A Taste of Buenos Aires

My first couple of days in Buenos Aires have been spent finding my way round and doing a few of the things I have been told I ‘have’ to do. I’ve walked heaps, haven’t got lost, covered most of the main landmarks I was told I have to see and from now on its time to get into the spirit of the "Paris of South America." Tomorrow the weather forecast is for thunder; but who cares for I am going on a food tour and hopefully that will get me into the swing of things. Sadly my fave tour company don’t do anything here so I will miss out on the backstreet eating stuff that I really love. But then I haven’t seen any evidence of backstreet eating stalls and little evidence of Argentinian food. It must be somewhere!

The greater city (Cuidad) has around 3,000,000 residents, although the surrounding area makes the population much more. It sits on the western shore of the river Plate (La Plata) and takes its flavour from a mixture of French Bourbon, Spanish Colonial, Art deco, Art Nouveau and a bit of Italianate thrown in for good measure.

Despite having checked out weather/temperatures before I left and packing accordingly I have found it quite warm, low twenties but very very humid. It’s hard going especially with a built in, uncontrollable hot/cold switch.

Indeed Buenos Aires is reminiscent of Paris, beautiful old romantic buildings, neighbourhoods that house wall to wall apartment blocks, small restaurants, bakeries, fruit shops and butchery shops where the people are genteel, the traffic polite, the shops a mix of old and new and no one walks round playing with their phone. There are few obvious tourists and in the areas I have been no signs of English speaking tourism; all signs, menus, brochures are in Spanish, few people in stores speak English and even in the hotel speak a low level of our language. That’s great for me and I am slowly remembering the few bits of Spanish I have learned.

Neither of my first two days have invoked any sort of enthusiasm but the bits below give some idea of where I went, what I did and how I felt. There is little excitement in the writing; that’s how I feel, but maybe I am just waiting for that one thing to get my blood going.  

Oh I forgot to say - quite typically my hotel offers wifi. What they don’t say is that the wifi is not necessarily connected to the real world as in many other places I have stayed. I believe that if I get dressed and do sit in the foyer of the hotel I may be able to hook into some other point that connects with the folk out there. On that basis don’t expect too much. It’s a pain in the neck but I will try my best. 

DAY ONE

Well I didn’t sleep like a baby as I had hoped so dragged myself out of bed at a respectable hour thinking the world loved me no more. Determined to give world a run for its money I took off on foot just to get my bearings.

Despite my hotel being in a very residential area once I got out I found I was close to major roads, busses, trains and the metro so at least I can get around. But today the feet do the walking out of my suburb of Retiro and across to the neighbouring suburb of Recoleta, home of the famous Recoleta Cemetery and my first stop for the morning.

The cemetery is quite mind blowing, set up like a township with streets and lanes and with hundreds of vaults (some of which are considered national historic monuments). It was built in 1822 as the first public cemetery in the City of Buenos Aires and its design is the work of Frenchman Prospero Catelin. It shows a time when Argentina was a powerful emerging economy and the city’s wealthiest people tried to outdo one another with the most elaborate vault. Many of Argentina’s most famous people are buried there, including Eva Peron. Her vault is small, simple in comparison to many others and tucked away in a narrow lane. I only found it because I was nosey enough to go check out what the group of people were doing. The cemetery is still being used and there was a casket waiting to be interred when I was there.

Since I was there I checked out the historic cloisters which offered a walk through the cloisters once used by the ‘friers’ to access the pulpit and belltower. It was underground and claustrophobic so I took some pics of the church and left. 

My next stroll was in search of an i site so I could get some information about a number of things. The i site was easy to find. The small ‘tiny’ building housed a couple of white desks (very swish), a white couch (I later found that other i sites had the same decor style) and a couple of guys lounging on the couch. I asked for information on the bus I wanted and am told that I get it ‘on the corner’. Cool, "could I have a brochure?" And as he speaks he waves his arm to show me that they have no brochures. Its just an i site with information. Ok.

I set off for the corner. Well most of us know that an intersection has four corners none of which were marked to show that a bus might stop here, today, or any time in the future. Giving up I wander on and a couple of intersections further down I find the bus stop. Yes! it was on a corner, but by this time I had passed many corners. Thanks, buddy, for the information.

Finding my way back to the hotel was a doddle and finding a restaurant pretty easy too. No tourists (or if there are they are Spanish speaking and dont carry cameras or talk loud) round these parts so I was looking forward to some Argentinian options. Alas, Italian fare or nothing so I settled on a milanese napoletana (or if you are an Australian ‘parma’). A massive crumbed schnitzel covered with ham cheese and napoletana sauce arrives in front of me. Wow! It certainly was big, and edible but just as it would not have gained any brownie points in its homeland of Italy, nor did it get a tick from me. 

On asking for the bill one of the two waitresses came over and told me the price, of course I had no idea what she said but a guy next to me translated and I paid. It was only about $10 so pretty good value. But then I realised that all the other customers were given a register account rather than given a price verbally. I guess she pocketed my money and figured I wouldn’t report her. Well I wont but wont be going back there.

