7/16/14
We only have three more days left in Rio de Janeiro and,
sick or not, we don’t want to waste them. So it was time to rally and squeeze
as much sightseeing in as we possible could before Saturday. We took a free
walking tour around the Centro, one of the oldest parts of the city comingled
with the newer financial district. Our tour guide was a very nice man but it
was his first time giving a tour in English and it was hard for both parties to
understand each other. [Nick: There was a German couple with us on the tour. At
one point, they asked if we could understand much of what the guide said. It
was hard for us to understand him but I can only imagine what it was like for
them, as they had good but not fluent English.] He did an okay job though and
we got to see a lot. We passed by the Municipal Theater (modeled after the
Paris Opera House, of course); walked up and down the Escadaria Selaron (a
Gaudi-esque tiled staircase designed from miscellaneous scrap and donated
tiles); visited Igreja Sao Francisco da Penitencia (another gold-laden church)
in stark contrast to the Municipal Cathedral (a Chichén Itzá-like concrete
pyramid, voted ugliest building in the city); strolled under the Arcos da Lapa
(an 18th century aqueduct), grabbed a snack at Confeitaria Colombo (a
time-capsule of an 19th century bistro that was the first restaurant
in Rio to have running lights or Coca-Cola – I’d have to look up which one came
first); witnessed two traffic accidents (which was odd since Rio is has
significantly less traffic than other places we’ve been); and visited the
surprisingly unornate Paço Imperial (the last residence of the Portuguese crown
between the 18th and 19th centuries, and the site where
Princess Isabela abolished slavery in 1888).
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| Municipal Theater |
But we weren’t done there. After a break, we briefly
visited the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, which wasn’t very interesting except
for a few copies of ancient Greek and Roman statues. The Centro Cultural Banco
do Brasil, on the other hand, had a seriously fantastic modern art exhibit.
There was also an extensive Salvador Dali exhibit that was well worth the
visit. [Nick: This was another amazing exhibit that was free to the public. It
is great to see these exhibits accessible to all Brazilians. The Dali exhibit
was more extensive than the one we saw in L.A. a few years earlier that had
cost something like $40 a person.] All
in all, not a bad day of sightseeing for people who were immobile 24 hours
earlier.
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| Dali Exhibit |
Ever since the world trip, Nick has said he doesn’t think
there’s any better place than the U.S. for food simply due to the fact that you
can get a variety of almost anything, almost anywhere. And I’m starting to
agree with him. The fact that we were roaming around the streets and stumbled
upon a mostly empty Arab restaurant between row after row of bars, was a very
welcomed sight. I have never been so excited for lentils and hummus! [Nick: The
U.S. does have the best food in the world. Or at least large cosmopolitan
cities like L.A., San Francisco, Chicago, D.C., N.Y., etc. First, there is
cuisine from around the world, which is pretty authentic. Mexican food in L.A.
or Chicago is a lot more like Mexican food in Mexico than is Mexican food in
Argentina, Cambodia or Brazil. The Vietnamese food in L.A. is exactly as good
and authentic as the best Vietnamese cuisine we had in Saigon (though in Saigon
there are even more dishes to choose from). However, what I got when I ordered
pizza in Vietnam would be unrecognizable in Italy. Second, the quality of
ingredients is really high in the U.S. Though, I think this is a recent thing even
in the U.S., as people have become much more conscientious about their health
and competition is so high; people eat out so much that quality has become a
huge deal in U.S. food.]
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| Even the mannequins have that Brazilian look |
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