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Entry from: Brasilia, Brazil
Entry Title: "Brasilia - a worthwhile unscheduled stop..."
Entry:
"More numb bums, swollen feet (from not being elevated - can we PLEASE not be so old!) and another long (21 hour including a 2 hour nap at 1am on a truck stop bench) bus ride to add to our vast collection we arrive in Brasilia. Not originally on our to do list, and against most other travelers advice we decided to go and have a look for ourselves and were very pleasantly surprised by what we found.
History lesson time: Brasilia is the capital city of Brazil built from the ground up only 49 years ago. It took 3 years to go from dust to a fully functional capital city which if you think about it is very impressive indeed! There was much controversy at the time as many people had to uproot and move there to keep their jobs when the capital moved from Rio in 1960. It was the brainchild of the president at the time, J. Kubitschek (or JK). The chief architect was Oscar Niemeyer. The city is laid out in the shape of an aeroplane, with the fuselage being the main drag with all the government buildings, hotels, museums and monuments and then the wings (north and south) are for housing. Everything is divided into specific sectors (eg: sector hotel, sector hospital, sector industrial, sector shopping etc) and then each sector narrowed down further into quadrants and again further into lettered blocks and finally house numbers! Which if you haven't been there sounds awful but its the best thing EVER! No crazy street names the remember and try and see on broken down street signs, its logical, clear and easy to learn and understand in any language.
A little more about the architecture - since it was built in the late 50's they thought they'd try to be 'futuristic' and it kind of looks like you have stepped into a set of back to the future or something like that! Its mostly concrete but then the massive open spaces in between everything (often grassy) balance it out really well. Walking around the equivalent of Westminster you certainly don't feel like you are in a massive city. Everything is flowing calmly up and down the 6 lanes on either side of the main drag. Ok, nothing beats Westminster area in terms of splendor, character and history and that is NOT what Brasilia offers at all. What is does offer is a TOTALLY unique experience of basically being in a life size museum. It is a sight in itself, its not so much the individual sights but the entire concept of a city created from scratch within a reasonably modern era with no resemblance to any other place in Brazil or the rest of the world for that matter.
Its hard to paint an accurate picture in words (go and see it for yourself ;-) ) As you probably gathered we are quite impressed with the place...
So, arriving 3 hours later than planned the idea of walking around looking for a posada fell through. It was already dark and we were fuming mad after inhaling ponging (with a capital P) fumes from the broken bus toilet that everyone insisted on using. It was not broken by us this time...its only funny if we break it, NOT if locals - who we saw eating bean slop and biscuits all day and night long - break it. Add to holding your breath for 21 hours, a chorus of constant nasal cavity clearing that could register on the Richter scale and a shirtless wonder drinking beer and having a personal karaoke practice behind us. I will save the story of the guy who never knew that deodorant had been invented for another time. Get the picture?
The nearest/affordable place came in the form of a delightful hotel (looked like a prefab) along the main drag a few minutes from the bus stop. The shower was to die for, the bed pure bliss ..."
Read and see more at: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/theblakes/1/1245355323/tpod.html
Photos from this trip:
1. "The not so cool side of travelling"
2. "Priority seats sign"
3. "At the JK memorial"
4. "Museum"
5. "Ang in Heaven...look at that smile!!"
6. "Church with stunning stained glass windows"
7. "View from TV tower"
8. "After the rugby game..."
9. "Sunset over the JK memorial"
10. "Countdown to the 50th anniversary of Brasilia"
11. "The Ponte JK bridge"
12. "The library, museum and Cathedral"
13. "National Theatre"
14. "Huge "art" collection inside the museum"
15. "Sunken cathedral"
16. "Really beautiful design 'steeple'"
17. "Congress"
18. "Us in the house of the senate"
19. "Ian cooking in the worlds smallest kitchen"
20. "Ian in Jail...the worst posada in the world!"
See this TripWow and more at http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com/tripwow/ta-00c0-c800-0d05?ytv4=1
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Brazil Travel Guide - Dos and Dontsby traveltaboo9,462 views
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