Activities!

Stuff I've done and places I've been:

La Tigre. Caught the train from Retiro station to this pretty little town on the delta. It's somewhere the Portenos often like to go on weekends as a bit of a daytrip. I caught the public boat up the river to check out all the river houses etc Afterwards I had a piece of quiche in a friendly little restaurant. I was the only female and all the other customers were these classic old argentinian men. They all wanted to practise their English on me and to show me how to make my lunch better (lots of salt apparently).

La Boca. Went here with Caroline and took the obligatory photos of all the beautifully bright coloured houses. Apparently the patchwork paintwork is the result of the very poor locals begging visiting ships for any spare paint so they could gussy up the outside of their homes. La Boca is a very poor neighbourhood and tourists are warned not to venture from the well-beaten tourist paths. But the result is that you feel as though you are visiting a cardboard city.. like a film set with nothing beyond the facade .. a small couple of blocks set up as a kind of show for tourists. The other thing Boca is famous for it the notorious Boca Junior football team.. the matches between Boca and River are legendary (youtube it now.. amazing). Boca's most successful player is the revered Maradona. There are wooden statues of his smiley face everywhere in Boca. 


La Boca is the birthplace of Tango in Argentina and the streets are filled with the sultry sounds of the tango music and there are shrines to the most important tango figures like Gardel and El Gordo.

Bracelet-making party. The aim was to make a thousand bracelets to sell for 10 pesos each to raise money to buy presents and supplies for children stuck in hospital over christmas. The children had created cards to santa clause asking for a doll, a football etc They were adorable! I found out about the event through Di (you can see her showing us her bracelet-making skills in the middle photo). Di is currently cycling around the world .. going wherever her "followers" tell her.. like a choose your own adventure book but she doesn't get to choose - we do! Currently the choice is between leaving BA to go west to Mendoza or north to Iguazu. Di is AMAZING and a kindred spirit who is very open to new adventures and activities.. check out her page at.. www.indianajune.com

Had a tango lesson. So I was sitting out the front of La Poesia (one of my favourite cafes in San Telmo) with the lovely Caroline when a stranger came up and said he had a very unusual favour to ask. He was an Aussie from Geelong and had booked in to have a tango dance class but they insisted he needed a partner. So.. being someone who says yes to random requests I found myself having a tango lesson. It was fun! Tango is very cool.. all sexy footwork intimating the to-ing and fro-ing of romantic interchange .. The professor said I was a natural.. but I don't think it is my kinda dance. I prefer more energetic, less structured. Or, as I told Hannes the other day.. I prefer dancing where I get to sweat and wiggle more. He found that amusing.


Bomba de la Fiesta! I'm not sure if I'm writing that correctly but it was a huge night of dancing with a stage full of drummers and performers and djs etc etc in this ginormous warehouse.I went along with Di and some of the people I met at the bracelet making party (Emily, Charlie, Jonny, Isabel) and also invited Daphne along. This was one of the best nights I have ever had! The energy was incredible!

Running Have switched my running track to around Parque de Palermo. It's filled with lakes and ducks. Very pretty! I've actually only done this twice since moving to Palermo on Monday. Way too much dancing til 3-4am ++!


Argentinian Birthday Party I crashed this party with some new friends I met on Thursday night.. super fun rooftop party with dj. Arrived just in time to eat cake!

This is my apartment. I sit out on the terrace in the mornings and eat my bowl of cornflakes with banana and listen to the morning birds. Santa Fe (the street/avenue I live on) is one of the busiest in Buenos Aires, but my apartment is completely sheltered from the hustle and is very tranquilo.

This is Hannes. The wonderful Kristiane introduced us and he is the most interesting, most hilarious guy I have met! We spent an entire day drinking in the sunshine at Plaza Serrano. This photo is of his happy face because it is the first day of his holidays.

This is my friend Jonny. He is from Colombia but has lived here in Buenos Aires for 4 years. He likes dancing almost as much as me. He says to me "You are from AUSTRALIA?!! But you dance like Latina!" This is him showing his acting range. There's also some photos from a club we went to on Wednesday night with my new friend Bill. Mucho bailar!

