Fortaleza Januar 2015

Welcome to the traffic and garbage of Brazilian cities. Fortaleza is really not what I would call a beauty city… BUT! Still, I had a great time there. If you travel in the northeast of Brazil you pass Fortaleza several times because a lot of buses go through there and it is also where the airport is. So that’s why it is a bit confusing with my last article to Jeri. I came from Fortaleza and went back there. But because I knew that I have to go back I decided to wait to publish this article.

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I arrived in Fortaleza Ceara very comfortable directly from Frankfurt Germany. I stay at a very nice host I found on Couchsurfing (CS). It’s a nice neighborhood here and I started to feel comfortable with all the people on the streets in the city. Sometimes they are irritating when they try to charge you just because they showed you a free parking space. In Europe, people always talk about dangerous favelas in Brazil and all that stuff they have seen on TV. Sure there are some places like this. But they are not everywhere just don’t go there alone that’s it. And also there are way more friendly people around here than criminals. For two weeks of stay, I only met one not-aggressive street dealer and some drunken homeless screaming on the street that’s it. But yes! Always be careful and talk to locals so you know where you shouldn’t go by night or whatever. Also, take a taxi if you don’t know what kind of neighborhoods are on your way. And yes if you are a gringo they charge you double. So try to ask for a discount of 25% but you still have to pay more than the locals. They won’t be mad at you…

The City beach is not so perfect because you can see all the ships lie off the harbor which discourages you from going swimming but there are still people who swims. For the beach, you should go to a place called “Praia de Futura” which is nicer and it has good waves for surfing and for just having fun.

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On the other hand, it’s nice to walk along the Avenida Beira Mar (along the city beach)…

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Especially when it’s a few weeks before the carnival people do workout along this Street so it’s very lively. If you join them to do some pushups you will make friends very fast. Furthermore, you can enjoy fresh shrimps that you buy and bring to a stand where they fry them. Anyway, seafood is the best food in Fortaleza.

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Oftentimes, you cannot find an English menu in the restaurant and a lot of people don’t speak a word in a foreign language. Well, I was lucky to always have friends by my side who help me out of this problems… but it won’t be like this all the time so I try to learn some Portuguese. I have already over 600 experience points on the doulingo app. This means I already know sentence like “the girl talks with the shark” “a menina fala com o tobarão” which is a very useful phrase. I still haven’t given up and I’m sure that I will learn some more than that. What actually helps me a lot is the new Google translate with the camera function…

In my first Saturday in Fortaleza, I went to a David Guetta Concert. The hall was huge and a lot of people were there. But David Guetta waited until 2.30 am until he started. My back hurt from standing around there but the show would have been very nice, though. Brazilians surely know how to party better than most of the European people btw.

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Another nice party location in the city is called Órbita Bar. You have to wait a little bit to enter. So the people selling things on the street have some potential customers I guess. Inside there is live music, several bars and a lot of fun things to do. The party is obviously filled with Brazilians.

Furthermore, there is a place called Pirata. On Monday evening they play local life music and you can see a lot of dancing shows and you can also participate and show your dancing skills.

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If you are a little bit into dancing you will get the “one two one two”- thing to dance “Forro”. It is very fast otherwise you might need a little longer as I did. But this location is anyway beautiful and has several bars and you can also eat there so it’s not at all necessary to take part in dancing.

If somebody knows some other things to do in Fortaleza city… feel free to leave a comment!

4 Comments Add yours

  1. lujan says:

    Perfect your review of Fortaleza! On friday I went to a popular place called “Vila Camaleão” to dance “samba”, it’s a nice bar to go if you want to feel the brazilian dancing mood and practise to carnaval parades!

    1. abolli says:

      True… I went there too after Jeri… just forgot to mention. Thanks for the comment Lujan!

  2. The crux of your writing while sounding agreeable initially, did not really settle very well with me personally after some time. Somewhere throughout the paragraphs you managed to make me a believer unfortunately just for a very short while. I still have got a problem with your jumps in logic and you would do nicely to help fill in all those breaks. If you can accomplish that, I could definitely end up being impressed.

  3. Simply a smiling visitor here to share the love (:, btw outstanding style and design.

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