Curitiba

Arrived to Curitiba on Friday night. I dumped my bags at the youth hostel and had a walk around the pedestrian malls in town which were nice enough, and dinner in the new shopping mall that was just created from the old train station.
On Saturady I jumped on the tourist bus and visited Jardim Bôtanico which had a waterfall inside a huge greenhouse, the Museo Oscar Niemeyer which was inside ´the big eye´. He is the most famous Brazillian architect and came up with some weird designs, this one included. Parque Tanguá was next where they converted an old quarrie into a big pond with waterfall, and then the Ópera de Arama which was built in another old quarry. They seem to be very imaginative with what to do with old quarries around here. Just on sunset I went to Torre Panorâmica where from the top I had a great view over the entire city.
Sunday I had to get up at the crack of dawn and took the Serra Verde Express to Morrentes. This is the most scenic train trip in Brazil. It had great views at it went through down the mountains with everyone hanging out the windows and hooting whenever we went through a tunnel (which was very often). Morrentes was in full swing celebrating the last day of their fortnight long festival where there were some streets set up with markets, some more streets set up with musicians and performances, and other streets set up with Oktoberfest style tents serving beer and steak. Interestingly the steak tents where run by the local hospital, so I thought it better not to enquire where they sourced their steaks.
Got the overnight bus to São Paulo which was a rough ride as the driver swerved down the mountains.