Day 89 - São Paulo, Brazil

After another nice lie in and a 13km run in the hottest gym in the world we grab some breakfast near the hotel and then I took Nat to a proper history museum today. The Museu do Futebol aka the Museum of Brazillian Football! It is absolutely brilliant, easily the best football museum I have been to. It does such a great job of capturing the spirit of what makes football amazing which exhibitions and loads of footage about the art of dribbling, free kicks, celebrations, tackles etc.  There is a saying in football that "the English invented it, the Brazilians perfected it" and this museum is pure evidence of this. Emotion, history and entertainment are the three pillars of the museum and it has all in abundance. 

The museum is based at the 40k capacity Corinthians statium, Estádio do Pacaembu as it is locally known. 

The museum is huge and set across three floors that take up one whole end of the stadium. They had all the posters from previous world cups. It's like a trip down memory lane from the old Panini sticker books I used to have as a child. 

We were clearly lacking graphic designers and artists in 1966. 

It's packed full of old programs and football magazines and even has a huge football library. 

We then head to the second floor and are greeted by a life size video of Pele welcoming us. Luckily they had a version of him speaking in English or I would have thought he was just trying to flog more Viagra. 

Cool holograms of Brazil's top footballers.

 

We then enter an auditorium with loads of screens where you can listen to commentary and watch some of the greatest Brazillian goals (both from he national team and club games). 

Obviously they feature probably the greatest Brazillian goal of all time - Carlos Alberto vs Italy in the 1970 World Cup. I never tire of watching that casual lay off from Pele and Alberto smashing it into the net, as well as Clodoaldo skipping past four players as if they were not there. Just like watching Coventry. 

The statement at the bottom says it all. 

For those that can't remember it here it is. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HrjevD2vhk

We then head upstairs again through the underneath of the stand which they have expertly made into a real life example of a Brazillian football crowd to give you the sense of what mentalists Brazillian fans are. It's really well done and gives the place a great atmosphere as it is so loud that when you walk around the rest of the museum it sounds like there is a game on. 

The next room was really cool. It was a series of TV towers and pictures, one tower for each World Cup year which not only included pics from the World Cup but also wider things that happened in the world that year.  Really cool. 

England 1966. A very good year. 

USA 1994

France 1998

The main stadiums in Brazil. 

We then get to go outside and see the stadium.  It actually looks pretty small but is in a great setting with the city in the background. 

They also have loads of interactive games you can play too. This one was quite cool with a virtual ball on the floor that you could kick around. Nat enjoying a kick around. 

She even manages to score. 

There is also a proper goal with a virtual goalkeeper that you can try to beat. 

I end up scoring twice in one go. Once with the ball and once with my flip flop that comes flying off into the goal much to everyone's amusement. 

From here we walk back to the hotel. Love this bit of graffiti. There is some really cool graffiti in this city. 

That evening we go for a drink at the top of Ciricolo Italia in a bar called Terraco Italia on the 45th floor to soak up some great views of the city. The view is fantastic - sky scrapers as far as the eye can see on all sides. What is also amazing is the thunder storm we witness. It is epic. We have never seen lightening like it - so many forks of lightening and continuous. It lasts for over four hours in total. A great show. 

The only downside to this is that we were absolutely done by a cover charge they added that was in the small print of the menu. Absolute bastards. It quadrupled the bill and made it a damn expensive couple of drinks. My protests fell on deaf ears. 

Spot the sphinx head in this pic. In real life it is so vivid (it's an optical illusion created by the buildings). 

We then jump on the metro to Vila Madelena which is a really chic neighborhood of SP. We eat at a great place called Astor which is heaving and reminded us a bit of Balthazar in NYC. We sit outside and watch the world go by. Another great area of São Paulo with great bars and restaurants. Our whole bill came to less than our previous drink!

 

Sadly it is time to move on tomorrow to Paraty. We could definitely do with another couple of nights here. Great city, great people, great places to go our, a real vibe and buzz about the place, safe and easy and overall a great surprise. Highly recommend visiting São Paulo.