This country is awesome. I've been having so much fun eating, drinking, and playing my way through Curitiba. We've eaten like kings and queens and seen many of the sweet sites Curitiba has to offer!
My last post was from Wednesday evening when we first arrived at the hotel. We had just met up with Kyle, and thank GOODNESS we did because we would have really struggled without him. Plus, he's simply amazing so that's nice too. Our Brazilian TA, Ana, gave us a restaurant suggestion for dinner, so we went to Maredo - a restaurant claiming to have "the best burger in the world". While it was delicious, I still prefer Terry's in Cincy. What was amazing at Maredo was their Caipirinha! Caipirinha is a traditional Brazilian drink with cachaça (sugar cane rum), sugar and lime. OMG it is FANTASTIC. Like a Marg, BUT BETTER. I think I'm in love. Dinner was great, the company was better, and the Caipirinha was THE best. Really, it's that good.
Thursday we toured around Curitiba on one of those double decker tour busses. It was a little pricey, but a great way to see the city! Our first stop was the Botanic Gardens. The greenhouse of the gardens is a really cool structure. We walked around and enjoyed the warm weather for a bit before heading to our next destination - the Curitiba University for the Environment. It's a great environmental school built with all reclaimed materials in an old quarry. There's a really cool pathway made out of old telephone poles. Also, we saw a black swan! Natalie! Then we visited the Tanguá Park which is another example of urban space being re-utilized. It had a great view of the city and we could see lavish mansions right next to shack-like houses. Interesting juxtaposition. Our last stop was a TV tower that had INCREDIBLE views of this sprawling city. The amount of high rise apartment buildings is insane! Later that evening we went out for dinner at this Italian restaurant called Spaghetto. The food was AMAZING. We've been eating so well here in Curitiba!
Friday we visited the Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR) - a partner University with the Niehoff Studio. The professor at UFPR is a friend of Professor Russell and used to teach our TA Ana. It was interesting seeing how different the University is here. It's a public institution, and they have so little money that they couldn't even afford toilet paper. Kinda weird! We ate at the University dining hall and it was also very different. Most notably, they had a hand washing station right as you entered the cafeteria area - very smart! Afterward, we had a short break at the hotel, so naturally I napped. Then later we went out for dinner at a Churrascaria aka a Brazilian steak house.
First of all, let me say that this was the most awesome eating experience I've ever had in my life. And, I like to eat so I've had quite a few glorious eating experiences. This was unlike anything I had ever done before! SO MUCH AMAZING FOOD. So here's the deal... It was about an hour wait to get into the restaurant. During that time I drank a couple of Xingus (my fav Brazilian beer). Then, we get seated and are told we should go to the buffet in the middle of the restaurant. Here's where they try and trick you! They want you to fill up on yummy salads and snackies so you eat less delectable meat. But I wasn't so easily fooled! I was able to nom on the buffet food and also slam incredibly hard on the meats. There are people that just walk around with various kinds of meats on skewers and they shave them off onto your plate. OMGOMGOMG best meat ever. They had it all - steak, filet, pork, beef, even chicken hearts! I wasn't brave enough to try one, but Jordan did! My favorite meats were the filet and the pork thing. So savory! And the beers just kept flowing. OOH ALSO, there was this magical Brazilian cheese thing that was grilled and melty but also still pretty solid. Like I said, magical. And oh so delicious! So I stuffed my face with excessive amounts of food and then ended my eating experience with a fried banana covered in chocolate. Like I said, champions are made at the Churrascaria.
After the Churrascaria a couple of us went out to Schwartzwald - a German bar! It was super Bavarian style so Remo and I were quite in our element. We chatted in German all night and drank beer out of little mugs. We ordered Submarinos which were beers with a shot of Jägermeister in them... kinda gross but we got to keep the little shot glasses as a souvenir so that was cool. Sorry that this post is so text heavy. I've been having trouble charging my camera batteries so I've been slacking in the photo department. Hopefully I'll go back and add some pictures later. Until next post, ciao ciao!
