A Whole different South America

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I have been in Buenos Aires for 5 days and I could stay a few more months even a year.
This place is amazing, there is so much to do, every corner has some history and the architecture of the buildings and apartments are right out of a period piece. Carvings and black metal balaconies cover most of the apartment facades. It´s so beautiful.

There is shopping out of the nose here, but it is a whole other level of shopping. There are antique shops, I bought some cool black and white movie photos for 10 pesos (1 of Audrey Hepburn and 1 of Dracula from the original movie. I also found a picture of the Mona Lisa that was from the Louvre it seemed someone bought it there and then brought it to BA, I snatched it up. I also found some crazy cuban cigar vintage stickers from all the different boxes. I also found some crazy vintage posters so I bought 2 of those. There were loads of crazy jewerly from different periods...
And the fruit markets are so awesome, the fruit is so plump and colourful it made me want to sit and paint a picture. Instead I took a picture. I bought some stawberries and bananas to make a nice fruit salad. I also got some amazing looking honey, I haven´t tried it yet, so that I can bring it home.

There was suppose to be the Sunday market with street performers and tango dancers but because of the elections they seemed to have disappeared. But the indoor market was open with all the antiques, I was there for a few hours with a girl I met at the hostel. After we ended up in a whole other section we never saw before which lead to the outside, (by this time I needed a wool coat and some boots I was frozen, but I trekked forward).

We ended up on this street with people giving free hugs, I got one, it was so cute. It was such a nice hug too, the kind you find rarely anymore. The big enclosing ones where you actually feel like you are being hugged. I love hugs, as some people know (Shannon) ... sometimes I use them as a scare device.. haha. Anyways I thought it was a neat concept, as I always say "Hugs are free today" looks like it´s the same on Sundays in San Telmo a neighbourhood in BA.

So we walked along Defensia calle (street) loads of shops EVERYWHERE!!!
We found this an alley full of really unique jewerly and handicrafts. I bought some jewerly, really neat stuff... I have bought a lot of jewerly, this stuff was nice because it was people being all creative and innovative, there wasn´t as much traditional jewerly like in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.

We stopped for some coffee, I have been drinking a lot of cappucinos, yum. We kept walking after our re-fueling and found loads of vendors with some really cool trinkets. They sell these dolls that are kind of "scary" it´s hard to explain, they are all the craze, so Vanesse the girl I was with got some of those.

I bought a really neat handmade bag with a newspaper article printed onto it with some painting, you´ll have to see it. I also found a cool watch. Everything is pretty cheap so that´s good. I did spend a lot more than the other countries though.
5 hours later we were back at the hostel.

On Saturday night I went to a tango show at the famous Cafe Tortoni, it was a cool experience everyone needs to go and see one when they come to BA. It was crowded and small and we were right next to the stage, we were placed with two other people. They were Americans from Dallas, Texas. They were really funny, it was a father son combo and the father was quite a riot, always yelling "BRAVO" after everything, the son just shoke his head.
After the show I got to take a picture with 2 of the musicans from the show, the one guy just asked me if I wanted to take a picture with him, what a nice older gentleman.
I also took a picture with a few models (they were just lifesize figurines, kind of cool, I pretended I was telling one of them a secret for a photo op. They looked so real, people stared, some laughed others were confused.... we left shortly after).

On Friday I went shopping in the main district with Vanessa she showed me all the major shops. I found a Zara and loaded up and tried loads on, but left with some skinny jeans and a cute top... pretty good. I contemplated suede boots with the 1970´s fringe, they were like 90 pesos but back home it´s winter. I did need shoes though I had flip flops and like hard core runners. I everntually found some flats for 30 pesos a on Saturday I also bought the Economist for 5 pesos less than the cost of the shoes.... so weird. I bought postcards and tango pictures..........and drank at coffee shops. There are these amamzig desserts they are called Nonna Vita- they are a cookie on top and bottom with dulce (caramel inside) sooo good.

