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Barcelona Apartment

Back on the Trail

Yes, I am on sabbatical again and once again I am using it as an opportunity to get out and learn about parts of the world I know of just from books.  The focus this time is less global and much more regional.

This time I will be attempting to understand the politics of conservative, nationalist, populist movements.  The idea started with a desire to understand Germany's new political party, the AfD (Alternative for Germany).  About the same time in France, Marine Le Pen was leading her father's right-wing Front National to the finals of the French Presidential election.  I thought it might provide an opportunity to compare and contrast.

Now there are plenty of choices available if you want to study the ferment on the the conservative side of the political spectrum. You really can take your pick.  Where do I want to go?    Hungary, Italy, Austria...  All nice places, but I kept hearing this nagging voice.  "You ought to go somewhere really outside your comfort zone.  A place you know almost nothing about."  It wouldn't stop and it made sense.  I decided to listen and go to Alabama and see if I couldn't learn something about my own country.  I leave in a few weeks and will spend about a month in a place I have never been, the American south.  I chose a small town, Cullman, Alabama, because it was a small town. Thinking that there I might be able to get to know some folks well enough to convince them to share with me how they see politics and the world.

I will let you know how it goes.

Wandering around Rio

We went to Rio mostly because you can't go to Brazil without visiting Rio. Without Rio, you can't really say you have been to Brazil. But after seeing the beaches and visiting the heights, what else is there? We were not really sure. We had done those things, but it did not really feel like we had seen the real Rio. We decided to go downtown and just spend the day wandering around.

Lonely Planet provided us with a walking tour and we just followed their lead. Well, after a side trip to one of Soccer’s most fabled grounds, anyway. You can’t visit Rio and skip the Maracana, can you? So we rode the metro over. Maracana has its own stop, as befits the most important structure in Brazil. It is very convenient. Hop across a short bridge and you’re at the stadium.

Four days before it’s first match was probably not the best time to visit. The grounds were buttoned up tight with crews busily adding their finishing touches. We could look, but we couldn't go in. Oh well, it was fun just to be there. Our first real taste of the global nature of the World Cup. Fans from everywhere, dreaming that they are standing in front of that place where magic will happen, where their team will win the cup. Before the first kick off, anyone can dream.

From there, we headed back downtown and climbed out at Rio’s Central Square and began wandering. We passed some nice old buildings, some nice new buildings, and a couple of museums. We passed them without visiting - not because we weren’t interested, mind you. Rather because they weren’t open. The palace seemed like it could be visited but though we found it, we could not find anything to look at other than a scale model in the foyer. There were several employees - but none could help us.  No one spoke a language we spoke. We tried the next museum. Brazil's Natural History. They were on strike.

The walk over was not a total loss. One of the picketers spoke French and so I got a firsthand account of why at least one Brazilian was upset about the World Cup. She made a lot of sense. They built a $300 million stadium in Manaus that will be used for 10 days - but there is no money for museums. I get it.  But no museum visit.  She helpfully pointed us towards the Dali exhibit - which closed yesterday. Oh well, we keep wandering.

Eventually the path took us someplace fun. Rio has a massive central market, not unlike Istanbul's bazaar. Merchants’ stalls are jammed one against the next, all selling ‘Brasíliana’ it seemed. There was nothing you could not get adorned with Brazil’s flag or colors. Not that I wanted that stuff - but it was fun to see.

From the market we wandered past Rio's Cathedral. interesting shape - I'm sure there's a story - but I don't know it.  And on into Lapa one of Rio's funky Samba districts. It would've been fun to go back and visit the clubs, but we heard the neighborhood was better in the daylight.

It was early in our trip and we were probably a bit over concerned about crime, so we passed. Shoulda, woulda, coulda…  we did get to see Rio’s version of Rome’s Spanish steps. More colorful and fun and like everywhere else packed with roving bands of fans, chanting and taking their “I was there” shots. We got ours, too and now we could say: Rio, been there, done that. Let’s play some futbol!

Fortaleza and Natal

We didn't pick Fortaleza and Natal because they were UNESCO world heritage sites. In fact, I bet most Brazil visitors come and go without giving them a second thought. I can't say I blame them. There really is not a whole lot of there, there.  That's not to say that they are not nice places to visit, especially if you like the beach and beach type activities. They have those in spades. Only I don't really like the beach. Thank God there was soccer!

Fortaleza is the larger of the two cities and no doubt gets more traffic. We heard it was a pretty short flight from Europe and that in the winter (Brazil's summer) Europeans flock down and fill the hotels. They must come in droves, as there are lots of big hotels. 

It is hard to imagine summer in Fortaleza, however. We were there in the dead of winter (mid-June), the shortest days of the year. 

The daytime temperature was 30° to 32°C (90°F+)  The humidity was 90% + and then the sun went down and the temperature rose! No idea how that happens, though I suspect the wind shifts, blowing a cool (ish?) breeze onshore during the day and inland heat offshore at night. For me it was brutal. Fortunately, the hotel was air-conditioned.

One afternoon we did make an obligatory hike from the hotel zone into the center. It was a quaint, small,  colonial outpost. A couple nice old buildings, a small commercial zone and that’s about it. 
Great. 

Back to the soccer.

Natal honestly had even less going for it. To be fair, I’m sure most people who go to Brazil like the beach and Natal has a very nice beach (Ponta Negra) they also have kite surfing and dune buggy riding and snorkeling and a bunch of other stuff I did not do.

We were there for the big game US Ghana, and the game, the stadium and Natal did not disappoint. 

