Blogs from Distrito Federal, Brazil, South America

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South America » Brazil » Distrito Federal » Brasília January 5th 2016

Ok, here is another update. I have to admit that I am sitting here in Brasilia again, writing this update about my last time here in this place. About 6 months late, but better late than never as they say. I know I am tooooo bloody late with my updates, but a lot has happened, and I promise you not all was good. Got majorly screwed over by a so called friend. But the full juicy story will be made public in my next update about my time in Sydney. Anyway, here we go with my stay in Brasilia…. So after my 3 month enforced exile from Brazil (well, if you read the previous stories you should know the deal, but to explain in in short with a German passport you are only allowed to stay ... read more
Anti government demo in Brasilia
Brasilia
Graffiti in Brasilia

South America » Brazil » Distrito Federal » Brasília October 11th 2015

Just like I hadn't expected to stay almost two weeks in Sao Paulo, I wasn't expecting to be visiting Brasilia either. It wasn't on my route, it was out of the way. But when Bruno suggested that I follow him and Carol up there for a weekend, my interest was piqued - I had heard that it was a place like no other and although it would be expensive to get up there, it was still within my budget. So why not? What would've helped money-wise was the fact that I was charged R$150 instead of US$150 for one of my flights - I thought I had got away with it until the sharp staff at Azul Airlines gave Bruno a call notifying me of the mistake. Damn - that would have saved me a very ... read more
Catedral Metropolitana
Plenario Ulysses Guimaraes
Congresso Nacional

South America » Brazil » Distrito Federal » Brasília June 12th 2015

I have been wanting to see Brasilia for a very long time. You see, I love the modern architecture of this planned city that was only finished in 1960. That Architect was Oscar Niemeyer. The entire city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Our flights to Brasilia were always full, but then they upgraded the aircraft from a 757 to a 767. Yes!!! Now I would have a chance maybe? I had attempted to go on my own several times but it seemed to always be raining and the thought of walking around in the rain did not excite me. My wife and I had planned a little getaway for this week. Our daughter did not go, as she is in Florida with some friends. Of the places we had looked at going, this seemed to ... read more
Metropolitan Cathedral
Dom Bosco Church
Palace of Justice

South America » Brazil » Distrito Federal » Brasília December 17th 2014

Talk about a relaxing and lazy time I had in Brasilia. After nearly 2 ½ month of nothing but traveling, trekking, climbing mountains and exploring Antarctica I had 3 weeks of doing not much at all. The backpack wasn’t packed and slept around for all this time and life was pretty normal for a change. And one needs that after a full-on travel schedule….. But let’s start from where I finished off on the last blog entry. So after Antarctica I took the plane to Brasilia to escape the cold for a while. After all that time in cold areas I was more than ready to get into some warmer climate. What also helped was that I had an invite from Carla, who I knew for over a year via Facebook, and she was eager to ... read more
Brasilia
Hash House Harrier run
Cool couple.....

South America » Brazil » Distrito Federal July 5th 2014

Last night 2 girls from Sao Paolo who had come to watch the same world cup game stayed over in a different room in Luis’s apartment. In the morning we went with them and Giordano to get brunch at a café (I had a Belgian waffle). After, Bryant and I gave a ride for the girls to the stadium and said bye there. They only stayed for 1 night yesterday and left again after the game. This was our 2nd time in the stadium but the seats were worse: the very top level and outer ring of the stadium. At least it was somewhat close to the center. And it was still close enough to identify the players and enjoy the game. And what more than compensated for it was the atmosphere was much better than ... read more

South America » Brazil » Distrito Federal July 4th 2014

I forgot to mention Maria in yesterday's blog: she's a maid who apparently comes by here once a week and cleans everything. As we had gone out and come back she cleaned our room, made our beds and even ironed all our clothes that we had left out to dry from the earlier laundry. In the bathroom sink it seemed as though there was not enough space to put all my stuff but she somehow magically arranged everything to leave plenty of space. I thanked her in my best broken Portuguese. This morning we went to the mall for a little bit of shopping. Then one of our co-hosts Giordano took us out for lunch, ice cream and then on to a restaurant/bar to watch the games. We were joined later by our other co-host Luis ... read more

South America » Brazil » Distrito Federal July 2nd 2014

Got up and had good old cereal for breakfast. We also decided to do laundry today as we're fast running out of clean clothes plus there is no dryer here so we have to make sure there's enough time for it to dry on its own. Aroud 9 am we visited the Palacio de Planalto, the official workplace of the President of Brazil. I suppose by extension it is also the workplace of the execuitive branch, since the same plaza had the buildings for the Legislative and Judicial Branches as well. All of these buildings, just like the rest of the city, were designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer and it is a very modern stylistic design especially compared to govt buildings in other countries which are usually classical. A lady gave us about a 15-minute tour ... read more

South America » Brazil » Distrito Federal July 2nd 2014

As an aside from my travel journal let me clarify a few things. First of all my first impression of Brazil as a third world country was far from correct. The majority of the country is a nice place. The first city I went to, Fortaleza is in a poorer part of the country and although it's really fun and has amazing beaches it definitely shouldn't be the first place you should go to in Brazil. The rest of the cities I went to (Manaus, Rio de Janeiro, and Brasilia) are more outsider friendly and give less of a culture shock. All that being said, you should definitely visit Fortaleza, but do it after one of the other cities. 6/28 I woke up late in the morning, but Jorge was running late so it was all ... read more

South America » Brazil » Distrito Federal July 1st 2014

6/25 I stayed up all night until I left for the airport at 4am. I sat next to a cute Canadian on the flight to Brasilia, but I slept the whole flight. I got to the hotel and they tried to charge me for my room when I could've sworn that I already paid for it. After checkin my statement I realized I made a mistake. While they were getting my room ready I took a nap in the lobby. They took so long to get my room ready that I missed a bike tour that I had already paid for :( so instead I showered and washed some of my clothes in my shower. The beds and the water weren't much better in the hotel room than in the hostels. But it was better in ... read more

South America » Brazil » Distrito Federal July 1st 2014

I slept in today and headed to the shopping centre around 11am. There, I hopped on a tour bus for a 2-hour tour of the area where most government buildings are located. I grabbed the first seat in the upper deck. Brasilia was built in the mid 50’s and inaugurated in 1960. At that time, the capital of Brazil moved from Rio de Janeiro to Brasilia. The bulk of the buildings were designed by one architect, Oscar Neymeir, and are very artsy-looking. The layout of the city is also interesting, in the shape of a plane. Neighborhoods are separated by avenues and organized in quadrants. The apartment I was staying at was in quadrant 309, Block C, on the South wing. That’s it, no street name or anything. There’s a 309 quadrant on the North wing, ... read more
Inside the cathedral
Praca dos Tres Poderes (square situaded between Congress, Supreme Court and President's office)
Supremo Tribunal Federal (Supreme Court?)




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