A couple of weeks ago, I was in Brasilia for the Fulbright Program's mid-service conference. Besides listening to a variety of speakers, giving a presentation on what I've been doing, and hanging out with the other Fulbrighters, we had some time to explore the city.
Its a pretty bizarre place. Built in the middle of a vast grassland in the middle of the 20th Century, Brasilia is one of the more unique capital cities. Its a planned city where everything is segregated by type of activity. There are sections of the city set aside just for hotels, restaurants, clothing stores, etc. This makes it an incredibly difficult place to navigate on foot -- everything is spread apart. We spent most of our time in area that is similar to Washington DC's National Mall. Just picture the National Mall with parched grass and futuristic buildings with a couple of highways bisecting it. Despite its flaws, I really enjoyed Brasilia. The architecture is fascinating and the quality of life seems pretty high there. Its lack of density was a nice change of pace from other Brazilian cities which are far more chaotic and jam-packed with people.
Went inside the National Library. It didn't have more than a couple dozen books. Strange. Still trying to figure that one out.
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