Brazil 2014 - Day 7 (6/19/2014) - São Paulo

Raj was in charge of the itinerary for the day, and he came up with a walking tour of some areas close to our hotel.  Before heading out, though, we had the usual breakfast at the hotel just before it closed at 9:30.  The weather was to be in the 60s (and even a bit lower) that day, so we bundled/layered up a bit more than normal.

Our first stop on the walk was Estação Pinacoteca, an extension of the Pinacoteca museum in a railway station complex.  Though it was not actually what Raj was looking for (he wanted the Pinacoteca), it had some interesting exhibits about Brazilian history, resistance, and the role of football (soccer) in politics.  We kept looking for the Pinacoteca until we found the Parque da Luz, and decided to walk through that.  We happened onto a couple who were out with their two kids and who spoke great English.  They explained that many things were closed that day for a national holiday (Corpus Christi) and advised us on what parts of town to go to instead.  They also revealed to us that the Pinacoteca was in the Parque da Luz (we had actually walked past the back of it), so we headed there next.  We spent the bulk of our time there going through the chronological history of Brazilian art on its second floor.

After leaving the museum, we hopped on the Metro and took Linha (Line) 1 to Paraíso, which is at the south end of Avenida Paulista.  We first tried to stop by a Lebanese restaurant that Raj had read about, but it was closed.  Instead we stopped at Starbucks for a warm drink (white chocolate, in my case) and snack (caramel brownie).  We then walked up Paulista and stopped by MASP (Museu de Arte São de Paulo) and Parque Tenente Siqueira Campos, before walking over to a nearby pub to try to catch the 4:00 England vs Uruguay game, but the place had a line out the door.  So we instead crossed the street and watched it at Frutaria São Paulo, which is apparently a health food restaurant.  Raj had the veggie burger and fries while I had a tostex provolone, which turned out to basically be a provolone grilled cheese sandwich - it was pretty fantastic.  Unfortunately, I also ordered a swiss lemonade, which basically turned out to be the equivalent of lemon juice.  Raj and I also shared a creme brulé.  England lost 2-1.

After leaving the restaurant, we walked over to the FIFA Fan Fest, which was taking place at Parque Anhagabaú, which wasn't too far from our hotel - I wanted to see if they were selling Nigeria scarves there (I had been unable to find one on the street or at the first game).  Unfortunately, they were not selling any merchandise at the fest.  So we just watched the rest of the first half of Japan vs Greece.  At halftime we walked back to the hotel and caught the rest of the game in our room.