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Published: June 27th 2010
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Here we are in one of our favourite cities in the world, Buenos Aires.
The city is buzzing with World Cup fever. On every street corner and in every shop window is the Argentinian Flag. Before the Argentinian games people drive around honking horns in anticipation of another win. The atmosphere is electric. And when we are not supporting England or Australia then we are rooting for Argentinia.
Of course there is a lot more going on in the city and we're having a wonderful time.
I have spent every morning for two weeks in Spanish classes trying hard (and hopefully not in vain) to get better at the language. I found that despite travelling in Latin America for 11 months and using some Spanish and even less Portuguese I have not really progressed. It's my fault of course, opting for English whenever possible, always asking someone first if they "habla ingles?" So, time to put it right and go back to learning the basics. The school, "Vamos", is excellent and it's a refreshing 25 minute walk from our apartment, through the characterful streets of Recoleta and Palermo. Minutes away is Alto Palermo shopping, with its very tempting
A Patagonian Mara
The Mara roam the park freely and Amy adored them. shops.
Our apartment is gorgeous. It is in a restored building and while the old character of the apartment has been maintained, it has been modernised so that we are very very comfortable. Thrown into the deal is a cleaner too so we don't even have to work too hard on the housework (that would come as too much of a shock after hotel living for such a long time where we didn't even have to make our bed). So here we are, nice and pampered and enjoying life. We finally feel like we are "holidaying", not "travelling".
We've enjoyed eating out occasionally as the restaurants are so reasonable here, partly due to the exchange rate. And there's the obligatory espresso doble once in a while at one of the thousands of quaint cafes, just begging us to stop in. Amy's favourite is the "submarino" - a hot milk with chunks of dark chocolate melted into it.
Food shopping is a pleasure too and there is the most wonderful food hall at the local COTO supermarket. They have an entire asado (bbq meats) for sale and a couple of times we have walked out of there with
Amy with Argentina's colours on her cheeks
... and yes, I do have blonde hair now, surprise! chunks of piping hot beef and roasted veggies so we don't even have to cook unless we really want to. Nearby is a wonderful fresh pasta shop, where you buy your chosen pasta by the gram and a tub of sauce to go with it. It is soooo good, but a bit of a nightmare for the waistline.
While I've been at school Andy has been entertaining Amy. They've been to the zoo, Amy's been to another school to do a few spanish lessons herself and Andy's been helping her with her reading. They have walked miles and miles in the city too.
Our weekends have been full too. On Saturdays Amy has been spending three hours at the Zoo doing an educational/fun session called Mini Zoo Keepers. While she's busy at the zoo Andy and I have grabbed some precious time alone - a rarity for us since we started this holiday - and gone for long walks around Palermo Viejo and around the parklands that border the Zoo.
We had a great time in Palermo Viejo, which is filled with individual Argentinian shops with quality goods, restaurants and cafes. We took Amy back there to
a cupcake shop, a novelty in Argentina, and sat there and ate dulce de leche filled cupcakes iced with sticky merangues (an unusual take on a cupcake but they looked very pretty). I splashed out on a new handbag as Argetinian leather is good and much cheaper than the UK.
Last Sunday we went to a matinee performance of Beauty and the Beast at the Teatro Citi. We have seen it many times before so knew the storyline well enough that it didn't matter it was in Spanish. Not having paid a lot for our tickets, we went with fairly low expectations. Well it turned out to be fantastic - Belle was gorgeous and so talented, the stage was very professional - like a scaled down West End. We all thoroughly enjoyed it.
The Monday was a bank holiday so we went to the Cultural Centre behind Recoleta Cemetary and wandered around the art gallery there. Later we went to the Science Museum where Amy could play and experiment, along with dozens of other children there. It was very hands on and fun for her.
Tuesday afternoon we went to Plaza San Martin, where they have set
up "the fan zone" with big screens, to watch Argentina beat South Korea with thousands of Argentinian supporters. They went mad when the goals were scored, letting off fireworks and blasting blue and white confetti into the air. Amy had her cheeks painted with the Argentinian flag and cheered as loud as any supporter there. A fantastic experience!
The rest of the week went quickly with school, walks, shopping and eating.
Soon it was Friday night and we took Amy over to the apartment of an American family who we'd met at Amy's school. She'd been in the class with the two younger children and got on really well. While the sister-in-law looked after all the children, we went out with their parents, Gary and Mary Margaret, to Sabor a Tango - a tango and cultural show and dinner. The night started with a quick tango lesson for us, then an OK meal accompanied by too many glasses of a rough red. The show was great, top tango dancing with an entertaining traditional tango band. The only part we didn't appreciate so much was the cultural performers (Andean music and folk dancing) which really didn't fit with the
rest of the show.
It was so great to get out and do something different and with some new friends too. Amy of course had a ball playing with the other children and was soon trying to work out when we would see them next.
Saturday we took Amy to the zoo for her session while we walked through the parks. It was a beautiful city park with bridges and a rosegarden. There were hundreds of people about, exercising, running and enjoying the autumn sunshine. We found a pleasant art gallery with a good coffee shop to stop and warm up in.
After we went to the Art BA Fair, a contemporary art fair being held in the Victorian buildings of La Rural, just across the road from the Zoo. We all really enjoyed it, with the art from being impressive and colourful (and some of it a bit controversial or shocking).
The rest of the afternoon we spent at home with Amy and Andy suffering from a cold. Andy was saving his energy for the big event tomorrow .... England v Germany!
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