From the sublime to the ridiculous

Hola Chicos,

We navigated our first colossal bus journey from Rio de Janeiro to Sao Paulo (6 hours) without any issues.

First impressions of Sao Paulo: big. The architecture lacked any thought or design and the sheer size of the city was overwhelming. After taking a taxi with the most clueless driver, who had to ask us for directions, we finally arrived at our hostel. After 6 hours of travelling we were feeling quite peckish and very lazy. We saw there was a pizzeria across the road and obliviously gandered in to a 5 star hotel, picked as one of the Official FIFA hotels for the 2014 World Cup. It was too late to turn back now and we had to order the most exorbitantly expensive pizzas - about 4 times our daily budget. We have been living off bread and water ever since.

Brazil is renowned for its football, so we decided to visit a football museum in Sao Paulo, built especially for the World Cup next year. The museum cost 32.5 million Reals (about the price of our dinner the night before). Wandering around the museum we began to understand just how passionate Brazilians are about their national game - to a nauseating extent. Superlatives flowed and upon mentioning Pele’s name the whole museum seemed to have a pleasurable moment.

Continuing in a footballing vein we were staying in a football-themed hostel – the imaginatively named Gol (English Translation: Goal). Let's start with hostel’s good points: it had four walls and a roof. There ends the good points. Due to the fact that this was a football hostel we were quite hopeful of being able to watch the Champions League quarterfinals. Apparently that was too much to ask. The staff also seemed to have no idea of when the World Cup in Brazil begins “dunno mate, some time in April”.  Definitely one of the highlights of this hostel was a loveable rogue from Latvia. Initially ordained as a Mormon priest (in Rotherham?!) he had found himself stuck in Brazil after a night out gone wrong….5 months earlier. 

The next day we decided to finally do a bit of sightseeing. We visited the Mercado Municipal where we tried a very hot chilli which had Ben in tears for 10 minutes. Next on our itinerary was the Edificio Italia, one of the tallest buildings in Sao Paulo (41 storeys). At the top we could look out over the whole of Sao Paulo. The city is simply gargantuan and skyscrapers, pylons and cars spread as far as the eye could see. As mentioned it is an incredibly ugly city, so we were more interested in watching an Englishman try to chat up the thickest girls we have ever seen. Strangely enough he went home with all four of them.

Curitiba was our next destination where we were going to stay with a friend. Our hostess was incredibly generous and patient with these 3 weary travellers. It was a great opportunity to catch up on some washing and sleep in a city much calmer than Sao Paulo or Rio. We went out for a pretty insane night at an Irish bar involving some twins and a wasted Italian girl. We also encountered our first "travesty" the Portuguese and Spanish word for a tranny. 

Next entry will be a lot of pictures from Iguazu Falls, some absolutely stunning views.