Week 2: Things I've noticed

Yay! I've survived my second week in Buenos Aires. Probably 'relished' would be a better verb. I now have an apartment here (for those who know the hood.. it's at Santa Fe 3942 just opposite the Botanic Gardens in Palermo). I'm living with a french guy and a dutch girl both of whom speak spanish fluently and have been living and working here for 4 or so years. As i type this on a Monday night we have some argentinian music pumping out, red wine is flowing and they are trying to teach me spanish swear words. I've done some more exploring, done a bit of partying, done some eating and done a lot of dancing. Here's some stuff I've noticed during my time so far. I might do a 'what i've been up to post with photos later).


Buenos Aires smells like:
San Telmo smells like smokey, meaty parillas (pronounced here par-eesha but everywhere else pareeya - basically the grill they use to cook the meat) blended with rotting, sun-warmed rubbish awaiting collection. 
Palermo streets smell perfumed - a kinda sickly sweet powdery perfume but then this is blended with the smell of a thousand pampered pooches' urine. 
Tigre smells like incense and cane baskets. 
La Boca smells like perm solution.. which is to say, bad! When I visited it had been raining so I'm not sure if what I was smelling was clogged sewerage.. but it wasn't nice.
In early December, BA smells like a bunch of eggs and flour baking on the pavement in front of various schools. Upon graduating, the students celebrate by throwing eggs and flour at each other while parents photograph the spectacle.
Often BA smells like bakeries.. there are so many dotted throughout the streets.. baking medialunas (croissants - i've used my considerable spanish interpreting skills to decipher this means literally half moon), tortillas (often more like quiche), empanadas, alfahores, omeletes (these are actually like a stack of thin layers of omelette with mayonaise and various salad ingredients between the levels) and other assorted decadent tortas (tarts - but i think it's spelled with an e?).
Jasmine (Jazmin) - again.. so many street florists selling precious bunches of jasmine for 5 pesos. Jasmine is one of my favourite scents.. it reminds me of summer nights in Brisbane where a welcome breeze would bring the sweetness of the evening jasmine creeper from outside my window. So this is a fantastic olfactory distraction from that of doggie dos.


Thing that BA does very well:
-Wi-fi. Free wi fi almost everywhere.
-supermarket booze. buy your beer from a supermarket and you can get a litre of Stella or the local Quilmes for 6 pesos (divide by 4) or a bottle of captain morgan rum for 40 pesos (yeah.. that's $10). But order a rum and coke in a bar and it's the same price (38 ++ pesos depending upon the ambient coolness)
- Wine -- everyone is obsessed with Malbec because that's what they're famous for.. but the pinots and chardonnays and pinot gris are fantastic! Bottleshop/supermarket prices are around 30-40 pesos a bottle for good mid-range.
- Fruit shops. One on every corner. 
- Meat. D'uh.
- Actually farming generally. Argentina is so blessed for farming. It has enormous, completely flat plains, with rich soil, 1/12 of the world's fresh water supply and amazing weather.
-Music. There's music everywhere all the time. I can't help mini dancing as i walk the streets. BA is famous for the tango, which is amazing, but there's also a big jazz and blues scene, latin-y salsa-y music, pop music, rock etc etc. They don't pronounce the "h" at the start of words here, so I was amused to see their monthly heavy metal magazine is called EDBANGER
- Late night dining/dancing. One of BA's most famous restaurants, Cabrera, has a 50% discount off their entire menu if you go before 8.30pm. No one eats early here. It's 1am here now and my roommates are just finishing their dinner and discussing whether they should go out. And yes, it's monday. And they're working tomorrow.
-Public transport. Australia has the worst and most expensive public transport in the world. Here, 2 pesos (max) can get you anywhere you want to go.  
- Bookshops. More bookstores per capita than anywhere else in the world. I love bookstores.
- Antiques. When they were prosperous, the Argentines were a materialistic bunch. This resulted in a heap of beautiful public buildings, and a lot of expensive possessions that have survived to be displayed in the hundreds of antique stores in san telmo. Would LOVE to see n episode of Antiques Roadshow filmed here. How good?
-Ice-cream. Helados. I might have already mentioned this.. but yes.. delicious creamy artisan ice-cream is sold EVERYWHERE. It is so so good. Seriously, a messina/massimo standard gelato store on every street.


