Indecisive Obsessive @indecisive-obsessive - Tumblr Blog

54.5% of this year is downloaded

Damn it, shitballs! Now (some of) the expletives I’m going to use are out…

This is turning out to be such a roller coaster year; I should just accept and own that I’m going to be a total, desperate wreck for the rest of the year. Put on my pj onesie, comb the mascara lekker dik (so they can bleed appropriately down my cheeks) and just not wash my hair again until I can smell 2018. Well… maybe…

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#2017 #bad times #good times #happiness #motivation #personal #sadness #ups and downs #writing #wtf

Book review: 1808 Flight of the Emperor

1808: Flight of the Emperor Image by Laurentino Gomes on Wikipedia’s Creative Commons

I’m a sucker for a well-researched history book, especially one where it feels and “sounds” like the author is sharing all of his own passion and excitement for the topic with me. This is exactly how Laurentino Gomes’ 1808: Flight of the Emperor comes across and flies with his subject matter.

This was an…

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Book Review: The Pillars of the Earth

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

I have finally gotten around to read the first of two books in the Kingsbridge series by Ken Follet; they were super popular and got great reviews at one stage. The two books themselves are quite extensive and from first glance they look like they have the potential for that “epic story” that many fantasy writers seem to manage. I’m still reading the second…

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#book #Book review #fiction #historical novel #Ken Follet #pillars of the earth #review

1 The Riviera

Cocktail Lounge & Restaurant – Av Paulista 2584, Consolação

I’d been having a hankering to try steak tartar for the first time and Kiernan took me out to have some as a surprise one Friday night not long ago. Turns out the surprise was The Riviera, both the place itself and their menu, which had exactly what I was looking for. :) The restaurant sits at the crossroads of two main thoroughfares, so traffic is super busy there and the facade really looks unremarkable, except for the bright, flashing neon signs with gaudy Palm trees and faux French Riviera font. To be honest it looked more like a struggling strip club who’d just picked the wrong street to settle on, but once we stepped inside that image changed totally and immediately! The foyer / cocktail lounge is a cozy room with the wraparound bar taking up most of the space, bars tools all around and a low lighting bathroom tucked in one corner. The atmosphere is a comfortable mix between stylish and cozy that put me at ease right away and of course the packed bookshelf (sincere or not) opposite the entrance was a wonderfully familiar sight. I am not sure how, but the decor, both downstairs in the bar and upstairs in the restaurant, made me feel like I’ve been here before; in fact, it felt like a favourite living room I had spent a lot of time in once upon a time and now it has been converted into a fashionable hangout where the barmen mix cocktails with flair!

We got there at about 22h and enjoyed our first cocktails downstairs while a jazz band fired up the upstairs area :) I did have my tartar craving satisfied and then some!! It was so balanced, with the fat disk of raw meat, rockets leaves and a slice of buttery toast. Kiernan’s chicken burger wasn’t quite so spectacular… it was a tad small and with no accompaniments for what we paid for it. Buuut… the cocktails were delicious!

On the right is the lemon-y drink I had and on the left is the honey & whiskey concoction of Kiernan`s

This was my NY sour, with a splash of Malbec wine…

2 Gopala Hari

Vegetarian Indian Restaurant – Rua Antonio Carlos 429, Consolação

Gopala Hari is a small Indian restaurant just off the bustling Augusta street that serves vegetarian set menus for lunch. There is actually a shop where they sell spices and other knick knacks as well as the restaurant a few doors further down. The building is unmistakable – it’s an orange-y pink that catches the eye even in the colorful Augusta area. The restaurant itself looks deceptively tiny when you head up the narrow staircase, but it is a two-story building and they fits tables and chairs into every nook and cranny – when I went there with Kiernan we were out on a little balcony looking out over the tops of the trees. It was really cute! I’ve only tried two set menus so far, but I love both!

So what they do is each day of the week they have a basic set menu (it’s different for each day) and you can choose your main and your dessert, but the appetizer and all the accompaniments are the same for the set menus and they serve their house lemonade. The serving sizes is really fair – I couldn’t finish everything and Kiernan was stuffed as well – and the taste was so well-balanced. :) They do things like fragrant rice and kofta, filled with peanuts instead of meat or a crunchy veggy burger with green Jasmine rice. Besides the food they really take a lot of care with the decor and atmosphere as well. There are wonderful, colorful images on the walls of Ganesha and other gods, as well as Indian figures and statuettes. Rose petals are strewn all along the staircase and even in the bathroom. It was a little peaceful escape at a busy time on a crowded street.

The entrance and first introduction to the place

Our set menu with the couscous and soup

3 Tanger

Moroccan Restaurant – Rua Harmonia 350, Vila Madelena

The cold and drizzle only served to make the interior of Tanger that much more cozy and warm. Kiernan found this really awesome place on Veja – an online directory of restaurants in São Paulo, especially the fancy ones. It was my birthday after all and I would be pressed to remember the last time I had Moroccan food… The waiter was very attentive, yet he never crowded us and our tasty bottle of red Chilean wine. Kiernan had a dish of chicken thigh with orange and ginger (delicious!) with couscous and I opted for beef with couscous accompanied by a baked, honeyed pear. Both of those were amazing! The waiter also brought a bowl of chicken broth to the table that we assumed was to be ladled over the couscous… Even that, by itself, was fragrant and tasty. Even though this restaurant is right in the super hip restaurant-y neighborhood of Vila Madalena (there are loads of craft beer hangouts there as well), it is itself on a more tranquil street, which I loved.

