Today is Monday, I haven’t even had lunch and some of my goals for the week were already accomplished. I could set two appointments with my doctors, got my camera strap fixed and finally bought my guide (Am I easy to please or what? Gosh!)
The past weekend was not touristic at all, only ‘local’ stuff and more of the same – same clubs, same restaurants, same café. Yesterday I wish I had gone to the bookshop to browse and search for the perfect guide but I was completely wasted from Saturday night, which is weird because there wasn’t much drinking involved (I blame it on the weather).
This morning I woke up to a sunny day thanks to my alarm clock and headed to the bookshop near my house. I have to say I only did it because it would be ridiculous not to, but the thing is I was sure they wouldn’t have what I wanted. Saraiva doesn’t carry a wide variety of books, only best sellers, and City Guides to Sao Paulo are not easy to find, so it was like, why do I even bother going there?
Well, they didn’t have any. NO guides. I wasn’t surprised, nor shocked, so I got a cappuccino from Starbucks, which sucked btw, and went to Cultura-Villa Lobos. I was sure they would have some there, but I didn’t want to drive all the way down there, get stuck in traffic etc.
When I got there I saw a few options. Most of them were in Portuguese and some were made specifically for Brazilians. There was one that was like, how can a person from Rio survive in Sao Paulo, which I thought of buying but then… priorities! There were some with tours, some fashion related and ony one of them in English – which was the one I actually bought.
The guide is blue, not too big (272 pages), fits a girls purse but not a guys pocket. It is divided by neighborhood with suggestions of restaurants, museums and hotels. There is a glossary with a pronunciation guide that is simply hilarious and it also has two stripes, one green and one yellow, which I thought was tacky but cute at the same time. The only true downside I could see so far is the fact it was published in 2007. FIVE YEARS AGO. I bet many restaurants might have closed and of course the new and trendy places are not there. I think I can manage this, though.
Sao Paulo Project 