Rio de Janeiro, Part 2

Since Lisa and I had both already been to Rio, our trip there was planned specifically for two reasons:  1) get me up Pão de Açúcar, and 2) find some cool art for Lisa.  I talked about number 1 last time, but getting Lisa art was surprisingly actually a big reason for going back to Rio.  I say surprisingly because probably most of the people reading this blog wouldn't fly to Brazil in search of a painting.  But Lisa loves Brazil and has spent so much time here but keeps going home without souvenirs.  Well, she's been wanting to buy some cool art lately (just for herself in general) and Brazil has some pretty incredible/inexpensive stuff, so we were all set to get lots of cool stuff during her trip here.

That turned into a bit of a tangent on Lisa's shopping experience in Brazil, but the point was to say that besides the things I posted about in Rio, Part 1, a lot of our time was spent exploring markets and just wandering around looking for fun things to do (since we hit most of the really cool tourist-y things last time in the city).  The exception?

The Theater!!!

Lisa and Kaitlyn and I went to the theater once or twice on our last trip and couldn't get in (don't remember why).  So this time, Lisa and I were pretty excited to go.  But...go figure, we stopped by and they wouldn't let us in (tours were ending early for a show that night or something?  I don't even remember).  We would have gone to the show, but they won't let you in for a show unless you're in a skirt or at least long pants--neither of which we had brought.

Well we finally made it back on our last day in Rio, and got to tour the inside!  It was worth the effort; I loved it! :D

We started off in a room that now also serves as a café of sorts.  (Sorry, a lot of these pictures are kind of blurry from the low light...and I just struggle with that camera.)  But here are some shots of the cool tile work all around the walls, as well as one of the carved wooden pillars.

The main entry way also had some spectacular workmanship.  Our guide told us where all the individual tiles and marble, etc came from, but....I don't remember it all.  (That's what I get for taking two months to post I guess haha.)  But it was really neat to hear about.  They put a lot of time, money, and effort into making this theater a work of art!

the floor.  those tiles are like 1 square centimeter each...can you imagine laying all those??

One of the cool lounge-y rooms:

And, of course, the theater itself.  So cool!  They had an orchestra from somewhere (I want to say London?) rehearsing while we were in there, so we got a free mini-showing of the concert! :)

We finally made it in! :D

After the theater, we checked out a nearby museum and also stopped into the library/museum.  They had a few small exhibits that were neat (old manuscripts, etc) but no photography allowed in the rooms.  We did get these two gems:

The first one pretty much speaks for itself; I just thought it was hilarious to have a sign for "Scape Routes".

The second one made me laugh though.  Lisa and I were taking selfies and stuff in the entry way on this cool staircase when a cute old worker came and asked if he could take a picture for us.  We said okay, and he told us to go stand up on the stairs.  He then spent the next few minutes taking several "artistic" shots of us haha.  Unfortunately my camera really does stink so a lot of them are blurry.  It made me smile though; he was so sweet and so excited---he kept telling us, "Do you want more?  I know some other good places to take pictures!" but we politely declined a more lengthy photoshoot ;)