This city is amazing!

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The big smoke, well much bigger smoke than we both had ever imagined. Buenos Aires is a massive city, on comparison with London and Paris. Our trip here from Salta involved one of our longest at 18 hours. We decided on the 180 degree cama for some sleep, expensive but well worth the comfort and wine to help us sleep. We booked a great place in BA, a small apartment for a week at the Embassy Hotel on Av. Cordoba in the city, we got a good price and have really felt as though its our home away from home.
What can I say about BA, Deb has really been looking forward to it and it hasn't dissapointed her I think she is already trying to plan a second home here. It is a massive city, it really appeals to me for the culture, a night out doesn't start with dinner till after 9pm at least and a club until 2am. We saw people eating meals still at 3am, I am a night owl but this place takes the cake!
We got strange weather, a day of lovely sunshine and heat and then a day of overcast and showers, it really was a hard place to figure out. The city has a European feel about it. The city itself is massive and as it expands you still have areas of 5 stories or higher like Recoleta or Palermo.
Deb first lost her life after seeing some of the shops on the malled Av Florida, I could see the excitement in her face as the shops presented themselves. Our first couple of days we ate in our apartment to save some $$ for the weekend and did a city tour to get a feel for this monsterous city, it was bucketing it down and we were happy we were in the bus as we passed the rich Recoleta area, back down through the centre to the Casa Rosada (Pink house) where Evita use to sing to crowds and the Plaza de Mayo to the Catedral Metropolitana and saw the tomb of Jose de San Martin a famous liberator whose tomb is under the draped Argentinian flag, and it is here that you really feel the strong sense of patriotism that the Argentinians have for their country. We then headed to the poorer southern area of La Boca (or 'the mouth' in Spanish) down by the port where the working class really portray the city and its past. This area is renowned for the Tango, introduced by Italian immigrants, the colourful buildings are an ever popular tourist attraction, corregated iron buildings, painted in lovely bright colours with a lovely feel along the pedestrian malls. We visited the famous La Boca stadium, home of Boca Juniours football club, the biggest in Argentina. The stadium is very compact and tight and I can only imagine the atmoshere in there (the official tickets were going for USD150 so we decided to pass) is like, but seeing the stadium gives us a sense of the closeness compared with England. On the way back we passed Puerto Madero which is a new area which reminded us very much of a Canary Wharf in London or IFSC in Dublin kind of place, very modern, with flash hotels and restauants and a buisinessy feel.
Still overcast one afternoon we made our way out to Palermo on the underground, we saw the lovely tree lined streets, the restaurants and cafes. The empanadas here have been fantastic, the pastry delicious and meat lovely, we had heard a lot about empanadas before South America but it is only here they are beginning to live up to their reputation.
We decided to spend another day down in La Boca as the tour didn't give us enough, we ate out and watched some Tango, took in the ambience around La Boca, a Maradonna lookalike and a few funny pics. On the Tuesday night we went to a tango show, Señor Tango. The venue was very nice and the entertainment fantastic, the drinks were well overpriced but we tried to enjoy the dancing singing and to our surprise the tango music which was fabulous with the live band (we couldn't take photos) but it really was a fantastic night. Getting a feel for the city and its culture, unfortunately I think I would have two left feet when it comes to Tango so I couldn't give Deb a show. Deb enjoyed the show a great deal and the patriotic finish of 'Don't cry for me Argentina' with falling flag and all again instilled the peoples love of their country.
We are happy to say we have ventured by bus, overheated tube and finally the train, we headed out to Tigre on the outskirts of BA on a lovely fine day, I almost felt like I was wandering around Henley on Thames, the riverside was plush, with massive rowing clubs, we strolled the riverside taking in the sun and lovely surroundings.
On the Thursday night as we went out to the Kilkenny bar. Things didn't kick off till late as the band kicked off we were labouring and decided to head home, on passing the 'Cutty Sark' we saw it was quite lively and thought we might pop in there another night. The following night Deb wanted to go, we pushed the doors open and it wasn't long before my Jason Bourne instincts kicked in. Here was a quiet bar, with only women, maybe about 5 or 6 of them. Scantily clad and not of the most beautiful disposicion. I grabbed Deb by the arm and said 'Lets go' I explained outside and I think she got the picture.
We had a couple of lovely meals at Cafe de la Ciudad, just the pure Bife de Chorizo (Sirloin steak) for me and Bife de Lomo (Tenderloin steak) for Deb. So tasty and so delicious, so simple but oozing with flavour, it is no wonder the steak is famous around the world. The restaurant was on the main thoroughfare (can't remember the name, but is about 10 lanes wide) and the monumental Obelisk in the middle.
We went out on the Friday night to Palermo, we ate ate a lovely restaurant (I told Deb we'd get there late like the Argeninians, about 11pm) and enjoyed our lovely meals before a few drinks out, we saw people still eating at 2am and as we left for home at the grand time of 4am the place was at its busiest, crazy! Saturday we went to the Recoleta cemetry, the masouleums are massive, we wandered around the grand structures before finding that of the infamous Evita, we continued on to Palermo which continued to capture my imagination and sat at a cafe restaurant and had a couple of slices of pizza washed down with a Quilmes, this is my kind of town. I think it was called Kentucky, Palermo had a nice buzz around the place. On Sunday we ventured to the market in San Telmo, well it started at Plaza Mayor and went all the way to San Telmo, I left Deb to take it all in as I arrived later on, it followed to cobbled street of La Defensa and again instilled to us how big and diverse this city really is. We have loved BA, Deb maybe a little too much! Who knows we may be back, but I can thoroughly reccommend and given the opportunity I would happily be a porteño!

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