Kiribu

After a 7 hour bus trip from the neighbouring city of Rio, I finally pulled into the bus terminal of Sao Paulo. My old friends came to pick me up from the bus terminal and we drove through the old part of town and I was shown a few of the classic landmarks, it was night-time so was quite hard to get my bearings. Sao Paulo is the biggest and best city in Brasil, (it’s actually the biggest city in the southern hemisphere) although far too crowded and polluted, and it takes ages to get anywhere. It is the pizza capital of Brasil with more pizza places per square kilometer than any other city.

We arrived at my friend’s house, which like most middle class homes is in a secured estate. His parents were at the family’s sea side home a few hours up the coast past the city of Santos. We would go here in the morning. I got my own room in the out house at the back. 5 star. There was a family party that night with all the cousins at an amazing apartment in the trendy part of town which had stunning views of the city, and I was invited to attend. We ordered some pizza and got busy drinking. My friend is half Japanese half Brazilian, outside of Japan Sao Paulo has the biggest Japanese population in the world. It was a great first night in Sao Paulo.

The beach was about two and a half hours up the coast past the port city of Santos, quite a short distance in South American terms. Santos is an industrial port city that reminded me of Rotterdam, we didn’t stop there as we didn’t have time. Further up the coast the beaches are extremely beautiful, mostly full of locals as it was approaching the low season. We drove straight to the beach and met the rest of the family. We stayed and swam a little before heading back to the beach house. His dad then cooked an amazing Paella for all of us for lunch. We then went back to the city that evening so we could meet a few more of my friends. Sao Paulo is hopeless if you don’t have a car. It is just too big to get anywhere by public transport unless you are right in the centre or don’t mind spending the time to go about it.

On the monday we decided to be really lazy and relax around the pool and the house and not do much all day. In the evening we had agreed to all meet up to go to a Palmeiras Football match. My friends are über fanatic and one of them gave me his shirt as a gift and obviously so I could support them! The match was really funny, 1 – 0 up within 10 minutes and before you knew it we were 2 – 1 down in the second half. Then in the last 10 minutes we scored 2 goals to win 3 – 2 with virtually the last kick of the game. They would play Santos who are top of the league in a state championship cup match in a few days and I wasn’t giving them much hope especially as they won 10 – 0 the following day in a league match. Palmeiras would win 5-4, an amazing match. If you get the chance you should definitely try to catch a game of football.

On Tuesday we all went to visit the Sao Paulo city centre. We went via metro, which is really cheap and really well-connected, but sadly doesn’t go to that many exciting places. We first visited the Catedral da Sé de São Paulo church and then headed to the business district which is really big (Sao Paulo is the 10th richest city in the world). There is an old building that was once the place of the first settlers of Sao Paulo. We then went up the Banespa Skyscraper with observation deck and museum designed after the Empire State building in the centre to get a good panoramic of the city. We had some great lunch at a fresh sandwich bar in the Mercado Municipal. Apparently it’s really famous for its big meat sandwiches and fish sandwiches so I went for a big Mortadella stack. I couldn’t quite finish it!

The next day I headed in to Ibirapuera Park to visit several museums. It is known for its buildings designed by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, such as the Ibirapuera Auditorium. It was a bit of a mission since I had to go by bus, it took about 45 minutes to get to the centre and then decided to walk most of the way. After that we headed to the chic shopping street, Rua Oscar Freire, the 8th most luxurious shopping street in the world, and also headed up a hotel building, Transamérica Prime, and The View bar, to get another panoramic view of the city. At night we went out for food and drinks in the happening Vîla Olîmpia.

We had some great dinner with the family throughout the week, and as my birthday was approaching they had arranged to take us out to a chinese restaurant in China Town, Sao Paulo style. My friends had arranged for us to head out and party for my birthday in the popular district of Rua Augusta. A great way to finish a great stay in Sao Paulo. Highly Recommended!