seekingmygreaterperhaps

Oi gente! Tudo bem?

I am now a cool young adult who travels to another city by plane to celebrate a friend’s birthday. This was my second visit to São Paulo, and this visit was truly spectacular. A small group of us went to São Paulo- my friends went and bought tickets for Lollapalooza, but I didn’t have any interest in that, so I made alternate arrangements for the times when they were there. “Sampa” really ended up showing me some unique facets of the city.

I am not a nightclub person. But, I took one for the team for my friend’s birthday. She had a really fun night. I am also proud of how much Portuguese I have been learning, because I was able to chat with people and make light conversation. If you are looking to go out to São Paulo, this is not the blog for all the hot tips. What I can say is that the Pinhieros neighborhood is my favorite in SP.

On Saturday, we all lounged around on the rooftop of our hotel by the teeny tiny pool to soak up some sun. After a night out of drinking, we all needed some down time. It was nice to hang with my friends, and from the picture above, we had a really neat view. São Paulo really goes on forever, you can’t even see the edge of the city.

The main attraction of this trip to Sampa was dining at my first ever 2 star Michelin Restaurant- D.O.M. The food is focused on Brazilian cuisine and flavors from the Amazon. The food was incredible. Above you see 2 of the 13 courses that we dined on. To the left is the hollandaise with toucoupi sauce, chayote sprout and a cassava cracker. To the right is salted piraucu with pil pil (collagen of fish and olive oil), kale, and açai tapenade. Yes, I took notes on the meal because I went with my friend Maria who is a Michelin star restaurant connoisseur and she told me I will be mad at myself if I didn’t take notes. It was a unique experience to dine so fancy- my favorite courses were the simple ones, and some of the flavors weren’t quite my palate, but that’s why you go taste and explore! I loved the fruit course, the green fig dipped in white chocolate, the cassava bread, and the lamb course. In my mind, dining at a Michelin star restaurant is really expensive, and it is, but the total per person was around BRL$650- which is about $130 and this included a fancy bottle of wine that we split. This is less than I thought for the tier of restaurant. Now watch me become a Michelin chaser myself. I love meeting international teachers who have been at the game for longer than me because I am learning so much from them.

My personal highlight from this trip was the Feira do Brechó that I found off of Avenida Paulista. Brazil does not have thrift stores, and if you know me at all, you know that this hurts. I grew up thrifting, and have carried it with me into adulthood. I miss thrifting. I love finding deals and the art of the hunt. Plus, I’ve been working 4 jobs for my entire adult career before I moved to Brazil, so I watch my money and thrifting just makes sense. Plus, it’s more eco friendly and I care about the planet. Moving to Brazil and finding they don’t thrift, but they have maybe 2 consignment stores in Brasilia makes me sad. Consignment is a bougie thrift store.

To the point- in Sampa I stumbled upon this event that was happening in a ballroom. I saw the sign (thank goodness I can understand basic Portuguese), and it cost me BRL$10 (˜$2) to enter, and I thought, well who knows what this is, but it’s a minimal cost risk. I AM SO GLAD I WENT. It was like walking into thrift heaven. The entire ballroom was full of vendors (and shoppers) who were selling racks of clothes. The vendors in the middle had maybe 1 or 2 racks and the ones on the outside had little horseshoe shapes. As soon as I walked in, I knew I would spend my afternoon here up until I had to get to the airport.

I loved it. There were no dressing rooms, so you just tried things on over your clothes. I found some really cute clothes for cheap prices, and I was so happy. I have a hard time spending money on myself and finding deals makes it a little easier. I hope to stumble across something like this in Brasilia, and now I know they exist so I will keep my eyes open!

Thanks for joining me on this journey to Sampa!