Ode to cloth napkins

Brazil has not been introduced yet to large or absorbent napkins (or for some reason is ignoring this wonderful advancement in napkins).  Most are akin to American cocktail napkins but often coated with something that makes it even more useless and non-absorbent.  Here in Olinda and Recife, however, we've found three restaurants that have given us cloth napkins with dinner.  We are in love.  Oh, and these dinners have been delicious.  Some of our top meals of the trip, without question.  Clearly worthy of cloth napkins.

Olinda is an UNESCO Heritage Site and is described as Recife's charming little sister. We thought that seemed like a nicer place to stay than another big city (and wow is Recife big!  much larger than i anticipated).  Olinda reminds me a bit of a small European town, complete with many cobblestones and more churches than seem necessary for a small town. The first night and next morning we were here, however, nothing was open (restaurants recommended in our guidebook, cafes, churches, etc).  Semi-deserted towns don't have quite the expected charm.  Just before lunchtime though we happened across a lively market area, complete with a cute restaurant where we could grab lunch and watch the Argentina-Nigeria match.  By the time lunch was over and we headed back through the cobblestone streets, stores and restaurants were open and people were everywhere.  Apparently Tuesday night is a quiet night here? <shrug> The town grew on us quite a bit once it got more lively and fun.  Lots of artists here, so the craft markets are great and street art is everywhere.  Erin's and my favorite street art was a tree that was painted with dozens of little faces - so creative and cool.

There's clearly a lot of rain in this area (evident to anyone who watched the US match....but more on that later).  Many of the buildings and particularly the churches are covered in black mold/mildew.  They look like they need a big scrubbing with a giant bottle of bleach.

There were way less US tourists at first than I thought would be here.  we'd grown quite used to seeing Team USA fans all over Natal and Manaus, so Brasilia and Olinda were a big change.  As the big US-Germany match grew closer, however, USA shirts and bomb pop jerseys started reappearing in Olinda.  Apparently everyone just needed a day or two to do some laundry.

Also headed into Recife briefly.  The area near Marco Zero (where the town was founded) is in the midst of restoration.  Some of the buildings look fantastic, whole others are still rundown.  Great craft market (bonus: it was indoors during another downpour).