4 Rong He

Chinese Restaurant – Rua da Glória 622-A, Liberdade

Japanese and Chinese food in São Paulo seem to have morphed together and then become something almost completely different from either – from sushi rolls with cream cheese and then deep-fried in a batter, to noodles and vegetables in a vague brown soy-ish sauce. So we’d been a bit starved of super authentic Chinese style food for a while when a student of mine recommended this place. The place seems to be managed and owned by Chinese folks (from where exactly I know not) and if the guys working in the kitchen aren’t Chinese, I’ll bet my bottom dollar that the menu was set up by one. The menu includes typical dim sum (longbao and rice gelatin rolls) as well as super traditional rice noodle dishes, table soups and hoysin pancakes (with veggies instead of duck, but hey, you can’t have everything). We went there twice with different groups of friends and did the Chinese style family orders and everyone loved every single dish every time. We practically licked the serving dishes and bowls clean! It’s not super expensive if you order a couple of plates for the whole table and the serving sizes themselves are pretty much designed for “party orders”, because they’re huge!

5 Seu Chalita O Árabe

Arabic Restaurant – Rua Tabapuã 592, Itaim Bibi

Top notch Arabic spot, possibly one of the best in São Paulo. Both times we’ve been here we tried different plates and they were all mouth-wateringly delicious. From the front and inside it’s got a simple little look and it’s not very crowded during the week. The spreads are excellent with the usual labneh, hummus and baba ghanoush, but this is the first time I’ve ever had Muhamarra – a Syrian spread made from roasted red peppers, walnuts, and pomegranate molasses, and it was mind-blowing. They’ve got the standard kebabs and know their way around lamb, and a pretty kickass Falafel style burger which Marelise had trouble finishing.

colhada seca or labneh / homus / baba ghannuge / muhamara

6 Aska Lamen

Japanese Ramen Restaurant – Rua Galvão Bueno 466, Liberdade

For two former Taiwan residents it had been honestly pretty depressing having gone so long without a decent bowl of noodles, I mean like….. wow, now instant noodles suck hard. Enter Aska Lamen, the best Lamen joint in SP, and let’s just assume the whole country since this is where 75% of the original Japanese immigrants came. For those willing to brave the 30-60 minute wait once inside it’s really simple. there’s about 10 tables, and 10 seats at the bar. The menu is limited, and you guessed it, mostly focusing around Lamen. So grab a beer, skip the frozen dumplings, and get a big bowl with all the accoutrements. Feel your eyes glaze over as you noisily suck down the fresh noodles made right in front of you by the 10 chefs in the open kitchen, go ahead and unbuckle that top pants button and don’t forget to finish the broth because the whole bowl is a semi-religious experience.

Sobá noodles like we had at Aska Image by big berto licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-2.0

7 Jeti’s Burger & Grill

Burger & Grill Restaurant – Rua Verbo Divino 1194, Chácara Santo Antônio The restaurant formerly known as Jedi’s, was forced by Lucasfilms to change its name a few months back including its whole menu which was named after a plethora of characters.. Nevertheless it remains a spectacular homage to Star Wars. It’s a little south of town but easy to find. Mostly crowded at lunch, it’s a great place for fans to see a whole restaurant decorated by the Force. On the flip side – it’s honestly just an average burger. Cool look, and a decent bite, but you’re really there for the atmosphere. You came to enjoy the life-size Darth Vader watch you pee in men’s room, the continuously screened episodes IV-VII (because those are the only films that exist), colored burger buns, and to find out what might have been if Lucas had started buying diners.

8 Al Janiah

Arabic Restaurant – Rua Alvaro de Carvalho 190, Centro

This is a relatively new Syrian/Palestinian restaurant in the center of town that some friends recommended to us. The place is also known as a cool cultural centre, and has music on the weekends. The place feels kind of like you enter through a cave entrance and it just opens up in front of you into an intimate interior with scattered tables and chairs around the kitchen in the poking into the side of the room. So when we say it’s in the center, it’s really very much in the center and the restaurant itself barely has any signs up. I didn’t take any photos unfortunately but the grub was stupendous. We took some friends the second time so we could sample more items of course, and had some great appetizers with the usual Labneh, Baba Ganoush, Tabbouleh, a nice fattoush salad and some grade-A excellente hummus. Hands down best in South America we’ve had so far. We also decided to share a few chicken kebabs around. It was a blasty-blast

8 Banging Restaurants in Sao Paulo, Brazil 1 The Riviera Cocktail Lounge & Restaurant - Av Paulista 2584, Consolação I'd been having a hankering to try steak tartar for the first time and Kiernan took me out to have some as a surprise one Friday night not long ago.

#al janiah #aska lamen #backpacking #brasil #Brazil #cocktails #cuisine #gopala hari #indian #jeti&039;s #moroccan #munchies #restaurants #rong he #Sao Paulo #seu chalita o arabe #tanger #the riviera #travelling

As we had plenty to say about the city of Rio during Carnival, we thought it only smart to divvy up the samba school parade into it’s own post because we have way too many photos to share. We had resolved to get tickets when we got to Rio in hopes that it would be cheaper than the pirate-y gringo prices they were quoting online (but that’s the only way to buy ahead as they sell out quickly). Turns out with a little miracle we didn’t even need to do that, our host totally had our backs – her friend had bought too many tickets, unsure how many she needed, and was willing to sell a couple of spares to this unprepared foreign couple.

So the parade is held every year now at the Sambadrome Marquês de Sapucaí, where the samba schools groove to their own theme song which they sing non-stop the whole time, according to a theme they chose and with marvelous, shiny (sometimes barely-there) costumes that everybody sees on TV as Rio’s carnival. Women with angel feathers and huge headpieces of all colors, humongous floats with people jumping and dancing for a whole hour straight. Overall what happens here is that they file down to 12 schools that compete for the champion’s cup; they have 82 minutes to march down the parade ground, in harmony, with costumes and makeup immaculate and a developed theme that runs smoothly throughout the march. It is spectacular. Ultimately spectacular. Along the enclosed 700m parade avenue there’s several judges’ stations, bleachers for 90,000 people, and every school’s show was jam packed with floats, dancers, costumes (dear god what do they do with those thousands of costumes after every season), props, music trucks, buckets of glitter, hills of sequins, flocks of feathers, and battalions of all-or-nothing drummers.

