Ah, what have I been up to since Monday?? So much, that I myself have to jog my memory a tad. Well, on Monday afternoon a group of us girls went to get our manicures and pedicures. It is so unbelievably cheap. R$10 for the whole package, which is less than three shiny English pounds. So, might as well make the most of it! Afterwards, we headed out for a meal, which was a tricky procedure actually. Most places to eat are closed on Mondays, (why, is beyond me), and the ones we could find were touristy and therefore boring and expensive. One of my friends is also gluten-intolerant, so Italian was out. Eventually we found a place and had some food, which was ok, and everyone was so tired that we went our separate ways afterwards.
Tuesday is of course Pelourinho night. After finding out some brilliant news in the morning, I was feeling in the mood for celebrating! So a big group of us went out to eat (when it promptly started raining, so we had to run indoors and grab a table), and discussed how you say `down it´ in different languages!! Very interesting!! At the restaurant were a group of tunos who are like a bunch of Spaniards (or Spanish speaking people) who dress up in Shakespearian style outfits and play olde instruments and sing seranading songs, just as some sort of hobby. We have seen them all over the place in Salvador, and it is cool to get some live entertainment for free! Next we headed for the samba club we were in last week, but bizarrely, it and many other places were closed or empty. Sometimes its really awesome in the Pelourinho, and other Tuesdays it is practically dead, and us gringos cannot figure out why. Anyway, we found a salsa place, which was pretty pricey to get in, so we assumed the riff-raff would have been kept out. Sadly, not. The guy with fuzzy hair that has constantly hassled us in Barra was there, as was some guy that chases after Sarah and tells her that he loves her and wants to leave his girlfriend for her. Hmmmm. Anyway, there was pretty good music there, and Dana and Judith taught us how to salsa dance, so that was pretty cool.
On Wednesday, instead of going to school like a good girl, I bunked off!! I also convinced a group of my friends to do the same (I´m such a bad influence!) So, Judith, Dana, Isabelle, Felipe and I met up to go to Ilha da Itaparica, the big island in the middle of the All Saints Bay, which looks like it is actually the other side of Salvador or something. It was a pretty grim day when we started on the journey, so I felt a little guilty about organising it, but it soon lightened up. To get to the island you get onto a boat from near the Mercado Modelo, and in about 45 minutes, you are in Itaparica! It is so pretty over there - lots of lush greenary, hills and valleys, beaches and palm trees, just like being back in Cachoeira. The island is famed for its mangos, and its prettiness and closeness to Salvador has made it a popular place for the rich of Salvador to take their vacations. We did see some pretty fancy houses and apartments, and I can say that I wouldn´t mind at all if the school had been on the island instead of in Barra. Ah well. We were escorted around island by a tourguide, because everything is pretty far apart, and we needed to take a taxi or bus anyway. So we piled into a pretty comfy and new looking MPV, and went to the historic old town of Itaparica - very quaint. We learnt about how slaves used to be sent to a smaller island further away if they had leperosy, so that they wouldn´t affect anyone else. It must have been grim over there. We went to a restaurant that the guide assured us would be reasonably priced if he accompanied us (so that we wouldnt get charged tourist prices). Just as we sat down, all sorts of people selling all sorts of stuff came over to chance their luck. The jewelry seller and the mask seller were the lucky ones, as we handed over wads of cash for the `unique´ crafts. We were later conned by the restaurant owner into paying for some lobsters we neither ordered nor ate, but we were all pretty angry about this, so Felipe gave the guy a piece of his mind, and so we just paid for what we actually ate. Which was bloody expensive as it was - about R$50 each!! And this was supposed to be non-tourist prices! Some guy from the Czech Rep, who is a student of music in Brazilia and was touring around Brazil at the moment decided to approach us because he was being tricked into paying more than he should have by the tourguide he was with. So he wanted to share our ride back to the port. Fine by us, but this guy was strange. While going over the usual introductions, his response to my telling him that I study Physics was `Ah yes, all Indians do subjects like that´. I felt like throttling him. Later on, apparently he told Judith and Dana that `All Mexicans are really loud´ and to Felipe that `All Swiss people have lots of money in their bank accounts´. This guy must have read the How to irritate people by stereotyping them book.
