Homeless people sleeping on the sidewalk everywhere in the city..
DAY 1:
We had heard and read a lot about São Paulo, the largest city in Brazil and the economic center of the country. With approximately 11 million inhabitants, about a quarter of whom live in extreme poverty, it is already a ticking time bomb. Poverty and homelessness are omnipresent and impossible to ignore. Even in the city center, the poorest sleep on the sidewalk. You get the impression that there is almost an homeless person 'living' in every alleyway.
Criminality is also a major problem here, and tourists should be cautious and keep their bags firmly in their grip, never show their phone on the street, and be careful and vigilant. It is therefore advisable to avoid certain areas completely, especially at night.
The gentlemen here make sure that nothing happens...
But what is also impossible to ignore: pure joy of life when there is dancing, and that happens everywhere!
We visited Avenida Paulista, a huge multi-lane shopping street, like in many big cities. But every Sunday, it is closed to cars during the day and the middle of the street becomes a paradise for skaters, runners, and cyclists. On either side there are numerous street performers, talented musicians, and dancers who get the masses moving, people of all ages who truly have rhythm in their blood!
Dancing is a lot of fun and good for your figure;)
Capoeira is of course also a part of Brazil..
We were also very impressed by the two slackline acrobats.
What is also really nice is that 'quirky characters' (I mean it positively) like to show themselves here.
Exercise makes you hungry, so there are delicious snack stands for every taste. If you can't find a seat, you can enjoy the delicacies even better in the park right next to the street. There is shade and enough park benches there.
In addition, arts and crafts, jewelry, and antiques are offered.
On Avenida Paulista is also the Museu de Arte de Sao Paulo, also known as MASP. The building itself is already worth a visit.
I'm not an Formula 1 insider, but the fact that Ayrton Senna, who unfortunately died in a fatal accident at the age of 34 in 1994 and was a three-time world champion, was a child of this city is evident in the fact that his memory is still honored here. I read that at his funeral here in the city, a whopping 3 million people paid their last respects.
DAY 2: Today has unfortunately been the saddest highlight of our trip so far. Yesterday, I relativized my assessment of crime here.Today, we had to experience that criminal energy is actually part of people's everyday life here, due to extreme poverty, alcohol, and drug problems.We were just on our way to Catedral Metropolitana de SP when a man with an iron rod in his hand came towards us, looking confused, and marched past us. We were moving towards a small square in front of the entrance to a subway station, where a crowd had already gathered and seemed very upset and pointing and shouting in our direction at the described man. A passerby followed him on his motorcycle, but he wasn't very fast and was caught relatively easily by the police who were called in. Around the corner stood people at some distance, staring at a man lying on his stomach, half in a restaurant and half on the sidewalk. He lay with his face in a pool of blood that rapidly expanded. When I ran to him to feel for his pulse, I saw the true extent of the disaster. I won't go into detail, just enough to say that the poor guy had suffered a very serious head injury and was already dead.The crowd slowly approached and commented on the situation. In the restaurant, I looked into the face of the employee, he served a guest as if nothing had happened, just a few meters away from the dead man.Peter gently but decisively pulled me away from the scene, as I could no longer hold back my emotions.Why all this happened and what the trigger for this crime was, is for us, who luckily only know such outbursts of violence with such fatal consequences from the media and films, simply incomprehensible. It brutally shows us the consequences of social inequality. On the one hand, the super-rich here use helicopters as a means of transportation to avoid the extreme traffic and possibly to not be directly confronted with the misery of the million (!) homeless people in the city. Their seemingly only way out seems to be alcohol and drugs, to somehow endure this sad way of life.It is not surprising that the threshold for willingness to resort to violence is extremely low. After we had somewhat composed ourselves, we went on to the nearby Catedral da Se and witnessed part of the midday Mass there. We are not religious in the Christian sense, but today we lit candles there for the poor man. The cathedral is very impressive and really worth seeing. The square in front of it is very lively and there are also many homeless people here. The city is very multicultural. Besides Lebanese, Portuguese, and Germans, many Italians live here. The latter have had a significant influence on the cuisine. Allegedly, there are even 6000 pizzerias in SP, and it is jokingly claimed that the pizzas are even better than in Italy itself. But here is also the world's largest Japanese community outside of Japan, which has greatly influenced one quarter of the city, which is now called Liberty. Here you can find meditation centers, special Asian shops, and of course a large number of excellent Japanese restaurants. We chose a nice restaurant and had a snack there. Afterwards, we went to Edificio Martinelli, the first skyscraper in Brazil, where you can ride up to the 26th floor to the rooftop terrace at certain times for free and get a panoramic view of the city. The sky was pretty cloudy and hazy today, but from up there, you can really get an impression of the true size of SP.
We returned to our hotel quite exhausted in the early evening. Tomorrow we will continue to Rio de Janeiro, where there will be plenty to prepare for, which we are both grateful for at the moment..... Despite today's terrible experience, it is very important for me to emphasize that we will also take with us the memories of so much joy of life, kindness, and diversity of the people here, and we will certainly not forget them. POSTSCRIPT: I deliberately chose the cover photo for this post to give 'space' to the homeless people affected by homelessness on this blog, symbolically representing all of them. Those who know me know that I have no desire to put myself at the center of attention at the expense of the suffering of others.But their presence is what shapes the image of the city significantly, and even for a person who craves harmony like me, it is impossible to ignore this shocking and deeply touching reality. In any case, it is almost impossible to convey the oppressive feeling that comes over a European when confronted with such inhumane living conditions on such a massive scale.I would much prefer to share positive experiences and impressions here. According to my understanding, however, that would be a complete distortion and ignorance and not taking seriously the people we encounter here, but also my own experiences.Of course, we were not prepared for such an extreme incident as described above. How could we be?It may be confusing that we kept 'moving'.Perhaps this is difficult to understand, but we decided to go on this trip - without claiming that only beautiful, lively, and fascinating things would happen to us. And yes, of course, the images and impressions I have in my head have significantly changed something that is difficult to put into words. In any case, we have adapted our attention to the conditions here and avoid being out at night in certain areas.We set out on this journey to get a glimpse of the 'world' or rather the countries we visit. But we still want to maintain the joy of discovery and getting to know new things....NOTE: I deliberately chose the cover photo for this post to give 'space' to the homeless people affected by homelessness on this blog, symbolically representing all of them. Those who know me know that I have no desire to put myself at the center of attention at the expense of the suffering of others.But their presence is what shapes the image of the city significantly, and even for a person who craves harmony like me, it is impossible to ignore this shocking and deeply touching reality. In any case, it is almost impossible to convey the oppressive feeling that comes over a European when confronted with such inhumane living conditions on such a massive scale.I would much prefer to share positive experiences and impressions here. According to my understanding, however, that would be a complete distortion and ignorance and not taking seriously the people we encounter here, but also my own experiences.We were certainly not prepared for such an extreme incident as described above. How could we be?It may be confusing that we kept 'moving'.Perhaps this is difficult to understand, but we decided to go on this trip - without claiming that only beautiful, lively, and fascinating things would happen to us. And yes, of course, the images and impressions I have in my head have significantly changed something that is difficult to put into words. In any case, we have adapted our attention to the conditions here and avoid being out at night in certain areas.We set out on this journey to get a glimpse of the 'world' or rather the countries we visit. But we still want to maintain the joy of discovery and getting to know new things....
