Took the Metro today to get to the centre of Rio, finally. Well, the Metro is currently being extended for the 2014 World Cup – my hosts wonder how they’ll ever gonna finish that on time – so you have to take a bus to another Metro station as the Ipanema one is closed due to the extension.

It’s an easy ride into Centro from then on, the metro being clean and modern. You can get a rechargeable plastic card at the machines, and off you go.

Well, I did not really have a clue where I should get off. Funnily they built their Metro around their downtown, not through it… so I chose Uruguaiana stop, it seemed reasonably close.

And, the first impression: it ain’t pretty. A huge traffic infested Avenue, called the Avenida Presidente Vargas, and a couple of 60s and 70s office and housing blocks right all along.

Rio really is a town for the automobile. It takes ages until the lights become green for pedestrians, you sometimes have to walk bigger detours to get to a crossing, all for sake of a faster flux of traffic…

I walked towards a church, in the middle of the two huge lanes with traffic floating around, so it was somehow cut off from its surroundings….

The inside of Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Candelaria (Church of Our Lady of the Candelabra?) however was impressively decorated (don’t ask me about the style…), just like any old European church. It was a good reminder of how old this city actually is, nearly 450 years!

Close to it is the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, a cultural centre that houses a number of exhibitions. After a coffee and a quick look at the current exhibition of a Japanese artist, I went for a stroll in the adjacent streets. I had seen some old colonial houses, coming in different styles and colors.

So I wandered around, a bit weary of my surroundings and especially with that big camera wrapped around my ankle, that screams: tourist! But probably they can even spot me without that….

The area was a bit run down – holes in the streets, lots of empty houses, closed down shops… – and a huge reconstruction site around Rio’s harbor, that is meant to be transformed and upgraded, I guess by next year… or the Olympics in 2016.

Some of those old houses have been converted into car parking lots. They left the facade, but on the inside it’s all parking spaces and ramps. Funny concept. Sad somehow, but at least they let the outside of those old houses intact, maybe some day…

South of the Avenida, more small streets with cafés and restaurants, more churches and impressive buildings, that turned out to be quite historic for Brazil.

The Palace of the King of Portugal for example, once he fled Napoleon. Which became the imperial palace once his own son had declared independence and made himself Dom Pedro, Emperor of Brazil. Which became a post office (!) once they got rid of the emperors and made themselves a republic….

The house of the former Brazilian Parliament, before their move to Brasília.

Further on museums and the theatre, which was constructed with the Paris Opera in mind.

On the same plaza, the area of the recent protests of teachers, who occupy the steps of the Câmara Municipal do Rio de Janeiro, the city’s town hall, if I understand it correctly.

In the end, the Centro is not as ugly as I thought on the first view of those modern blocks. There is a lot of old and modern architecture in quite an interesting mix, if you stroll around to find it.

On the menu for tomorrow: exploring the neighborhood of Santa Teresa, and visiting the Museum of Modern Art.