Monday 2019_01_14

If it’s Monday, it must be music day! In the morning, Roy Harper’s One of those days in England (parts 2-10) reminded me how much I miss my wife. This evening, there was samba!

My wife is no longer so concerned about me cycling in São Paulo. There are bike lanes, the four-wheeled traffic seems to be a lot more considerate than in the UK, and there are at least two companies renting out ‘Bolsonaro-bikes’. So I thought I would spend the morning on a quick shopping trip to buy a helmet, gloves and a phone-holder. It wasn’t quick – I got back to the hotel about 10pm!

My first journey, as advised by Leandro, was to the Decathlon store in Paulista. Here’s the metro map.

1. Walk to Faria Lima metro station.
2. Take line 4 (yellow) to Consolação/Paulista.
3. Take line 2 (green) to Brigadeiro metro station.
4. Walk 400m along Avenida Paulista to the Decathlon store.

Avenida Paulista

São Paulo roads are imperfect – but they are better than Edinburgh’s roads.

Main streets have cycle-lanes on central refuges (movie).

I ended up buying 3 single tickets in a confusing conversation with the ticket attendant. I now realise he was asking me how many tickets I wanted but I thought at the time he was asking if I had the correct change. (Single tickets cost R$4·30.) The extra tickets turned out to be useful because I ended up making more metro journeys than I’d planned.

At the Decathlon store I bought a serviceable helmet, a couple of cheap maillots, a pair of cycling mitts and a water-carrier/rucksack. Decathlon also had handlebar phone carriers but they were too small for my iPhone 8+. I was told that Decathlon also sells frame-bags that hold phones but they didn’t have any in that store. However, their store at Marginal Tieté did. That was another metro ride away:

1. Walk back to Brigadiero metro station.
2. Take line 2 (green) to Paulista/Consolação.
3. Take line 4 (yellow) to República.
4. Take line 4 (red) to Palmeiras – Barra Funda.
5. Walk about 1·5 miles to the Decathlon store.

Outside Palmeiras – Barra Funda station

Cycle-lanes on roundabout in Avenida Thomas Edison.

play-park on Avenida Thomas Edison

Palmeiras – Barra Funda is a large combined metro, train and bus station, so it was quite busy but it’s well signposted. My walk to the Decathlon store was through a residential/light industry area.

Looking along Avenida Thomas Edison	This is how São Paolo gets cycle-lanes right, by forbidding parking in them. (See the crossed out E, meaning ‘Proibido estacionar’.) Are you listening, Edinburgh Council?
‘Order and Progress street’!	The International Centre for Theoretical Physics/South American Institute for Fundamental Research is near Palmeiras – Barra Funda station.

There were a couple of volleyball courts outside the store, where some young men ($deity, I’m old!) were playing. I bought the frame bag. It will take my 8+ if I take it out of its Lifeproof case, or will take my 5S in its Lifeproof case. Unfortunately, the SIM in that phone doesn’t provide international data, so my task for tomorrow morning is to get a Brazilian data SIM.

I walked back to Palmeiras – Barra Funda, took a very crowded metro back to República, then the yellow line back towards my hotel. I realised that I would pass through Fradique Coutinho metro station, the closest to Hareburger, so I jumped out there to eat and phone my wife.

coloured apartments near Hareburger

‘Ernesto’ burger and batatas fritas at Hareburger

vegan ice-cream. Almost as good as vegan magnums. – yum!

I then took the metro to Faria Lima, and encountered a samba band on Largo do Batatas. I think the mascot was fried!

Samba (movie) (The camera had been drinking, not me.)

The samba mascot was out of it!

graffiti on a bike store on Largo do Batatas

I then walked to a nearby Centauro store to try to by a Brazil maillot. They were out of stock so I trudged back to the hotel.

more grafitti

bike-lust at Centauro

I think I’ve walked less than 5 miles but my feet are not pleased with me. However, there is good news: the hotel has done my laundry so I will wear clean socks tomorrow. (I would have done so anyway, but this ,means my choice is wider.) Tomorrow will probably be spend reading and taking notes, so it may be too boring to blog about. Nighty-night!