Jorgey Porgey!!!

For those of you who don´t know, I went to university with Jorge in Sheffield. We did the same masters and he lived in the room next to mine. We were the fantastic 4, Jorge, Lillian, Cesar and I. And i hadn´t seen jorge in 2 years! It was so wonderful to see him again, and strange to see him all proffesional in his own appartment. It made me miss my sheffield days and all the people, terribly.

me and jp

As for him, he couldn´t understand why i was enjoying spending the whole day in his flat while he went to work. I was luxuriating in the solitude and cleanliness, (jorge´s one of the cleanest people i know), since I hadn´t had a room to myself in 7 weeks, nevermind a whole flat, and i hadn´t had a shower barefoot for 7 weeks either. it was heaven! i had been sharing a dorm with 17 other people in a room so hot, we had to get drunk just so we could fall asleep. Ergo, i had days in Sao Paulo of doing nothing except going for a coffee in the neighbourhood. His flat was in a lovely area called Moema, and when i did finally leave his flat to explore the city, i liked it a lot.

view from jorge´s window

It´s a business city and very expensive, a lot like london, but with more chance of dying in a mugging : ) And the food was delicious, (did i mention i´m eating beef now? Of course, i can barely digest it, since i haven´t eaten it in 15 years, but the beef in sao paulo was really delicious.) They have these pasties called pastel (pronounced past-a-u) that just melt in ur mouth and are filled with a brazilian cheese called catupiry and every other filling u can wish for. Escondidinho is fisherman´s pie, but with yams and beef instead of potato and fish, and picanha is 700g of sliced tender beef that they bring to you raw and u cook it yourself on a mini sizzling grill that they keep on your table, with all sorts of acompanying bits and bobs; salad, vinagrette, bread etc, mmmmmm... (OK, maybe i need to take a break, cos i think i might be hungry.)

Our own personal table grill, mmmmm

Apart from the food, it´s clearly a cool city. Villa Madelena is a boho type area filled with bars and clubs and all sorts of music, and we went to this ridiculously bling bar on top of a hotel that´s shaped like a ship. You have this amazing view of Sao Paulo, yet you´re nestled in the middle of a lot of trees which hide the houses, and the city skyline lies beyond, as though unreachable. One New Yorker i met, compared it to being high up in the middle of central park. Very cool, veeery expensive, and has to be seen.

sky bar @ hotel unique

Jorge looked after me very well, and i was sad to go, but i had somehow spent 2 whole weeks in Sao Paulo, and needed to push on if wanted to see and do everything i had planned. Don´t know when i´ll be seeing jorge again, but hopefully it won´t be another 2 years...

more photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=131656&id=222304166&l=a805a90d79