Transitional Travelings

Right I am here! YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My arrival had its many twists and turns but finally I made it after a good 53 hours, comprising of 2 car rides, 2 trains, 2 metros, 3 buses & 2 planes. All this without music; I must say I am quite impressed with myself!

Within all this I had a day in Milan, Italy - my first trials as a tourist backpacker. Considering I had 10 hours to wait for my next flight, I took a bus into town to stroll around the "cittá". Walking down the streets with a backpack attracts much attention - especially from those preying upon tourist consumption. Simply said, you stand out. But I completely enjoyed it and embrassed it with a trusting camera. Most of the eyes were accompanied with smiles or expressions of curiosity as to what is this strange human-turtle specimen, but overall found that people were willing to help. There is quite a difference between a backpacker and a regular tourist because you are on the crossroads between tourist coming to consume a city and spend money and a homeless with no securities or backup (the turtle condition). But neither are you a nuissance because you are having to adapt to the situations around you. I am probably completely off the line but I am liking this "turtlelisation" and I think that after a couple of weeks my shell will harden. Oh! Here I have my metaphoric being - a turtle. Hopefully I will move around just as fast as well.

Back toi Milan, I came across a delicious organic bakery with a wood fire oven - it is called Princi on Via Speronari. Go there if you are ever in Milan, it is close to the Duomo. The Italians are very lively, friendly and smiley - I liked being there and made me wonder why I was not backpacking around Europe!?! But hey, I couldn´t possibly be in Italy much longer - I didnt have any sunglasses. Italy has something enchanting about it and feels very theatrically orientated and artistic. Everyday life seems to have an undercurrent of a timeless living fairytale. I concluded it´s a Pinocchio thing.

I went to Malpensa airport from the central train station for 7 euros and 1 hour. It was so incredibly foggy that I couldnt see a thing. The airport was equally as foggy. The plane was full and I was already addressed to as a Brazilian! It is true that Brazilians could ressemble anything. I did my stretches and it was time to board the plane. THEN did it strike me that I was boarding a huge aircraft, ready to fly at thousands of kilometers above the ground at a very high speed and over an incredible distance. Panic started flowing through my veins and I had to calm myself down and go on automatic pilot - find my seat, get confortable to sleep asap before I start thinking about it anymore.
In the process of doing so, an English couple behind me called Peter and Polly were conversing on this great flight. I overhear Peter say "Milan to Sao Paulo, thats almost TEN THOUSAND kilometers away - how does that make you feel?" I felt those nervous little chemicals build up again and tried to not listen, but they continued and I just stood up, turned around and pleaded "Please could you stop that I am going to flip!!!" They looked at me as if not understanding what was going on. I calmed down and realised that it was quite ironic of myself to ask them to shut up - I was on a plane there and it is for pure pleasure!
I slept the whole way through.

I began watching "A Beautiful Mind" up to the part where he got married to his pupil but I was distracted by the fact that I was 20 minutes away from landing and that for the first time I laid eyes upon the South American continent - which was equally as cloudy as Milan! As we got closer I could see the mountains and the super dense vegetation. So dense! The trees looked like brocoli from the plane - it was everywhere; If it it not a building or something purely urban, then it is huge trees.

The city of Sao Paulo is huge! It is city city city up to the horizon, all over the place. There is no end to the city. Erm... pardon me, the Metropolis! The plane landed perfectly smoothly to the point that I did not even feel it land and I stepped off the plane to enter summer semi tropical humidity.
It is 9am and it has just begun!


I can't post any pictures. I lost the card that holds the memory card into the card reader. Basically I have the memory card, I got the cable but I am missing the card in between. I lost it last night in a club on the mountain called "Juá". Sorry!

By the way, the photo down here of me looking gobsmacked was taken when I entered my kitchen to discover my sister and friends surprising me with a party!