By Riccardo and Joshua,
After many days of getting up early, we have a day that we finally could stay an hour longer in bed. A city tour was planned. First stop, Pinacoteca do estado / parque de luz. In the museum an exhibition was held with many different art styles. Well we are not experts, but we knew to tell good stories about each painting. Unfortunately, the raining season came looking around the corner and kept us to explore the park and possibly spot a parrot or two. After everyone had become fully awake with a cup of coffee and we robbed a street vendor of his umbrellas, we continued our tour to Mercado. In this hall with many stalls where they sold Brazilian delicacies, many studytrip member chose immediately to rush to the finish. While one individual chose for feijoada (Brazilian stew with beans, pork and beef) the remaining participants went for a Mortadela (richly sandwich with ham and cheese). After lunch we then still seized our chance to see the stalls.
Our afternoon program was begun. While part of the group took advantage of this time to do measurements, the rest went into the crowd called the center of Sao Paulo. First stop was the Edificio Martinelli (Martinelli Building), the first “skyscraper” of Brazil. Our city tour continued with our guides Michiel and Stefan to an old monastery in the center of Sao Paulo. Unfortunately, the monastery was closed. After several desperate attempts for a way inside, we continued our journey to the “SÉ Cathedral”. On the square in front of the cathedral we were, for the 2nd time during our trip, confronted with the political problems that currently are ongoing in Brazil. The square was filled by men in speaking in Portuguese to a group of men (ofcourse we couldn’t understand anything what they were saying) and homeless people who were only too happy to get close to a group of “gringos”.
Back at the hostel the search was initiated for a location for our last supper. With the help of some locals we met at the university, we ended up at a restaurant with buffet and unlimited meat on a skewer at the table. After all bellies were round again we continued finishing our adventure in Brazil with a lively night out. Unfortunately we had to deflect from our original plan to go to the Cultural Festival in downtown Sao Paulo because of the storm that was coming.
