Tag: walk

Quick Cultural Injection

Although Brazil is a wonderful place, food is so expensive here! After eating our first home-cooked meal since we got here, lovingly prepared in the hostel kitchen, we realized that we had still spent 15 dollars on dinner! I began to worry that my budget of 20 dollars a day for food would be nowhere near enough for my travels. Fortunately, I don’t have the time to worry about that now, as our stay in Brazil is nearly over.

Peter and I felt that today would be the perfect day to visit some of the many museums and art galleries scattered around Rio de Janeiro. We took a bus to a suburb near the centre of town, Cinelandia, where many of these attractions were clustered.

We began our culture fix at the Museum of Fine Art. It was really interesting to note how late in history art began to be an important topic to be taken seriously in Brazil. Earlier paintings in the gallery were by unknown artists, while a rise in French-inspired art seemed to increase the popularity of the genre. This new found popularity could be seen in an increased use of European styles, copied amateurishly by Brazilian artists. We also visited the national history museum which provided a decent overview of Brazil’s heritage.

Peter and I did get a bit lost looking for what we thought was the Cinelandia Gallery of Contemporary Art, however, we stumbled across the actual gallery eventually – it was an industrial style building which held lots of interesting pieces. A lot of our time in these museums and art galleries was spent taking photographs of the actual buildings themselves, as my boyfriend Peter is an architectural student and was in the process of researching a future project to design a gallery. This side project was relatively successful,and possibly made up slightly for Peter missing the first week of university due to our vacation.

On the way home from the galleries, we stumbled upon some GIANT ants and preceded to get in everybody’s way on the footpath trying to get a closer look. It was pretty exciting! Apparently, these giant ants are called Tiger Ants.

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The photograph is of me on a beautifully designed staircase in the neighborhood of Lapa

Until next time,
Erika xx

Overwhelming Rio

After a long sleep in, we woke up just in time for dinner: tonight, we tried a ‘per-kilo’ buffet – an entirely new experience for me! The meal was charged at whatever the weight of your plate was once piled with food. I of course took this as a challenge to figure out which types of food would be the lightest, and to eat mostly these foods…

The next morning, we were entertained by the cat before we had even left the hostel. It went absolutely crazy, its eyes were rolling into  the back of its head and it was running into tables and everything. I think It has been drinking the spa water – poor thing. Other than the crazy cat show, our morning was incredibly unsuccessful. We attempted to find a pretty neighbourhood called Sant Theresa to walk around and have lunch at, but unfortunately got a little lost and ended up walking right into the outskirts of a favela (a brazilian slum). In case you did not know this, going anywhere near a slum in Brazil is probably not a good idea. After realising we had no idea how to walk around the favela, we headed into the center of town to visit the museum and art gallery – both of which were closed. At least we got the hang of the transport systems, had a great time seeing the city, and met a very friendly brazilian in a Robin Hood costume!

We spent the afternoon in Ipanema with some friends from the hostel. We visited the gorgeous beach, purchased souvineirs from the hippie market and gawked at the crazy costumed people walking around and the street party going on. I would recommend the neighbourhood of Ipanema to EVERYONE. After having a bit of a boogie and using up the last of our money, we were starving and needed to find an ATM. Unfortunately, this was more difficult than we thought it would be. Luckily, we found one when I was about to faint with starvation, and sat down to eat meat on a stick at a street stall, washed down with a cold beer. Trying to get home was a nightmare due to the street party, there was no way we were getting a taxi or a bus! So we walked home around the lake, which was a gorgeous walk but took us a bit over an hour. Oh well, what did we expect?? ITS CARNIVALE!! (can you tell I’m a tiny bit excited?).

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Until next time,
Erika xx