Loooooove Curitiba

The last few days are somewhat of a blur (my house was packed up into 55 boxes of varying sizes on Thursday and Friday), but somehow I managed to find myself in Curitiba - the capital of the southern Brazilian state of Paraná - late last night. My first impressions are all good:

1. It was midnight and the cab that took me to my hotel stopped at all the red lights that we came across. This is unheard of anywhere else that I have been in Brazil.

2. People live in houses! Yes, houses. And you can see them from the street.

3. People walk on the street. Lots of them (people and streets).

4. It's cold! I'm all bundled up in a 3/4 length jacket and little hat and fluffy scarf that I *had* to buy at the local Sunday craft fair. Temp. last night was in the mid single digits.

5. Pierogi and borscht are traditional Paranense fair and have been for over a hundred years.