DAY 1

Day 1:
After my adventure last night finding my way alone at night to Vila Mariana, I got to the hostel in one piece and slept for God knows how many hours. All I know is that I woke up late. I thought it was early in the morning but when I got out of my room it was 15hrs! Oh well, the jetlag. Being in São Paulo hasn't sinked in. I thought I was still in Manila but people were different from what you see in Manila so that gave me a clue that I was in a different place, haha.

I went to the reception and asked the guy how to use the phone. Apparently the card that I bought from the other hostel last night could still be used. Oh, I don't think I used it anyways. After spending minutes at the phone booth (and it was cold outside) trying to figure out which codes to use to call my friends who live at the city centre (and in other cities in the State), I finally got hold of them.

First I talked to André (couldn't contact Alex) to let him know I was already in a hostel in São Paulo and should be visiting them during the weekend. I also rang Fabio and we agreed to meet up in Avendia Paulista at around 18:45 so I had to get myself dressed up and get ready for my next subway train adventure to get there. Anyway, I'd ask if I didn't find my way...

I arrived just in time at the Consolação metro station along Avenida Paulista. Yes, I found my way to this place quite easy! OK, OK, I had to ask once, haha! Anyway, I'm actually not new in using the subway system because during my stay in Madrid for years I would usually use the metro to go around the city. It's efficient and fast.

I told Fabio I couldn't believe I was actually in Avenida Paulista! I would only see this place in pictures and suddenly I was there! All right, "suddenly" is not the right word because I spent 25 hours of flying to get here! But anyway, it was fun. It's like Ayala Avenue but there are some interesting architecture and people look different (this is a positive note).

First we went to a shopping mall to have something to eat. When we entered, I was about to open my backpack and have the guards check it but they were nowhere to be found. Fabio then told me I didn't have to do it.

There's a lot to choose from but I chose this:



After eating, we went walking from one end of the Avenida Paulista to the other. We also bought something for fever (maybe the sudden change of weather...it was a bit cold but I loved it). Before we went home, we ate at McDonald's (yawn). I got curious that this is the World Cup season so every hamburger meal at McDonald's has a certain name and guess what, each burger is named after each participating country in the World Cup. So for Monday, the hamburguer's name is Argentina; for Tuesday it's for Spain, and Brazil on the following day and so on and so forth.

I got to the hostel at around 12 midnight. I took the metro (I was one of the few passengers!) and then took the cab to get to the hostel. Safer that way.


At around 12 midnight, me and this guy were only the passengers on this line (the subway trains stop running at around these hours so people have to be in a hurry.