Bs. As. Buenos Aires, Big Apple
Hola!
Amanda and I have arrived in South America! We had a uneventful flight (which is how I like it) down to Buenos Aires. We had a couple of glasses of wine in the airport and took some nyquil and it did the trick to help us sleep for most of the flight. We woke up for our free meals of course :-) It was amazing to get off the plane and be so far away...we are still so excited to be here. The advice the flight attendents had for us was to be careful of being ¨slimed¨ that is when a guy squirts ketchup or something of that sort on your shoulder so you get distracted and then his buddy pick pockets you from the other direction...stranger danger!
It took a while to get thru customs and pay our entrance fee, but the airport staff was working so I was happy. We had about a 30 minute commute to our hostel and so we got to practice our spanish right away with the guapo taxi driver. Our hostel is right on the main drag in downtown BA and we have a balcony with a great view! we checked in talked with the hostel staff about must do´s and decided to walk over to the Recoletta Market that happens every Saturday.
We were able to window shop yesterday and then come back next saturday before our flight to actually make some purchases. We only got yelled at once for taking a picture of the crafts! oops!
After the market we strolled over to this massive edificio, which turned out to be the law school building at University De BA, not what we were expecting but it was interesting nonetheless. Then we decided to get a cafe con leche at a nearby restaurant and that turned into a 2.5 hour ordeal. All we wanted was two coffees and two waters, but that was too much for the wait staff to handle. >We had to ask about 4 different people...thank goodness we are on no time schedule. The one waiter decided as an apology that it would be ok to grope my face! Sheesh..i know i have pretty skin but seriously!haha it was a bit much.
Feeling revived by the coffee (with massive amounts of sugar) we strolled back by the water and stopped to look at some monuments. It was about 6pm by the time we got up to the Casa Rosa (Argentinas version of the White House) and the military men were information and getting ready to retire the colors for the night: we were able to stumble across that ceremony and it was fantastico! Heading back up to the hostel we stopped off at a street event outisde a church..come to find out it was the rememberance of all the mothers who had lost their babies when a few decades back they were being stolen: (clearly i need to do some more research on this event)
Last night we decided to do a pub crawl...greatest idea ever....we got to meet up with people from the town and all over the world. we saw the downtown night life of San Telmo and learned a lot about the culture. We also got to practice our spanish all night and we are both better after a few drinks! First off, they dont start meeting up til 11 at night and the pub crawl ended at 4am with an option to head to the nightclub after that! Needless to say Amanda and I slept in this morning. We kept getting aked how long we were here and where we are going next...Most people are on travel for weeks or months at a time and BA is a stop along their journey. some of our bunk makes are on travel for 6 months ..they just work to get money for a plane ticket and then quit their job to travel...its a different approach to life but starting to grow on me.
We are going to check out an anttique market today, the zoo possibly and wait for it....a Tango show tonight!
The people of BA have this relaxed feel to them. They seem to only stirve for mediocracy and that could be a result of their history...namley their hard economic times...to wake up one morning and realize my money is worth nothing would probably convince me to only live for today. Even their dress is casual with the ¨just got out of bed look¨ The city has a Parisian feel to it, which makes sense as the French had a huge influence on the culture and they even helped to make the Tango an acceptable dance and formalize it from the brothels.
Hasta Luego,
Marcella
Amanda and I have arrived in South America! We had a uneventful flight (which is how I like it) down to Buenos Aires. We had a couple of glasses of wine in the airport and took some nyquil and it did the trick to help us sleep for most of the flight. We woke up for our free meals of course :-) It was amazing to get off the plane and be so far away...we are still so excited to be here. The advice the flight attendents had for us was to be careful of being ¨slimed¨ that is when a guy squirts ketchup or something of that sort on your shoulder so you get distracted and then his buddy pick pockets you from the other direction...stranger danger!
It took a while to get thru customs and pay our entrance fee, but the airport staff was working so I was happy. We had about a 30 minute commute to our hostel and so we got to practice our spanish right away with the guapo taxi driver. Our hostel is right on the main drag in downtown BA and we have a balcony with a great view! we checked in talked with the hostel staff about must do´s and decided to walk over to the Recoletta Market that happens every Saturday.
We were able to window shop yesterday and then come back next saturday before our flight to actually make some purchases. We only got yelled at once for taking a picture of the crafts! oops!
After the market we strolled over to this massive edificio, which turned out to be the law school building at University De BA, not what we were expecting but it was interesting nonetheless. Then we decided to get a cafe con leche at a nearby restaurant and that turned into a 2.5 hour ordeal. All we wanted was two coffees and two waters, but that was too much for the wait staff to handle. >We had to ask about 4 different people...thank goodness we are on no time schedule. The one waiter decided as an apology that it would be ok to grope my face! Sheesh..i know i have pretty skin but seriously!haha it was a bit much.
Feeling revived by the coffee (with massive amounts of sugar) we strolled back by the water and stopped to look at some monuments. It was about 6pm by the time we got up to the Casa Rosa (Argentinas version of the White House) and the military men were information and getting ready to retire the colors for the night: we were able to stumble across that ceremony and it was fantastico! Heading back up to the hostel we stopped off at a street event outisde a church..come to find out it was the rememberance of all the mothers who had lost their babies when a few decades back they were being stolen: (clearly i need to do some more research on this event)
Last night we decided to do a pub crawl...greatest idea ever....we got to meet up with people from the town and all over the world. we saw the downtown night life of San Telmo and learned a lot about the culture. We also got to practice our spanish all night and we are both better after a few drinks! First off, they dont start meeting up til 11 at night and the pub crawl ended at 4am with an option to head to the nightclub after that! Needless to say Amanda and I slept in this morning. We kept getting aked how long we were here and where we are going next...Most people are on travel for weeks or months at a time and BA is a stop along their journey. some of our bunk makes are on travel for 6 months ..they just work to get money for a plane ticket and then quit their job to travel...its a different approach to life but starting to grow on me.
We are going to check out an anttique market today, the zoo possibly and wait for it....a Tango show tonight!
The people of BA have this relaxed feel to them. They seem to only stirve for mediocracy and that could be a result of their history...namley their hard economic times...to wake up one morning and realize my money is worth nothing would probably convince me to only live for today. Even their dress is casual with the ¨just got out of bed look¨ The city has a Parisian feel to it, which makes sense as the French had a huge influence on the culture and they even helped to make the Tango an acceptable dance and formalize it from the brothels.
Hasta Luego,
Marcella
Comments