🇬🇧 Tips about Porto Alegre, in Brazil

After living in Uberlândia, I went to live in Porto Alegre, capital of Rio Grande do Sul. This text has tips about the city and some of my experiences there. I lived in Porto Alegre between the beginning of 2004 and the end of 2007. During that time I lived in rented rooms, in Cidade Baixa and in Menino Deus neighborhood. As I was studying at night and some days I couldn't organize to go to the supermarket, I started ordering restaurant food when I got home from class. I soon realized that restaurant prices were not very different from the cost that I would have to make the same dish by buying the ingredients at the supermarket and I started doing this regularly. I went to metal shows often, but I had almost no other forms of leisure, so I will say little about the topic. What I know about this is that there are many simple bars around Cidade Baixa and others that are more refined in the Moinhos de Vento region. Moinhos is one of the noble neighborhoods of the city. In addition, on weekends during the day people often go to the parks or to the Gasometer plant. In this, it is possible to watch a beautiful sunset. In Parque da Redenção on Sundays there is a small market, which the gauchos call brique da Redenção, where it is possible to buy handicrafts, food and drinks. The city also has shopping malls for all tastes and budgets.

Considering the distance, you can spend weekends in the Serra Gaúcha, the state wine region, or on the beach. In the summer the heat in the capital is intolerable and everyone who can travel do it.

As for security, I once said to a colleague from Rio that it was a quiet city in this regard and she came back cursing me because someone told her not to enter a street in Cidade Baixa. I was robbed in the city once and experienced an attempted robbery on another occasion, both during the day. At night I never went through dangerous situations, even when I came back from college or a modeling course on foot, or so many other times that I walked around there late at night. Maybe that's why I see the city as safe even though I was mugged once.

The city has several universities and many companies, in addition to having many large national companies based in nearby municipalities.

The public transport system could be better. It's just average. The public health system, at least in the care in the region where I lived, I considered very good. Being used to private consultations and hearing so many criticisms of the public healthcare system, I imagined something much worse, but every time I needed the service, it was considerably quick. Not immediately as in private consultations, but very fast and I had good doctors, psychologists and dentists there.

In the first year, I met a lot of people, at university, at Soka Gakkai and on the internet. One of these people invited me to Orkut, which at the time was a social network where we only entered by invitation and it was all in English. And on Orkut I met many more people and solidified my name as a fashion and style professional, for having a very active participation in communities related to such themes. Gauchos are reserved, but when they become friends, they are good friends.

Some people say that Porto Alegre is an expensive city.  Although I lived there in middle class neighborhoods, I was able to maintain a reasonably comfortable lifestyle with an amount equivalent to what I would spend in Uberlândia if I paid rent.

I did not get to rent real estate in the capital, but I know that they usually require the guarantor to be a gaucho. But there are other forms of guarantee that they accept for rent to outsiders as well.

If you are interested in opening your business or want to improve yours, adapt it to this new reality, make an appointment with me. If you want to advertise products or services aligned with the blog's profile, send me an email presenting what you offer. If you have doubts about living in Porto Alegre, comment.

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Nycka, the nomad