We were very glad we chose Natal.  Christopher and I are now members of a very small, elite group of Americans – those who have been there to see their team win a World Cup match.  It is sadly a very small group that will not soon get any bigger. Natal would be the US team’s only win.

Eating in Brazil

One of the questions you always get on return from a trip is the inevitable “So how's the food?”  Well, after a couple of weeks in Brazil, I am afraid I would have to say - I don’t know. “You ate didn’t you?” Yes, we ate and lots of things we ate were pretty good - but I have a sense that we missed more than we experienced. So how's the food? What we had was good. But we had a lot of the same stuff, over and over.

It was not because we were averse to adventure dining.  It was kind of because of the way Brazilian restaurants operate. It took us a while to figure it out. Our first problem was linguistic, of course.  80% of the menus were in Portuguese only. I found that my high school Spanish helped a lot, so I had a general clue about my choices, but there was something we could not figure out.

One of the first things we learned was the word “Choppe”. It means “draft” and was usually the first thing we took care of.  Choppe, Choppe, Caparina, Choppe. Now we had time to look at the menu. Typically Choppe was 3 or 4 Real (R$), about $1.50-1.80.  It gave us a reference to how expensive a restaurant we were in. Okay, so this place is pretty reasonable, let’s look at the dishes. This was  a puzzle. If beer is cheap (R$3) why does a chicken dish cost R$60 ($27 US)? And then: okay it’s chicken  (frango) but chicken what? And how?

That was the adventure. Oh well, we just dove in and ordered. Fortunately we thought it made sense to order something, try it, share it and go from there. It was a good policy. Why does a chicken dish cost R$60? Because it is a big plate of chicken and it comes with rice and beans and usually one or two other sides. Brazilians eat family-style when they go to restaurants, it seems.

As we got more experienced we noticed and understood what was going on at the other tables and so that is how we begin ordering. But there's a problem in that. First, you were ordering one, maybe two dishes - not four. That alone limits your ability to experiment. And then whatever you order needs to be okay with everyone. That pushes you towards the most common denominator and towards ordering again something that worked last time. Especially when the only word in the description that you understand is “frango”.

We ate a lot of grilled meat. The places we went did not seem to have a dinner menu or a lunch menu - they just had a menu. Lunch and dinner were pretty much the same thing - one just a few hours later than the other. Our usual pattern was built around the group stage game schedule. We’d wake up when we wanted and get breakfast (see next post) or not, depending on the time. The first kickoff of the day would be at 1 PM. Depending on the importance of that game, we get to a restaurant with a TV either 30 minutes before kickoff (to get a decent view of the TV) or at halftime (when tables freed up as people moved on). We would start with something to drink. In Fortaleza we discovered beer came in 600 ml bottles, twice the size of a choppe, delivered in styrofoam jackets to keep them cold and usually just R$5 or 6. That alone could hold us for 90 minutes if we wanted, but at some point we would order a dish to share. That was lunch. The next game was at 3:00 and often we skip it unless it was the big one and then be back in a restaurant at 6:00 for dinner and the night cap.

It was a lot of fun because the restaurants were always packed and the fans were always passionate - but it was not a five-star culinary experience and the grilled meat did get old after a while. There were options: lots of pizzerias, more Italian style than US and there was McDonald’s. We mostly avoided that, except for the Mokarito McFlurries. They were the perfect late night snack.   We had a few.

Breakfast

Breakfast depended on where we were. In Fortaleza and Natal it was offered at the hotel, so of course we obliged. The hotel in Fortaleza was pretty big so they had a full on buffet with lots of choices: eggs, cold cuts, quiche-like dishes, sweet bread items and even cereal and milk to go with your excellent Brazilian coffee and odd juices. Most of the juices were odd. Made from some fruit that I had never heard of. They even had cashew juice one day (it’s about like you would imagine). One of the interesting things about the juices was that they were all unsweetened.  If you wanted sugar you just added it yourself, like in your coffee. It was a little alarming to be confronted by the reality of how much sugar I needed to add before the juice was the way I like it - but good to know, I suppose.

In Natal, at Noelle’s Pousada, breakfast was much more like a special day at home. While we were there it was just six Americans – us, and another couple in town for the US-Ghana match. Noelle asked what we wanted and that’s what we got: Eggs, jams, cold cuts and homemade banana bread. And a succession of juices, made from stuff I had never heard of, had never tried, will probably never see again and that I don’t think I will miss. Still, those juices were not the strangest one I had. That happened at our favorite breakfast place in Rio.

In Rio we were not in a hotel, so no breakfast. We had to hunt. Hunting was not hard. On the corner in front of our apartment was a juice bar that served fresh-baked pastries.  My favorite was the ham and cheese.  You can never go wrong with ham and cheese, cooked into a bread.  And then of course they had juices. They must have had 30 choices.

Our Juice Bar

The first day I played it safe and went with the laranja (naranja-orange, thanks high school Spanish - I guessed right!) The second day I came more prepared. I looked up and downloaded a list of fruits translated into Portuguese. I decided to try the pineapple (abacaxi) I said it, and I thought I pointed to it on the menu board. The waiter repeated. I said “Sim!”. Were good to go. Small or large? I love pineapple, let’s go large. A few minutes later my juice came - kind of a green sludge. It was not abacaxi it was abacate (avocado). I am not sure what the difference in pronunciation would be.  Portuguese does not seem to be pronounced exactly as it is written and I guess when I put my finger on the board he thought I wanted the one above (abacate) the one I put my finger on (abacaxi).  So I had an avocado smoothie for breakfast. Not the worst thing I ever had.  Still, the next time, I was much more careful.