The photos will have to do the parade justice… because it was more than words can describe. But I’ll do my best to give a few details about each of the schools.

#1. Vila Isabel – The theme is celebrating the legacy of Miguel Arraes a famous lawyer and politician. We really liked the first floats which had a surrealist scrub-land feel representing the state he championed. This included the horse skeletons, and the steamboat float later on representing industrialization was somewhat creepy but fascinating.

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Vila Isabel

#2. Salgueiro – Their theme for this year was The Malandro Opera. All you need to know is “malandro” is the Brazilian term for a trickster/scoundrel/rogue/hustler/rascal. This was possibly the funnest and most creative school with a lot of floats and costumes centered around fast living and petty crime. They had cabarets, gambling, gypsies, couples in love, dingy bars, ball gowns, twirling ladies, the hanging gardens of Babylon, beggars and princes and everything in between.

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Salgueiro

#3. São Clemente – More than a thousand clowns in the saloon. So yeah… as you can imagine many..many..clowns. They were aiming for laughs and happiness, but I’m glad they had clowns from every age. Opening with a huge gorgeous gold red and orange chinese dragon, they then brought in magicians, contortionists, jesters, harlequins, circuses and devils, and even jokester bakers.

São Clemente

#4. Portela – this year was “An eagle’s flight, an infinite trip”. This school out of all we saw had the most theatrical beginnings and epic theme, even if it felt slightly random at times. Waiting for the start, everyone in the crowd suddenly realized there were 3 parachuters gliding in from above the stadium. They circled a few times for effect and, wobbling from side to side, they quickly descended into the stadium and landed at a run but on his feet to thunderous applause. Starting with the old testament they brought fabulous pharaohs and Neptune himself. Next they ran though ancient travelers, famous nautical characters, and finally into space and time travel with dinosaurs, finally ending with famous archaeological finds.

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Portela

#5. Imperatriz – Last but not least for our night (as we ducked out around 4am) was Imperatriz with a Country Music theme, tributed to Zezé Di Camargo and Luciano. In addition to the music I’d also say there was a huge farming theme as agriculture is still in many ways Brazil’s backbone. So as you can imagine many of the floats and costumes were very green with participants dressed up as different plants, cowboys, sunflowers, cattle, bees, shepherds, and Brazilian hillbillies.

Imperatriz

…..So yes if you remained unconvinced by the photos (as we didn’t get good recordings of the music) this is quite possibly the greatest show on earth. I’d bring a seat cushion myself next time for the concrete bleachers, but we both had a really good time standing and cheering, dancing and resting, before throwing in the towel around 4 am to crawl back to the metro and our rented room to rest, recover, and most likely repeat.

5 of Rio’s top Carnival Samba Schools As we had plenty to say about the city of Rio during Carnival, we thought it only smart to divvy up the samba school parade into it's own post because we have way too many photos to share.

#brasil #Brazil #carnaval #carnaval 2016 #carnival #Carnival 2016 #greatest show on earth #Rio de Janeiro #Samba #samba parade #samba school #Sambadrome Marquês de Sapucaí #Sambódromo #Sapucaí

When you think about “travel” there is a specific image that pops into your head. Maybe a memory of the last trip you took; perhaps the one you’re planning now, even if it’s still just a dream. For me somehow it’s sunshine and lots of walking. Something that probably doesn’t crop up is the tragic side of history: the parts of exploration that expose the traveler to stories of individual heartache or mass grief. From the rolling head of unlucky monarchs to the ghostly echoes of a thousand footsteps over an ancient battlefield – these places attract attention as well as tourists just as surely as the romance of Paris or the symbol of hope of New York’s Statue of Liberty.

In fact, in the same city of Lady Liberty you’ll scratch the surface of what “Dark Tourism” is. Those who take a silent moment at Ground Zero are not only those who lost a loved one there, people from all over the world go there to commemorate and commiserate. For the same reason Auschwitz and Tienanmen Square are popular; in visiting and keeping these places and events in our collective memory, we may ward off the potential of it ever happening again. “We do not forget, so it doesn’t happen again” – as in the words of the group “No More Torture” (Tortura Nunca Mais) who protested during the fall of the Brazilian dictatorship. We are stewarding our human narrative and guarding our actions and hopefully the actions of our leaders from going so far astray again.

Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China, 1988 Image by Derzsi Elekes Andor licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0

However, that’s only the tip of the iceberg of what dark tourism means. Digging deeper, we find the popularity of haunted houses and abandoned theme parks with all of their accompanying stories of horror (whether real or fabricated). Ok… chalk these up to thrills and adrenaline; file these in the same category as roller coasters and bungee jumping. People have an illogical love of the extreme and inexplicable, because (ironically) it makes us feel alive. Even I peek into the dark windows of an empty, abandoned hospital on my way back from work every day.

Let’s examine this closer under the magnifying glass one more time and look at these places that truly carry the word “dark”. There are hundreds of Youtube videos about the “creepiest” places to visit as well as articles telling the sordid, bloody histories of anomalies of nature – serial killers. Far from leaving people only with the willies or a cold chill up the nape of your neck, there are hordes of travelers who pursue these places where the worst things have happened. Tourists enjoy Japan’s Aokigahara forest not only for it’s beautiful, verdant forestiness… this is where hundreds of people come each year to commit suicide in privacy and solitude (in 2003, official stats put the number at 105, according to the Aokigahara Forest website). Nothing altruistic is served by going to these places, in fact the Japanese have stopped releasing official numbers for how many people die in the forest for fear of encouraging others (according to the VICE special from 2012). I am not saying it’s not good visiting these places, or that people shouldn’t! If I had the chance, I would be there too… maybe not taking smiling selfies, but to check out a place with such a reputation? Sure. Other similar sites include the Czech Republic’s Sedlec Ossuary which is a World Heritage Site, and for what? The chapel is built out of 40 000 – 70 000 people’s skeletons and receives about 200 000 visitors annually. Then there’s the pre-Colombian city of Chichen Itza with its bloody history, built by the Mayans and where human sacrifice took place regularly at the Sacred Cenote, together with offerings of gold, just like in Disney’s Road to El Dorado (Chichen Itza receives 1.2 million visitors a year).

