Buenos Aires

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Over the last 5 months I've discovered that I'm more of a nature person (for traveling anyway, strangely I think I'd prefer to live in a big city), so Buenos Aires wasn't never going to be brilliant. Nevertheless it did keep me occupied for four days.

I'm not really into architecture, but if you are you'll probably find Buenos Aires really interesting: there's the big phallus, the weird big metal flower, and an abundance of cathedrals and grand buildings. there's also the Recoleta cemetery, which even I can appreciate. It could be the most ornate cemeteries in the world and contains the tomb of Evita. There's also the Sunday market in San Telmo. I didn't really take much notice of the market itself, but was more entertained by the street performers, magicians, mime artists and tango dancers.

Of course, I had to try the steaks in Buenos Aires, it's what Buenos Aires and Argentina is famous for. I actually found it a little quirky that all the table knives in Argentina seem to be steak knives, it's almost like they are constantly ready to eat steak, at all times! Indeed, all the food in Buenos Aires seem to be either some kind of beef or pizza, I was dying for some kind of variation! I'm not really a steak fan, but they are very good. The Las Cholas restaurant in Palermo is pretty awesome (thank you for the recommendation Adrian!) and, I'd say, better than La Cabrera, which is highly recommended by the Lonely Planet (but what do they know?!) and packed with foreigners, whereas Las Cholas seem to attract the locals. The problem was that the portions were huge, so half way through it almost became a chore to finish the food; that's another thing about eating in Argentina, no meal is small: if you order a sandwich you'll probably get a giant loaf of bread stuffed with steak, ham, egg, tomatoes and lettuce.

The highlight was going to a football match. Since most Argentinians that I've met supported River Plate, I decided to go see their league game against San Martin Tucuman that weekend. And wow, it was an experience. There were flares going off, toilet rolls flying around, the fans were crazy, both set of them, jumping up and down, and the place was deafening. The game was a good one too, San Martin took an early lead but River equalised in the second half and then won it with an injury time penalty. The place went ballistic, it was like they had just won a cup final.

I think Buenos Aires might be a good place to live, there is good public transport, it's relatively safe (at least I never felt unsafe) and there's seemed to be quite a lot of things to do, but as a traveller four days was enough and I decided to check out Uruguay before heading north to Iguazu.

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Photos

The phallus
Also known as the Obelisco.