Buenos Aires (Nadia and Steve)

As promised, here is an account of the first few days of our Buenos Aires experience. Fausto remained in Cordoba with his dad, and joined us on Tueday, so here´s what we did from saturday night until tuesday.



We arrived after a busride which took 13 hours instead of 10, and not having slept the night before, we were rather tired, and Esteban´s lungs felt as if they were filled with hot lava. We tried to work out the complicated bus system, and after missing many busses (the busdrivers only give you a few seconds to get on here and then they drive away, chuckling) we eventually cracked it and made our way to San Telmo, where we found our hostel and checked in. Not having eaten the whole day, we found a little red corner cafe where we ate some pasta and Milanesa and took in the vibe of the streets. Feeling exhausted, we decided to turn in.



Sunday:

Woke up very late in the day and decided to explore Buenos Aires. Took the metro to the center and wandered around the plaza´s admiring the beautiful buildings and streets. The city looks more like it belongs in Europe than in South America, and the people seem so European that you get the feeling that they truly don´t believe they are a South American city. Amazingly good looking place. I bought a fake LaCoste shirt to go with my fake Rolex, and Nadia bought some other bits and `pieces from a store on the busy pedestrian shopping street of Av Florida. We then made our way to the San Telmo antiques market, where we wandered around a bustling street market filled with many interesting bits and pieces. The area of San Telmo is full of cobbled streets lined with antiques stores, and is the heart of BA´s tango culture. Nice.

That night we felt in desperate need of a good dinner, so we took the metro to a Palermo, where the rich live, en route to what is known as one of the best steakhouses in BA, La Cabrera. While waiting for our table, we were given some wine to ease our wait. Once shown to our table, the tremendous eating fest commenced with some parmaham and rocket salad starter thing. Nadia ordered the Bife de Chorizo (rump steak) and I ordered the Ojo de Bife (Ribeye steak). Upon ordering the mains, the waiter asked if Esteban would like a half portion of his steak, but of course I was having none of that, and since the menu did not mention the portion size, I did not want to be disappointed with a small piece of steak. When they brought the steak, we got a bit worried at the termendous size of the piece of meat. As it turns out, that was Nadia´s half-portion of rump, and when my full size ribeye arrived, we were both speechless. The restaurant was started by Frenchmen, who decided to keep to the Argentine tradition of huge delicious steaks, but added a French touch by accompanying the meats with many many little snacks. On our table we had two incredibly large and tasty steaks, and about 20 little bowls of side tapas, like mushrooms, beans, potatos, lentils, onions in pear sauce, artichokes, olives... all amazing. After trying really hard to finish the steaks but not succeding, we asked for coffee, which was presented with a marble block with some belgian chocolates on it, and then the bill, which came with some champagne. We were rather happy with this restaurant.

We took a walk around Palermo Viejo to find a jazz bar, but being sunday night, not much was happening, so after a quick Fernet and Coke, we took a bus back to our hostel at about 3am.



Monday:

We had some steak left over from last night, so we decided to buy some fresh bread, mustard, a tomato and some olives from the supermarket and packed a picnic. We headed to the very green and upmarket area of Recoletta to enjoy our picnic in one of the many parks in the area. Recoletta is where the uberrich of BA live, and its also where the ex-rich get buried, in the massive Recoletta Cemetary. After our picnic, we decided to explore the cemetary, which is more like a small city than a traditional graveyard. Huge 2 story Shrines, Sepulchres and Masoleums line cobbled streets - the place is incredibly eerie. We were on a mission to find the most pimp grave - we found it in the middle - about 3 stories of gold and mosaiced walls and archways, bigger than many houses in the poorer areas of BA. We then visited the most famous grave there, belonging to some chick who looks like Madonna in that one movie where she sings from a baclony about crying in Argentina. Just kidding, we shed a tear at the grave of Evita and the Perons before getting the hell out of the creepiest damn place in the world.



That night our hostel invited us to a drumming party in a nearby area. We envisioned a small hippie´s drum circle, but what we were confronted with was 1000 people in a huge old amazing warehouse, all watching a 20 piece percussion group who were led by a conductor, as if it was an orchestra. The amount of control the conductor had over his drummers was incredible, and the different sounds and rhythms they could achieve was unbelievable. The vibe of the place was amazing, and we both had a darn cool time. Afterwards we went to a cuban bar with Nico, a greek guy, and Gerard, a Catalan from Barcelona (probably slightly insane), both of whom we met in the hostel.



The next day we stuggled through the rush hour of Buenos Aires, trying to get to the airport to meet Fonz. The subways were so full that people were stuck up against the glass like insects that had flown into oncoming traffic. After being warned in Spanish that there was no way we would fit on these trains with our huge backpacks, we gave up and took a taxi to the airport, where we were reunited with our lost gringo. Met up with Ricardo, a friend of Aurelio´s, who bears an amazing resemblance to Ron Burgundy, and went to his place in Pilar.



We shall save that for the next blog though.



K thats all the time we´ve got for now. Wil write more about BA soon.



Ciao ciao ciao