Sao Paulo
Trip Start
Jan 16, 2008
1
16
37
Trip End
Jan 01, 2009
Sao Paolo,
Brazil
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
It was a horrible day´s trip to get here but we´re here in the end! It involved a 12 hour wait for the flight in Panama, Eon´s credit card being temporarily canceled, not being able to get anything to eat in the airport....the list goes on, so I´ll leave the negativity out!
Needless to say we were feeling pretty down when we landed, and to top it off, it was lashing! Once we got to the hostel however, our luck changed. Firstly we were met with a warm welcome, and as it was March 17th, we were given a big Happy St. Patrick´s Day hug, so our 1st impressions we good to say the least, and things only got better, the hostel was only opened 2 months ago so everything is nice and new, new beds, new showers too (the 1st hot one in 5 weeks!!) and the staff were really really friendly and helpful to us. But all we wanted was a sleep, and then we could think about celebrating the day of the Irish.
We hit an Irish bar, Finnegan's,and not only did we get free entrance for being Irish, but were treated like royalty too, apart from the Green Beer, that tasted like a bad Soda Stream from the 80´s! We were the only Irish there until a couple came in later, Grainne from Dublin and Malte from Cavan so we had a great night
Paddy´s Day Band
. The music wasn´t so good though, only one actual Irish one all night...Lady in Red...which wouldn´t be on the top of most people´s lists!Over the next couple of days in the hostel, we were joined by loads more Irish people, so we settled in a bit and decided on staying a few days longer than planned as we were all getting on great and having a really good laugh too. If I´ve learned anything from this trip so far, it´s that when the going is good, stick with it because there will be a lot of bad days too. And that is what we did. We all got on well from the start, and little by little the hostel staff gave us a lot more rope, and in the end, Eoin was serving drinks in the bar and I was doing a bit of DJing in the evening. This was definitely the best hostel so far!!!
Before I came here, I´d been told that there´s not much in Sao Paolo, and...they probably were right, however, we did go to all the main sights, like Downtown, which to me looked a lot like Barcelona and Las Ramblas. Avenue Paulista is the main shopping and financial district, so I picked up some presents I´d wanted to get and also managed to get a Lonely Planet for South America so I was happy with that!
There is also a big Asian influence on the city so we took a trip to the Japanese district, which wasn´t what we thought it would be, but the food was an obvious big hit. Eoin & Marc tucked into the Sushi Boat and we all got great chicken and beef dishes.
All this traveling was done on the fantastic Metro line here
Where the Streets have no name...
. It´s so quick, cheap and really safe too. Even the people were really polite on it, no pushing and shoving that you might see in undergrounds around the world!One of the big highlights was going to see a football game on Sunday, Corinthians (the local team) vs Rio Claro. The stadium sits around 90,000 people, but there was probably only around 30,000 there. They do however make up for it with the noise!!! We were in with the home fans so we got to see them in full flight, singing, shouting, waving t-shirts over their heads and going crazy when they scored! It finished 1-0 to the home team so everyone went home happy. We also got to see, what looks like being a name for the future, Dentinho, who at 18 played some amazing football and showed some real classy touches. He´s not in the Brazilian squad yet, but appears to be only a matter of time...so you heard it here first folks!!!
Having finally decided to say goodbye to Sao Paolo on Wednesday, we said a slightly sad farewell to the staff of Casa Club and to Phelim, Sarah and Marc...the three Irish that we shared so many laughs with over the few days there. We all hope to see each other someday in the future, if not on this trip, then hopefully in Australia or at the very least back in Ireland, for a drink or two!
At the moment we´re in Rio and after less than 24 hours here, we can already see how much there is to see. Today we have visited the Favalas (the slums, which was better than it sounds!!!)And have touched the sacred sand of the Copacabana. Tomorrow it´s off to Christ The Redeemer and Sugar Loaf Mountain, and a street party in the evening. Saturday will be on the beach and Sunday is another match, this time a local Rio derby between Fluminese and Botafogo, so lots of photos and info in the next installment!
Comments
yes boys..
don't spend too much money at help nightclub will ya..
Alright lad!
How´s things with you. We´re off to a Favela party tonight so that should be an experience!! Will let you know how we get on....if we get back alive!