Bushin' in Buenos Aires and nobody cares

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I’ll get to Paddy’s day in a minute but for those of you who are avid readers of my blogs from the past , you will know that I have an ongoing battle with mosquito’s/midges. For the first two weeks I thought maybe we had come to an understanding and that the war was over. But oh no, the little b******ds snook up behind me while I was sleeping and had the best Irish steak dinner they could have. Alone in one area on my stomach I have nine fairly nice bites. I thought maybe, it would be bed bugs but I was informed the bite’s would be in a straight line. Now the last thing I want is to have to resort to the measures I took in Thailand, which involved getting up half an hour before Michelle and applying Avon So Soft Skin moisturiser (an old wives tell I saw on the net), Army issue 50% deet, two ankle bracelets, two wrist bracelets and a homeopathic remedy. Michelle reckoned the US army should talk to me, my defence system was that good! I have to say though I won that battle with the aul mossies but the lengths I had to go to win, were pretty exhausting! I don’t want to have to resort to those measures but for any of you mossies out there reading this, I Will! Just bring it on!

Anyway, Paddy’s day was a memorable one! Buenos Aires really gets in to an Irish mood. The streets of Retiro are closed off and there is a Parade. Unfortunately we didn’t see it and I’ll explain later why. We headed down to the Irish pubs at about 12pm in search of food and something that wasn’t bread or sweet. I had read in the LP that the Druid Inn serves typical Irish fair like Steak and Kidney Pie. Now, who the hell Irish eats steak and kidney pie once a year never mind once in a life time. It also said the pub was decked out in a typical Irish way. Irish that is if you call pictures of Wales and England with walkers crisp packets on the wall, along with every other whiskey other than an Irish one. The only thing this place had in common with Ireland was the fact that it had Irish Stew on the menu. This was its only saving grace. It was very good and nearly as good as my mothers! We had decided to go to Recoleta cemetery after we had eaten but when we got outside it was warm and we had no sunglasses or sun cream with us. We set out in search of a chemist to buy some sun cream and ended up back at our hostel. Here we decided to book some accommodation for our 3 days in Uruguay and our 5 days in Ushuaia. After booking our rooms we found out where the parade was and also where the party was! The parade was to start at 6pm so we had a quick ’power nap’ as Michelle calls it, and then got dressed in as much green as possible.

We motored down Av. Florida in search of pizza and couldn’t find one single place. I mean we spent the last few days trying to ignore these places for the sake of our health and now we couldn’t even find one. It was so irritating that when we spotted the golden arches of McDonalds the temptation of a double quarter pounder with cheese meal was too hard to resist. With guilty feeling’s in our stomach we headed down to the Irish Bar’s. It seems that if you put an Irish name on a place and slap up an aul Guinness sign your on to a winner. It’s marketing at its simplest. The streets were starting to buzz and the locals who are called Potereno’s were out in force and dressed in green. The first bar we went to was called The Kilkenny and took us easily 20 minutes to get a drink. We had decided we’d try the Guinness and I ordered a pint and a glass for the two of us. I handed over 50 pesos (€11) to the bar man and he got my two drinks. I stood and waited for my change and the he told me it was 50 pesos for the two. The two of us nearly fell over as we are trying to keep to 250 pesos a day as spending money! I said thanks to the bar man and told him politely that it would be my last for the night at that price. He even knew that it was a crazy price. Put it this way, a slice of pizza is about 3.50 pesos. Budweiser and Heineken is imported as well and that doesn’t cost as much. It looks like the Rip-Off Republic has found it’s way out of Ireland!

