Tuesday, June 24, 2014

São Paulo Seems...Almost...Normal

Remember Quinn's declaration that zoo day had been his favorite day? And how that had frustrated me because it had nothing to do with the World Cup?

I think today was my favorite day. 

We got up, took a run (Quinn was a little slower today; he sets the pace, though I would have been, too. It's been a busy week, and we're nackered, as Karl Pilkington would say); then we had breakfast, and were off to (a) check out a shopping center on Paulista, and (b) visit MASP, which is the Museum of Art of São Paulo, and is pronounced, in its acronymal form, "maspy". 

The shopping center was OK, nothing to write home about. Like a lot of them , it peters out after a couple of floors, and was clearly designed bigger than its actual carrying capacity. But we did see that it has a movie theater. More on that later. 

Maspy opened at 11:00, and to be perfectly honest, fine art isn't Quinn's favorite subject. We did have a few conversations about what art is, and what it isn't, in our estimation. We're not far off from each other on that score. But that wore thin, and I managed to get another ten minutes or so out of him by competing to see who, from a distance, could guess he year of a particular painting more closely. And you know what? He kicked my ass. Even in picking abstract-ish stuff from the eighties as opposed to the nineties. He has a real feel for it, and it's quite impressive. 

We had lunch in he weigh-your-plate place from a couple I days ago, but we both wound up paying quite a lot more than the other day. Not sure how that happened. Quinn actually couldn't finish his   Which set me to grumbling. But after a break, he put it all away and we walked home to catch some soccer. Uruguay-Italy was in in one room, while James watched England-Costa Rica in another. (James is one of he Brits who've been stating here. Very nice fellow.) But we wound up in our room, kind of unmoved by either game. Heard later that Suarez bit someone - kind of sorry we missed that. 

After a bit of a nap, I nipped out to buy some kind of drink do myself - the options in the hostel are few and kind of expensive.  And on the way there, I realized why it seems like
 French bulldogs are so popular here: it's because this guy lives around the corner:


He doesn't always have both with him, and I never noticed that it's the same guy before. 

I got several large bottles of iced tea.

And then, really, we just hung around in the room a while. Here's what that looks like:


That's our little table between the beds, crowded with our travel detritus. And here's my view:


Thrillng stuff. 

In the late afternoon, we went up to see two things: a giant bookstore, and a little park. Both are on Paulista, which Quinn rarely visits without remarking on how much he likes it. Inside the mall that holds the bookstore, we saw this display:


One for every year Brazil has won the cup . A little garish, but we'll forgive then a bit of that. 

Here are some shots from inside the bookstore:


I took this for Tess, who's read this book:


And here's a few that many of us have read:


The store deserves to have its name mentioned, but I'm typing this in bed in the dark and can't remember it. But I'll put it in tomorrow. Here's the interior:


We visited a few other stores, including Cacau Show, a chocolatier's:


It was amaaaaazing. 

Thence to the little park:


Quinn and I sat there and mused on he future of energy production and how new technologies hold so much potential for cleaning our air. A really fun conversation. 

Saw some street art done with sidewalk chalk:



And then, we hit Aamall across the street and watched the new x-men movie. Best one I've ever seen in that series. Which isn't saying much. But I actually did really enjoy it, despite the slightly out of focus picture and slightly fuzzy sound. 

Quinn had a burger for dinner; I wasn't really hungry:


And then we were in São Paulo on a Tuesday night, which turns out to be absolutely hopping. TV crews all over for some reason. 



I had some street food - sweet corn, sliced into a styrofoam plate:



...and Quinn and I watched an episode of "An Idiot Abroad", and hit the hay. It's just been such a nice, low-key day of just enough adventure and just enough down time, that I really feel good about the trip and about my boy. What more can I ask for?

Sorry for the less-than-literary post, but this thing has been giving me fits and I just want to get to bed at this point. I hope to do better tomorrow. Good night!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

from: Tess Daily comment

WOW! This post was certainly one of my favorites. I loved the display for the Brazilian flag. It was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cool! Wonder IS a great book BTW. I loved the pics. AS ALWAYS!