Freedom Key: Finding my feet in Floripa :-)

Vôo com Pássaros (Flight with birds) - Viti Grosman

So...  after a week and a weekend in Floripa, immersed in the new language of Portuguêse and amongst the new folk, Brasileiros, I have finally found my feet and they seem to bee tapping out a comfortable rhythm.  I've hired a bike from Step 1 and signed up for two weeks' access to yoga classes at Uni-Yoga   a 15 minute ride from the home-stay.  And each day I'm feeling a little bit more confident with the language. 

The bike's been the biggest change - it's an absolute freedom key!! :-)

Saturday evening I ventured out along this straight and flat cycle path that takes you to the centre in just over half and hour I reckon (I'm not 100% sure because of how often I seem to stop to take photos each time I make the journey).  This lit up bridge (that reminds me of the Forth Road Bridge in Edinburgh) is interesting in that it is not functional in a city where traffic congestion is such a huge issue that this same 10km journey took Urs and I one and a half hours by car last Thursday evening.  There is therefore only one functional bridge connecting the two parts of this city spread across mainland and island, which becomes ridiculously busy in rush hour, and at the point where it filters into traffic reaching the centre from outlaying parts of the mainland, the cars are often at a standstill.

(2 PHOTOS FROM GOOGLE IMAGE SEARCH) 
Traffic jam leaving São Paulo (left) / 

Still from R.E.M. video Everybody Hurts (Right)

When Dayane and I were chatting about this during one of our classes last week she explained that traffic issues are huge throughout Brazil, which is a country that relies entirely on road transit in absence of any railway or significantly developed sea-routes.  Apparently the first day of the Christmas holiday break on 21st December the traffic jams leaving São Paolo are known to stretch 220km... 220 kilometres! - and in temperatures of up to 42 degrees celcius.. wow!  I was reminded of the R.E.M. video for Everybody Hurts and the scenes of folks getting out of their cars and walking, walking, as the lad on the bridge throws cash in the air in handfuls.  I wonder about the symbolism of this... if it in any way refers to the insanity of throwing money away in the hours and hours that are lost in traffic jams, and the petrol wasted... and why would folk be stuck in these traffic jams in the first place?  Apart from here, in the case of leaving the city for a holiday break, is it usually in the exact moment of commuting to and from work to earn the same money that is being wasted in the hours lost in the congestion? Hmmm...

Anyway, it appears that Florianopolis is in dire need of a congestion solution and apparently there are plans to build another bridge (a new one sadly being cheaper than repairing this pretty old one).  And in the meantime, some folk cycle and some local buses struggle to get through the traffic, but it seems there is minimal funding being put into alternatives to car travel, because of family-business politics.   The majority therefore drive, even the majority of students, which may be surprising for us Brits, but apparently owning a car in Brazil is still a significant status symbol and in general (according to Dayane's local point of view) most Brazilians would not even consider taking a bike or a bus if there was the hint of rain, or if they were dressed up to go out - why would you when you have the protective bubble of a car to move about in, albeit inch by petrol-guzzling inch?!

So my destination at the end of this first two-wheel outing with the Freedom Key (as I reckon she'll be known from now on!) was the Festival Fora da Forma in the centre of town that I'd heard tell of from a friend Patrick, who is a Brasilian musician from nearby Curitiba who was collaborating with the festival... although somehow I managed to miss not only his band playing, but also missed him entirely evening even though the crowd was small in this unusually painted squat-like old colonial house.  I did bump into a lovely girl Ile who I recognised from the café opposite our school, and also very happily had a lovely long-time-no-see hug from Chico, who like Patrick is a musician and friend from the And'Art residency back in Casablanca in September 2012. 

A day-time wander along this same cycle-path and I had my first opportunity to try the famous local fast-food hot-dogs (or 'cachorro quentes') that Dayane had told me were the cheapest and most popular student foods along with 'x-salada' burgers, both being super-loaded with extras: sweetcorn, peas, onion, gerkins, tomato, fried potato slivers, mayonnaise, ketchup and mustard for a start!  (I was reminded of Billy Bunter's Burger Van in Stratford where Joe and I used to go in the wee hours of the morning for our heart-attack-in-a-bun burgers that I would always eat half of before going to bed and finish off for breakfast the next day!!!) Seeing the cachorro quente's similarity with the avocado-loaded Chilean 'completos' I was impressed to find this world-wide reference chart for hot-dogs online. :-)

Parallel Universe

So.. all in all happy weekend days of two-wheeled wandering.... 

One door my Freedom Key took me past was this one in the photo above... I wonder which parallel universe it would lead me to right now if I were to give it a tug?

....this reminds me of Herman Hesse's Steppenwolf and the elusive door in the old wall whose neon lights flash the cryptic and exciting message:

 "MAGIC THEATRE. ENTRANCE NOT FOR EVERYBODY. FOR MADMEN ONLY!"

...yay, let's go!! 

So to all you mad folk in all your universes, wherever they may be, parallel, perpendicular, inside-out, upside-down or whatever-which-way you like them... 

big love and happy magic-door searching!

:-)