Things BA doesn't do so well:
Coffee. Not a coffee drinker so this doesn't really affect me. Apparently they import a really inferior type of coffee bean - gosh knows why given their proximity to brazil and colombia.. but yes.. they then take this inferior coffee bean and try and treat it in the italian way as though it was amazing coffee.. so the coffee ends up weak and without much flavour, so then they decide to brew it with sugar.. so the whole thing is a bit of a mess really. Doesn't stop them drinking it all the time though!
Toilets. They generally don't have much flushing power. Therefore you are not allowed to fush your toilet paper .. it has to go into the bin provided.
Beds. Or at least the ones Ive been able to afford to sleep in. Errant springs, rock hard, or flimsy, non-existent pillows.
Breakfast. Given the bedtimes I'm not surprised.. but yeah, breakfast isn't really something they do over here beyond a cafe and a pastry.
Spicy. Apparently Argys tend not to go for strongly flavoured food. It makes it almost impossible to eat anything genuinely spicy. I'm missing this!
Morning. Nothing opens before 10am.
Rain. Apparently it doesn't rain very frequently here so when it does, the city seems unprepared. The streets get slippery, there's very little cover and no one sells umbrellas. Also.. the rain re-releases the smell of all that dried dog urine and faeces.


People Argentinians like:
Maradona (God. Can do no wrong)
Shakira
AC/DC (i've seen SO many AC/DC car bumper stickers!)
Evita (mostly)
Charly Garcia (Argentinian Rockstar - who is Mister Teflon when it comes to getting away with anything and everything)
Carlos Gardel (basically the Bing Crosby of the Tango music world)


Business ideas I've had so far:
Cattle-dog breeder (apparently with all the farms over here they are in huge demand)
Some Like it Hot (restaurant and bar with spicy food and drinks)
BA food and wine tours: start at the markets, coffee and medialunas, learn to make your own empanadas, night time parilla etc
Mobile food van business operating outside club districts between 3-6am. 

Portenos
Porteno (I guess, from the port?) is what you call people from Buenos Aires. o is for men. I'll write about portenas next.

Ok! So the men here. Whoa! They are definitely not shy in letting you know they like you. Every walk through the street is accompanied with a lot of wolf whistling, air-kisses and a whole lot of spanish that it is probably best I don't understand. They will come up to you and ask for your contact details in broad daylight. Still, I have never felt anything other than 100% safe. It's nothing to get a big head over.. they all have girlfriends and wives and just can't help but flirt and be all lustful in their latino way. They flirt with the 80 year old woman selling them orange juice. It's just their way. They are all unfaithful. Or at least, try to be. Which I think has made argy women slightly crazy. They have a local slang word for it here "Chamuyaro" (I think that's right).. basically a silver-tongued smooth-talker that will say anything to get a girl.  
Obviously you learn to take everything they say with a giant truckload of salt.. I'm pretty much un-pickable over here cos I don't trust them an inch.. but I find their conversations super amusing!


Fashion:
Generally super well-groomed. The polo set loved their white jeans, crisp colored shirt, belt and brown shoes.. often topped off with a gaucho beanie hat. Normally with longish hair. 


Portenas
Fashion:
Around San Telmo it is pretty much only jeans and longish tunic tops. But everyone, no matter where.. wears platform wedges everywhere. I don't know how they do it all day and all night, especially on the cobbled streets of san telmo. Occasionally.. I've found mostly when there's a chance of rain they will wear flats (very occasionally) and in those instances they will choose converse sneakers or these flat canvas slip ons that have a name I can't remember right now.
In Palermo the women are much more fashion conscious. They dress a lot skimpier and more currently.


ALSO plastic surgery is ridiculously common here. And there isn't really any social taboo about it. They all very openly admit to having it. And it is really cheap too. Yesterday I spent an entire day sitting in Plaza Serrano with Hannes with him pointing out all the fake boobs.. It was something like 3 in 5. Crazy.




Hmm.. ok going to bed now. Might add more later. And add photos. Love and high5s!

Week 1: Hola!