A brief respite in my room let me muster the energy to keep going. This time to walk down towards the Centro which was an easy stroll. Many of the streets are blocked off as pedestrian only space and lined each side with shops, ranging from the high end stores to junk shops. Despite there being many many shops I didn’t notice many people with shopping bags so maybe the pedestrian spaces were to make walking easier rather than to promote shopping. Sore feet necessitated a sit down and a Coca, my first in many months. It didn’t excite so I had best stick to wine, it’s healthier. People watching wasn’t too exiciting; everyone was polite, cruising, clean and laid back. No hand waving, screaming or shouting, no one swearing and no cars honking on their horn. All pretty quiet and orderly really. Not what I expected which was a bit of Latino fire and the sort of madness that I adore.

I didn’t really know what I was out looking for so headed for home and a much earned rest. My biggest walking day in quite a while. My find of the day was the magnificent wee church next to my hotel. Beautiful, beautiful frescoes, statues and a glorious domed ceiling all helping to provide that warmth and serenity that is only present in some churches. 

Hunger beckoned later on and I ventured over the road to a cafe/restaurant that could have comfortably slotted into a Roman neighbourhood. I spied someone having Spag. Bol. "That’s me" and I ordered. OK, lunch was certainly edible and not so bad. This was the worst Spag Bol I have ever been confronted with, and I have had some pretty bad ones. Needless to say I was hungry, ate half of it, paid on receipt of my bill, came home and devoured the pack of Palmier I had bought earlier. Now they were yum..

First day impressions. I’m undecided. What I have seen is definitely pretty, very reminiscent of Paris and probably why it is callled the Paris of South America, has hints of Rome and every now and then snippets that could have come out of a New York neighbourhood. So far all I have seen is pretty much residential apartment neighbourhoods, some old, some new, some glorious, some ugly. I haven’t seen the vibrancy of Mexico City and not a snippet of music anywhere. But today is the first of many that I will spend in this city. Tomorrow is another day and no doubt it will be very different.

DAY TWO

I was so desperate for a good night sleep that I stayed up till late last night. True to form My head hit the pillow and that was it. Again true to form I was awake by 2:00am and it was after 4:00am the last time I looked at the clock. A quick ziz before the cleaners started banging and crashing, the building’s plumbing started gurgling and the traffic in the street started making a row. That was about 6:00 and too early to get up, besides I was mega cranky. Somehow it was then 11:00am. Not sure how that happened but after a coffee and some mucking around I set off. I had planned an all day bus trip but now since half the day had gone I decided to just go and check out some touristy sights and get them out of the way. I’d checked the map before I set off and walked straight to where I wanted to go.

Then lunch at yet another Italian place except this one had empanadas, which I HAD to order. Should’ve stuck to the Italian. Dry, tasteless with pastry so hard I couldn’t bite through was my first foray into local food. Please let me find something better. Oh well.

My destination of the day was Floralis Generica, a giant 20 meter tall stainless steel and alluminium flower that weighs over 18 tons. As well as being very beautiful it magically opens its petals in the morning and closes them at dusk, controlled by a hydraulic mechanism and photoelectric cells. I would have loved to watch it open and close but well, today, I’ve got better things to do.

Next stop the Museum of Fine Arts, a quick squizz with a few pieces that tickled my fancy but nothing that really grabbed me. I was more inspired by the super art in the School of Faculty. The building was inaugurated in 1821 and now houses a museum, art gallery and cafe with heaps of students hanging out doing their lessons. What an awesome environment to study in. 

Next stop, "El Atheneo", listed as the second most important bookshop in the world, founded inside an old movie theatre. It opened its doors in 1919 and immediately became part of BA’s culture. Today it is magnificent, the photos don’t do it justice. Not only is it a wonderful building, but quite unique in that they promote the free reading of books and provide couches (and a cafe) where you can relax and read the book of your choice. I couldn’t find any English language books or I could have easily whittled away the afternoon curled up in the couch. 

Without having to check the map I knew the way home, checking out a few neighbourhood sites along the way. The city is full of trees and small parks are everywhere. Most of the parks are lit by old style lamps, resembling the old gas lamps and so pretty.

Dinner time approaches and I go out looking for the one and only parrilla (BBQ restaurant) that I had seen. I should learn to take note of these important things but I always think "there will be another"and often there’s not. Anyway I didn’t find it and settled on yet another Italian over the road from the hotel. Thinking about my pasta choice last night at the place next door and not wanting another milanese, I choose pizza. I mean what can they do wrong? Pizza is pizza and even dominos can rustle up something edible.

Well it was edible, but only just. Margarita with added anchovies. Simplest flavours, and the flavours were ok. But a base that wasn’t in the slightest a pizza base and a plate of residual oil made for hard going. Still I ate it then ventured to the corner shop for a "dulce de leche" (sweet milk aka caramel) chocolate bar.   

Chocolate cures all ills and was a great finish to my meal. 

Before leaving I had especially purchased a body wash (I cant use regular soap) and body moisturiser to work with the mosquito repellant I have bought. Avon’s skin so soft has just the right smell as to not attract the little blighters and since I always carry body wash I bought one and a matching moisturiser. Last minute when I was trying to reduce the weight of my bag I took out the moisturiser as I figured I don’t need both products and have another moisturiser anyway. Duh! Turns out I bought the moisturiser with me and left the body wash at home so at the same time as I was looking for chocolate I was also looking for body wash. No luck, only soap, or so I found out after asking the woman behind the counter if what I had in my hands was for the body (running my hands over my torso) or the hands (rubbing my hands together) and her responding by rubbing hands together. So I will continue to wash with shampoo for the time being. And I thought I was well organised. 

Sleep beckons. Buenas noches from Buenos Aires.