A super tardy write up of my day in Belo Horizonte, but better late than never. According to Wikipedia, it is the 6th largest city in Brazil. I was not too impressed - that is part of tagging along on a business trip - being stuck in business-like cities, but here were a few things I did around the city.
I have a thing for markets, so the first thing I did in the morning was to go to the mercado central. The market had all kinds of things, including pets. Yes, pets. Smelly dogs, cats, rabbits, birds... As I walked (sprinted) through the pet section, I tried to hold my breath. Towards the end of the pet section were some food vendors, and I really have no idea how they expected to sell anything that one would put in one's mouth being in such a smelly section of the market.
Anyway, I was told that the Minas Gerais region, where Belo Horizonte is in, is famous for food, especially pão de queijo. I hunted for the least expensive one, and found a rather crowded cafe (which indicates quality, right?), and ordered mine. Not bad, kind of like a popover, but smaller and more cheesy.
Next stop, I went to the parque municipal. A brief respite from the sun and thousand cars, it had row boats, tennis courts and a small theme park including bumper cars, which made me think back to my childhood where bumper cars were all the ish. <3
About a 15-20 min walk or so away, I found Praça da Liberdade - another park, much much smaller, but prettier.
I was told the main shopping area was called Savassi. I walked around there and found nothing remarkable, but I wonder if maybe I missed the main streets. They had a building called Shopping 5th Avenue that was rather drab. I found a restaurant called Olegario and had lunch there, simply because it was a nice looking place where someone probably spoke some kind of English. I ordered the salmon off the daily special menu, got an inedible salad as part of the meal (the dressing tasted like fermented vinegar if such a thing exists?), and treated myself to a petit gateau which Edward's work contact raved about and confirmed it was but a molten chocolate cake with ice cream. So so meal.
So to sum it up, I did not fall in love with Belo Horizonte. It was not the worst city to be in, but certainly would not be recommending anyone to go there!
I have a thing for markets, so the first thing I did in the morning was to go to the mercado central. The market had all kinds of things, including pets. Yes, pets. Smelly dogs, cats, rabbits, birds... As I walked (sprinted) through the pet section, I tried to hold my breath. Towards the end of the pet section were some food vendors, and I really have no idea how they expected to sell anything that one would put in one's mouth being in such a smelly section of the market.
Anyway, I was told that the Minas Gerais region, where Belo Horizonte is in, is famous for food, especially pão de queijo. I hunted for the least expensive one, and found a rather crowded cafe (which indicates quality, right?), and ordered mine. Not bad, kind of like a popover, but smaller and more cheesy.
Next stop, I went to the parque municipal. A brief respite from the sun and thousand cars, it had row boats, tennis courts and a small theme park including bumper cars, which made me think back to my childhood where bumper cars were all the ish. <3
About a 15-20 min walk or so away, I found Praça da Liberdade - another park, much much smaller, but prettier.
I was told the main shopping area was called Savassi. I walked around there and found nothing remarkable, but I wonder if maybe I missed the main streets. They had a building called Shopping 5th Avenue that was rather drab. I found a restaurant called Olegario and had lunch there, simply because it was a nice looking place where someone probably spoke some kind of English. I ordered the salmon off the daily special menu, got an inedible salad as part of the meal (the dressing tasted like fermented vinegar if such a thing exists?), and treated myself to a petit gateau which Edward's work contact raved about and confirmed it was but a molten chocolate cake with ice cream. So so meal.
So to sum it up, I did not fall in love with Belo Horizonte. It was not the worst city to be in, but certainly would not be recommending anyone to go there!
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