Traveling is a joy in and of itself and needs no justification, but I would think that people would choose to visit sunny beaches and high, green mountains over musty catacombs and dry, chalky chapels, but too each his own. It is interesting for me to see what other people find fascinating and it’s striking how people are riveted to the weird, the macabre and what’s on the periphery of disturbing sometimes.

Sedlec Ossuary Image by Romanm licensed under GNU Free Documentation License

Aokigahara Forest Image by Simon Desmarais licensed under Dark Tourism When you think about "travel" there is a specific image that pops into your head. Maybe a memory of the last trip you took; perhaps the one you're planning now, even if it's still just a dream.

#aokigahara #chichen itza #creepy #dark tourism #macabre #tiananmen #tourism

Well sort of, but that is Rio’s dark reputation ;) The first big goal for 2016 was Carnival in Rio. We looked at the challenge and decided there were only 2 keys things to do, and then left the rest up to fate: 1) – Make AirBnb reservation 6 months in advance (took a while to find a place that only accepted people who bought their “package” option such as hostels $R1500 seemed fair for 2 people for 6 days in private room 2) Bus overnight bus tickets 2 months in advance to skip sold out scenarios, there and back $R320

Little background – “Carnival day” is actually Ash Wednesday and even though it’s not an official holiday in Brazil, people don’t go to work on Monday and Tuesday with Wednesday as a half-day. That’s not to say people only party on those days, oh no… The festivities start almost 3 weekends before and end the weekend after, with street parties, dress up and lots (and LOTS) of beer. I’m only talking about the Rio – São Paulo region of Brazil, though; I’ve heard that Carnival in the northeast of the country is one big, non-stop, crazy party for the whole month, weekends be damned. I wouldn’t know about that, but I do know about how really fun and fabulous carnival is in Rio, with photos to prove it :)

The official samba school parades though only went on for 4 days Fri-Monday, with the championships the following weekend when most people have already bounced.

Just my bloody rotten luck that I got a bad ankle sprain the week we go to Rio; the week before running and jumping to music played from moving trucks, the week before walking and dancing every relentlessly sunny day. So we didn’t go to every street party that we would have, but we got out there and had bunches of fun! Kiernan and I stayed in Rio for a week, in the neighborhood of Flamengo; our AirBnB host was really nice and super helpful! We shared an apartment with a British couple and Marlene herself (the host). Luckily the apartment was close to a metro station and a supermarket with a wonderful bakery… Anyway, the Wednesday we got there, we took kind of easy. I pretty much stayed in bed with my feet up and an ice pack commuting between me and the freezer, except when we went out for lunch. We also grabbed some Metro cards for about $R10 and loaded them up. This act alone saved us literally hours of line waiting which is something we learned our lesson on in Sao Paulo.

Day 2 commenced with a street party on Copacabana beach; and when I say “commenced”, I mean it’s 10am and beer vendors are in full swing, selling their product as fast as they can give out change. Thank god I carried sunblock everywhere even the Brazilians were hiding in the shade at times. I was slathering it on 3-5 times a days and still managed to get some redness. Anyways beachfront every single vendor at every single street party had the same brands – one ok Pilsen brand called Antarctica and one hybrid of Kool-Aid and beer with hints of vodka mixed-drinks… fuck knows, but it’s popular. And water, of course. You have to stay hydrated to be able to do a full week’s worth of drinking and not fall into a coma… Dressing up is super popular during carnival and while there are some costumes that are sold outside every metro station and therefore fill up all of the empty spaces in a street party, there were also some really creative ones! We saw some guys dressed up mosquitoes with their diseases written on their chests “dengue”, “zika” and “chikugunya” respectively… that’s not in bad taste, is it? There were a tribe of cavemen grunting and shouting “OOgah!” one morning on the metro and a well-dressed Audrey Hepburn with her pearls and her cigarette. The fill-in-the-gap costumes were mostly Hawaiian flower necklaces (leis), gypsies, animal ears, brides, indians with face paint, pirates and cops. With her ankles swollen like an obese patron of Burger King we decided to fortify Marelise with ankle guards and alcohol to keep her on the move throughout the week.

It seems like there were a bunch of official, listed street parties (aka blocos) in every neighborhood, though the streets always seem to be full anyway. We usually checked the online guides the day before to check which ones looked interesting, how each they were to reach by metro and so on. But honestly it was really touch and go picking good ones when there’s not much info on the type of music, reputation of that music group or neighborhood, so we tried everything. The parties in the southern zone usually end on the beach, where you can go as long as you can stand up… seriously, after a day of drinking and partying that can be a challenge. There are definitely some after-hours blocos, too. We ran into one two blocks from where we were staying and it was interesting… People were walking up and down streets playing different musical instruments, with banners saying “follow the white horse”. This was definitely one of those parties that are every bit on the line of sensual, erotic and really whatever you want it to be, and the only thing that decides which side of that line you’re on is you. Many people were dressed up as parts of nature (branches, leaves, forests), in fact a lot of them looked like they had just escaped from Oberon and Titania’s faerie court. Though dancing and kissing is an amazingly common sight during carnival, here is was ramped up. Oh yeah, about the kissing – unlike most Westerners, Brazilians typically kiss many people at a party (not just during carnival), within sight of past and future lip-lockers with no fear of diminishing their chances of future snogs. People just aren’t super hung up about that. That does absolutely not mean getting laid is easy from locals and visitors alike, but it’s not strange to share and share alike the saliva you were just given by a complete stranger. The rule is simple you touch an elbow, ask politely or use a pick up line, snog a minute or two then move on mission accomplished. But… during carnival, of course, this is even more prevalent. Condom commercials were everywhere.

