Opera, Tango & Dante

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The day started as any other day, sans work stress. A quick Breakfast, then off for the day. Our first stop was to exchange money. The first time we did this the rate was 1,000 pesos to the dollar. Today, it was going to be the same, until they looked at the $100 bills, because they were older the rate dropped to 970 pesos to the $1. Tip here is make sure all of your $100 bills, are the new one’s with the security stripe, otherwise you get a bad exchange rate. Later in the day, we discussed this with the concierge, he said it is just how Argentina is, there is no consistency in how the currency is treated. It is so bad that banks will not take anything less than $100 to exchange. He said once he took some money out of the bank and then went to pay his credit card bill with the same money at the same bank, the machine would not accept it. This is why the people here convert their pesos to dollars and hide it at home. We knew before coming that the currency was going to be an issue. Normally, we get some currency of the country we are visiting before we leave home. We were able to do his with the Chilean Peso and the Uruguayan Peso, but not Argentina. It doesn’t help that they have two different exchange rates, the Blue (unofficial and formerly black market) and the official rate. There can be hundreds of pesos difference between them. Even credit card companies vary widely in the rate; American express, is close to the official rate, but my Barclay’s Mastercard is almost the Blue rate.

Money Tip: In addition to the above comments, when possible pay with a credit card, especially at hotels, you save an automatic 21%!((MISSING)the tax) as they don’t charge it to us if we pay with U.S. credit cards. This is better than the system in Europe were you can get the 21%!V(MISSING)AT refunded if you have all of your receipts when you go through customs upon leaving.

Peso’s in hand, we were off to our first stop, Teatro Colon, the National Opera House.

Teatro Colon

Whenever possible we like to tour the opera house in major cities, not all Opera Houses give tours, but you can typically get a tour in the more historic Opera Houses. We have toured the Opera Houses in Paris, Budapest, Vienna to name a few. The Royal Opera house in London has not worked out timing wise, but we will get there at some point.

Teatro Colon is ranked as the third best in the world for acoustics, Vienna Opera, the Boston Symphony hall are 1 and 2. It is not the original Opera house, which has since been torn down and now the Central Bank stands there. Building started in 1909 and was completed in 2013, so last year it celebrates 100 years. The outside of the building is like most any other building from that time period, but the inside is what you go to see.

The tours are guided and last 50 minutes. You have to make sure you book an English-speaking tour, there are several a day. We wanted to go to an Opera while we were here, however, the tickets sell out almost instantly. The only thing left was standing room only, and while we love a good Puccini Opera 3 hours standing is not in the cards.

One of the more interesting rooms, was the French Reception Hall. This was reserved, yes you guessed it, the French upper class only. Here during intermissions, they did such things as arrange their children’s marriage, especially for the sons. So, if you were French and of marring age, the last thing you wanted your parent to do was go to the opera, they might come back with your new wife.

The main hall itself is very stunning, with a total capacity of 3,000. The box seats of course are the coveted places to sit. Just think Mrs. Astor and Mrs. Vanderbilt fighting over the center box. Interestingly in the center box, the President’s box, the price of a seat is only $200, that is what the cheapest seat at the Met in New York costs. The chandelier, which hangs high above the audience, has a secret, it can seat 50 musicians on the edges.

Done with the tour it was time for lunch. Argentinian Pizza was on the menu. Everything we read before our trip was that the only place to have Argentinian Pizza in Buenos Aires was Pizzeria Guerrin. This was confirmed by both Berty at our initial wine tasting and Gabriela our cooking class host. Evidently we were lucky because we got a table right away and normally it can take forty or more minutes for table service, but you can always order a slice and eat it standing if your in a hurry. If you had to wait 90 minutes the pizza is worth any wait. It is like no pizza you have ever had. Better than Chicago Style, 1000 of times better than New York Style, really have not had pizza this good since Mississippi Pizza Pub in Northeast Portland, Oregon or Slab in Portland Maine. Hmmm, the Portland’s seem to have better pizza than the rest of the country.

