Buenos Aires, City of Mate

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Holaaa...

Has been more than one week now and finally I can enjoy myself again as some new people arrived this Monday which are nice.. Although I had a good time with the girls last Thursday when we went to Sushi Libre ( and by the way, until now I haven´t been to the gym so far ;-)) But Sara left to Sao Paolo on Saturday which was quite unhandy..But Sabrina (the other brasilian girl who lives with me) took me Saturday evening to a club. Sunday we went to San Telmo's market which was absolutely brillant. As we slept until 1 and went to the market at 5 (which was just open until 6) I have to go again this weekend. Also I NEED to go shopping here on Saturday. Everyone who knows me quite well knows that I normally don´t like it but Buenos Aires is THE city for shopping. (ok, the main reason is that I just got one, dirty pair of trainers here and the people are watching! ;-)) The people here are always well-dressed ( almost all the guys in very expensive looking suits and girls always in high heels and dresses) and like in Europa always in a hurry. Their most important thing in the world is their Mate tea. Nearly everyone drinks it (children, young and old) a they even carry around their thermos flask with hot water. For the tea itself they have this special Mate container in various forms. All the tourists or travellers I met who were travelling from Argentina had those two things as well..it´s like an addiction and for the Argentinians also a community thing. Mate brings people together..anyway, what else? The porteños are (my opinion) quite proud and mostly and sometimes even very unfriendly and not very helpful. (when they dont know you) And for me this is not only because it´s a big city.. Also a bit vain. They also have a special accent - they pronounce the y, and the double l (LL) like "schoooo" which bothers Andrea (a italian guy from Milano) and me a little bit :-D Oh, and the service in restaurants and bars is mostly poor and super slow (you can spend all your afternoon in a supermarket because they´re so slow..arrgh! Well, enough with complaining, there are of course also nice people and all in all I really like the city because it´s full of contrasts. On one hand it looks quite european with its architecture and the metro and the coffee culture (more cafés than bars!) it even has a french charme. Also the look of the people is a mix of spanish, italian and other europe influences which is logical with all the colonies here in the past. On the other hand it has still maintained its south american charme and especially their tango (which is more sensual than the one we dance in Europe) is great. I probably will go to some classes before I leave..
What I nearly forgot: I got a new room - a very spacious, nice room with an incredible lamp ( I think I put some photos on Facebook). Just the mattress is sh*** !! And I really appreciate the one earplug Stef gave me in Montañita (if you read this Stef: THANKS!) because my neighbours above me think it´s a nice idea to practise guitar, singing and drums at about 11pm and also tramp on the ground as if they were elefants. Also the girl I live with is always preparing her last week of studies with her friends until late and after that she and her boyfriend are cooking and watching tele (very loud) at the same time..this is why I adore the one earplug I have :-)
The last Saturday I went on a city tour with Benny (a german guy from Munich) and it was so bitterly cold that we nearly froze on our seats. We nearly never got off the bus but at least I have kind of an overview now and Andrea and me will pound the streets (or the interesting bits at least) on Saturday again. We will also go to the artesanial market in Recoleta (this is the part of the city where also the cementary is) on Saturday.
On Wednesday we were at a very nice bar (they had a massive selection of Single Malts and Rum..and even the service was phantastic!) . We spent a lot of money and yesterday I had the worst headache in my life. And as I gave all my aspirin away to other people in Montañita I not even had any medicine left :-D Well, shit happens. Today it´s better and also it´s Friday - we´re going to a Parilla (to eat steak, yey!) and after that we´re going to the cinema to watch Transformers 3 :-)
Ok, now I have classes and as usual (and very tipical for a german girl) I am very late ;-)

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