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Published: February 11th 2008
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Hi all, Como Vai?
Our final night in Florianopolis (6th) was a relatively low key affair, instead of heading out we once again unleased the AVFC playing cards and played poker with some folk from Ireland and Leicester. Beer did flow however and attempts to make drunken popcorn ensued, we were also followed by a dog who took a shine to Sam and managed to get into our hostel room which was comical.
On the eve of the 7th Jan we decided to finally drag ourselves away from Florianopolis though and catch an overnight bus to Sao Paolo. Luckily there were no catastrophies on this one other than putting up with the cheapest seats and more erratic driving, and we arrived in Sao Paolo, or Sampa, early on the 8th.
Despite being ridiculously tired we got chatting to some Brazillians who said they were going into the centre, feeling like we would probably need a guide around a city with the population of 18 million and where apparently there was an average of 700 murders a month in the late 90s we perked up and headed out to the centre.
En route we stopped at a local
eatery and enjoyed a bit of homemade style Brazillian food consisting of Bife (or loin steak) rice, beans, mash, and more sawdust. It was really really enjoyable and dirt cheap, something we may not have dug out but for the guides. We then took the subway into the centre and climbed/took the lift up the highest building in Sampa for a panoramic view of the city.
The view was slightly concrete-jungle-esque but still truly impressive if not just for the vast amount of skyscrapers visible as far as the eye could see. We took a few snaps, felt slightly vertigoed and headed back down. One highlight of the little venture was witnessing a bunch of Americans sporting the bum-bags or fanny-packs, and being generally slightly loud and boistrous and truly fascinated and enthusiastic about the building, one of them taking on the role of explaining everything lifted directly from the pamphlet we were given. I hate to delve into the realms of stereotypes but Im sure most people can picture them without further elaboration.
From the tower we went downtown to try take a look at one of the local markets. The Brazillians told us this was quite a
dangerous area, and sure enough there were armed police inside each doorframe, there were also scenes of slight chaos and when one guy shouted something in Portuguese everyone packed up their stalls and ran, the police just strolled up not really doing much so it was all a little bizzare, however one does have to question the legality of the goods they were selling. We also visited the Japanese quarter which was interesting, Sampa has a large immigrant population and is extremely diverse, there is no typical looking person from Sao Paolo, I was also told that I could pass for a Brazillian which I was impressed with.
We got back to the hostel and spoke for ages over a couple of beers and games of pool with a German guy called Timm who was equally as passionate about his team Frankfurt as we are about Aston Villa. We also enjoyed another political chat which comes along after a few beers, we know a lot more about Germany, Israel and the US from this trip. We then found out that there was a free Samba lesson in the Hostel, embracing it fully we got our shimmy on for a
while, we were actually arguably better than some of the English girls however not quite up to scratch with the Brazillians, who didn´t look like they really needed lessons and were, I hasten to add, merely showing off. Sam threw a few shapes of his own which probably offended the locals as you dont mess with the Samba, great viewing nonetheless. We offered to teach them our cultural dance, no not Morris Dancing, but the robot, they weren´t impressed.
All the people who were ousted by the hostel which has a poor drinking policy then went to a local pizzeria which is where locals tend to hang out and drink. Some mildly intoxicated locals challenged us to a football match the following morning, and we were told on numerous times that the ball was going to go through our legs. They were big on their lookalikes and labelled Sam a West Ham hooligan from Green Street, and called our German amigo a James Blunt lookalike and passionately sung ´you´re beautiful eeeets true´ for a good few minutes, those crazy brazillians.
Despite our reservations, me, Sam and another guy who was asked to play football waited around the hostel
for a while, fully aware that the Brazillian etiquette is to turn up an hour late. Sure enough an hour after he was due one of the guys turned up and we psyched ourselves up to play the Brazillians at the game we invented, and they mastered. The pitch itself was indoors, and was a ´futebol´pitch, with narrow but high goals and a slightly smaller and flatter ball. It was pretty frantic (and ridiculously hot) but our team consisting of the 3 gringo´s and 2 drunks we met put on a good showing, and had the best record of the 4 teams on show. The first game saw a Condron-Sparrow, Sparrow-Condron combination resulting in 2 goals, Carlos Alberto eat your heart out.
After the game we had a beer with all the guys we played with who were all determined that we leave the place supporting their team, shouting Corintians, Palmeiras, Sao Paolo etc... Diplomacy was needed and plenty of laughing and light hearted responses got us through. We went out with some of the locals on the night and one guy (renamed Peter Crouch) despite not knowing any English assured us that ´my english is very very good´,
it was funny how the only thing we memorised was how little portuguese we knew and he was showing off about his the whole time. They were word perfect on all Oasis and Nirvana songs though and sung them plenty, there were further touching renditions of you´re beautiful in the bar also.
There arent too many great snaps from Sao Paolo as I didnt want to weild the cam about too much in the dodgier areas however I will add some of the ones I took the next time I head to an internet cafe. Just thought it would be wise to get stuff out of the way before the blog on Rio, where we arrived yesterday, look out for plenty of Barry Manilow and Duran Duran in quotes on that one.
AC.
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Noran
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what a contrast
Hi Aaron......what a massive contrast between the island paradise you were in(previous blog) and the concrete jungle (this blog)........ you sound as if you are having a fantastic time.......can't wait to see your Samba dancing........just wondered who they renamed you as??Take care........Noran