My last post was from Wednesday evening when we first arrived at the hotel. We had just met up with Kyle, and thank GOODNESS we did because we would have really struggled without him. Plus, he's simply amazing so that's nice too. Our Brazilian TA, Ana, gave us a restaurant suggestion for dinner, so we went to Maredo - a restaurant claiming to have "the best burger in the world". While it was delicious, I still prefer Terry's in Cincy. What was amazing at Maredo was their Caipirinha! Caipirinha is a traditional Brazilian drink with cachaça (sugar cane rum), sugar and lime. OMG it is FANTASTIC. Like a Marg, BUT BETTER. I think I'm in love. Dinner was great, the company was better, and the Caipirinha was THE best. Really, it's that good.
Thursday we toured around Curitiba on one of those double decker tour busses. It was a little pricey, but a great way to see the city! Our first stop was the Botanic Gardens. The greenhouse of the gardens is a really cool structure. We walked around and enjoyed the warm weather for a bit before heading to our next destination - the Curitiba University for the Environment. It's a great environmental school built with all reclaimed materials in an old quarry. There's a really cool pathway made out of old telephone poles. Also, we saw a black swan! Natalie! Then we visited the Tanguá Park which is another example of urban space being re-utilized. It had a great view of the city and we could see lavish mansions right next to shack-like houses. Interesting juxtaposition. Our last stop was a TV tower that had INCREDIBLE views of this sprawling city. The amount of high rise apartment buildings is insane! Later that evening we went out for dinner at this Italian restaurant called Spaghetto. The food was AMAZING. We've been eating so well here in Curitiba!
Friday we visited the Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR) - a partner University with the Niehoff Studio. The professor at UFPR is a friend of Professor Russell and used to teach our TA Ana. It was interesting seeing how different the University is here. It's a public institution, and they have so little money that they couldn't even afford toilet paper. Kinda weird! We ate at the University dining hall and it was also very different. Most notably, they had a hand washing station right as you entered the cafeteria area - very smart! Afterward, we had a short break at the hotel, so naturally I napped. Then later we went out for dinner at a Churrascaria aka a Brazilian steak house.
First of all, let me say that this was the most awesome eating experience I've ever had in my life. And, I like to eat so I've had quite a few glorious eating experiences. This was unlike anything I had ever done before! SO MUCH AMAZING FOOD. So here's the deal... It was about an hour wait to get into the restaurant. During that time I drank a couple of Xingus (my fav Brazilian beer). Then, we get seated and are told we should go to the buffet in the middle of the restaurant. Here's where they try and trick you! They want you to fill up on yummy salads and snackies so you eat less delectable meat. But I wasn't so easily fooled! I was able to nom on the buffet food and also slam incredibly hard on the meats. There are people that just walk around with various kinds of meats on skewers and they shave them off onto your plate. OMGOMGOMG best meat ever. They had it all - steak, filet, pork, beef, even chicken hearts! I wasn't brave enough to try one, but Jordan did! My favorite meats were the filet and the pork thing. So savory! And the beers just kept flowing. OOH ALSO, there was this magical Brazilian cheese thing that was grilled and melty but also still pretty solid. Like I said, magical. And oh so delicious! So I stuffed my face with excessive amounts of food and then ended my eating experience with a fried banana covered in chocolate. Like I said, champions are made at the Churrascaria.
After the Churrascaria a couple of us went out to Schwartzwald - a German bar! It was super Bavarian style so Remo and I were quite in our element. We chatted in German all night and drank beer out of little mugs. We ordered Submarinos which were beers with a shot of Jägermeister in them... kinda gross but we got to keep the little shot glasses as a souvenir so that was cool. Sorry that this post is so text heavy. I've been having trouble charging my camera batteries so I've been slacking in the photo department. Hopefully I'll go back and add some pictures later. Until next post, ciao ciao!
I would love to try some Caipirinha one day....
ReplyDeleteYou must! It's scrumptious!
ReplyDeleteWhen you return, Boi Na Braza is across from Fountain Square... it's a Churrascaria in Cincinnati!
ReplyDelete