Brasilia's Anniversary

We live in Brasilia, which is the capital city of Brasil, but it hasn't always been. Around the middle of the 1900's it was decided that the capital would be moved to a new city right in the middle of the country. So plans were started to design this perfect country capital. The city is designed in the shape of an airplane and everything has been planned. There is a specific area for the government ministries, for the embassies, for the hotels, for the banks... there is even a specific area of resturants and drug stores. The roads are all numbered very logically from 101 to 715. The hundreds being blocks from east to west and the tens from north to south. Yesterday, April 21, 2009 was the 49th anniversary of the grand opening of Brasilia. 

They shut down the entire Esplanada area... which is where all the minitries, and the congress building are, and had a huge street fair/party. There were different live bands playing on various stages... One that had many very famous popular Brasilian artist, and another that had bands playing only gospel music. 

Children had stripped down to their underwear and were jumping and splashing in the fountain. Street venders were selling ever type of ham and cheese pastry, fresh fruit juices, coconut milk, beer, sodas, sovienuers and DVDs. There were all sorts of activities from basketball championships, to dance competitions. There were thousands and thousand of people

, and the space was really very crowded. 

The festivities started at 7am 

and were scheduled until midnight... 

but in true Brazilian fashion everything was running a little late, so the bands played well into the night, and the fireworks started at 11:30pm. The bus ride home was a bit overwhelming and I felt that I was going to colapse from standing for so long during the wait, but luckily I was able to get a seat on the bus, and I arrived home safely at 3am!