Today was our last half day in Rio. Originally, Angelika and I had thought we would go to the Contemporary art museum that Oscar Niemayer designed that is in Rio, but once we looked up the directions we realized that it would take an hour and a half to get there and it did not open until 10:00 and our bus left for São Paulo at 2:45. We decided instead to go the center to see the Museu de Belas Artes, Modern Cathedral, and the Teatro Municipal. We had another problem with the buses on our way downtown. We were at the right stop, and flagged down the right bus but none of the three buses stopped for us (apparently this is not out of the ordinary). And it was raining. After the third bus passed us by for no reason we gave up and caught a cab, of course right as we do this one of the buses stops…but it turned out to be good that we took the cab because the roads and traffic to get to the center were so bad.
Our cab passed all the buses that passed us and it still took 40 min to get to the center, and we arrived a good hour after we had intended to. Our string of bad luck held out for one more stop as once we finally arrived at the Museu de Belas Artes we found out that it was closed for a private event. We decided to just move on to the Teatro Municipal. We were not able to get on the 11:00 tour (the tour is the only way you can get in to take pictures) as there was a class trip so we got tickets for the 12:00 tour and decided to leave early if it ran over 12:30. In the meantime we were able to walk over to the Modern Cathedral which was built in the 1970s and looks like a strange urban volcano on the outside. The inside it is really breathtaking. The whole space is open and there are huge stained glass windows that run down the side and meet in a cross at the peak. The cathedral featured and interesting mix of traditional catholic motifs (the stages of the cross, a statue of St. Francis) that were reinterpreted through modernist artistic representations. It was an amazing space, and it was also interesting to go there because they were advertising for the Catholic World Youth Day which is taking place in Rio in three weeks.
After the cathedral we walked back towards the Teatro, stopping for some brigadeiro (a uniquely Brazilian candy made from chocolate, condensed milk and sprinkles) on the way. Once at the Teatro we took our ticket vouchers and bought the actual tickets to go inside. The tour began rather promptly with a video of the restoration of the theater which took place from 2007-2010. It was amazing the state that this grand old building was allowed to fall into! It looked like the sad, forgotten theater from the beginning of the Phantom of the Opera, but they did a great job restoring the façade, frescos, and gold leaf. The theater is a shining jewel once more. Architecturally the building has an interesting mix of baroque, and oriental style mixed with tropicalism. The lower lobby, which is typically a restaurant, looks almost Egyptian or Byzantine, and the upper level with the sala de espectáculos (the actual theater), central lobby and the hallways reflecting the Europeanized opulence of the early 1890s-1900s when the building was first constructed. The details in the building were so beautiful. Everywhere there was gold leaf, intricate wood carvings, mirrors, crystal chandeliers, green onyx and marble. Unfortunately we were not able to stay for the whole tour as it was an hour long, and we needed to return to get our bags and meet the others at the bus station.
Our taxi ride back was smoother and quicker than our ride into the downtown and we kept to our schedule arriving back at Lillian’s at 1:00. We went up and picked up our bags, checked out of our room and got into another cab to go back to the Northern Zone of the city where the bus station was located. We made it to the bus station with perfect timing and walked down to our gate to meet up with the rest of our group. Everything went smoothly with our bus ride again, and we napped most of the way. We stopped for dinner at an awesome rest stop with a great por quilo selection. We arrived back in São Paulo at 10:00 and split up into our neighborhood groups and took the metro home. It was an amazing long weekend in Rio, we did so much, but there is definitely still more to see on future trips!
The cathedral
The stained glass volcano
Teatro Municipal
The main lobby inside the teatro
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