Passing through Sao Paulo

i am in Sao Paulo, Brazil on my way back to Europe after a week in South America.

I have visted Sao Paulo many times and I have always felt at home here. While Rio den Janeiro is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Sao Paulo is something else – and international business city, but still with all the charecteristics of Brazil.

There are more than twenty million people living in the larger city of Sao Paulo, making this place one of the largest cities in the world.

There is no place I know and have visted, not even Dhaka, Bangkok, Mexico City, Mumbai or Jakarta, where there are traffic jams like here. One day a journey a few kilometers takes 20 minutes, the next day 4 hours.

Like in many international business cities, companies from all around the world have estblished themselves here. So Sao Paulo feels in many ways like any other huge city – but as said, it has maintained its Brazilian soul rhorugh the people living here: the Paulistas.

When taking a walk, which always do wherever I go – this time passing the World Trade Center in Broklin Movo, Jardins – I hear people everywhere sitting in the street outside a bar watching a football game on large screens saying: “Who are you?” “Where are you from?” “Sit down and have a beer and watch football with us”. For a football maniac this is heaven.

However, that openess, the attitude – is hard to find in other places. It is easy to get friends in Brazil.

As a fan of StreetArt this coty offers a lot, everywhere – like this piece in Broklon Novo.

This is the Starbucks on Berrini that I sometimes visits. They have a world record for me since it today took them (4 barristas) 24 minutes to deliver my coffee, with seven customers in the cafe.

Will I come back and visit this fantastic city again? Yes, I will.