Hello!

So! It´s really really real. I am in Buenos Aires. I flew here on a one-way ticket from Sydney. I will be living overseas indefinitely. I don´t know the where or the what or the how. I should be apprehensive but I´m not in the slightest. I am so frickin excited!

Anyway.. this is my blog. I´ve never blogged before. It´s a very hip thing to do isn´t it? Frickin hipsters. I´m blogging because a) I´m too lazy to email everyone separately; and b) I thought it would be a good way of keeping track of what I get up to. I´m just going to whack up some words and some pictures when I think to. It won´t be well written or witty or funny. And I´ll probably resort to dot points more often than not. Apologies now for the boring and for giving stupid detail. It´s pretty much going to be a factual recount. Anyway.

Ok. So. It´s been almost a week. This is what I got up to:

1. Flight from Sydney was tops! I watched Midnight in Paris. Loved it. Watched all the 30Rock Episodes. Slept a shedload. Arrived in Buenos Aires at 10am. Met a lovely missy called Tori while waiting for my bags. She was staying in Sam Telmo so I said she could share my ride. Andy (the driver my friend Jim had put me on to) picked us up and I arrived at Lo de Rick (Rick´s Place) in San Telmo at about 12. I dumped my bags then went into town to sort out a local phone. I also got my re-growth done (it cost about $35). Slept, facebooked etc etc

Rick´s Place (named for Casablanca) is pretty sweet. It is situated on Defensa, which is the oldest street in Buenos Aires. It is all cobbled and romantic with gorgeous old buildings. Rick´s looks on to the old mint. I might find out how old it is and write it in HERE later. Might.
Rick´s is John´s home and guest house. John only invites people who are friends of friends. John is a former Stockbroker from England who first came to Buenos Aires 14 years ago following his passion for tango dancing. He´s lived here ever since. Also living at Rick´s is Rick and Louis (German Short Haired Pointers GSPs) and 3 cats the only one whose name I know is Henry. This is the website for the guesthouse: http://www.loderick.com/ Here are some photos I took on the roof.

2. Tuesday: John took me on a walking tour of san telmo as we walked the dogs. There are so many purebreed dogs in Buenos Aires. There are also professional dog walkers. Insert name in spanish HERE. The record for the most number of dogs I´ve seen a dog walker with is currently 22.

After breakfast I walked to Recoleta, supposedly BA's wealthiest neighbourhood. The key attraction here is Cementerio de la Recoleta ( Cemetery) which is the final resting place for Maria Eva Duarte de Peron aka Evita (don't cry for me etc etc) and the rest of Argentina's most illustrious stiffs. There's hundreds of immaculately maintained marble mausoleums, decorated with bronze statues and nameplates, with stairs descending down into basement crypts (is that the right word?). Some of them, especially the ex-presidents are incredibly ornate. Anyway, I really enjoyed channelling my inner year 12 history student. It also reminded me of Buffy. Here are some photos.

There's also this photo of a poster for coke light that I saw. It has no other significance apart from the fact that I thought the guy looked like a dude.

Next I walked to the Museo Nacionale de Bellas Artes – free art gallery with a compact but pretty impressive collection of classical art. My favourite was the Gaugin but the Degas works (ballerinas etc) are probably the most famous. I got hit on by an Argentine museum operator who wanted to take me for a drink. Hmm.. After that I walked to Floralis Generica which is a giant silver flower sitting on a circle of water that rotates along with the direction of the sun and closes at night. At night the inner stalks light up red and there is this awesome warm glow. This is one of my favourite BA attractions.

Food time! I went to a place called Cumano to try my first argentinian cuisine. I opted for lomo piccante empandas (spicy beef pastry parcels) and also some locro which is a kind of stew made with meat and corn and beans. It kindof tasted like a really good pea and ham soup. Home for siesta! I LOVE how the Spanish have institutionalised the afternoon power nap. It is the business! My power nap actually extended from about 6-9 (I think 3-5 is more common) at which time I woke up and had some malbec on the rooftop with Nick and Kelly before heading out to dinner around 10. This is totally the norm. Dinner 10ish and then out afterwards from about midnight. It is so commonplace to see primary school aged children out at dinner on a Wednesday night at 1am that you stop noticing it after a while. The tango shows, the bars etc don't really start til 12. Daily nanna naps are therefore entirely necessary.