Back to the pizza at hand. We each ordered a small, which we could not finish. Jerry had a Caprese (Onions, San Marino tomatoes, garlic, mozzarella and sausage.) The crust was thick and slightly crisp, almost focaccia like. I went with the fugazetta, stuffed pizza. Stuffed with mozzarella and garlic, topped with more mozzarella and grilled onions. It was incredible. Our table was in what I now call the covid addon. Glass case on the sidewalk. We watched the people go buy and pizza after pizza being devoured. I of course had a glass of vino blanco.

Warning the next section is very sad and about the state of poverty here.

During lunch there was a homeless man eying our pizza, even pointed to it, I nodded that yes he could have our leftover, which was a slice of each kind. This is going to be my new policy, instead of taking what we can’t finish back home, why not just give it to someone living on the street, who has nothing. Him and his friend were very appreciative of my very small gesture. This is not what is so sad, yes homelessness anywhere is just intolerable, but here it seems intensely worse than even Portland or New York. Our next site was the Carlos Cardel House. To get there we headed for the B liena of the Subte. Once down to the path to the train, two things struck me at the same time, a horrible order, and the sight of a dozen people sleeping on the floor. Some with their dog, others with their children. It broke my very liberal heart, and there was nothing I could do about it. The world just needs to stop spending money on weapons that will wipe us all out and sports, and start putting that money where it matters, the people. There is really no reason that there should be homelessness, except that the rich don’t care and politicians, are just that politicians, rarely actually do something that uplifts the common citizen.

The neighborhood that the next site was in, was also very transitional, not poor not rich, certainly strong Jewish presence here. One block there would be a fancy wine shop, the next a run-down bodega. This was certainly off the beaten bath. Carlos Cardel, while not a tango dancer, wrote and sang much of the music that tango is danced too. He was quite famous in his day. The interesting thing is that he isn’t even an Argentine, he was born in Toulouse France. Ok, he lived in Argentina since he was three, but still, he is FRENCH. The museum was small and worth doing if you’re a true Tango aficionado. It was really a filler for us between the Opera House and the Palacio Barolo.

Palacio Barolo

This was 100%!m(MISSING)y choice. The reason I picked it was that the building was designed by two Italian Architect who wanted to keep the Divine Comedy by Dante, alive. I am a huge fan of Dante and the Divine Comedy read it for the first time in my freshman college world literature class. The building is in fact divided into three sections, Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. The first two floors represent Hell, they are the most ornately decorated to represent greed and lust. Floors 2 through 14, represent Purgatory (this is also where all the office space is.) The decoration is much less and simple. The fourth floor is the last floor with a view to the first floor, where you to rid yourself of your sins before you advance on to paradise. Floors 14 up there is no decoration at all, which is a bit different than what I recall they taught in Sunday School, about the mansions and gold streets.

We took the elevator from hell to the top of purgatory, then to get to paradise you had to walk 6 flights to the terrace level, narrow steps, but work the effort for the view. I did not make it all the way to the top another two flights, not because I couldn’t do it, but I was getting a bit claustrophobic and though I would get stuck. Desperately wanting to avoid any thing close to a bike into the channel (La Rochelle) or face in the wall (Seville) of past trips, I turned around.

Jerry did make the hike, so pictures are provided.

That was the day, we walked back to the hotel. We did have a bit of business to attend to with the concierge, a taxi for the airport tomorrow, cancel the nights dinner reservation, the Pizza was still with us. The day done, we relaxed with some wine and began packing for our trip to Iguaza Falls.

We did venture down to the lobby bar for a bite to eat. Our favorite host from breakfast (Antonio) was working a late shift due to a conference that was being held in the hotel. Work conferences are the same no matter where you are in the world you are. Their hosted dinner now they gathered in the bar to drink to much and behave inappropriately. I am pretty sure the concept of sexual harassment does not exist in a machismo culture such as this.

Dinner was a simple affair. Jerry had tomato soup and ham and cheese tostada, which he said was the best ham and cheese sandwich he has ever had. I had a salad and trio of empanadas. All very good. Then it was up to bed, very early day, flight at 7:40 but have to get up at 4 to make sure we get to the airport on time.

As for dish of the day, if you haven’t figures that out, well it was the Pizza.

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Photos

Pizza
Dish of the Day