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Day 01 - Hola Buenos Aires! Now we are talking vacation! How
cool is Buenos Aires? I arrived in town via a car pick up
service and the driver was kind enough to give me a load of tips and
places to visit. He also waited with me until the apartment
block owner turned up with the keys.
Facundo turned up with keys
swinging in his hand and hung around for a while to tell me about a load
of places I should visit during my stay. Buenos Aires looks
great... and my apartment is in the best area. Everything is here
that I need. Though grocery shopping in the Disco Supermaket (
no kidding) threw me a little though I had trouble finding what the milk
and juice containers looked like.
Day 02 - Abasto: I slept for 13 hours last night.
A cool night in a quiet room... that's all it took to keep me
sleeping forever. I LOVE BUENOS AIRES! I knew I
had saved the best for last. I will definitely be coming back
here again. Day 03 - Touring
Recoleta: Today I met Guillerme. He runs different
walking tours of the areas of Buenos Aires. I decided to take a look
around the area I live in.. the Recoleta. This also includes
the Recoleta Cemetery where a number of famous people live, including Eva
Peron. I found the cemetery to be actually quite spooky.
You can see many of the coffins through windows or open doors. And
some of the coffins are in poor condition and are falling apart.
I found myself trying not to look too hard at them. Guillerme
told me about one girl who had attempted suicide and was buried alive.
They found proof that she had tried to escape but eventually died.
So they moved her into the more exclusive Recoleta Cemetery.
The tour also took me past some beautiful old palaces, and down some of
the exclusive shopping streets. In between gazing at beautiful
buildings we had to watch for Buenos Aires 2 biggest annoyances...
the dangerous street traffic and the dog poo on the pavement.
There are laws here governing cleaning up after your dogs but it is not
enforced. So people generally leave their dog's mess behind...
especially the professional dog walkers. Later that
night I met Andres at McDonalds for dinner. I was really
surprised when we finished dinner that one of the McDonalds employees cam
over and asked if we'd like dessert or tea or coffee.... and
then brought it to our table! I was shocked... table
service at McDonalds??? Day 04 - Megatlon:
I've just realised that I'm now taking weekend breaks from my vacation.
Today I got up late, did some stuff on the site, chatted to friends back
home for over an hour on Skype and then went and joined a gym for the
week.
Megatlon is a gym chain here in BA.
The one around the corner is just 6 months old and has some really nice
equipment. It felt odd working out after not having been to
the gym for over 2 weeks. But of course I felt so much better
afterwards. I always get a rush after having been to the gym.
So I went to a place called "Cinema" which is not a cinema at all for a
burger. And it seems that every meal here comes with steak.
When the meal arrives... look around... there is a steak
lurking under there somewhere. Disturbing TV: It's amazing how much you learn from TV. Today I realized how film editing sometimes protects us. News stories in Australia generally will not show certain things that are deemed inappropriate for families to view. I am sitting here watching TV Cronica. It appears to be a local news channel. They are showing a car accident involving 3 cars in the night. And incredibly they are showing the faces of the people that are still trapped in the cars. They also showed a man being zipped into a body bag. An old lady facing the wrong way in the back seat of a wrecked car. Arms hanging out of another car. Of course it was one of those moments where I couldn't look away. It's like visiting Ogrish.com.... you know it's there but you can't look away. It really made me realize how much our media protects us from such images. Day 05 - San Telmo: Sunday is market day down at San Telmo. This is where loads of stalls set up to sell all sorts of antique items, paintings, photos, clothes and food. It really is a great day to experience some of the Argentinian culture in the heart of tango land. There are also many people giving small tango shows and loads of other street performers. I spent the afternoon wandering about before I headed down Ave Florida through the pedestrian mall. I could tell that it was a little quieter than normal as many of the shops were closed. But the huge Gallerias Pacifico was open. What a beautiful old shopping centre. This place was built in 1889. It was vastly improved in 1945. Now it is full of stores like Ralph Lauren and Lacoste. The centre obviously caters more towards the tourists in the area..... jut like the people at the front doors asking for money for "the poor children". On the way home I picked up a box of delicious empanadas for dinner. They are savoury pastries stuffed with all kinds of delicious fillings. The food here is amazingly delicious! Toys - I was
beside myself today when I found a toy collectors store in San Telmo.