We left that pub shortly afterwards in search of a cheaper watering hole. At this stage the locals had finished work and the queue to get into every bar in the area was at least 100 deep. Even the bar selling beer in plastic cups had a queue about 30 minutes long. We decided to join that one as it had the cheapest beer and left it again after 10 minutes and 3 metres. We had noticed that the people on the streets were drinking from plastic bags and the clever ones had brought their own supplies. We found a small supermarket and there was a queue for the beer fridge never mind to pay. I got my hands on some warm Quilmes (local brew) and soon we were back on the streets. Bushin’ in Buenos Aires and nobody cared. It didn’t mater whether you were young or old, rich or poor, Irish or Argentinean every one was buying from the off-licence. The Chinese guys who owned the supermarket were even praying to St. Patrick. The were making a killing on warm beer! We bumped into two Irish girls from Cavan and Longford that we had met in Iguazu. They were with another pile of Irish so we tagged along with them. The Argentineans were in full swing also and asking us loads of questions about who the hell St. Patrick was and what was all the fuss. We explained the story on numerous occasions and at the end everyone would then ask what was the association with all the drinking on St. Patrick’s day as if to say Patrick himself was some sort of hardcore drinker that we were trying to live up too! We explained it was also our national day and that some times we like to party and that we were proud to celebrate our day. As the drink was pretty expensive on this side of town we decided to head to and Irish bar somewhere else called The Temple Bar. Here the pints were only €2.50 and still a little expensive even by local standards. Irish music was soon pumped through the speakers and an impromptu river dance ensued. The bar was also full of locals and I can only imagine all the people dancing looked like some kind of alien race, standing tall, shoulders by their sides and randomly kicking their legs in the air. Some one had heard of another bar called The Shamrock and there were some Irish guys working there. With an address on a napkin we left the bar and enquired of the locals as how to actually get to it. Outside here we talked for a good while to some people who were bemused and unsure of what to make of all these green clad people with funny hats and face paint. Myself and Michelle talked to one man in particular for about 15 minutes and he told us that he was very good friends with Felipe Contempomei. He knew a lot about him and we really don’t think he was lying. He said he had a few things to do before he dies and Ireland was one of them. He could tell us a lot about home and said he had toured (not as a player)with Los Pumas. He was a very nice and genuine person and most Argentineans seem that way. We made our way to the next pub where the drink was even cheaper and you got a free pint with your first pint. Again the place was packed full of locals, Irish and of course the usual amount of plastic Paddy’s. You could even order a pizza at the bar, which I did at about 11pm just to give us a second wind. This is where the group started dropping like flies but I wasn’t ready to give up on my first and probably last Paddy’s day in BA. There was night club down stairs and we said we’d have a look. The place was decked out in green, white and gold, just like every other bar and the locals had all sorts of green hats, clothes and face paint. Here we met another Irish couple who had lived in NZ for 5 years and were on there way home. We sang and danced with them for a few hours and every now and again the DJ would put on some Irish songs or U2. We left there at about 3am, a bit worse for wear and walked home. Buenos Aires only gets started at 2am and I’m afraid we left the party early. In fairness we had been out since 6pm so it wasn’t bad going. Michelle was sober as she had been drinking water for a few hours so she was in charge of getting us home. Michelle has taken over a chief map operator as my on board GPS system is reading maps back to front and every time she leads us home the right way and safely! It was the same way when we went to Rome. I walked us for miles only to end up back at the same place. She took over and led us straight back to the hotel.

We weren’t able to wake for breakfast on time this morning because we were a little hung-over so at 11am we left our hostel to find something to eat. You know the saying ‘when in Rome…..’ well that’s what we did. We had pizza and empanadas for breakfast. Perfectly okay here and the pizzeria was fairly busy. Some people were even having a beer with their’s. Our plans for today are a little bit hazy but we intend on going to La Cabera tonight. This is the most recommended steak house in Buenos Aires and I have been told to ask for ‘asados’ which is t-bone steak. I’m going to plagiarise next from the LP as I think it sums up Buenos Aires perfectly.

‘Believe everything you’ve heard- BA is one of South America’s most electrifying cities, graced with European architecture, atmospheric neighbourhoods and bustling nightlife. It has the sophistication of a fine cut diamond, the charm of an unshaved Casanova, the mind of a frenzied lunatic and the attitude of a celebrity model. So throw yourself into this heady mix and hold on tight, cause your going for a wild fun ride and don’t be surprised if you fall in love with this amazing and sexy place- you wont be the first, or the last. - LP’

Me thinks it might just top Rio!

In a bit. DH

ps i just realised i never told you about the parade. it happened to be on another street and i think everyone actually missed it! there were camera crews all round and Paddy's day here is quite a big deal in certain parts.

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Comments

[Sara Craddock]

Jealous, jealous, JEALOUS!!!

[Niamh O'neill]

class guys, beats my paddys in cbar