New York, a palace, and a whirlwind weekend

Hey all!

I've been quite busy the past couple days. My good friend Will came to visit! But for now, I'll start last Wednesday, when I went to New York City Center...

Gotcha? New York City Center is actually a shopping-mall-type-place in Barra da Tijuca, an area along the southern coast near Rio. I decided to check it out because a friend had described it as quite similar to the US, so I thought it would be an interesting cultural experience. I started out by taking a bus to São Conrado, an area of Rio with lots of very expensive apartments, that is ironically situated right next to Rocinha, the largest favela ("slum") in Brazil. After walking along a highway lined by expensive-looking apartment buildings, I decided I had seen enough of São Conrado, and hopped on a bus to Barra da Tijuca.

Barra was, as expected, not much different from some areas of America. After passing by the beach and more expensive apartment buildings, I got off at New York City Center, a shopping area complete with a Statue of Liberty. I spent the afternoon walking around the giant mall, immersing myself in the international culture of consumerism.

On Friday, I took the metro out to the Quinta da Boa Vista, a park containing a palace where the royal family in Brazil lived in the 1800s. The palace now holds a somewhat out-of-date archeology/natural history/ethnographical museum, with a potpourri of exhibits ranging from extinct sea creatures in antarctica to greek pottery to brazilian indigenous peoples. Nevertheless, I enjoyed strolling around the museum and the park, which, like many places I have discovered in Brazil, contained a circus tent (no shows at the time).

Next came an adventure. I gave myself around 2 hours to make it from the park to the international airport, where Will's flight would come in. According to google maps, the trip would take around 45 minutes. I boarded the right bus, and rode it until the end... I still don't know where I was when I got off. I wandered around the area, asking for directions, when I discovered that I needed to take a different version of the same bus (same number even). I hopped on that bus and rode for 45 minutes or so, past some landmarks I had already seen and through some semi-sketchy areas of Rio. Finally, I was able to arrive at the airport (after catching one other bus, without problems), where I wandered around more, trying to find Will according to text-message directions we sent to each other.

Finally, I met up with Will, and the adventure ended! We took a much better bus back home, and, after a quick tour of Santa Teresa, headed to Lapa to meet up with some more friends, Samara and Georgina. We had a nice tapas-style at a botequim (place to get drinks and things like meat pastries or fried cassava root). We wandered a bit around Lapa afterwards, watching the neighborhood come alive for the night—Lapa is a big nightlife destination on Friday nights. We didn't stay, though, because the next morning was an early one for all of us—I went to the circus, and Will went to sugar loaf/pão de açúcar. We joined Sam and Georgina for lunch in the old colonial center, then took a boat across the harbor to Niterói, which holds the contemporary art museum, housed in a fantastic flying saucer-shaped building by Oscar Niemeyer, a famous Brazilian architect.

The next morning we had a wonderful tapioca and açaí breakfast at the weekly market in Glória, then met up in Cosme Velho to try to take the train up to see the Christ the Redeemer statue. It was absolutely packed, so we gave up on that idea and headed to the Parque Lage, a beautiful tropical park that holds an art school in a beautiful old mansion. Afterwards we took a bus to Leblon, and walked along the beach from the edge of Leblon, through Ipanema, to Copacabana. Will and I stopped for chocolate pizza (on his to-do list) and ice cream, then made a quick visit to the Copacabana Palace. This weekend the Palace had a special guest—Tom Felton, the actor who plays Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter films. We paused to take pictures in front of the palace and noticed a few dozen fans sitting outside, holding copies of Harry Potter books, waiting for a glimpse or an autograph from "Draco." Security, of course, had been upped since I visited the hotel last week. I wonder how often the Palace hosts famous guests?

That evening Will and I made dinner at home, complete with a (mostly-succesful) attempt at pão de queijo—traditional brazilian cheese bread, made with cassava root flour.

Today we managed to make it up to see Christ, and I didn't mind going a second time because the top of the statue was shrouded in clouds, and it felt like the top of the world! We got a few glimpses of the ground, but otherwise we were "in heaven." We had lunch at my favorite kilo buffet, then went to see the Real Gabinete Português de Leitura, a beautiful hall full of books (sort of a library, I guess). We had a wonderful snack of coffee and sweets at Colombo, Rio's gorgeous and famous café and sweet shop. The afternoon came to a close, and I saw Will off at the airport. It was a wonderful whirlwind weekend, and now I'm planning on an early night. Tchau!