Anyway, we went out to about 2-3 street parties a day; some of them were a lot of fun – somehow the ones on the beach were just inexplicably, undeniably better. Some of them seemed very much like a PG-version, or rather aimed at “fun for the whole family” type of people… which we (thank the little baby Jesus) do not count ourselves as just yet. Anyway, between party-hopping and resting my darned feet, we were also looking forward to going to the Sambadrome on Monday (our AirBnb host hooked us up with some extra tickets her friend had bought!), but more on that in part 2 just because there were so many photos.

Beside partaking in this orgy of music and beer we tried out a few cool lunch cafes, sightseeing, and actually read a lot when we wanted to relax. When you dance in the morning and then at night later, taking a 2 hour reading break hardly seemed liked party pooping to me. A nice cold coconut water to sip on, beautiful view and sun, didn’t mind if we did. We also hitched downtown to check out some of the older sights. On day 3 or so we made our way to the infamous Royal Palace of Rio de Janeiro that Marelise had read a lot about recently in a book about Brazil’s history. It was pretty easy to find considering it was surprisingly small for a palace. It had a simple layout squared around an open courtyard, and although it was a political center for a couple of centuries it serve now just as a cultural center. The first floor had some interesting interactive displays detailing Brazil’s history chronologically with a series of pictures, paintings, letters and depictions of daily life in the old times. We didn’t feel very tempted to sit at the bistro or check out the gift shops, and instead explored the galleries on the upper floor with an exhibition of steel chains exploring space and depth, cheap looking glass-work, and so on. I did spot a cool little bat family hanging upside the stairway though!

We also discovered a place called the The Royal Portuguese Reading Room, seemingly simplistic from the outside, inside is a gorgeous gothic-renaissance style library where I imagined perusing and reading for hours. Unfortunately it’s under renovation for the next few months. We were able to look around a bit but most areas were roped off or covered with ginormous plastic sheets. Oh well another time I’m sure.

As you can surely see we had an amazing time, and were completely overwhelmed by how much better the Carnical in Rio experience was than we imagined, it definitely lives up to its much popularized expectations. I also wanted to mention that Rio is oft publicized for violence and mugging. Although I’m sure the police were out in full force, using common logic, avoiding dark creepy places at night, and keeping cash and phone in a zip pouch under my shirt, we escaped completely unscathed. actually I didn’t see any purse snatching either, so you don’t have to believe everything you hear I guess. After an amazing six days we reluctantly but exhaustedly packed up on the following Wednesday, and due to a stupendously late bus grabbed a cab to the bus station for our midnight ride back to concrete jungle Sao Paulo.

Rio de Janeiro Carnival carnage Well sort of, but that is Rio's dark reputation ;) The first big goal for 2016 was Carnival in Rio.

#blocos #carnaval #carnival #Copacabana #Imperial Palace #Ipanema #Real Gabinete Portugues Da Leitura #Rio de Janeiro #Royal Palace of Rio de Janeiro #The Royal Portuguese Reading Room

3 Great Reasons to Visit South Africa

South Africa, the southern tip of the dark continent; dark not only because of how little people know about it (“that’s where they manufacture dictators, right?”), but by how often people cast their shadow on our roofs when they fly over the continent on their way to “somewhere nicer”. When I tell people I am from South Africa responses run the gamut, from ‘I really want to visit Cape Town’ (you…

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#beach #bunny chow #cape town #chapman&039;s peak drive #durban #Kruger national park #mother city #South africa #south african wine #Travel

Critica do livro "The Book of Night Women" pelo Marlon James

Critica do livro “The Book of Night Women” pelo Marlon James

[Spoilers]

As prateleiras já estão cheias de livros sobre a vida dos escravos e os que eu já li comtêm peços de verdade chocantes, horríveis e monstruosas. Ainda que muitas pessoas e gerações proximas contem essa historia, será cada vez mais difícil não contar em uma maneira usada.

Recentamente o filme 12 years a slave (12 anos de escravidão no Brasil) capturou a atenção de multidões – um bom…

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#book of night women #Book review #jamaica #marlon james #patwa #slavery #torture

It already seems like New Year’s Eve happened a lifetime ago! Sunshine, sweaty hikes… the warm ocean is a shade of blue somewhere between cobalt and cerulean… Trindade and the beaches stretched over that piece of coast are some of the most beautiful places I’ve seen. It actually reminded me of Jamaica! Well, at least I can relive it now, while I’m writing :)

We decided that Christmas in São Paulo with friends was a great idea, after which we sorely wanted to get out of the city for a while. Not only Trindade, but the camping there also came highly recommended, so… why the hell not? It’s pretty easy getting there, it just takes some time. The bus from the Portuguesa-Tiete station costs around R$60 one-way and the trip is supposed to take 5 – 6 hours. However, traveling during peak time on coastal roads is bound to set you back a couple of hours, more so on the return trip. Going there took us about 7 and half hours, but back… oh boy, 16 looong hours on a marginally comfortable bus. Luckily we packed enough snacks, food and water and we had our books, of course. :) Anyway, the intercity bus only takes you to Paraty, from where you get the local city bus the rest of the way (another hour) to the little hamlet of Trindade.

