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Published: September 4th 2008
dog walker
takes skills to walk so many dogs at once!Our only agenda Tuesday (8/26) was to walk around and visit a museum or two. Swapna's friend, who had lived in Argentina for a couple of years, Nathan, had recommended walking thru a neighborhood North of Figeroa Alcorta, between Tagle and St. Martin de Tours just to check out the architecture and said it was a nice stroll. (Nathan had also given us several other recommendations and tips which we took him up earlier in our trip, so that was nice to have)
So, that's where we headed first...it was walking distance from our apartment. Since we left late and hadn't had breakfast yet, we decided to get something to eat. But in that area, the only place we found was the Paseo Alcorta shopping mall...we didn't want to walk any further without some food in our stomachs so we decided to suck it up and eat at the mall...if we could find a food court that is. The mall was impressive...lots of very high end stores and had 3-4 floors. On the very top floor was the food court, and it was pretty massive as food courts go. It had cafe-like restaurants and it also had some fast food
upscale neighborhood
between Palermo and Recoleta. type places. We were so hungry that everything looked so good...we circled around a few times before making up our minds. Chinese for Shel and a mozza/tomato toasted sandwich for Nikki... both were alright, but not as great as we built them up to be in our minds. Shel almost broke down and wanted to get a Mc Donald's burger...er, it was a local Mc Donald's wanna be at least.
We left and headed for the neighborhood we wanted to stroll through...and by "we" I mean "me". The area was probably one of the most affluent areas we had seen...it was a residential neighborhood of actual houses vs. condos. The architechture was mixed, some looked modern and some looked very European. Wouldn't you know it...even in this neighborhood we were dodging the dog poop left and right.
After that quick stroll we headed towards Recoleta by foot on Figeroa Alcorta to check out the one of the museums. Along the way, we stopped byPlaza Naciones Unidas, which is a park whose central feature is a giant metallic flower (Floralis Generica). It is designed by architect Eduardo Catalano...the petals supposedly open at dawn using solar energy and closes at
Floralis Generica... metal flower
At the Plaza Naciones Unidas ...designed to open at dawn and shut at dusk using solar energy dusk. We didn't stick around long enough to see it close, but would have been pretty cool.
We spent a few hours at the Museo Bellas Artes in Recoleta which was nice for me. Shel was a sport about it, but did spend quite a bit if time sitting on the benches in the galleries. In one gallery, he found a nice quiet and dark area he could rest in...I'm sure he would have had no problem taking a little siesta there, and probably getting kicked out for snoring too loud, but luckily I was there to nudge him on to the next exibit. They had several pieces there related to Argentine culture and history so that was pretty interesting. Several pieces were European and even had a couple of Monet's on hand. The top floor had an photography exhibit of local subjects from the late 1800s and early 1900s. Oddly, I really liked these photos...the subjects were just Argentine families...some prominent in their times and others were just common folks. They were preserved really well and really told a great deal about life in Argentina during those periods.
After the museum we walked around Recoleta and stopped
by an internet cafe for a bit. I wanted to look up the address of another bar/restaurant that Nathan had recommended called Milion. It was an old mansion with a resident cat living inside. We found the address and realized we weren't too far from it so, we walked over to unwind from the day. The place is totally unsuspecting from the outside...if we didn't have the street address we would have passed by it without noticing. The restaurant was pretty empty since it was only around 7:00pm, but we found some folks in the garden in the back. We found a table in this serene and quiet space and marveled at how peaceful it was though it was right in the center of a bustling barrio. We got a bottle of Malbec and had some Brasilian tapas to snack on. I may have mentioned this already, but most restaurants/bars (no matter how small and humble) have bottles of wine available...wine by the glass is not really very common. And the best part is that the bottles are very reasonable...some under $10 USD, but most between $10 and $25.
There in the garden, we sat enjoying our last bottle
of wine in Argentina and wondered at how quickly time flew by. There are many things we'll miss about Argentina, but in a strange way, we were looking forward to going back home...which is a bit unusual for us.
We decided to walk back to just enjoy our last stroll thru the city and walk off our snack. On our way, we passed by a bakery that we just couldn't resist going into. We got a treat to go.
We walked back along Las Heras back to the apartment, and on the way we passed by a large building that looked like an old church with gothic architecture. To our surprise the sign said something about it being an engineering college...and there were several students around to back that up. Eager to check it out, we walked in and the main foyer was huge...it was an older looking building but in a very cool way...it was very intriguing that it was a college. A professor on his way out stopped by and just looked as us as if to ask "can I help you?" I thought was going to kick us out, but on the contrary, he was
very friendly and talked to us for a bit. He knew little English, but was super friendly. He told us about the place and even offered to take us on a tour, which we took him up on. It was almost 9pm I think and there were still lots of students around...the professor told us that was normal and that classes went until 11pm. He said that most students have full time jobs and work during the day, which was a norm supposedly. It was the largest and most notable public university in Argentina, but this campus was a satellite campus, with the main one being in downtown. We peeked into a couple of class rooms and people were wondering who the heck we were, but were all friendly. Can't remember the name if it, but it was very cool.
We had a low key dinner that night since we were full from the tapas at Milion. We got a pizza from the little joint a few doors down from our apartment called Pizza Party 😊 and called it a night.
The next day (Wednesday 8/27), our flight back was at 10pm and we planned on leaving for
the airport around 5:45pm. The day was mostly filled with packing and getting a couple of things back to bring home. We got a couple of bottles of malbec, cachaca and a bottle of Limoncello which we had sampled in Iguazu and was delicious.
We had our last brunch at a little cafe on Santa Fe and walked around a bit. We hurried back to the apartment as it had started to rain....lucky for us, we had no major plans that day and we were on our way out of there as the bad weather hit. The rest of the day was rainy and gloomy...we went out around 3pm to get lunch at Romario's. We couldn't leave without one last taste of the wonderful pizzas there...Shel got one with ham and topped off with diced boiled egg...it was actually very good, believe it or not.
Anwway, that was pretty much it for BA...our Remise picked us up on time and we hit a lot of traffic on our way to the airport. It was only 6pm, but felt so dark and gloomy. Airport was fine, except we had an unexpected airport tax that we had to pay (almost $20
college we found on Las Heras
looks more like a cathedral doesn't it? USD each)! We were not happy campers, but we had no choice.
All in all, we had a great trip to Argentina and hope to go back some day. We'll see where the wind blows us next.
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