Rosario Awesome

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We're rushing through Argentina at this point in an effort to arrive early in Buenos Aires. According to the film Starship Troopers, BA should prove to be a cultural smorgasbord of English-speaking Aryans and giant killer bugs. In the meantime, there's no reason we can't spend a day in Rosario, where Argentina apparently keeps the majority of their towering, ostentatious monuments.

After enduring a bus ride from Cordoba on which we were forced to watch Crash (not the awesome 1997 Cronenberg version but this new awful Sandra Bullock one), we were greeted at the door of Rosario Hostel by a fabulously attractive girl named Rita. (Eden and I agreed that seeing fabulously attractive girls is good for helping you forget you just watched an awful Sandra Bullock movie.) The evening got even better when an Australian hostel resident named Michael joined us for dinner and drinks. Not that Australians don't generally make an evening better, Michael was a special case in that he was certifiably insane: He was hit by a car on his bicycle back in Australia and received a large settlement due to subsequent brain damage and perpetual short-term memory loss. Now he's traveling through South America by bicycle on his newly acquired wealth, though he's been here at the hostel for two months and rarely ever goes anywhere. This is possibly because he's long since forgotten where he's headed. Hilarious! (Michael seems to think so, anyway.)

This morning, we were a little hungover. We're so tired of steak and pasta that last night we attempted to subsist on beer alone. Still, we forged ahead with our sightseeing, admiring Rosario's river, surrounding memorials, Che Guevara's childhood home, and other landmarks. Many of the monuments are devoted to various rebellions and anti-fascism uprisings, for it was during the Argentine dictatorship of the 1970's that citizens were "disappeared" to Rosario and usually tortured to death. Hilarious! (Michael seems to think so, anyway.)

Then, a lucky break: We found a Greek restaurant. Due to siesta (Argentina's federally mandated "naptime"), it wasn't open yet, so we bought a dozen mini empanadas to hold us over until 9 or 10pm, when most people here eat their dinner. However, when we returned to the Greek restaurant, they wouldn't let us eat there. We asked for a table for two, and they told us they didn't have any. When we pointed out that all but two of their tables were empty, they said that all the empty tables were "reserved." Uh-huh. Or maybe Rosarians, in their anti-fascism fervor, don't take kindly to modern Americans. I can't blame 'em.

Finally, we found a restaurant that would serve our kind -- a place called "Dory" -- and ate dinner at 11:30pm, just like real Argentines. While we sat, enjoying our steaks, there were kids frolicking in the restaurant like it was the middle of the afternoon.

By the time we got back to the hostel, Rita had been swapped out for some (less attractive) fella and Michael had all but forgotten who we were.

Hilarious.

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Photos

Sidewalk Graffiti
One of many reasons we told people we were Canadian.

3... 2... 1...
The National Flag Memorial as seen from the adjacent Triumphal Propylaeum. The angle of this photo unmasks a conspiracy that the monument is actually a big rocketship taking off to the moon.

Secret Detention Center
The sign on the street in front of this place (not pictured) said something in Spanish which, when translated at AltaVista's Babel Fish site, reads "Between anuses 1975 and 1979 I work in uste place a clandestine center of halting and tortures." The graffiti on the wall doesn't appear to mention anal torture specifically.

Che's Crib
Che Guevara's birthplace in Rosario, Santa Fe. Slightly less exciting at #2: My birthplace in Arlington Heights, Illinois.

Comments

[anonymous]

there are not such retarded people as you in canada you cant hide that you're inbreed yanks

[drae j namaste-rose]

didn't this occur years ago?
wow. what time is it? what year is it? this posting came to me on 02/20/08. i don't even remember how long ago you you went here.. time traveling is so bizarre. but fun!