The city is just on the Rio side of the state line (2km from SP) and kind of cut off from the bigger cities in that area – Paraty is kinda close, but the bus takes a meandering mountain route to cross the wide peninsula – so it feels like it’s way more isolated and peaceful! It’s green all around and where it’s not green, it’s ocean. :) The perfect place to relax for a couple of days. I thought it was going to be way more crowded than it actually was. Sure, at first glance it’s obvious that the town is a total tourist destination, because there is one supermarket, one big bakery and hundreds of inns, camping places and restaurants. No atm, either. :)

Image by user P.A. licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-ND-NC 2.0

Public domain image by user Fontela

Public Domain image

Image by user Chostakovis and licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0

Jackfruit Opened This is a public domain image, uploaded by user Kinglaw

So yeah, we’d made our camping reservation a couple of months before (since this is Brazil the reservation was made on whatsapp of course) and on the day we arrived at a very well-organized camping and BnB place called Guaiamum – two big open spaces for tents, with bathrooms, showers and a spacious open Robinson Crusoe style kitchen. The best thing is that it is super close to the first of three beaches. Looovely :) We got there quite late, so we didn’t shake off our clothes and go jump in the waves, but we did go out to walk on the beach, breathe the salty air and feel soft sand between our toes. When we asked about beach access at the campsite the host gave us some interesting info – she pointed one way (Praia do Meio & Praia Cachadaço) and said that is where the swim beaches are that people usually go to during the day – then pointed in the opposite direction (Praia do Cepilho & Praia dos Ranchos) and said that is the night-time beach where people head to the “baladas” (nightclubs) til the wee hours of the morning. Ok… sounded interesting; turns out it’s a couple of bars on the beach that play club “n’ts-n’ts” music with LED lights going crazy. Of course this is where the New Year’s festivities were played out as well. This was decidedly not a place that one would want to swim, though. Despite the beautiful sight and breathtaking environment and in contrast to the other beaches, which are really clean and groomed… here it was a different ball game. As in the city people smoke and just chuck their cigarette butts frikkin anywhere and everywhere and sadly beer cans, liquor bottles, and trash go the same way :(

Despite the cleanliness of the party beach… for two days we had warm, welcoming sunshine, slathering of sunscreen and dips into the warm south Atlantic on the neighboring beaches esp. Praia Cachadaço which is what they usually put on the postcards. Basically it was paradise for two days :) In an effort to fit into the crowd we had gone swimsuit shopping a week or two before our holiday. I think it’s unfair that I wore a very Brazilian bikini, but Kiernan got to stick to swimming trunks. A Brazilian bikini is notoriously tiny, especially the bottoms – we had to find a compromise between the trend of the season and what I felt comfortable in… it was a fine line to walk and definitely another reason to get back to the gym after the indulgences of Thanksgiving, then Christmas and New Year’s quick on its tail. But also, as I expected, once I got there I saw the same style everywhere on all shapes and styles.

Since we’ve been in Brazil for 2 years we didn’t feel an overwhelming temptation to try any restaurants there. So we mainly stuck to simple plates called pratos feitos (made plates) in the luncheonettes, simple breakfasts, and usually made pasta or something simple at the camping area. One night one of the other campers also cracked open and gutted a huge jackfruit to share with everyone which was interesting. It’s a …..pungent fruit, kind of tasted like eating custard and fruit flavored brains, poor guy had trouble sharing much more than 1 courtesy bite. There’s also a chill little bakery/cafe in town which we spent a couple of hours in reading and taking advantage of the AC.

On the second of our magical days of freedom we did the extra 1,5km hike to the Caixadaço natural pool; it’s visible from the main beach, but to get there you can take a little motorized skiff that ferries people every couple of minutes, or you can do the 1,5km hike over a little hilltop. The hike is not super difficult – a couple of ups and downs, but beautiful and odoriferous from all of the surrounding vegetation. You wind up comfortably spaced steps and hillocks through the flora, fauna, vines, and trees while the sound of the ocean tickles your ears just barely hidden by the dense greenery. Of course there are always crusty buttholes in life who decide to take speakers to the jungle playing music that no one would wish on a deaf person. Sometimes in life those people may climb the same trails as you, but luckily we only ran into the one who we were able to escape after a brief 45 minutes. The hill trail dropped quickly into the natural pool which was naturally gorgeous, and a little crowded. It’s only 1-3m deep throughout with a couple dozen wide rocks spread throughout perfect for hanging out and climbing, a cool place to visit.

We spent the rest of the afternoon lazing on the beach right on the border of crispy sun and shade, thank goodness there were some trees to provide cover for this delicate ginger. We spread out our sarong/cangas and rotated between dips in the soothing waves, napping, and per usual reading on our kindles. I even joined in helping a young girl try to pick up a crab from behind with 6 other people, the longer it eluded her efforts the funnier it got. After a radiant second day we prepared for the inevitable, beach party. Donning our white garb we joined the rest of the town and tourists on the main beach for festivities. It was a nice crowd, merry faces all over with several beach bars pumping music out. Marelise and I had splurged for some real Brandy which is rare here and enjoyed making brandy & cokes all night as we prepared for the show. Counting down with a couple thousand others in shades of white attire the city put on a pretty magnificent fireworks show. Unfortunately we had to scram to find a bathroom when Marelise became the one in a thousand victim of firework ash, it burned her eye something fierce but luckily nothing permanent and it wasn’t too red in the morning.

Now for the fun part, on day 3 the heavens opened up. Slightly after noon it shifted from a continuous drizzle to a soft pour into the night. Because of the weather of the 50 or so campers some were out, but many were in the common area and kitchen hanging out, drinking, and chatting with their respective groups. As we mentioned before there was the upper camping area/parking lot, and the bottom area behind the kitchen which had a slight dip and apparently was near a stream behind its fences. As the deluge intensified we hung in the hammocks and I(Hogan) was starting to get worried. There were pools growing slowly in both campsites and some trickle-down coming under the fence. I’ve never been camping in a flash flood before so in retrospect I had all the signs and should have acted earlier but I was hesitant to unpeg/empty/break-down/and search for a new spot in the rain.

