February 1 and 2, 2009: Sao Paulo

Notre voyage commence. The flight was good. I was pleasantly surprised by Delta's service to South America. It was on a retrofitted 767-400 with an excellent touch-screen entertainment system you'd find on a 777. I could choose from different CDs and create my own playlist. This was a huge improvement over the Delta 767 I flew from JFK to Rome in 2007. Atlanta is a madhouse. The gate next to mine was for Mumbai and I felt sad for the poor bastards waiting for the 17.5 hour flight from ATL to BOM. Yoww.
Delta did a fantastic job and is much better than goddamn United. I cringe when I think about my United flight to Buenos Aires two years ago. Ouch.
We landed in Sao Paulo and immigration was a breeze. I got my first stamp on my new biometric passport. They covered up the Liberty Bell on the visa page, though. Oh well. Customs was another story. Lines slowly snaking around to clear through ONE gate. Brazilians returning home were stopped and asked about purchases made in the States and they were arguing loudly with customs officials. I eventually got through customs and picked up a pre-paid taxi from a booth. Got to the hotel and checked in. English is not widely spoken so I tried French, this being the Ibis-a French chain. Nope. Solamente Portuguese. Well, I used broken Spanish and hand signage to check in. The room was smaller than my little box at the Chastleton but hey, it's only $67 a night. You can't beat that. BBC World on the TV is icing on the cake.
I freshened up and met the boys in the lobby at 1230 and we went out for a snack. Fran's cafe down the street became our main hangout for the next 2 days. We went out to a club that night and had to get a drink ticket. You order a drink, get your ticket stamped, and then when you leave, you pay and show the "PAGO" stamp on the ticket on the way out. They asked me for my name to write on the ticket. I said Amit and they wrote Omet. So, for the next 6 days, I made it easier on all the bars in Brazil- I was Joao or Gilberto. :-) The club was fun with the same music there as here-Brittney, Madonna etc. Whenever I travel there is always one song I keep hearing that becomes the song of the trip. I hear it in the clubs, in the stores, on the plane there and back and all over. In Buenos Aires it was Mika's Love Today, in Rome it was Madonna's Jump. In Sao Paulo and Floripa it was Madonna's Miles Away.
We spent the next day walking around Sao Paulo and met up with Wagner, Ed's friend. He's from Sao Paulo and showed us around town and took us to this amazing Greek restaurant.
Ed, Wagner and me at the Greek Restaurant, Sao Paulo.

We then walked around town to the train station, which was built by the British. Wagner told us that in gratitude to help in fighting against Napoleon, the Brazilians gave the British contracts to build things like train stations. Interestingly, during Napoleon's romp through Europe, the King of Portugal had to flee to Rio de Janeiro and rule the Portuguese Empire (including Brazil, Goa, and Macau) from Rio.

Wagner, David and me discussing Brazilian history outside the train station.

We also found out that all museums in Sao Paulo are closed on Mondays. We went to the University of Sao Paulo on the other side of town to see an art gallery and that was closed too. So we went to the Hilton in Morumbi and walked around the shopping mall in the swanky part of town.

We then had a great dinner at a sidewalk cafe and coffee after that at Fran's cafe.