After only 4, activity-filled, days in Buenos Aires, I packed my backpack and was off to Brazil for one month of traveling through and exploring this country that has always been on my travel wish list. First stop after Ezeiza, the international airport of BA: SÃO PAULO. I heard from many people and read in some blogs that you can’t really spend more than a couple of days in this city. It being the Brazilian capital of skyscrapers, banks and big companies with fancy security guards outside, comparable to Frankfurt in Germany, the city was not supposed to offer much for tourists and travelers. But somehow, I managed to spend a whole week here …
After arriving in Brazil for the first time in my little traveler’s life, I quickly realized that this country is nothing like the rest of South America, or at least what I had seen of the continent so far. Let me, therefore, give you a quick overview of São Paulo, the first stop in my little Brazil adventure. A survival guide for Brazil-first-timers, eager travelers or simply curious fellas from the home front:
– First of all: Spanish helps you nothing in Brazil, neither does English. But don’t worry, sign language’s got your back
– On the bright side: Brazilian people must be some of the friendliest, most kind, helpful and generous people I’ve met so far on my travels
– Uber is the best in this city! When I first used it to get from the airport to Fernanda’s (my host in SP – again, shoutout to Caro for this amazing contact) apartment, the driver arrived so surprisingly fast, I couldn’t even sufficiently use the free wifi at the airport! All you need is the app, wifi and a credit card or PayPal account. And it only cost me 20€ for a 1:20h ride
– You have to go to Mercado Municipal (a big market hall with fresh fruit, vegetables, cheese, meat, nuts, etc.) with a local to make sure you don’t get ripped off and that you can try the most fruits and get some explanations. Again: almost none of the guys will speak English or Spanish. The place is By the way, my new favorite fruit is called Fruta do Conde or Chirimoya. Unfortunately, it costs about 8€ per piece.. I’ve always had kind of an expensive taste, I guess
– Homemade Brazilian food consists of a variety of things and offers something for every taste: rice, beans, cooked vegetables, chicken or meat and some salad. The girlfriend of Fernanda’s brother prepared something delicious for us almost every night
– The favorite food of the Brazilians is apparently rice & beans
– Guaraná Zero is my new Coke Zero substitute for special occasions
– Mandioca is the best, most versatile & most delicious potato-fake ever: Mandioca frita (manioc fries), farofa (manioc meal: as a side dish, or to dip meat Schaschlik into), tapioca (pancake made with manioc-flour) – no matter what you make out of this amazing vegetable/root/potato thingy, I promise it’ll be delicious!
– Tapioca is my personal favorite: it looks & tastes a bit like styrofoam but is actually a healthy, gluten-free, low-calorie alternative to normal flour or pancake mixes and is topped with either savory or sweet toppings such as fruit, Nutella or dulce de leche (the Brazilians like this stuff just as much as the Argentinians do)
– Brigadeiro is the national praline, which was named after a former presidency candidate, who apparently came up with this temptation. With its super moist and chocolaty texture it’ll make you gain 5kg by just looking at it
– Bakeries, pastries, cakes & Empanadas are to be found at every corner, again
– If you’re ever here, don’t miss out on the modern northern-southern-Brazilian-fusion cuisine of the restaurant Fito (located outside of the centre, but definitely worth the trip!)
– Parque Ibirapuera was definitely worth the 12km walk I mastered that day. It’s a gorgeous park, great for running, watching the sunset or just walking around, sipping on some coconut water, like I did (which, by the way, you can even pay for with your credit card at a little street cart)
– Every now and then, you’ll find yourself surrounded by the smell of roasted and caramelized nuts, while walking through the streets of the city. You can then buy a portion – of every kind of nut there is – around the next corner for around 4-8€
– “Estacionamento” (paid parking lot) is probably the sign you’ll find most on the streets of SP. More precisely, every 5m. Apparently, there’s too many cars in the city and there’s even a certain time during the week, depending on your license plate number, where you’re not allowed to use your car at all
– Don’t be irritated by the countless tent settlements of homeless people in and around the city centre. They’re pretty normal to everybody else and the people usually just gather around some self-proclaimed priests and listen to their raging speeches
– Just as normal as these tent villages are the jugglers and table-cloth-sellers you’ll see at many stop lights
– Last but not least, some FYI: you can use regular German plugs; temperatures during the day of up to 26 degrees make you dream of the beach, but as soon as the sun sets around 6pm it gets really really cold, and a jacket & a scarf become a necessity; the prices are generally not as cheap as you would expect them; “GOL Airlines” are totally recommendable (we even got a free sandwich + drink on a less than two hour flight)
Mercado Municipal:
Parque Ibirapuera:
lenacatherine 