Recreation After the Hangover

Even though we went to bed late, we woke up early. By 8 AM, we were up and about again. Our heads were screaming for a quiet day to help us recover from the hangover. When we heard about a market where clothes, watches, jewelry, DVDs, and more were super cheap, we perked up and headed out to shop. We took the metro, which goes straight to the market. There’s only one metro line where we’re staying, so it’s hard to get lost. A ticket costs 2 reais. The market, Saara, was massive and stretched across several streets that were closed off to traffic. I snagged a Hugo Boss watch for just 10 reais. Football is huge in Brazil, so you can find football T-shirts everywhere. This market was no exception. They say you can buy a football T-shirt for 10 reais, but we only managed to haggle them down to 20 reais. We thought that was a good deal since the seller started at 35 reais. Exhausted from shopping, we took the metro out to the Teresa neighborhood, where the wealthier Brazilians live. We expected to see stunning villas, so we were a bit disappointed to find that many of the houses were quite worn down. It seems like they care more about the interiors of their homes than the exteriors. Teresa is located on a hillside, where you can hop on a little open tram that struggles its way up the mountain. We got off at a spot with some small restaurants, where we had a late lunch. We weren’t entirely sure what we ordered, and it turned out one of the dishes tasted really strange. You do a lot of walking here, so our feet and legs needed a break, which is why we headed back to the hostel. A storm was brewing, and it started to rain and thunder. This also drove many of the other guests at the hostel inside to wait out the rain. A lot of them had been out at the bar the night before, so everyone was a little tired. We went to a restaurant that had a buffet similar to the one we had eaten at the night before, costing 25 reais. There was a sides buffet with salads, soups, bread, and sushi. The waiters walked around with different types of meat, coming to your table. You just flip a little sign on the table from red to green when you want more meat. We had freshly squeezed juice, pineapple, and passion fruit to drink – it was absolutely delicious.