Checking every ten minutes or so right before midnight I dashed out in the rain again to see a 10cm muddy stream running under our tent and about half of the camping area under water. That was it! Common sense kicked in and I ran back to the main area screaming at Marelise (who loves the rain as much as any cat) to come lend a hand and help move the tent. Apparently me screaming must have pushed the other campers into action who came out back to see half of their tents flooded and some floating away. Marelise and I were now about in 1 foot of water and with some help picked up out tent with everything in it and managed to carry in about 15 meters away to the upper campsite to an unflooded area. We set up only the corners to prevent rain seeping inside and I dashed back to help. Over the next 20 minutes we managed to move about 10-15 tents, salvage gear from another 5, and even awaken one drunkard who was literally floating away on an inflatable mattress. It was chaos, 2 feet of water everywhere, sandals and tent pieces floating everywhere and people panicking, all whilst 1/2 the camping area was turning into a dangerously moving muddy river. I joined the last couple desperate souls in waist-high water dragging waterlogged tents to higher ground. The next couple of hours was a mash of campers bemoaning what they lost, and trying to work out with the owners where they could sleep and where to set up tents in the main camping area. Luckily we had sprung for a heavy-duty tent by Big Agnes, despite a pole broken picking it up and a couple of tears, everything inside was magically dry and ok. The rest of our companions not so much, many spent the night sharing hammocks and inflatable mattresses, and took off the next day many missing phones, wallets, dry clothing and belongings.

The rest isn’t that interesting. The last 2 days in Trindade it was continuously raining so we skipped the beach and spent our time hammocking and reading and enjoying the fresh air and quiet – one of the few things money can’t buy in São Paulo. The last morning luckily was just drizzling so we packed up around 6am, and headed to the small bus stop. We went extra early because every other morning we noticed a line of 20-60 people at the one bus stop and didn’t want to make that mistake. So we waited 20 minutes watching a tiny beach bar ten feet away with a group of 10 or so seriously drunk people dancing with unfocused eyes to heart attack inducing drum and bass music. As Marelise already mentioned although we made it back to Paraty sem problemas, the ride back to São Paulo seriously took 16 hours instead of 6. We arrived back around 4am instead of 4pm, with sore bums, cramped legs, and a feeling of having survived a beautiful yet dangerous beach experience. There was no doubt that the hardest part of the beginning of 2016 was already behind us.

*Disclaimer: we neglected to take pictures while the weather was optimal… so the pictures in the post aren’t ours, they are there just to show the beach we visited. In the description of the pictures we attributed to the original author.

New Year’s Eve – A Réveillon on Trindade Beach It already seems like New Year's Eve happened a lifetime ago! Sunshine, sweaty hikes... the warm ocean is a shade of blue somewhere between cobalt and cerulean...

#beach #brasil #Brazil #Caixadaço #camping #fireworks #new years #paraty #Piscina Natural do Caixadaço #Praia Cachadaço #Praia do Cepilho #Praia do Meio #Praia dos Ranchos #Réveillon #travel #trindade

Book review: The Windup Girl

by Paolo Bacigalupi

The Windup Girl Image by Moshe Reuveni licensed under Creative Commons

This was a book that came highly recommended by a trusted source and no wonder! It feels like top-of-the-shelf steampunk and reads like some of the best fantasy fiction I know. The characters all have strong individual voices, and in the book’s 350-odd pages, a couple of characters go through intense…

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#Book review #fiction #paolo bacigalupi #post-apocalypse #thailand #windup girl

Uma revisão do livro: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

Claro que eu não sou uma nativa de portugues… então esse aqui combina duas coisas que eu adoro: ler livros e aprender linguas novas. :) Se você tem correções, por favor me mandará, eu te agredeço.

Beijos!

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

Pela Claire North

[Cuidado: contem alguns spoilers]

Wow… Passou apenas tres dias de abrir o livro até eu fechei na página final. Ainda até a metade da…

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Book review: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

By Claire North

[Warning: some spoilers]

Wow… It took me three days to open this book on the first page and close it on the last. Even halfway through the story I didn’t know exactly where it was headed or what the end was gearing up to be. Even though the introduction starts with the same phrases as the last chapter (and of course makes much more sense by then) and Chapter 1 already sets out the…

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#end of the world #Book review #Claire North #First fifteen lives of Harry August #Time travel

Book review: Bodies, Pleasures and Passions

A book by Richard G Parker

I’ve been living in São Paulo, Brazil for about 18 months now and decided it was as good a time as any to read something with an anthropological bent and what could be more interesting and exciting than reading about something that plays a big part in shaping Brazilian identity: sex. That is not exactly what I was combing the Internet for, but when I saw a mention of…

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#Book review #Brazil #sexual culture

Book review: Basque History of the World

The first and (for now) only in-depth text I’ve read about the Basque people, but it will certainly not be the last! I had heard about a mysterious people somewhere in northern Spain who maintain their solidarity, their culture and their strange language. Now Mark Kurlansky has introduced me to unusual and exciting dishes, traditions and a history both extensive and incredibly active. It sounds…

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#basque #Book review #euskera #history #mark kurlansky

Book review: Basque History of the World

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#basque #Book review #euskera #history #mark kurlansky

For last week’s long weekend here in Brazil (Friday November 20th was off to celebrate black consciousness day), Marelise and I decided we needed some beach time. Although Santos is just a hop ‘n a skip away, it’s a port city and we weren’t too enthused with what we’ve heard of its beaches. Close by are Guarujá and Praia Grande but we didn’t really see any hostels or Airbnb places we liked. So we took a gamble and decided to go as far as we could on an ordinary city bus to a place with a beach! And man, we were in for a pleasant surprise…

Despite the morning heat, we braved the sweaty-crevice weather and made it to the bus station just in the nick of time. Lucky for us the bus ride to the coast goes through the gorgeous Serra do Mar State Park, one of the last major chunks of the legendary Atlantic Rainforest which today is a shadow of its former self, but more about that later. Since Marelise gets sleepy within 5minutes of sitting down almost anywhere, her drowsiness is sometimes contagious; I started reading my book and next thing I knew I woke up in Peruíbe two hours later. From the bus station in the SW of the city we decided to check out the place, strolled through downtown and eventually ended up on the boardwalk most likely drawn by the siren song of the surf’s break and falling waves.

