Advertisement
Published: October 4th 2007
Edit Blog Post
On the beach with Pati and Karine
Think it's obvious who the brazilians and the english are in this pic!!! I’ve been exploring the island and its beaches a little, not enough yet, but as it’s only spring the weather isn’t always great!
My flatmate Patricia took me on a bit of a whirlwind tour of the popular surfista beaches - beautiful scenery and beautiful people! It was so nice to just sit on the beach, having a waiter bring lots of ice cold beer and battered shrimp - not a bad way to spend the day!
We’ve been to explore the beaches south of island - which I’ve heard are more natural and less touristy - perfect! And it was stunning! Though slightly marred by the fact that there were cars parked on the beach?! We went with some of Pati’s friends to meet some other international friends who were staying in a pousada down there - much to my surprise when we arrived that these friends included the French guys I met in my first week and an American I have classes with! It was a fun day of sunbathing, playing sports on the beach and having a churrasco and everyone was so nice and funny, it was a day filled with international banter and I met some awesome
Columbians and Paraguayans!
We’ve been going out a fair bit, to a variety of places, mostly samba clubs, and a couple nightclubs… one night we went to an Irish pub of all places! It was a cosy place, with a live band and they even serve Guinness! So there I was in a pub, drinking Guinness and watching the rugby world cup for the first time ever! Who would’ve thought all it took for me to be English was a trip to Brazil! They also have a menu full of English food so I am definitely going to have to pay a visit and judge just how English it is!
One samba party I went to was especially cool… in the north of the island, it’s a weekly thing, held in this guys converted fisherman’s shed right on the water run by a friendly local man, with an awesome band, local people and beers sold right out of their fridge; it was such a cool, low-key cultural thing, I thought now this is Latin America. I met some awesome people as well, and a charming man gave me his Saint Protection necklace and two guys kept taking pictures of
me, which was a bit weird!
There’s a kind of art house near me, which has exhibitions, plays, films, live music, etc. I’ve been there a few times now, once to see a friend’s mom’s interesting art exhibition, a few times to see foreign films and last week I went to watch a friends samba band play. It’s a really cool little place with so many interesting things going on.
One day we went to the north of the island to see some of beaches there. The north of the island is a lot more built up and touristy, full of high-rise hotels, very pretty though still not my scene. I much prefer the south of the island with its beautiful hidden beaches which you have to hike to get to.
The next day we went on a boat trip which went around the island a bit, stopping by Ilha Grande de Ratones (“Big Rat Island” - apparently because it’s shaped like a rat) to explore the old forts and we went on to the mainland for a massive lunch. It was so nice to lounge around on a nice big boat, looking at all the scenery.
That
night we went to a Seu Jorge concert which was AMAZING. Concerts here have a different lay out, you come when doors open at around 10pm, and you sit in the bars (there’s a sushi bar, a creperie and a normal bar) or go into the nightclub in the venue (it’s a pretty big building!) and around midnight the concert will start. The show was incredible, Seu Jorge and his band were so full of energy, jumping and dancing around to all the songs, it was such a good atmosphere and it was awesome to hear it live. The show goes on for nearly 3 hours, so we were pretty exhausted by the end.
On Sunday I went to watch my very first live football match - the Florianopolis Figuerense (named after figs) vs. Juventude. We won 4-1, and it was so good! The stands were maybe half full, virtually all for Figuerense, save for the lone 20 or so Juventude supporters. The atmosphere was incredible, the cheering and jeering was rhythmic and energetic - one massive stand was full of samba drummers who beat and sang and jumped about for the majority of the match. I got quite
into it; I might even become a footie fan now! Though next time I go I’m joining the samba crowd!
I went to my first churrasca yesterday; it was very entertaining - full of crazy Brazilians, tonnes of beer, weed and food. It was an interesting mix. I ate a lot but refrained from trying the chicken hearts and the carne (beef) as I haven’t had in so long I’ve kinda gone off of it; it didn’t look very appetising as they do it very well done here - not the way I’ve been brought up on it! Brazilians are often crazy people in general; fuelled with beer and weed (as they normally are) they are twice as crazy - yelling crazy things and waving their arms about during a regular conversation, and often completely nonsensical conversations, leaving me just to smile and nod my head as they talk at me.
People keep asking me if I’m Argentinean which is so strange! When one man asked I asked him why and he said it’s because I speak portunhol (Spanish and Portuguese mixed) which I was very disappointed to hear as I thought I was improving on that front!
I
find I’m becoming accustomed to the machista society, where men feel free to leer and make comments in bars, on the street, even in the supermarket as I found yesterday! Now I don’t even notice the stares and cat calls, but yesterday when I was actually followed by two men in the supermarket I found it a little unsettling! Though I do feel safe here, I can quite happily walk home at night and not feel too vulnerable, probably because people stay out so late here and the streets are still quite alive at night. It was so weird one night we went out for battered shrimp and cerveja (beer) at 2am and there were families out eating dinner!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.059s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 7; qc: 47; dbt: 0.0368s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
mandy
non-member comment
blog
dearest angie this blog is such a great idea and i love having the photos to look at too. keep it up!!! much love mandy xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx