Brasília

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February 21, 2018 by moloneycian

Although not a popular spot for gringo tourists, I decided to take a stop in the capital and check out one of the cities of the future – today! Brasília was designed by top architects and city planners in the 50s from scratch, to be a city made for cars. The idea was that in the future, cars would be so inexpensive, that everyone would have one; a case that didn’t turn out to be so true. So it’s a little unfriendly to the average walker; it takes absolutely ages to get anywhere. The city planner, Lúcio Costa, designed the city so that from above, it’s in the shape of an airplane (have no idea why). Addresses are very logically named based on the part of the wing, and direction.  Pretty fucking cool, and a wet dream for architects and city planners the world over.

Main Cathedral

I’m staying in Hostel 7, like one of two hostels in the whole city. It’s a good hostel, although it’s wifi is sketchy. It has each dorm room named after a famous architect, which gives it a nice atmosphere, and really encourages people to take notice of what the city is about. I was the only gringo in the whole place, but some people spoke English. The few people who I spoke to there were either passing through, or a Brasilan tourist, with an interest of architecture.

Congress building

I met up with Rodrigo, a cousin of Jessica (owner of awesome Hostel Rio Earth in Rio) who lives in the area. He took me around to the main strip of architectural buildings (the cabin of the airplane). Where we saw some of the great works by the famous mister Oscar Niemeyer, which are dotted all around the city. We checked out his cathedral, national museum, and some of the government buildings, including the main seat of congress. There are free tours you can get in these buildings, totally in Portuguese though, so it was really handy to have Rodrigo there to translate for me. There were some really cool facts about the buildings also; for example how congress is divided into the senate and deputy ministers. The section for the ministers looks like a bowl (to hear the voices of the people), while the senate is closed off with the upside-down bowl (because they don’t listen to shit from anyone and just piss about).

Government foreign ministry building

I managed to meet up with Flavia, a local and friend from Rio. Together we tried out one of the last blocos of the carnival season. This wasn’t a scratch on the mayhem of the Rio blocos, perhaps because everyone was bloody exhausted from a week of partying. What shocked me was that nearly every Brazilian I spoke to at this bloco could speak English, and when I asked why, they shrugged and just went “don’t know… we all learn English”.

Some shitty photos of Brasília.

Next, I’m catching another flight to Salvador, where I’ll be doing one of their national parks, Chapada Diamantina!