Oh, Beautiful.

I have never in my life seen a more charming, jewel of a town as the city of Olinda.

 (Olinda comes from “Ó, linda!” which is Portuguese for “Oh, beautiful!”).  

We took a spontaneous field trip there yesterday & I was in awe of the beauty of that town.

It really was the prettiest place I have ever seen.

can I please move there and live there foreverr??

Now, Olinda which was founded in 1535,  is one of the best preserved colonial cities in brazil, located just north of Recife.

It is a maze of cobble stone roads, brightly colored houses, beautiful churches and hills.

It is a major touristic attraction, a huge part being because it is a World Heritage Site.

It is also known for being one of the best places in Brazil to celebrate Carnaval.

We went on a tour of the city and we were able to learn so much about the history.

One of my favorite things I learned is about the houses and how they were color coded instead of being given an address.

We also went into some churches who were constructed in the 1500s. That's older than any of the buildings in the USA! They were so beautiful and so detailed. I loved how intricate everything was during that era when baroque was really popular.

When we began our tour, we came across a statue of Princess Isabel that is located in the center of the historic section of Olinda.  Our tour guide, who was african, introduced the statue to us as "here is a statue of Princess Isabel, the reason why I am free today".  She is really famous because she was the one who signed the law emancipating all slaves from Brazil. It was neat seeing her statue & I thought it was cool how he introduced her that way.

We walked all over the town, visited several churches, did a little bit of shopping, learned more about the history of the city and even got to go up a big tower overlooking all of Olinda.  It was such a hot day and most of us got sunburned & tan & it was awesome. We also came across a flower that changes its color 3 times per day. Can you believe that? & at night it even releases a certain smell. We even saw some little monkeys in the trees.

Olinda might be the prettiest place on earth. Even Natalia said it was more charming than cities she saw on study abroad in Italy.

Now I wish I could post all zillion of my photos, but these will do for now :)

The brightly colored houses.

Overlooking the city of Olinda with Recife in the distance.

Natalia and I.

Another picture of Recife in the distance. This is a perfect representation of Olinda with the cobble stone roads, hills and colorful homes.

This is the first and oldest house that is still there today!

Yep, I'm in love!