🇬🇧 Path

I have lived in 4 cities so far and today I am going to talk about some interesting points about each one.

I was born in Montes Claros, in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. It is not a tourist city, but it does receive some commercial flights from Belo Horizonte, which means that if you leave another state you have to make a connection in BH to get there. There is also road transport. But the roads are terrible. I never went there by plane, so I can't say which is the best option. If you are or have been, tell me!

In Montes Claros, the parties and restaurants usually focus on the so-called “avenida sanitária”. Lately it seems that some good restaurants have appeared outside that small stretch of Avenida Deputado Esteves Rodrigues (which has the ugly nickname I mentioned above).

The city currently has 2 malls. As I remember it has 2 parks (municipal park and Sapucaia park).

The people are very hospitable and the local hotel websites are terrible. The last time I went there I stayed at the home of a young medical student through Couchsurfing and I loved the experience. We even had a meeting of the few members of the city's Couchsurfing at the mall!

The most typical dish of local cuisine is rice with pequi and carne de sol. Montes Claros sun meat (carne de sol) is NOT what gauchos call beef jerky. The carne de sol is also served as a snack, in fried cubes, often accompanied by manioc, in the bars. In the city it is also possible to find pequi liquor, pequi oil, etc. The oil helps to give pequi taste to rice for us who live far away. I was sent one once, but it “froze” in Curitiba at room temperature in the summer, outside the refrigerator. 😂😂😂😂 I had to leave the bottle in the sun every day to use a little bit that melted.

A very beautiful place to go is also the Pampulha lagoon, which is on the way between the airport and the city center.

And if you have good contacts or rent a car, tours of the region's farms can yield beautiful photos. I, in particular, love the cerrado images. Of course it is beautiful to see green vegetation like here in the south, but the landscape of the cerrado is unique.

The local architecture also enchants me. The cathedral is a beautiful church. The oldest houses in the center, close to the mother church, on João Pinheiro street, where my paternal grandmother lived for many years, bocaiúva street… and to give a contrast, a stroll through the neighborhoods São Luiz, Melo and Todos os Santos (I would include Ibituruna too, if you are in the mood), with more modern houses and some beautiful ones.

Uberlândia, in turn, is more accustomed to business tourism. The city is better structured to receive tourists and receives more commercial flights daily. The road that connects the city to São Paulo is also quite decent, so arriving by land is relatively quiet.

In gastronomy what catches my attention in Uberlândia are the pamonhas. In Montes Claros I only knew sweet pamonhas without filling. In Uberlândia and throughout the “triângulo mineiro”, even Patos de Minas, there are salted pamonhas and stuffed with cheese, pepperoni and more that creativity demands.  😋

In college, the interesting places to go out were in the center and it was very safe to walk around the center. I lived near the central terminal and sometimes came back from the club, at the other end of the center, on foot with my friends and it was quite safe. I cannot guarantee that it remains so. Twenty years go by.

”In my time” the city only had one mall that you can call a mall: the Center Shopping.

And there is the Sabiá park (which I never went to). And restaurants / bars have some good ones in various parts of the city.

The city's public transport system is integrated and is better than Curitiba's, mainly because it has a central terminal and the way the central terminal works (you can leave the terminal for up to half an hour without paying for another ticket). I don't know if it's the same at the other terminals in the city.

Porto Alegre is a city that I don't recommend visiting in the summer. Most people living in Porto Alegre leave the capital in January. Only the ones who need to work remain in the city. Anyone who can (middle class and above)  go to the coast because the city is unbearably hot! I would recommend escaping to the Serra Gaúcha in the summer. Few people, because it is out of season, and a super pleasant temperature. But Porto Alegre is a very beautiful city, with parks that are worth a visit like the Parcão and the Parque da Redenção (go on a Sunday. It is full of people around the park and there are craft and food stands on the street in front of the  arc). The gaucho barbecue is very famous. I'm not super fan of beef, so my opinion about it doesn't matter so much, but it's not bad. There are also “galeto” in the region.  I don't know how to explain it, I never ate, but is a young chicken. My gastronomic experience in Porto was eating steak from a very good restaurant close to home, acarajés from the park Redenção (on Sundays), and pizzas. Besides, I usually made food at home.

Watching the sunset on the gasometer is mandatory. Also in the central region there is the house of culture Mario Quintana, the municipal market and the “most beautiful street in the world” (Rua Gonçalo de Carvalho), in the Independência neighborhood.

The most “tourist” regions of the city, I believe, are two. Cidade Baixa, which has many bars and the famous Opinion bar, where, “in my time”, all the international metal shows took place, except the Live’n’louder festival, which was at Gigantinho. The neighborhood is also very close to the Grêmio and Inter stadiums. The profile of the local bars is very popular for students, some “dirty feet” and more alternative bars. And there is the other region, for those who want something more bourgeois, which is the Moinhos de Vento neighborhood, where most of the good hotels and good restaurants are located in the capital. Each of the 2 parks I mentioned is in the vicinity of one of these neighborhoods.

In Curitiba, you can take the tour bus and visit the main sights of the city. Of the points in the tour bus itinerary my favorites are the barigui park, the lookout tower (Oi tower) which is close by and has a beautiful view of the city and the botanical garden.

A cute spot that is worth visiting outside the tourist bus route is the Japan Square. It is also worth visiting the Largo da Ordem, where there was a craft fair on Sunday morning. Also include a tour of museums, such as the Oscar Niemeyer museum, known as the eye museum; Guido Viaro museum and a red museum at the beginning of street Desembargador Westphalen, in the center. The last two are always free. Niemeyer is paid, but has a free day.

Most of the good restaurants are in the neighborhoods Batel, Água verde and Bigorrilho (also called Champagnat). Most of the good hotels are in Batel.  The typical dish of the region is barreado, a shredded cooked meat with flour, sooo boring (for my taste, which I prefer more spicy and rich in flavors).

The public transport system is very good and integrated. Once I tried to visit the main sights of the city by taking a normal bus with a friend, but I do not recommend it, because in one of the stretches we had to take an “Interbairros” line that took a huge turn to get where we wanted.

Nycka, the Nomad