Naturally we decided to plunker down with our books at a little cafe, have a few brews, and Marelise decided on a platter of fresh, fried shrimp. We let our worries from the week and classes slowly evaporate into sea foam and nothingness, gazed down the lovely coast, surrounding jungly hills, and passed a couple hours in a comfortable silence. With dusk approaching we decided to go a meet up with our CouchSurfing hosts who Marelise had been in contact with. They were very easy to find downtown and Robinson & Natalia and their daughter Luna showed us around town. It’s a calm enough, small enough town that even a slow stroll down the main street was a relaxing ease into the rhythm of the weekend. They welcomed us into their cozy abode, a comfortable house just 6 blocks from the shore. Robinson also teaches English, and Nat Spanish; they both moved from SP to Peruíbe to escape the hectic city bustle for somewhere a little calmer where they could offer something more to their daughter. One of Marelise’s and my CS traditions is to cook for our CS hosts one night if we have the chance, so we spent most of the night chatting, cooking, drinking some caipirinhas that Robinson mixed up, and we ended with a nice Açaí dessert they made which is like a watery sorbet made from Brazil’s most famous, purple, energizing berry.

They look so chilled out

The day were arrived there were many people already on the beach

Cheers!! The start of a great weekend!

One interesting thing we came across while we wandered down to the beach is a mural on a pousada wall showing a group of indigenous people sharing the selfsame Peruíbe beach with a handful of typical, egg-head blue-green aliens in a very familiar way… like they are used to having their respective kids do play dates together. Turns out that this sleepy little town is Brazil’s Roswell complete with alien conferences, “regular sightings” and true believers.

The sweltering weather on Friday made us set our sights on the Garau beach, just on the other side of Jureia Park. However… we enjoyed our breakfast under a grey sky, heavy with clouds and a slight drizzle that had started up in the wee hours of the morning. We were undeterred, determined and already on our way: instead of sunblock we were wearing rain ponchos, but that was a minor detail. All five of us got our wet asses to the wet beach (it’s all water, right ;) via city bus, through the gorgeous Jureia. It’s always green and verdant in Brazil anyway, but this deep foresty theme always seems magical and mysterious… We even got a good chunk of wave-time in before we retreated to our misty beach towels. This is the kind of beach that reminds me of my childhood holidays, rolling in Durban waves: soft, sandy beach and real waves that can knock you on your tush.

Unfortunately our retreat to cover was not temporary – the rain lashed down and drizzled in turns but never really left us in peace. There was no more swimming on Saturday, but people still seemed happy to be out… Especially when the local bar band had finished their setup and started playing some familiar Brazilian songs. I must say, we were starved for some seafood. São Paulo is actually not very far from the coast, but because of traffic (a considerable problem) and transportation costs I can really only recommend seafood from the more well-established restaurants, places that are willing to shell out for the fresh or have their own ways of acquiring it . So, being in view of the ocean we made full use of the opportunity – shrimp on Friday, calamari on Saturday and a side of landlubber’s fried mandioca. It was delicious!!

Sharing dinner, stories, lives… and seeing the world a little differently because of the people we meet

Beach day!! :)

Misty mountains … hehe.

Not super sunny, but it was absolutely worth it

Both Natalia and Robinson are sociology majors and still doing research alongside their full-time teaching jobs and as such they are philosophically-minded people – discussion and debate are usually the territory of the social sciences – so we continually had a lot of interesting topics being bounced around. Robinson is specifically interested in educational systems, particularly alternative forms of managing learning. Natalia works with women’s health in general and more specifically with domestic violence, which is sadly still a bigger part of the culture than it should be. So yeah… deep people :) and they are avid readers, like us. ^^ we really hit it off with our hosts right away and kept discovering things we had in common.

After lunch it took a while to get back to their place, I think the bus was trying to avoid muddy sinkholes on the way back, but we enjoyed a hot, refreshing shower and waited (again) for the rain to subside just enough not get get absolutely soaked. Our hosts went to a birthday party of a friend of Luna’s while we ambled downtown and had hot chocolate and pastries at a typical bakery and read the night away…

Unfortunately Sunday was the day we had to leave this tranquil paradise. We still had time to wake up in a leisurely fashion, Robinson made some awesome Yakisoba to see us off, and we walked off in a slight drizzle to bus terminal. The ride back was interesting, since we were actually awake for it this time. The bus went up the coast, from Peruibe to Itanhaem, to Praia Grande and then veered inland, back through the Serra do Mar park. The closer we got to Praia Grande, the more neglected the buildings looked, the more the cities looked like they were falling apart from the inside… I don’t know any of these towns between Peruibe and SP, but it looked tough :/ The scenery changed abruptly and almost shockingly passing through the Serra do Mar – Ferngully evergreens all both sides and the odd waterfall visible in the valleys between hills, trickling down little baby steps or cascading into pools below. Beautiful, but tragic, these two realities so contradictory and stark. That’s Brazil…

Evidence of a weekend well spent with good people! I can’t wait to see them again!

Garau beach

A much more peaceful scene between extraterrestrials and humans than imagined in our popular media

I guess there used to be a railway system passing through Peruibe… but these days they’re not doing much anymore

Not where we stayed, but I guess a lot of Gringos come here in peak season?

We weren’t the only ones :)

It was so cozy! The couch pulls out into a bed, but normally this is a study room / classroom for Natalia’s Spanish classes. We slept so well!

The pallescent pair drop by Peruíbe For last week's long weekend here in Brazil (Friday November 20th was off to celebrate black consciousness day), Marelise and I decided we needed some beach time.

#beach #brasil #Brazil #couchsurfing #CS #guarau #Juréia #Peruíbe #praia #Sao Paulo

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