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Published: August 8th 2009
Just about made it to Sao Paulo... The hostel forgot to book my taxi, so when it finally arrived i had 20 minutes to get to the bus station, and it normally takes 30! After some crazy speeding by the driver, i made it with 2 mins to spare, but didn't have chance to buy any food or drink, so bit of a duff journey as i was starving!
Arrived in Sao Paulo at 7am, and found my hostel, which was pretty cool! I walked miles to the centre, and immediately got lost. My sense of direction is shocking, and Sao Paulo is just the biggest place i've ever seen! I found the cathedral, which is stunning, as is the area around it. However, as well as being an extremely wealthy area, its also a really really poor area. There were hundreds of homeless people living on the steps and around, bathing in the fountains. It really sad to see, and the little kids constantly ask you for food & drinks!
Anyway, i made it back to the hostel and had a few drinks at the bar and weighed up whether or not i'd go out that night. Didn't
take long, Sao Paulo nightlife is supposed to be great, so why not. At 1am, the owner of the hostel rounded everyone up, packed us into taxi's, and took us to a club. Really cool place called Funhouse, sadly no Pat Sharp or the twins.
You get a card on entry and every time you order a drink they tick the card, so no hassle of paying for each drink, you pay at the end. I thought it was a great idea, until 6am when the whole club was leaving, and you had to queue at the 1 till to pay. Took ages. They really have daft rules for drinking in clubs in South America.
Grabbed a couple of hours sleep and headed out on the subway to the brand new Football Museum, apparently one of the best in the world. Must admit, it was pretty good, housed in a really cool stadium, and was free.
There was a lot of interactive stuff, but my Portuguese ain't too good, so not really of much use to me. Took a good while to get around it, but the best was at the end where you get to take
a penalty against a virtual keeper, and it records the speed! There were loads of local lads who were getting about 68kmh, 71kmh... So i stepped up, only a 2 step run up, smashed what can only be described as the illusive 'perfect penalty'. A real low daisy cutter tucked as much into the bottom corner as possible...... there were many gasps as the speed came up at 100kmh. I calmly did a few kick-ups, and walked out. England 1, Brazil 0!!
After my footballing heroics, i trekked miles to the Banespa building, a replica of the Empire State Building, which you can go up and get views of the whole city!! After 30 minutes queuing, i was told you needed your passport to get up there. You need your passport for everything in South America, even booking bus tickets, its a joke. Ah well, back to the hostel it was. Had a few drinks that night in the hostel bar, as i was up early doors for a bus to Rio!!
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Rogério
non-member comment
Banespa
I just got back from São Paulo. I am brazilian (live near Porto Alegre) and it was my first time there. Regarding going up the Banespa building, we brazilians must show ID cards... and so it seems foreigners must show their passports... Dont know why so much security... well... its a bank... but there are guards around... maybe they should reserve some elevators just for the tourists going up the towers and program the elevators to stop only on predetermined floors. Its much easier to go up the Italia building and the view is equally impressive.