Sun 24.1.2010 by Liz
We've been in South America for almost 2 months now. I must say, Buenos Aires has really grown on me. The weather is great. Some real hot days, some crazy storms, but all in all Lizzie = warm!
We are really enjoying the summer. For the first month, afternoons spent up on the roof terrace by the pool eating empanadas were a daily occurrence - especially after discovering the tastiest empanada shop only 3 blocks away!
As our workload has increased, the empanada pool-side afternoons dwindled a bit. Our days generally consist of a lazy start, explore a bit during the day and work at night. Such "explorations" take us on walks all through the surrounding suburbs. One of our regular destinations is China Town in Belgrano for the "Soya Milk" mission - not sold in regular supermarkets here. It's about a 3-4 hour round trip, depending if you stop for ice-cream on the way :)
Oh, and the ice-cream here... mmm... good. Not sure why it's so tasty but apparently it's something to do with the way they process their milk and cream here. Very creamy, flavourful ice-cream. And there's an art to piling that much up on one cone and keeping it from falling yet still looking pretty. Our first flavour trial consisted of Argentina's famed Dulce de leche - basically caramelised sweetened condensed milk. Oh, so yum! *drools* Once we discovered you can buy tubs of dulce de leche like yoghurt, no supermarket trip was complete without one. Easting so much sugar, I guess it's good we walk everywhere.
Our walks have taken us all over town. Most recently we went to the Recoleta Cemetery, where among many other notables and un-notables, Eva "Evita" Perron lays to rest. We think we saw her crypt judging by all the tourists lining up to see a particular one however the highlights for us were elsewhere.
The cemeteries are interesting here - they are all crypts and roadways. It's sort of like a mini city of the dead. The architecture - or would be facades? - of some of the crypts were quite pretty. A very different feel to cemeteries that I know.
We walked around the cemetery until it closed and then went to walk around the market in the gardens outside the cemetery walls. The market was made up of twisting and winding paths of stalls dotted with buskers and bands performing among the grassy areas. People sat and watched, enjoying their beverages and food in the nice afternoon sun.
Another long walk of ours was to the city centre area and the Plaza de Mayo. That's was about 4km or so from where we were staying. This was on New Year's Eve during the day. It was a nice day, we didn't want to work and had no celebratory plans, so away we walked.
We went through a park or two - outrunning mosquitos in some, gazed in shop windows, saw many people making last minute dashes to the still open supermarkets for their celebration supplies that evening. It was good to see new areas though. Our Belgrano walks were becoming a bit monotonous, even with ice-cream breaks.
The San Telmo area was a lot livelier than I expected, being that it was a public holiday and all. The streets were still lined with market stalls and the music of sidewalk tango shows filled the air. Passing through San Telmo we headed to Plaza de Mayo. Interesting and all; but not as glamorous as the internet made it out to be. The glamour may have been taken down a notch on the account of what looked like a remnants of a ticker-tape parade.
On our way back, we re-charged with un helado (an ice-cream) , dulce de leche flavour of course. That used the last of our little cash we had for the year but that was fine, everything for NYE was for free - especially watching the locals setting off fireworks.
And speaking of fireworks, they also celebrate Christmas with them!
Our Christmas eve, we had a video chat with my family and shortly after that finished, we heard fireworks echoing around us. Quickly, to the roof!
The city exploded in sprays of colours and bangs. Come midnight, every roof top become a launch pad for fireworks. We were surrounded by them. It was great! Every direction you turned you could see them. The sounds made louder due to them reverberating off the tall buildings. It was a very "kid in a candy store" night.
Our Christmas day, Jack and I roasted our first turkey. Our impromptu - and awesomely delicious - recipe as follows:
Outcome: Due to water releasing vegetables, the meat was really moist and uber tasty. Starchy vegies, such as the potatoes, soaked up all the flavours to be mouth wateringly delicious!
Serving suggestion:
Our New Year's celebrations were surprisingly good. After our long walk, Jack and I lounged on the couch and put on a movie to bide the time until midnight, at which point we would head to the roof.
11:45pm: we mixed the last of Jack's bourbon with coke and proceeded to the roof for the fireworks display. There we met some locals also celebrating and waiting for fireworks. After the fireworks and a Spanglish chit chat, we were invited back to their apartment to party with them.
It was a great night! We were fed and given drinks and had a merry old time of chatting, singing (a guitar was in the room and was being passed around, and Jack got a play too!) and laughing. I managed to last till 5am at which time my body was telling me to sleep. But that was just the beginning of our early morning returns to our apartment.
Our next night out was to see a drumming band called Bomba de Tiempo with Olivia who had just arrived in Buenos Aires and we met up with her and her recently some of her friends from the US. The band was great. Jack describes it like and acoustic rave!
After our brief stop off at home for a shower after much dancing, we met up with the others again at Christi's place - which she had kindly invited us to. Our intention: go to a bar in San Telmo. Eventually, that did happen, just 4 hours of drinking and chatting ;)
At the bar we met up with fellow travellers we got to talking to back at the drumming gig. We sat and talked until we noticed the sun coming through the window. Then we got the international sign for "get out of the bar" of the lights coming on and the music off. We walked Dan and Keiren back to their hostel and decided it was a nice enough morning to walk the 4km home. About 2km into it I started thinking "who's idea was this anyway?" We finally got back at 9am.
The next time we went out with Christi and co was to a steak dinner, famous in Argentina. Christi took us to what she says is the best steak place in the city. And it was pretty damn good. The amount of meat for the prices was insane! I believe we got a whole cow between the 8 of us. Jack was feeling lucky that night, not just because he got to eat all out left-overs, but he was out on the town in Buenos Aires with 7 girls. ;) Speaking of which, we attracted quite a bit of male attention with one group of guys in particular buying us all whiskey shots each. Guys... obviously you don't know how girls drink... feeling a bit sorry for them, Jack had 8 whiskey shots in a row with the guys instead!
After steak we headed to a bar, and at one glance you could tell their main cliental were gringos, such as us. I did find it odd that we had to wait outside because they were "full" when we could clearly see through the windows there was hardly anyone in there. Later we find out that the venue laws in Buenos Aires state that they need to allow 3 metres per person. Huh? 3m? What do they expect people to be doing there? Hammer throwing?
Anyhoo, that aside, more beverages and conversation ensued. Again, the international sign for "get out" saw us finding another place to continue drinks and conversation. We found a little place and sat and talked until well after sunrise and all the tables and people cleared from around us. Due to the outdoor nature of this establishment, their international sign was different and came in a form of little plastic cups. It meant: "Pour the rest of your beer in here and go on your way". 8:30am return this time.
Buenos Aires has treated us well. It's fed us, entertains us and kept us warm. What more can you ask for? (perhaps an apartment that doesn't continually fall apart when you touch it, but now, that's just being picky). We're enjoying it here and hopefully our joy will continue when we move onto to see more of this country and continent.
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