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Published: April 6th 2010
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Floralis generica.
It´s meant to open and close at dawn and dusk. Rumour has it that it´s in need of repair and this is how it looks all the time now. Well it may be home of the tango but all I´ve been doing is making an absolute gourmet pig of myself. Living on an island of limited choices when it comes to dining selections having more than five choices should be taken as a warning sign. Instead I´ve been trying to consume my bodyweight in lomo (see more spanish, it means tenderloin) and half bottles of red wine (I´m not that silly to attempt full bottles in a foreign country). One would be led to believe that there are other attractions in Buenos Aires apart from the food but I really beg to differ.
First night in I did the semi aimless wonder near the hotel with these vague directions to a parilla (bbq steak place) a couple of blocks from where I was staying. Fortunately it was just down the road on the corner of Peru St, but suffering a little liquidity crisis I needed to see if the hole in the wall was working again or not. Ok so this is something that´s probably not really recommended, using the ATM at night in Boenos Aires (I don´t even do that at home) but it wasn´t working in daylight
hours and the funds had run nearly as dry as the Murray/Darling before the floods. Safely back into the parilla I got a little out of control with the ordering, again it´s that I now have choices thing. How happy was I having a feeding frenzy that would make a great white shark envious. The empanadas were delish, add to that the chorizo (it had been a while as they´re not available on the island) and the bestus of tenderloin with mashed potato and pumpkin that I´ve had so far this trip (well so far this year really). I´m thinking that I´ll be wondering back to Gran Parilla del Plata before this little sojourn is done. Just as good was the little bar literario that I wondered in for an espresso on the way home. Unlike the Chilians the Argentineans have got the hang of espresso. Sort of like that little Italy France thing where one side of the border has the beans humming and the other has absolutely no idea.
As an affiando of the sport of futbol one needs to go and pay hommage to where Maradona played a few games of soccer. La Bombonera stadium (it
means the chocolate box) is just down the road from San Telmo at La Boca where they have the Caminito as well. The Caminito is that I´ve used every colour on the dulux colour chart to paint the houses place that features in just about every photo of Buenos Aires that doesn´t have a tango dancer in it. Conveniently La Boca´s also painted as being the dodgey end of town with warnings in every travel guidebook about not wondering off the well beaten tourist path. Which pretty much means the colourchart buildings with more tango dancers per inch outside than anywhere else and the La Bombonera. When people heard I was coming to Buenos Aires I was told to make sure I see a tango show (failed at that one) and a soccer match (I got that one). Boca Juniors is a bit of a legend club in that it´s won as many International titles as AC Milan, although watching the game the other night against Rosario, they may not do anything spectacular this year. Which is a shame as it´s their 105th anniversary this year. The excursion to the game was pretty easy, pay 250 peso for a 30
peso ticket to the game plus transport, pizza and beer complete with tour guide. Sit, well stand with the locals in the bleachers with the oppposition in the tier above, chant a little, clap a little and then wait 20 minutes after the game until the victorious away team´s supporters leave the stadium, simple as.
Being in Argentina you can´t really leave the place without dropping by to see how Evita´s doing. Considering the journey she´s had to get back to her resting place over the years. She´s now comfy in La Recoleta cemetry after returning from a little unintended vacation in Italy and Spain. Strolling around Le Recoleta makes you want to think about getting a mausoleum, there are some pretty fancy little bits of marble real estate crowded into this small area of the late who´s who of Argentina including more than one former President.
You work out how small the world can be at times when you´re jaunting around as well. After dining at the Gran Parilla again the other night I got chatting to some people on an adjoining table. From there it was back to drinks at their hostel bar, way much better
than where I am, and a tad trendier than the one that I have booked my for my last night here just down the road. So whilst I´m chatting to the legal type people amongst the crowd, both from London, Grant´s dropped out from a job in one of London´s better firms for twelve months or so to travel around a bit and Sinead has escaped for two months and was having her last night in Buenos Aires before jumping on the plane home. Apart from enviously listenning to all the tales about cruising around Antarctica (which is where this group all met) I mention that lawyers escaping must be a trendy thing for the profession as I bumped into a recently graduated law student who was riding his bike from his driveway all the way south. Then Sinead says "oh you mean Charles, I met him in a hostel in Mendoza and gave him my Chile Lonely Planet book cause I wasn´t going to make it there". Go figure, this is the same Chile book that Charles was reading over lunch in the last blog entry, halfway through my poor attempts to mimic Lance Armstrong through the wineries of
Maipu.
But all up I´m impressed with Buenos Aires, it´s not as scarey as I thought it would be. After all I´ve only almost seen the one bag snatch (well it was post bag snatch, as the victim was giving chase to a long gone snatcher up the crowded street to no avail) in the main part of town. Down in San Telmo where I am it seems ok, although people say some parts of it are a bit dodgey. But so far in my wonders along the streets at all hours it´s been trouble free, although you do get sick of walking on cobblestones after a while. Oh and dodging all the landmines that the dogs have left on the footpath is an adventure in itself, if you thought Paris was bad than this place is a clear winner in that respect. In dollar terms it´s good value for the dollar, especially now that the AUD is where it should be against the USD. The steak, wine, pastries and coffee are all at prices that just leave you having to spend money on clothes that aren´t so tight anymore. After you get sick of trying to walk off
the extra 10 kilos you´ve gained, 15 pesos will get you where you need to get to in a taxi easy as.
Next stop the big waterfall.
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