São Paulo

From Rio Grande do Sul, I headed further north to São Paulo, the capital city of the state with the same name, largest city in Brazil and also 7 or 8th largest city in the world, depending on your source. The flight there was delayed of course but was pleasant enough, taking roughly one hour. At the airport I was meet by another of my Brazilian friends, whom I stayed with in the apartment that he shares with his mother in the suburb of Tatuapé.

My first day his mother took me shopping, spoiling me by buying me clothes and being extremely hospitable. We had lunch at the buffet por kilo in the food court of the shopping mall. Unfortunately, my friend had to work all week. The following day she took me to check out the old city centre. Coming out of the metro, São Paulo Cathedral loomed before us, its lime green spires perfectly distinct against the cloudless blue sky.

We walked past Praça da Sé, following the masses of people filling the streets bordered by colonial buildings, now banks and offices, onto the square where the 17th century Jesuit monastery can be found. The yellow Telefonica phone booths stood out against the graffiti-ed walls on each block, making for some interesting photography. As we continued on, we came across models strutting their stuff for São Paulo Fashion Week. These models looked very foreign amongst the normal city dwellers, especially as a heap of photographers traced their every step.

We walked on, crossing pedestrian bridges, checking out São Bento Monastery and finally arriving at Rua 25 de Março, the famous shopping street where everything is ridiculously cheap and ridiculously crowded. I stepped in chewing gum twice, once on each foot. I must have been looking up too much at the towering skyscrapers, each charismatic in their own right. To look down at the ground, one would come across rubbish and homeless bums littering the streets. With carnival fast approaching, we took the opportunity to check out the stores selling carnival costumes, trying on crazy masks, hats and feather boas.

For the weekend, my friend took me out to the periphery of São Paulo, where the countryside was to begin. Instead Mogi das Cruzes looked more like a town, just minus the skyscrapers of the city centre. We spent the entire weekend at my friend’s friend’s mansion of a country house, which included palm trees, a swimming pool and expensive furniture. After we took the long, sweating train/metro ride back into the city, we headed straight to Charme da Paulista, a bar expanding out onto the footpath of Avenida Paulista. A young man played his handcrafted miniature saxophone as we drank Brazilian Brahma beer and talked about memories of Australia.