Brazilian Carnaval (it's not a typo!)

Through a friend of a friend, I learned about the Brazilian Carnaval in San Francisco this weekend. There were events on Saturday to which I was invited but it was cold and rainy and my pj's and couch was really comfortable so that didn't happen.

Then yesterday turned out to be a gorgeous day and so I decided to get out of the house and travel to "the City" to see what this festival was all about. My friend Chokri and I decided to take purely public transportation for the day.

We started with the bus right outside my apartment. That took us to downtown Oakland where we were going to get on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transport - a subway). Instead though, since it was such a beautiful day, we decided to opt for the ferry instead. So, we crossed the bay on the ferry, and then transferred to BART once we got to San Francisco. A couple of blocks of walking later we were in the middle of a huge festival of fantastic costumes, delicious food, soul-moving music, and tons and tons of people.

It was a blast. Here are some pictures of the journey and the festival.


on the bus...


the ferry...


we made it to the City!


dancers at the festival


There was this wall of bougainvillea that was just screaming for attention!


there were so many pretty murals on walls...