Day 4 -- Sao Paulo

Since this is our only day in Sao Paulo, I decided to explore the city rather than following my friend to her university appointment. It was absolutely the right decision. Sao Paulo is a great city. It is huge, but it has great public transportation, including the subway. Our hotel is right in the center so I walked around at first, but then decided to go to the real center (old part of town), which took two different metro lines. First, I went to the cathedral and then followed a walk I printed out of my guidebook. I had to ask for directions at least five times. At some point my guidebook suggested going into a BANESPA building to go to the top and see a panoramic view of the city. There was already a line there, but I decided to wait. It turned out that there were two lines – one for the tickets (free) and the other to get on the elevator. They moved very slowly because the top elevator only took 5 people at a time. This whole adventure took more than an hour, of which only 5 minutes were at the top. It wasn’t that high, either (36 or 38 floors), but the view was quite good. Just skyscrapers as far as the eye can see. Then I did the rest of the walk and when I got hungry, I was in a regular neighborhood without any particularly good looking restaurants. I saw several lunch places with counters and a few tables and menus in Portuguese. I skipped two, but the third looked nice and clean so I decided to try it. Menu was only in Portuguese, of course, but a nice waiter helped me pick a sandwich, which turned out to be very tasty – a piece of grilled beef with melted cheese in a pressed baguette. The beef was amazingly flavorful. Then, I walked to the closes subway station and took a totally different route back to the hotel. I really like Sao Paulo. It has a vibe similar to New York before it was cleaned up.