Porto Alegre: Part 1

On the 14th, we made the trip down south to Porto Alegre. In the Sao Paulo airport, we randomly ran into former Dodgers catcher Mike Piazza and the best American soccer journalist, Grant Wahl. I got pictures with both, and Grant was particularly nice. He chatted with us a bit about the United States team. It's bizarre we've seen not only those two, but also Barry Sanders and Amy Adams.

 

PA is the most southern hosting city in the country for the World Cup. It's located near Argentina and Uruguay in the Rio Grande do Sul, and from a cultural standpoint, it's closer to those countries as opposed to the rest of Brazil. It's a 'Gaucho' region, with a great deal of people originating from Italian and German descent. A majority of the people look Caucasian, and the women are stunning.

The weather has been very Bay Area-esque for the most part. Apart from scattered sunshine, it's been cool and overcast, with a bit of drizzle. On the first day, we took the overground subway to the historic city center, and trudged uphill in the rain with 50 pound rolling suitcases in the rain. It wasn't the most pleasant means of transportation.

We settled into our AirBnB apartment. It's a quaint, smaller place but nice. It's located on the fringe of the Centro Historico. The buildings have a European feel to them. The city in general is quieter, smaller and less dirty when compared to Sao Paulo.

The streets are littered with small shops selling Brazilian snack foods and other miscellaneous items. It's also fascinating to see so many bars in close proximity to one another. Each "restaurant" has a television, and many people gather around to watch the games.

After unwinding on our initial day, we headed for the Moinhos de Vento neighborhood. It generally considered to be the nicest and wealthiest area in PA. We entered a packed bar called Thomas Pub and shared a table with some friendly middle aged Australians. We've met a ton of Australians on the trip, and they couldn't be nicer.

We chose this bar to watch England play Italy. As many of you know, i'm a massive supporter of the Italians. I came to the bar with the Italian flag draped over my shoulders. We did end up winning 2-1 (which was awesome). Shortly after the game ended, the bar transitioned to a club. A band played classic American music, and the atmospehere was a lot of fun. I did run into a group of drunk Italians from Bologna, and began to sing the Italian National Anthem with them (yes, I can sing it in Italian). It was a bit embarrassing for my friends, but a great moment nonetheless.

To end the night, we took a cab over to a local churrascaria called Garcia's. It's a buffet style restaurant with huge amounts of barbecued beef, chicken, rice and empanadas. 

Part two coming soon!