São Paulo is a huge city. With 19 million inhabitants, it's the largest city in the southern hemisphere, and the seventh largest in the world, and it's the financial and cultural centre of Brazil. It also has the world's largest public transport system, including an excellent metro system, which made getting around town pretty easy (although I never managed to figure out the buses).
I arrived at Vila Madalena Hostel early on Thursday morning, which meant that I had to wait a few hours until I could check in. Eventually my bed became free, so I checked into my dorm, and then Tulio, the eccentric owner of the hostel, presented me with a city map, and spent half an hour scrawling all over it, suggesting places I should visit during my stay. It was by far the most helpful advice any hostel owner or employee has ever given me.
After a brief rest I set off on the walking tour that Tulio had suggested to me, which took me from the hostel, through the upmarket Jardim Paulista neighbourhood, and onto Paulista Avenue, which is Brazil's most important financial centre and also home to MASP (São Paulo Museum of Art), which is Latin America's most important museum of Western art. I then spent an hour or two looking around the museum, which contained artworks by most of the big hitters in the art world (Picasso, Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, Rembrandt, Constable, Turner, etc., etc.). I then made my way back to the hostel via Oscar Freire Street, which is apparently the ninth most luxurious street in the world.
Tulio describes Vila Madalena as an art and design hostel, and he's personally very interested in art, so much of the advice he gave me was based on the art galleries and exhibitions that he suggested I visit. One of them was actually a street, Beco de Batman (Batman's Alley), the walls of which are completely covered by graffiti, so after returning from Tulio's walking tour I went to take a look. I had a bit of trouble finding the street, but once I did, there was no question that I was in the right place. There were some quite impressive but weird paintings there, for example here and below.
It was started to get dark by this point, and I didn't think it was a good idea to linger too long in a dark alley, so I quickly made my way back to the hostel. When I got there I met Zani and Maria, two girls that were staying in my dorm, who were from Australia and Brazil respectively. They invited me to go out to dinner with them, so we went out for some typical Brazilian food, followed by a few beers back at the hostel.
The following day Maria and I went for a walk around two of São Paulo's neighbourhoods, Centro and Liberdade. Centro is the historic centre of São Paulo, and Liberdade is the Japanese district, which is home to the largest Japanese community outside Japan in the world. In the morning we saw the main sights of the historic centre, including the Cathedral and the Viaduto do Chá (Tea Viaduct), which is São Paulo's oldest viaduct. We also called in at Edifício Itália (see the photo below), which is one of São Paulo's landmark buildings, and the second tallest building in the city. There's a restaurant and viewing platform on the top floor of the building, which I'd read that it was possible to visit, but the man at the information desk told us that if we wanted to go there without eating at the expensive restaurant, we'd have to come back between 3pm and 4pm.
So we walked over to Liberdade, where we had Japanese curry for lunch, and it was at this point that Maria admitted that my preference for walking everywhere had caused her feet to blister almost to the point of bleeding, which did make me feel a bit guilty. However, after stopping off at a shop to buy a new pair of Havaianas we were ready to continue, and we carried on walking around Liberdade, calling in at a big orchid show (I never knew the Japanese were so keen on orchids).
We then made our way back to Edifício Itália, via the Mercado Municipal, which is one of the best food markets I've ever visited. We arrived back at Edifício Itália at the appropriate time, and made our way up to the top floor, where the view was pretty impressive - there are some photos here and below.
That evening Maria, I, and Lesley, a Canadian girl also in our dorm, went to a gig, because there were three Canadian guys staying at our hostel who were members of a samba band, and they were in São Paulo to do a mini-tour. They'd invited everyone they'd met in the hostel to their gig the previous night, but since it was in a different neighbourhood we didn't go. However, their second gig, which was taking place that night, was in a venue about three blocks from the hostel, so this time we had no excuse.
Even though the club was nearby, it was in an extremely obscure location, and we'd never have found it without detailed directions (we had to walk about 50m through a car park until we spotted it, and there was no indication on the street that the club was there). And it was a really good night - I thought it was pretty brave of a Canadian band to come to Brazil to play samba music, but they really pulled it off. The band were playing with a local saxophonist, and the keyboard player, David, told us at the interval that they'd only met this guy half an hour before the show started, which seemed pretty amazing to me.
The following day was a bit of a write-off, as I was so tired from Friday night. In the morning I set goodbye to Zani, and then I went over to the bus station to buy my ticket for the following day to Campo Grande. On my way back I stopped off to take a look at an antiques market that takes place every Saturday about two blocks from the hostel. Obviously I wasn't planning to buy any antiques, but it was interesting to have a wander round, and there were food stalls and even a band playing. Afterwards I called in at two more small art galleries that Tulio had particularly recommended to me - one of them was an alternative gallery with graffiti-like artworks hung on black walls, and it was pretty weird. It was more Japanese food for dinner - sushi this time, at a local restaurant.
On Sunday at lunchtime, Maria left to catch her flight to Rio, but my bus wasn't until 8pm, so I still had the afternoon to kill. After an aborted attempt to visit the Museu do Futebol (Museum of Football), which turned out to be closed, I walked over to the huge Ibirapuera Park, and I spent the rest of the afternoon there, visiting a couple of museums including MAM (São Paulo Museum of Modern Art) and generally wandering around.
That just about all I have to say about São Paulo, where I spent four really enjoyable days. São Paulo has none of the beauty of Rio de Janeiro, and if you don't like big cities you'd probably hate it, but it has an energy and excitement unlike anything else that I've come across in South America.
Este post é muito bom, porque o post está dando uma informação muito interessante sobre restaurantes. Portanto, estamos muito gratos a você.
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