Curitiba - Paraná - Brasil.

Hello, travelers. Today I am here to talk about the city I was born and raised in. That is called Curitiba and it's in the South of Brazil. Six hours from São Paulo by car, Curitiba is the ecological capital of Brazil. It is known to be the "London" of Brazil, because of its snobs, its weather(cold and foggy) and its development in culture(related to the north of Brazil). I've lived in Curitiba for 16 years and it was my biggest pleasure to be raised there. It is a wonderful city to live in. Curitibanos(people who are born in Curitiba) are considered to be snobbish, and that can be true, but don't forget we are talking about Brazil, which has the warmest people in the planet. Curitiba can be a very provincial city. There isn't as much liberty and freedom to people who are off the wall to get off the closet as San Francisco, the city I live in now. But Curitiba is also a very good place to raise your kids. It is like living somewhere everybody knows everybody, even though it's a Megalopolis. Curitiba is just lovely, my little old mother-city that I know is waiting for me to always come back and say I'll never forget her. And I won't, not in this lifetime. I love it very very much.

Sal Grosso, outside tables at Largo da Ordem.

So let's talk about the places to go! 16 years can be a whole lot of experience for someone living in a city. So yes, I know about Curitiba as well as I know myself. The night is one of my favorite things in Curitiba. You can try many different bars and clubs and you'll love most of them. One of my favorite bars in Curitiba are: O Torto, Café do Teatro, Mafalda, Baba Salim, Wonka Bar, Korova, James Bar, Bar do Alemão, Sal Grosso, Era só o que faltava, Casa di Bela, Jokers, Mustang Sally, Peggy Sue, Empório São Francisco, Jacobina, VU, Ponto Final, Kitinete, Retrô e Porão Rock Club. These are some of the bars I used to go when I lived in Curitiba and they were all very nice, but very different from each other. If you need more information about a type of bar, let me know and I can try to help you out.

Parque Barigüi.

Another thing I like about Curitiba are the parks. My favorite is Parque Barigüi. I remember when I used to jog with my mom in it and it was a very nice feeling. There is an amusement park in the park and also, little boats in form of swans. On weekends, this Park turns into a mess, full of people, dogs, kids running around... it's very funny.

Curitiba is also known as the shopping mall city. There are a lot of them everywhere. I think it's because it rains a lot, so people want to stay inside a place most of the time. Shopping malls are great for that. There are all types of shopping malls in Curitiba. There is Crystal Shopping, the one for the riches, Curitiba, the one for the people that live in the metropolitan regions, Park Shopping Barigüi, Müeller, Paladium... a lot of different shopping malls all around town.

MON.

There is one museum that is really famous in Curitiba. Museu Oscar Niemeyer, also known as MON. It's in MON that most of the modern and more important expositions are held. There is a huge part of the building that has a form of an eye, so a lot of people call it "The Museum of the Eye". It is really nice.

If you want to drink and talk in the daylight, a good idea is to head to the Park "Bosque do Alemão", where you can find little places to sit down and ask for a beer. If you don't know much about brazilian beers, they are very light. My favorite is Bohemia... it is a very soft and delicious beer and it's one of the most expensive ones, being really good.

Largo da Ordem.

Another good thing to do in Curitiba is to wander around Largo da Ordem(an old city downtown that has not been rebuilt, looking just as it used to). It is my favorite thing to do, at daylight or night. When it's in the afternoon, you can try going into the "Casa Lilás", which is a little lilac restaurant in the middle of the Largo. You can sit down in the grass, eat some petit gâteau and drink a coke. It's delicious, there's nothing else I love to do more. It's my safe-place. You can also go to Largo when the "Feirinha de Domingo" is held. It's on sunday mornings and you can stay at the Wonka Bar from night until the light comes up and the fair starts. I've done that before and it's really cool, but you have to have a lot of energy. In Largo da Ordem, you can also go to the "Ruínas São Francisco", where there's a theater-like place and it looks like ruins. It is opened. Also, there is the Memorial of the city, which is a beautiful place too(mainly to have romances played around).

"Diagnóstico: Paixão!", play held in the theater "Pé no Palco".

One really cool thing I love about Curitiba is the theater. There are a lot of theaters everywhere and there is a theater festival every year in Curitiba, where a lot of plays are presented in one month, everywhere in town. It's beautiful, my favorite time of the year.

Ópera de Arame.

The "Ópera de Arame" and the Botanical Garden are very beautiful places too. They are far from the center of the city, but they're worth seeing.

There is one street called "Rua XV", that holds everything from stores to crazy people wandering about the street. Some people call the peak of the street "Boca Maldita". It is a very nice place to walk and see people and feel the heat of Curitiba's heart.

Morretes.

A very nice thing to do is to get down to Morretes, which is a city close to Curitiba. There, you can see how a really small town in the middle of the nature is. You have to eat Barreado and go down the river with a buoy. The city is fantastic and it's good just to hang out and have fun in the little center, eat a lot of different things and see the hand-made souvenirs.

Edelweiss, a boulangerie in the rich part of Curitiba. Delicious!

