with a defender. A cut to the right, pause, a sharp cut to left. Another cut to the right, another sharp cut to the left. The defender dives, Neymar gets fouled in classic fashion. The crowd is as impressed as it is angry. Just before halftime, a leisurely Neymar receives the ball in the middle, close to São Paulo’s goal. Easily drifting around a defender, he exposes a gaping hole in São Paulo’s defense and effortlessly tucks away a second. Neymar 2, São Paulo 0.
Second half. São Paulo shifts tactics, realizes they can’t leave a large gap between the midfield and defense to allow Santos a race against numbers on a fast break. They commit more players to Neymar, removing him from the game for a few minutes. As São Paulo creeps closer to getting a goal back, Santos slips away and Neymar finds the post on what looked to be a sure close to his hat trick. After breathtakingly close attempts, São Paulo finally finds the net as Willian cuts one way, keeps his composure and calmly finishes in the opposite corner, giving the crowd a breath of life. Neymar 2, São Paulo 1. Just as São Paulo is looking to equalize and send the game into extra time, Neymar resurfaces and takes a crack from a ways out. Keeper error. Neymar 3, São Paulo 1. Crowd is silent.

I really had the opportunity to watch some outstanding soccer. Can't complain about having the chance to watch Neymar, the best player in the world according to Pele.

Day 5: We had to leave at ten forty that night so it turned out to be a pretty low key day. We pretty much just ate some food, such as takoyaki, and hung out at the house all day. We also played a lot of poker, not only that day but during the evenings of most of our stay. We then said our goodbyes around nine and headed back to good ol' Juiz de Fora.

I am not really the kind of person that enjoys large cities, but I really did enjoy my stay in Sao Paulo and had a lot of fun. I am looking forward to my next adventure. Here is a link to a video that Tanyu made of our trip to Rio. I left a day earlier since I had already been to Christ Redeemer and I was not able to go to the soccer game since I was dropping Evan off at the airport. Enjoy!

http://vimeo.com/40428060

As an end note: Sorry for the out of order pictures and Sao Paulo has a little squiggly line above the first "a".