quinta-feira, 25 de janeiro de 2007

Three accents in 8 days!


A backpacing trip is not supposed to be made with 8 books, more than 10 t-shirts and so on...Making it smaller will make it much easier...This is just some of the lessons that I have learned from my first experience.
Joinville was the second stop...just a wonderful city, there is a kind of mountain in the middle of the city, and from there there is a great place from where you can see the whole city and how organized it is, and with no slums, which is kind of rare for a brazilian city that tends to grow fast. On the other hand, they have been invading some spaces where they shouldn't, because it is not a space where the human beings should live in, but the animals and the florest...thats the inevitable urbanisation, which can be observed with some more careful.
Joinville was chosen just because I met a cool guy on the new year's eve who invited me to go there. It was not in the plan, but it was a great and unexpected choice. Stayed in a quite good and cheap hotel where I had some problem because the room was for one, and we insisted in staying there for much much longer the 10 minutes warned. Everything was solved with a fine of 20 reais and some 'light' arguments.
Heading to Curitiba after two pleasant days in Joinville. I wanted to see the city where I had lived 10 year ago. It is probably one of the most organized cities in Brazil, easy to find your way, a tourism bus ( a bit expensive though - 15 reais - which pays off in the end ) that you can get off in four different sightseeing places, therefore you end the day with a pleasant sensation that you saw so many beautiful places, with a renewed soul.
Three quite tiresome days in Curitiba, cause I wanted to sightseeing the city during the day and clubbing during the night, and afternoon as well on Sunday. I manged to go out the three nights of my short staying. Amazing clubs to go, considering the size of the city, ilegal substances coming to my hand even without looking for them. On Sunday you can club afternoon and evening, and as I had no time to lose, that's what I did.
I met up again with the guy from Joinville, who went there with some of his friends, cause there is just one place to go out in their city, that I had not the chance to go cause I was there on weekdays. Met him up in the club, he was gorgeous when I saw him, we stayed together for some time till he managed to do the stupid thing of kissing some other stupid, who I did not see the face cause that's not the type of thing that I feel like doing, I just didn't give a shit and decided to party by myself...haven't seen him again.
Next stop, Campinas. As soon as I arrived in Curitiba I bought the bus ticket to Campinas, where I visited my former London flatmate Fabiano and his family. He was finishing all the preparation to move on to Dubai, where he is now working in the Emirates Airline as a steward. Long trip...cool experience...good money...
I was quite disapointed with the city of Campinas, I stayed there for three very relaxing days. The first day obviously I went for a walk by myself to see what's in the city. Tried a museum, not good. Tried to find a touristic or any kind of map of the city, not succeded. There is just one very nice park, where I had a short walk cause it was closing at the time I got there. Therefore after this first day experience I just decided to stay in my friend's house, around his swimming pool, enjoying his very friendly familym, and reading ( learned a lot about sexual psychology, a book named 'Perversões Sexuais - Um estudo psicanalítico' 'Sexual Perversion - A psychanalitic study' caught my attention for the whole two days.)
Instead of going straight to Rio de Janeiro I took a ride to São Paulo with Fabiano's brother, who went there to take him to the guarulhos airport. A big mistake. I faced a huge traffic jam (not surprising) and bought a bus ticket with the same price that I would pay if I had bought from Campinas...nevermind, I did not really get upset with the mistake...this sort of things will always happen in a backpacking trip.
So there I was, Rio de Janeiro, 4 am.

quarta-feira, 24 de janeiro de 2007

Traveling is work


I've got to travel, coz that's my duty. If I don't, I won't be a good professional. While I'm spending money traveling, I'm investing in my career. The further I go the more I add in my professional life....What about Middle East, is it far enough?
Last month I did my first backpacking trip, and I'm really proud that I did it in Brazil, and with brazilian money.
On the December 26th I left Porto Alegre towards Camboriú, spending the new year eve's parties together with part of my family was the aim. I knew there would be plenty of crowded parties in that unorganized city, therefore the aim was basicly partying...and I achieved it. Three or four parties in a row, some of them at the same places coz there weren't too many options, at least not the sort of entertaining that I was looking for.
Staying at some family's or friends' house will save you some money, but on the other hand clubbing will always make you spend more money than you expected. In the end it compensated.
New year eve's love is just the same as carnival's love.
I ended up meeting someone from the city of Joinville, and after spending the second day of the year by myself, passing by the cities of Itajaí and Navegantes, in order to reach the beach cities of Penha and Piçarras, I made up my mind and realized that it was time to leave. I had been invited to go to Joinville, and there I went. This was the first and onlY unexpected destination of my whole trip...the rest of the trip carried on as planned...at least when it comes about the destinations...