If you want to eat well, Curitiba is the place to go. Brazil is the best place to eat you can ever find and Curitiba is not bad in that question. There are a thousand delicious restaurants you can try, including the churrascarias(barbecue places) where you eat all you can. Madalosso, Churrascão Colônia, KF, Batel Grill, Babilônia, Spaghetto and Taishô are some of the restaurants all around Curitiba that are really, really, really good. There are several others too... anywhere you eat in Curitiba is normally very good.

Biblioteca Pública(Public Library).

If you like reading, there are some good places to find books in Curitiba. Either you can go directly to the main library, in the center of the city, next to the "Boca Maldita" or you can go to the "sebos". The library rents books and they have a building full of them. It's just beautiful to get in and see it. But the "sebos" are places where you can find used or new books for better prices than a regular book store. Books in Brazil are very expensive if you don't know your way around. But if you go to the "sebos", you can find some great bargains.


Largo da Ordem, next to the TUC.

Curitiba is the cleanest and whitest city I've been to in Brazil. It is good to remember that I was raised in a city where people praise their values, yet it is such a Megalopolis. Today, I realize that Curitiba is not my place anymore. I have it inside me that if you live all your life in one place, you'll be happy, but blind. It can feel good, but feeling good all the time is not what I want for my life. Maybe when I grow older. But then, I will have so many places that I'll feel good at that I'll have to choose between them. Curitiba is always going to be one of them. Or better, the first. Since it was the first place I've lived and it is in my comfort zone. Can't wait to go back and see friends and family. That's the best thing about the city, for me.

San Francisco - California - United States.

Hello, people. This is the first time I am writing about my personal voyages, so for you, I will start with one of my favorite cities in the world. My own city, my beautiful and white San Francisco. It is hard to talk much about it since there's so much to do in the heart of the greatest movements in the world, but one word that can describe it is "tendency". San Francisco has always been the beginning of the river, where the activists take part and look forward for seeing new things coming. I am lucky to have end up in such a cool trend city. Whenever I leave, I'll be singing the song "I left my heart in San Francisco".


Fisherman's Wharf and its Electric Cable Cars.

San Chico has a lot of places to go and a lot of things to see. I would first recommend going to the Fisherman's Wharf and the Piers, where the tourists run free from here to there. You can only listen to different languages around you, very interesting(almost like the subway in New York). The Fisherman's Wharf, together with the Piers, is by the ocean, so it is normally really cold(bring coats to anywhere you go). Like the poet said, "The coldest winter I've experienced was the summer in San Francisco". So be aware of that... a fleece won't do you bad. The Fisherman's Wharf holds very interesting things such as the lazy sea lions on the porch, the millions of white little boats and also, very popular restaurants such as the Hard Rock Cafe and the Bubba Gump, the restaurant created from the movie "Forrest Gump". And yep, it's all about shrimps! Hehe.


Alcatraz.

In Pier 39, you can catch a boat to Alcatraz, which is also a must-see in the white city of San Francisco. Alcatraz was a prison that held the worst criminals in the United States in the 30's, such as Al Capone and Machine Gun. It is very interesting to feel the atmosphere of this historical place. Alcatraz was also used by the Native Americans as a home after it was shut down. They crashed in the island for almost two years, as a protest to Nixon, the president of the USA at the time. Alcatraz is an island, so you will really have to take the boat. And I would recommend you to take a camera, because you can see the whole city of San Chico from there and it's a marvelous view, people.


Haight Street.

Ok, so, now, let's hit back from the island and go back to our lovely white city. One of my favorite places to go is directly to Haight Street. I've been there so many times in two years that I feel like it's already my place. Hehe. The Haight is known as the place where the hippie movement started. Being brief, in the summer of 68, called the "Summer of Love", a bunch of teenagers and adults got together as a family and started living of music, drugs and love(one for another). Food was free, medicine was free, life was free from everything that was related to capitalism. They would sleep in the park, Golden Date Park, which is by the end of the street. Today, the street holds a million stores. It is a big panel with the hippie movement stamped on it. But be very careful! Haight Street is a dream for those who love alternative and underground things... but everything is really expensive. If you want cheap-hippie, you should go to Fairfax, Bolinas or even Berkeley, which are after the bridges, beyond the ocean.


Golden Gate Bridge.

Talking about a bridge, who else should I talk about besides the Golden Gate Bridge? This is for sure one of the most beautiful places I've been. Every time I pass it by car(which is at least 3 times a week because I live in Tiburon, Marin County), I feel like I still don't know it, like I'm surprised to see it, just like the first time I saw it. The feeling is like you're on vacation forever. Really good. The Golden Gate is very amazing, but it definitely stays under fog most of the time. In the summer, the weather is hot and the water is cold, forming a dense mist right where the beautiful bridge stands. It sucks for whoever wants to take pictures. But if you're lucky and the fog is not dense(or not there at all), you can climb your car up to Headlands, where you can see the bridge very well and take pictures of it. Be careful not to fall, Headlands is really high!


Castro Street.