Dinner was delicious pizza from Sr. Telmo. Because of the enormous italian heritage, Portenos do pizza (and italian food generally) very well. We shared an anchovy pizza (so good!) and some more Malbec. After dinner I went out to the Gibraltar Bar where the owner shouted me a vino blanco. I met some pretty fun portenos and carried on to about 2 practising my non-existent spanish and getting laughed at a lot. So that was my first full day.

Hmm.. I'm actually writing heaps. I guess cos I'm remembering out loud and doing the whole stream of consciousness thing that I do. Oh well, I've already apologised for being boring. Skim ahead etc etc

3. Walked dogs around Peru (beautiful paris-modelled tree-lined avenue), then scored a lift to Palermo. Here I checked out Palermo Chica (as in chic/smart), home of mega mansions and a lot of embassies. Then I walked down to the Jardin Japon (Japanese Garden – tranquil, serene, meditative) before heading to MALBA. I forget what the acronym stands for but it's a modern art gallery with a lot of latin american artists and it's AWESOME! It's normally about $10 to get in but because I'm living this charmed life over here, it happened to be free for students on this particular day. Sweet. They had an exhibition by Carlos Cruz-Diez (El Color en el espacio en el tiempo – I'm guessing this means colour in space and time) which I loved. I loved the whole gallery actually. Kickass.

Afterwards I walked around Palermo (which is massive) trying to get a feel for it and whether I would want to live here. As I walked, I chowed down on a bag of Arandanos (blueberries) which they have only recently started growing here but are available now everywhere cheaply and in plentiful supply. I then caught the bus to Belgrano accidentally (I got the right bus, but in the wrong direction) but it meant I could check out this leafy, hilly suburb for 20 cents and then I had the most amazing tour guide for my ride home – this LOVELY, impeccably groomed grandma who spoke excellent english and pointed out all the sights and explained the significance of a lot of buildings. Home. Siesta. Then out to Bar Dorego, a bar sitting on the Plaza Dorego in San Telmo, to meet Chris for a drink. Was joined by El briefly, before heading out to dinner at the gorgeous Rivas Cafe (piano-player, french-y interior, french-y food). Met some aussie friends of Chris' for a wine at La Brigada afterwards, then we all went back to Chris' place for a whisky nightcap whilst looking out over the Square. Good day.

Day 4. Walked dogs around Porta Madeira, a new area of BA that kindof has the feel of Melbourne's SouthBank about it. A lot of the new, modern Phillipe Starke-designed bars, restaurants and hotels are found here. Then it was time to do a bit of wheeling and dealing to score some polo tickets through an argentine website called mercado libre (free market). It's kindof like ebay. A guy promised to deliver the tickets in an hour, so we killed time by sunning ourselves on the rooftop terrace listening to this awesome CD of guns and roses songs done bossa nova style. Somehow it worked out and the guy actually delivered 5 legitimate tickets. Tick. Then Chris and Andy picked me up to take me out to see the polo at Pilar. Pilar is about an hour north of the city and it is like Polo Mecca. There are 300 + polo fields within a 100k radius. And they are all perfect. The most famous ranch is Ellerstena which was established by Kerry Packer. Old KP actually had a profound influence on polo since taking up the sport after one of his earlier heart-attacks. He even developed a special kind of grass that they use on the polo fields that regenerates quickly after the wear and tear of the horses hooves. When he died he left Ellerstena to the Pieras family who have continued to build upon the already formidable polo empire. We had a drive around the Ellerstena estate (it is enormous and perfect) and then went to Indiana to watch some Australians play a semi final in a local tournament. The two Aussies, Alex and George (Brothers-in-Law from Scone) were playing with 2 professional players; Rob Archibald, also an Aussie, and James Biems. The match finished in a draw which meant they advanced through to the final.

Side-note: the next few days are very polo-flavoured because a) the Argentina Open is on which is the biggest and best polo tournament in the world and b) almost everyone I have been put into contact with in BA is polo-affiliated. I have had a pretty intensive induction into the world of polo and now know a LOT about it. Crazy.

