Out of the blue I found out that my friend Ciaran had randomly moved to Brasil. So with only 2 days notice I turned up at his doorstep having not seen each other for 2 and a half years since we were both living in Nantes.
Belo Horizonte is another big city full of sky scrapers and lots of traffic, a bit like Sao Paulo but nicer, less touristy and the people are friendlier. Its the capital of the state of Minas Gerais.
As far as the city goes there's not much to say, lots of bars, shops and cafes. Its hilly, and the weather is fantastic, it was 35 degrees when I got here. Not that much fun when there's no beach though.
The people are cheese fanatics. The state Minas Gerais has its own cheese and (apparently) it goes with everything. Never eaten so much cheese in my life!
The weekend has centered around drinking, as to be expected with an Irishman, and the bars here are really good, always full with a young crowd, good music and the drinks are cheap.
The highlight was going to Ciaran's Brasilian girlfriends's family home for a typical Sunday dinner. It was intensive Brasilian culture. There was enough food to feed an army; salads, fried chicken, lasagne, meats and of course, tons and tons of fried cheese! I'm surprised Brasilian women aren't obese with the amount of cheese they eat. The food was great and so was the entertainment. Lala, Ciaran's girlfriend, was subjected to standard parental humiliation, telling us embarassing stories from when she was little etc. Her Dad is a madman, he kept poking me to get my attention, which I found very annoying! And her Mum was lovely. I tried very hard to speak Portuguese. The whole family shout instead of speaking, getting louder and louder to make themselves heard above one another. I met the drug dealer cousin and her 9 year old cousin who was the coolest dude I have ever met and even tried it on flirting with me. It was a really fun day.
We went out to a place called Pedro Leopard, about an hour outside the city, to Ciaran's friend's family home. It was a stunning house, beautiful, massive and furnished like a rappers house off an episode of Cribs. The sound system was better than that of most nightclubs. We spent the day there in the swimming pool, drinking vodka and eating home cooked Brasilian food. It was awesome. Around the town there were hills covered in trees and a massive forest fire had started because it was so hot and dry. The entire town was covered in smoke and the whole mountain was on fire, insane. In Europe people would be trying to put the fire out, but this is Brasil...
We went up to the outer limit of BH, high up the mountains. We had a picnic lunch whilst looking out over a panoramioc view of the city, and with the trees still burning away behind us!
I've learnt that people here don't like the promiscuous 'cariocas' - the girls from Rio. And that Brasilian people speak really really loudly!
No comments:
Post a Comment