Another very interesting and fun place to go if you have the time is on Castro Street. Castro is where the homosexual population concentrates the most. It is very cool to see people having the freedom to kiss, hug and pinch each other's butts in the middle of the street without being a person of the opposite sex. Nobody looks or discriminates, besides homophobes who are brought there whitout knowing it's the gay place. If you have the chance, watch "Milk" before getting there. It is the story of Castro Street and Harvey Milk, the first assumed homosexual man to become a politician in the United States. You can see how the street became what it is and how beautiful the story about it is. Don't forget to get in the gay sex shops and check out some weird things you've never seen before. And remember: open your mind, whenever you go. You'll see things better.

People love to go to Lombard Street. I do not mind about it that much, because it's only a steep little street, but it is interesting and it is a post card of San Francisco, so you should probably go see it. Take a lot of pictures.


Sausalito.

If you're going to that side of the bridge, don't forget to go to Sausalito. That is a must-see too. I have never seen one person talking badly about it. After you passed the Golden Gate Bridge to the north, you'll find the place warmer and without a single fog. That's called "Marin County". Marin is where the rich people from San Francisco used to go to relax on the beach and have their beach houses. Today, it holds a lot of different cities such as Fairfax(the hippie), Sausalito(the sunny), Tiburon(the european-like), San Rafael(the biggest) and Corte Madera and Larkspur(the quiet and calm). Go about it and you'll be enchanted by so much charm.


Napa Valley.

Talking about that side of the mountains, if you love wines, you can drive to Napa Valley. For those who love it, I don't need to say much, because California wines are delicious. Mainly the ones that come from Napa. There, you can find wineries such as the Carnero, Cellars, Black Stallion and several others. It feels a little bit like France and if the weather is good, pictures are very welcome.


Muir Woods.

When you're in Marin County, don't forget to go to Muir Woods, where they hold a park discovered by John Muir, a nature savior. There you can find giant sequoias that aged for thousands of years and are still standing. Sometimes you need eight people to hug one tree. It is beautiful and calming. It is basically a natural museum.


Union Square.

Going back south, people! Let's head back to our San Francisco. If you like shopping, you should go to Union Square, where our hippie San Francisco gets a bit of a New York look. Union Square holds thousands of stores such as Apple, Victoria's Secret, Gap, Macy's and Louis Vuitton. It is a dream for shopaholics. I don't like that type of fuss, so I've been there twice or three times. But everybody loves to go there, so I recommend it.

From Union Square, you can take one of the two-floors red buses. They are like a guide bus. I didn't have the chance to get it yet, but I sure will before I get away. They say it's really good if you want to know about San Francisco and they explain it in various languages, which is good for the ones that don't speak english.


Love Fest.

If you're around for the months of september and october, I would recommend you to try to figure out about the big street parties that happen. Every year, parties such as the Folsom Street Fair(sadomasochistic fair), Love Fest, Pride, How Weird Fair and Decompression Party are held in different parts of the city. They are very funny and different occasions and they represent a lot of what is the freedom of speech. There are naked people, crazy ones, the ones with costumes... everything is a big party. And it's beautiful. You won't find these types of parties in another place, only in San Francisco.


Civic Center.

The Civic Center is also a very nice place to go. It's a beautiful building and it's good to take pictures of it. Enjoy it. And since you're in Van Ness, if you go up, you'll find the biggest Guitar Center in San Francisco. If you like music, that is a trip that you definitely should take.


Chinatown.

Chinatown is also a very known place to go. People love to buy souvenirs there, since everything is really interesting and cheap. I go crazy for buying stuff when I go there. Never leave without a bag in my hand. I think there's also a guided walk, if you ask for it in the stores. They know the information. I've never done it, but I bet it's interesting... mainly to known how everything ended up so similar to China.


Frida Kahlo's exposition at SFMOMA.

If you like expositions and museums, I would recommend the following ones: Palace of Fine Arts, Exploratorium, deYoung and MOMA. There are a lot of other museums and exposition places you can go, but these are must-sees, if you're into art and science.


Twin Peaks.

To end the trip, I recommend you to go to the highest place in San Francisco, the Twin Peaks. From there, you can have the view of everything we talked about until now. And you can check how white San Francisco is. Don't forget to take your camera because this is a very amazing view and it's just amazing to take pictures.


"I Left My Heart in San Francisco" Monument at Union Square.

I've lived in San Francisco for almost three years now. It's my pleasure to say that I know it very well and every time I see something new, it surprises me. San Francisco is my love and I will never forget it. I will miss the beautiful sky, the unworried people, the clean streets and the nature that surrounds it. San Francisco will always be in my heart.

Now, let's sing this hit from the 60's from Scott MacKenzie, "If you're going to San Francisco". That talks exactly about it and how it is. "You're gonna meet some gentle people there".

If you're going to San Francisco

Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair

If you're going to San Francisco

You're gonna meet some gentle people there

For those who come to San Francisco

Summertime will be a love-in there

In the streets of San Francisco

Gentle people with flowers in their hair

All across the nation such a strange vibration

People in motion

There's a whole generation with a new explanation

People in motion people in motion

For those who come to San Francisco

Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair

If you come to San Francisco

Summertime will be a love-in there

If you come to San Francisco

Summertime will be a love-in there