They had many of the matchbox cars I had as a kid. In mint
condition! I remember how annoyed I was when my little brother
started to take over my "cars" or even got better ones than I had.
Then even more annoyed when my mum gave them away to other kids!
Many of them were half destroyed anyway. I had this thing that when
the cars paint started to chip away I would repaint them a new colour with
my textas. Day 06 - Cruising Sante Fe: The day started out to find a cinema and see a movie (hopefully in english). I walked down one end of Av Sante Fe and realised I had gone the wrong way. Sante Fe is one of the major Avenues that stretches from one end of Buenos Aires to the other. And it is full of shops, bars, restaurants with people trying to sell all kinds of things. I walked forever and eventually found myself in the Alto Palermo Shopping Centre where I stopped for lunch in the food court there. Stupidly I ordered a steak from one of the stores there and they served me the chewiest steak ever with a plastic knife and fork. And I think some people seated nearby were laughing as I struggled to carved through it. Anyway, terror struck as I realised I had too much steak in my mouth that I couldn't bite through. I had flashbacks to a choking moment when I was a kid when my dad had to pick me up and hit me to stop me from dying. And then to that episode of 6 Feet Under where the women died from choking. So I quickly surveyed the nearby tables to see who I would run to for help if I started choking.... and then swallowed the lump of meat whole. To celebrate my accomplishment I went and bought myself a beautiful green jacket. I'm really into those padded parker style jackets at the moment. I know it's a bit late for winter... but there'll always be another one. I then kept walking up Sante Fe until I realised I had left my map. So I got a taxi back home. I didn't find any cinemas. Day 07 - Jardin
Zoologica: After a quick work out at Megatlon I jumped in
a taxi and headed to the Buenos Aires Zoo. I was surprised at
how long it took me to ask the driver to take me to the zoo. I was
even pointing at it on the street map. Eventually I arrived
there and paid the $2 admission fee. The Buenos Aires
Zoo is quite beautiful. Some of the structures the animals are
held in are amazing. The place is hidden right in the middle
of the city with many apartment buildings looking down into the animal
enclosures. I could see the monkeys studying the movements of
the people on their balconies nearby. I also saw many species
that I'd never seen before. I really liked the polar bear
enclosure where you could go below the water level to see the bear
swimming about. The familes around me appeared to be very
excited about this until the bear decided to take a dump in the pristine
blue swimming pool. I also liked the Llamas because the
warning signs said that they spit at zoo visitors. Day 08 - De Lovely:
Have you noticed yet that my mornings are missing? That's
because I'm getting out of bed just before midday each day. For some
reason I have been sleeping loads while I've been here. Today
I went down the Florida Ave mall for lunch and then to meet Andres to see
a movie. Luckily Andres came prepared with the movie guide. We
walked up to the Premiere Cinema to see De Lovely. Most of the
cinemas in this area are pretty old. The movie cost 5 1/2
pesos. About 2 bucks. The funniest thing happened.
The movie started right on time so the cinema was very dark. I
tried to follow Andres into a row but lost him. So there I was
in front of the audience feeling my way seat by seat. And when I
eventually found the right spot it was too close. So we went through
the process again in another spot a few rows back. Except this time
I cam in contact with an old lady. I had gone one seat too
far. My eyes really take a long time to adjust in the dark. Day 09 - The Buenos
Aires Finale: Today is my last day in Buenos Aires. I
haven't mentioned this... but it became apparent as I packed my bags
this afternoon. I have shopped every day of my 9 days in Buenos
Aires. And now I am filling out 2 very large bags. This
now means that I will no longer move quickly through airports or across
busy roads. Today I went shopping at Alto Palermo Shopping Centre,
Gallerias Pacifico and Abasto Shopping Centre. Why 3? Well I
didn't mean to. But shopping was at one, lunch was at another and
then I went to Abasto to see a movie. But somehow I managed to pick
up "stuff" at all 3 of them. And the taxi rides between them made
them seem so close.
PHOTOS
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