After the game we went for a drink at the Chapa Una Bar – a wooden-decked place that overlooks the polo fields that was built by the owner of the Chapa Una team and a former 10-goaler: Bautist Heguy. (Polo players are handicapped or graded – a 10 goaler is the best possible. I think australia's best player is around 7 or 8). I got home about 9, cooked myself some baked eggs with chorizo, tomatoes, chilli, white beans and coriander that I'd bought at the local fruit and veg market earlier that day. I was meant to go to the tango with John at 12 but we were both exhausted so decided to postpone that for another time. Crashed into bed.

5. I went for a run sin dogs around the ecologica reserva – giant nature reserve between san telmo and port madeira. I ran the 8km circuit, making friends along the way with someone called Frank Grimaldi. An Italian who moved to BA 14 years ago and is now a TV journalist here. I arrived back home and answered the door to find Daphne had come to visit me (Anna Mei put us in touch).. we went for breakfast ice-cream (my favourite!!) at Nonna Bianca – the best helado (gelato) in BA. Totally acceptable since I had just run 8km. Then we walked into the city to try and find an open phone-store and ATM for Daphne. No luck on the phone due to the public holiday. I also showed Daphne Cafe Tortoni, a famous and amazing and wonderful cafe that is super old and beautifully ornate. It's a tourist attraction but still a wonderful place to sit and sip on a cafe and nibble on a medialuna. I actually played tour guide to Daphne! Pretty funny after 5 days but I do feel like I know my way around quite well already. This is a photo of the narrowest house in Buenos Aires. The story goes that residents of the house on the left freed their slave and built the mega slim house next door for their slave to live in.

 Then it was home for me to frock up for the Polo final – La Dolphina v Ellestena. The match is held at Palermo Campo. I shared a cab in with Chris and El. I have never seen so many good-looking, well-dressed people in one location than at this event. It was incredible. After joking to one of El's friends that it was kindof novel to be at an event where I was guaranteed not to know anyone, I ran into someone I met a couple of times in Sydney. Yup.

The game was pretty amazing in terms of the skill-level on display. The players were all 10 and 9 goalers – the highest level in the world. I was cheering for Ellerstena due to the Australian connection but La Dophina totally outclassed their opponents, winning easily. At the end of the game, the crowd ran onto the field to celebrate with the players and ponies. Then the afterparty kicked on. Fun! Music, dancing, drinking and ridiculously hot men everywhere. I think I stayed til 11 or 12 then we went on to a large nightclub that I don't know the name of and danced until the sun came up. Big fun day.

6. Back out to Pilar to watch the aussie boys (Pinnacle) play their final. Home for early night and sleep catchup.

7. Run around Ecologica Reserva (9km – go me) with my new friend Frank, then walked the gambit of San Telmo markets: these are super popular and are on every sunday. They stretch the full length of Defensa. Vendors sell everything from handmade crafts, jewellery, shoes, souvenirs to dulce de leche and whacky toys. They were packed with tourists but still pretty cool. Then it was back to Palermo for more polo with team Pinnacle. I actually enjoyed this game the most – it was really tough and more physical. It was also closer. We were cheering for La Virgencita due to the fact that Biemsy (Britsh player) was playing with them. The boys actually spent the whole time perving on argentinian women and I spent the whole time perving on argentinian men. Sadly Biemsy's team lost by one-goal in controversial circumstances (horse and guy went down, everyone stopped playing, but one member of the opposition played on and scored a goal, even though it is gentlemans rules that you stop play. Boo!).

After a commiseratory drink, we jumped a cab for dinner at La Brigada – BA's premier steak restaurant. This place was the shit. The steak was like out of the Flinstones and was delicious! We also tried provoletta (grilled provolone cheese.. sooo good), grilled eggplants and capsicum, molleja (sweetbreads) and chorizo. Washed down with a fantasic pinot. Chris, his son and his girlfriend, plus El and her Dad came and ate dinner at the same place and we all went back to Chris' place to drink whisky. Home. Then rooftop rum and cokes in the jacuzzi. Not a bad way to end my first week in Buenos Aires.