Diamond Carnival, Tue, 06 Feb 2018 | written by Simon
Simon at a City, Park, Temple in Brazil, South America

Is really cold today, one of the people at the uni made a point of remarking about it when I came in at 10:30. It’s 22°C. My kind of people!
Entrance to the Uni
Today was another day of university visit, equally short, but a bit more informative than yesterday. Nothing much is happening on the campus, since it’s holiday time here, so I decided to go to town and see the centre, and maybe the Pinacoteca. I caught lunch on the way, and even found some shops! Even a shoe shop, but alas, it was womens only.
Funnily enough, everyone just assumes I’m local and speaks Portuguese to me. I guess Brazil is such an ethnic mix that I don’t stand out that much, which is great, I was worried I will and as such will be a more likely target for pickpockets.
 I got in the metro and was shocked. Here suddenly the architecture works! It’s big, all in concrete, but plain and clean. Nothing of the claustrophobic feel of London underground, or I guess any underground that was build in an existing, tightly build European city. And the trains are all modern and swanky, proper high tech. Neat! Ah, and there is a lot of police. There is generally a lot of police in the streets.

I got out at Luz, next to the train station, and walked through it to the Pinacoteca. Turned out to be closed on Tuesdays, but the park next to it was great. Thought as a botanic garden at first, it has quite a variety of plants, lots of sculptures and art lying around, a fake grotto, and lots of people who look like they half live there. Some sitting around contemplating, some chatting, and this one group of men were really into their domino game.

I started moving towards the old centre which turned out to be a massive pedestrian zone – pretty much a whole district with no cars. In it, a mixture of shops and bars. I found a couple churches on the way with some organ music in one, lots of cool street art, and a couple guys playing giant chess to a pretty large audience. I was there to witness a mat inflicted with just the king, two pawns and a tower. A new game started instantly.
I then went to Pater do Collegio – the place where the first collegium of St Paul was located here in the 16th century and where it all started. I’ll read up more on the history later as nothing was translated to English in their little museum. What they did have though were quite a few really interesting religious paintings created around South America – the style is subtly but really interestingly different from Europe’s, a link to their 20th century art which I know better.
On the way to the cathedral I went through a square which looks like home to all the homeless people. And there are many around, I should mention, rough sleeping everywhere. The cathedral square smells of unwashed bodies. It is pretty obvious that Brazil is quite poor now, and last years crisis may have made it worse. I note the ugly buildings and all, but I am very aware that people do what they can with what they’ve got.

The cathedral is pretty impressive, I guess what you would expect from a Catholic colony. But also somewhat boring, as it’s basically a standard European gothico-baroque just transplanted here. Only the mosaics of St Paul and Mary gave any indication that this is Brazil.

Out of the cathedral and with no more clear plans, I went back to the pedestrian district to just wonder about. And then… I came across another carnival parade! Much smaller, but super cute. It was just starting, soon people joined in and off we went through the streets, performers mingling with the crowd, dancers, drums, singers, horns, a massive speaker set on wheels, and a growing bunch of colorfully dressed folk who joined in the way. I liked it so much! Such a chill atmosphere to it, and the people who joined were so fun – I think I liked it best when some 70 year old guy started challenging the dancers to a dance off! Awesome!

I stayed with the parade for longer than I was planning, but finally got a bus home. Joana is gone for a few days, so I have the flat to myself for the rest of my stay here. And then just before 10pm, the electricity was gone.