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!
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario