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Carnival in Rio de Janeiro the final Stretch
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The globe’s biggest Carnival bash opened Friday, when Rio de Janeiro’s mayor handed the key to the city to rotund King Momo, the mythical jester figure who reigns over Carnival. About 850,000 tourists are expected in Rio during the raucous, five-day free-for-all. Millions of people across the country will take to the streets and sambadromes to dance and party, effectively putting Brazil on a week-long hiatus.
The Vila Isabel samba school was crowned champion of the 2013 Rio Carnival on Wednesday for its parade highlighting Brazil's agricultural might as "the world's breadbasket." In a feverishly awaited verdict, a 40-member jury gave the Rio school, considered a cradle of samba music in Brazil, the third title of its 65-year-old history. Vila Isabel received 299.7 points, edging the popular Beija-Flor with 299.4 and sparking scenes of jubilation at its northern Rio headquarters.
The 40 judges gave their verdict based on choreography, music, dancing and creativity.
With its 3800 dancers and seven giant fantasy floats, Vila Isabel was the last of 12 elite samba schools to dazzle a capacity crowd early Tuesday at the 72,000-seat Sambodrome, the parade ground designed by the late star architect Oscar Niemeyer. With music composed by several popular sambistas, including Arlindo Cruz and 75-year-old composer Martinho da Vila, the school portrayed the simple customs of country people, their music, processions and festivals.
Last year, the Unidos da Tijuca school won the title, with its tribute to the late singer and composer Louis Gonzaga, the "king of Baiao," a popular music style from Brazil's northeast.The Sambodrome parades marked the climax of the pre-Lent bacchanalian Carnival festival, a national holiday celebrated throughout this huge and racially diverse country of 194 million people. Some six million people, including 900,000 tourists, are believed to have attended the five-day Rio extravaganza, which began Friday. Hailed as "the greatest show on Earth," the Rio Carnival also featured hundreds of street bashes marked by wild samba dancing and heavy beer consumption.
The 10,000 Bedroom Nazi Hotel But Never Used
Stretching for over three miles along the white sandy beach on Germany's Baltic Sea island of Ruegen, lies the world’s biggest hotel with 10,000 bedrooms all facing the sea. But for 70 years since it was built, no holiday maker has ever stayed there. This is hotel Prora, a massive building complex built between 1936 and 1939 by the Nazis as part of their "Strength through Joy" ("Kraft durch Freude," KdF) programme. The aim was to provide leisure activities for German workers and spread Nazi propaganda. Locals call Prora the Colossus because of its monumental structure.
Prora lies on an extensive bay between the Sassnitz and Binz regions, known as the Prorer Wiek, on the narrow heath (the Prora) which separates the lagoon of the Großer Jasmunder Bodden from the Baltic Sea. The complex consist of eight identical buildings that extend over a length of 4.5 kilometres and are roughly 150 metres from the beach. A workforce of 9,000 took three years to build it, starting in 1936, and the Nazis had long-term plans for four identical resorts, all with cinema, festival halls, swimming pools and a jetty where Strength Through Joy cruise ships would dock.
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Hitler's plans for Prora were ambitious. He wanted a gigantic sea resort, the "most mighty and large one to ever have existed", holding 20,000 beds. All rooms were planned to overlook the sea, while corridors and sanitation are located on the land side. Each room of 5 by 2.5 metres was to have two beds, a wardrobe and a sink. There were communal toilets and showers and ballrooms on each floor. In the middle, a massive building was to be erected that could be converted into a military hospital in case of war.
War, indeed happened, before the building could be completed and Hitler’s priorities changed. He transferred the construction workers to build the V-Weapons plant at Peenemünde instead. During the Allied bombing campaign, many people from Hamburg took refuge in one of the housing blocks, and later refugees from the east of Germany were housed there. By the end of the war, these buildings housed female auxiliary personnel for the Luftwaffe. After the war, Prora was used as a military outpost for the East German army. After German reunification in 1990, part of it was used by the Military Technical School of the Bundeswehr and later to house asylum seekers from the Balkans.
Today, the whole place is still pretty much deserted except for a few blocks that has been repurposed for other uses. In 2011, one block was converted into a 400-bed youth hostel and the plan now is to turn Prora into a modern holiday resort with 300 beds that includes tennis courts and swimming pool and a small shopping center.
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