There is also this really awesome drink called a "subramino" it is steamed milk and then you dip a long piece of bittersweet chocolate into the hot milk and it melts to make a "hot chocolate"... I had one today..yum 😊

Last night Sunday we went to see a movie, we wanted to see Hostal 2 but it wasn´t showing at the theatre we ended up at, so we saw Primitivo aka Primeval ....whoa it was a surprisingly scary movie... the villian was more the surprise.

After we went searching for Indian food at 11pm, unfortunately it was closed and we wallked so far to get there. We kept walking and ended up at this place that charged 6 pesos just for the table and then after we sat proceeded to tell us that the kitchen was closed. We got the salad bar, at least they offered bread sticks.
We walked around after dinner (wow some guy has Sean Paul as his ringtone, whoa flashback) we stopped at some dessert place and then finally ended up at the hostel at 1pm.

Today I walked down to the Modern Art Museum only to be disappointed that it was closed, the girl I was with Mara (From Chicago) swore it was open. No worries, we went to the cemetary, wow!

This cemetary was amazing, it had these giant burial rooms with elaborate sculptures and plaques. It was so beautiful. I really enjoyed myself despite being in a cemetary. Evita was buried there too. We found one tomb that seemed like an endless pit that could have been 20 feet down. It had shelves on each side that held coffins, but if there was an earthquake the coffins would fall into this hole. I was scared. After the cemetary we found this shop that is similar to Ikea so we stopped and had a look, I didn´t buy anything, but there was some really neat stuff for the home. We then headed through a park to come to the famous tree in Recolleta the neighbourhood we were in, it had a sprawling tree trunk and massive branches. It was the tree you wished was in your backyard as a kid.... it was perfect for climbing and building a tree fort. it also had awesome vantage points for throwing things at people and protecting yourself from their retailation.

We unsuccessful attemped to find an art gallery - Galleria Rubbers, it was not a tribute to condoms, although that would have been interesting- we couldn´t find it. So we walked 20 blocks to the Subte (Subway) and headed to Palermo another neighbourhood. This time we were after Japanese food and the Japanese gardens ( I should mention I was getting a little grumpy and my feet hurt). At first we found a park with CATS EVERYWHERE.... this park had cats living in it, it was soo cool they just roamed around and people fed them and loved them and that was that.... I loved it I made a lot of new friends there. I got a few photo ops too.
This was on our way to the Japanese gardens, we walked another 10 blocks and finally found the place. It was 4:15pm. When we entered the gardens and made our way to the resturant, we were informed that sushi hour was over at 4pm... I could have cried (this being grumpy and having walked 8 miled by now). I had some crazy ice cream concotion and a cappucino.
And then an empanda that I intelligently bought as a precaution to not finding food... it was good.

We walked around the gardens and the koy fish were massive, they all came to the surface mouths gulping for food... I had my hand dangling in to touch them. My mistake was that my empanada was in the other hand and a duck came along expecting some food, I childishly stuck my hand out to the duck, he ill-temperly bite my finger in return. Bastard.

I took back my finger and ate my emapanda in plain view, I showed him.
The gardens were very beautiful it was very true to a real Japanese garden, it was even run by Japanese people. It was quite tranquil except for the cold eating through my clothes.

When we eventually left I bargained to take a taxi to the subte, thank god. I might have just fell over. We took the subte to a cool like bokstore/coffeeshop we had a look in the bookstore and found some neat books. The bookstores have so much character, I could spend hours just hanging out there. I got a book about Tango with poetic quotes it has some very beautiful photos.
We then made our way to Av Corrientes a main avenue with more bookshops and coffee shops and theatres. We had submarinos and Nonna Vita and listened to some tango... then got some crazy tea at this cafe - El Gatto Negro. And then headed back to the hostal.

So I have had some very fulfilling days here in BA.. it is such a beautiful city and you can walk for hours and not realize it, that´s what I love.

I will add photos later.

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