Tuesday is of course Pelourinho night. After finding out some brilliant news in the morning, I was feeling in the mood for celebrating! So a big group of us went out to eat (when it promptly started raining, so we had to run indoors and grab a table), and discussed how you say `down it´ in different languages!! Very interesting!! At the restaurant were a group of tunos who are like a bunch of Spaniards (or Spanish speaking people) who dress up in Shakespearian style outfits and play olde instruments and sing seranading songs, just as some sort of hobby. We have seen them all over the place in Salvador, and it is cool to get some live entertainment for free! Next we headed for the samba club we were in last week, but bizarrely, it and many other places were closed or empty. Sometimes its really awesome in the Pelourinho, and other Tuesdays it is practically dead, and us gringos cannot figure out why. Anyway, we found a salsa place, which was pretty pricey to get in, so we assumed the riff-raff would have been kept out. Sadly, not. The guy with fuzzy hair that has constantly hassled us in Barra was there, as was some guy that chases after Sarah and tells her that he loves her and wants to leave his girlfriend for her. Hmmmm. Anyway, there was pretty good music there, and Dana and Judith taught us how to salsa dance, so that was pretty cool.
On Wednesday, instead of going to school like a good girl, I bunked off!! I also convinced a group of my friends to do the same (I´m such a bad influence!) So, Judith, Dana, Isabelle, Felipe and I met up to go to Ilha da Itaparica, the big island in the middle of the All Saints Bay, which looks like it is actually the other side of Salvador or something. It was a pretty grim day when we started on the journey, so I felt a little guilty about organising it, but it soon lightened up. To get to the island you get onto a boat from near the Mercado Modelo, and in about 45 minutes, you are in Itaparica! It is so pretty over there - lots of lush greenary, hills and valleys, beaches and palm trees, just like being back in Cachoeira. The island is famed for its mangos, and its prettiness and closeness to Salvador has made it a popular place for the rich of Salvador to take their vacations. We did see some pretty fancy houses and apartments, and I can say that I wouldn´t mind at all if the school had been on the island instead of in Barra. Ah well. We were escorted around island by a tourguide, because everything is pretty far apart, and we needed to take a taxi or bus anyway. So we piled into a pretty comfy and new looking MPV, and went to the historic old town of Itaparica - very quaint. We learnt about how slaves used to be sent to a smaller island further away if they had leperosy, so that they wouldn´t affect anyone else. It must have been grim over there. We went to a restaurant that the guide assured us would be reasonably priced if he accompanied us (so that we wouldnt get charged tourist prices). Just as we sat down, all sorts of people selling all sorts of stuff came over to chance their luck. The jewelry seller and the mask seller were the lucky ones, as we handed over wads of cash for the `unique´ crafts. We were later conned by the restaurant owner into paying for some lobsters we neither ordered nor ate, but we were all pretty angry about this, so Felipe gave the guy a piece of his mind, and so we just paid for what we actually ate. Which was bloody expensive as it was - about R$50 each!! And this was supposed to be non-tourist prices! Some guy from the Czech Rep, who is a student of music in Brazilia and was touring around Brazil at the moment decided to approach us because he was being tricked into paying more than he should have by the tourguide he was with. So he wanted to share our ride back to the port. Fine by us, but this guy was strange. While going over the usual introductions, his response to my telling him that I study Physics was `Ah yes, all Indians do subjects like that´. I felt like throttling him. Later on, apparently he told Judith and Dana that `All Mexicans are really loud´ and to Felipe that `All Swiss people have lots of money in their bank accounts´. This guy must have read the How to irritate people by stereotyping them book.
In the evening, we met up with Sarah and the Norweigan girls for sushi!! No, don´t worry people - the world hasn´t turned upside down. I didn´t eat any sushi, though it did look nice. I had some nice cooked salmon instead, and a lovely hot strawberry compote with icecream for dessert. Mmmmmm. The others has a sushi festa! There was a deal available to pay R$45 per person to eat as much sushi and dessert from a selection as they could possibly stomach. There was an awful lot of seafood on the table! Most of us cannot bear the thought of eating any more fish for a long while!
Tonight there is excursion organised by the school, to a dance show in the Pelourinho somewhere. Its going to be a mixture of different Afro & Brazilian folk dances, and should be really interesting. Tomorrow is my last day here, which is quite sad. I spent the first week counting the days until I leave, but now, I am sorry to have to go, especially as I have made friends here from all over the world, and the chance of seeing them again soon is small. But, I am definitely glad that I made this trip, and that I met all these great and interesting people. There are quite a few of us leaving tomorrow, so it would be good to get together and have one big festa all together!
