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Published: November 7th 2013
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So it's been a couple of days, time to update this blog before I forget half of what I've done and seen the past few days. Since the food here is so good, I had to bite the bullet and sign up to a gym. I've been spending my mornings across the road in the local gym - I have to say it is gas. I have never been in a gym where there are literally pornographic pictures of girls before. I was a bit shocked when I went in the first day - one of the pictures if literally of a girl wearing a thong and nothing else. I have to say, from what little time I have spent here in Argentina, blonde hair and boob jobs seem to be the ideal for men. Also boob jobs are so commonplace here in South America and many girls have had plastic surgery done to 'enhance' their assets. So while I work out surrounded by pictures of nearly naked girls, what's there for the female contingent I hear you ask? Well, I get Arnie. Yep Schwarzenegger. Not really fair is it, haha! The gym is proper 70/80's style or something, and the
music is very, well Arnie. It's hilarious. The first day I wasn't sure I would get on too well, as the machines are different to in Dublin, and it's a lot more free weights and more geared to men, in terms of at home the gym I was had more cardio-type exercise machines aimed at women, whereas here there are 4 treadmills, and the first morning I went it was like club de viejas, and I couldn't access a treadmill. Anyway, needs must, so we are going to try and go most mornings. As I said, we are eating a lot here. Lunch in Argentina is the same as dinner at home, and then there's dinner at night time - we eat late here, I'm pretty much ready for bed when it's dinnertime.
The weather has been very up and down. Yesterday we spent the day in town and it was about 26 degrees, I was finding it tough work wandering around at times. But as I write this now, it's lashing rain outside and there is a gale-force wind blowing. I've been told there is a 'tormento' on the way, a big storm. Apparently it is set to
last till Saturday but it's hard to tell as it is so changeable here.
So yesterday we spent the afternoon walking around Buenos Aires and we walked out to the district of Recoleta. It is a really nice area with tree-lined streets and beautiful apartments. This is one of the areas were the wealthy people live, and just walking through you can see the upper-class portenos (people from BA) with their fancy clothes and the lovely cafes and restaurants that line the streets. Here it is normal to see dog-walkers - people who are employed to walk the dogs of the wealthier class, and yesterday we saw one guy with about 8 dogs on leashes. It looks like hard work, and from what I have been told it is not very well paid. There are beautiful shopping centres in Recoleta, and I have to say I really liked the atmosphere here.
One of the most must-see places in Recoleta is Cementerio de la Recoleta, which is the size of an entire city block and is full of tombs and mausoleums. This is where many important politicians and presidents are buried, and there are also memorials to people who
are deemed by the State as very important. There cemetery is made up of tree-lined avenues, starting from a centre-point. What I found very impressive, was that the two biggest memorials at the very heart and centre-point of the cemetery are for two Irish men - Admiral Brown (founder of the Argentine Navy) and Father Fahy, an Irish priest who was the leader of the Irish community in Argentina and who was held in very high regard by Argentinians. It was so lovely to see a massive celtic cross in the middle of Buenos Aires!
Wandering back towards Casa Rosa, which is where we needed to take the bus home from, we took in the impressive sights of the city - the buildings, it's people and I got my first glimpse of the city at rush hour. It's pretty crazy. Another thing that is notable is the sheer volume of flags that are everywhere. The Argentinians are very proud in many ways, even though in other ways they are saddened about certain aspects of their culture. It's something that I can't quite understand, being a foreigner.
Before we came home, we went into a travel agents to price
how much it would be to travel to Bariloche in the South or to Iguazu in the North. It seems to be really expensive, but what I didn't like is that the guy said that because I was a foreigner I would have to pay one thousand pesos more, which is like in and around a hundred euro. To be honest I thought that was ludicrous and that he was just chancing his arm and I didn't like it at all. Anyway I think that we will look at other options, one of Leandro's cousins works in a travel agency and so might be able to find something cheaper for us. We can take a bus - they have this semi cama buses which are comfortable enough, but as the country is so huge, we could be travelling for 24 hours, so we would prefer to fly. Anyway we have time to sort it out.
The first thing I saw that scared me a bit was on the way home on the bus yesterday. We passed through a pretty bad suburb full of bolitas, no worries there. But in the middle of the road there was a persons shoe
and it was lying in a pool of blood. Now I mean a pool of blood. It was starting to get dark, but when I looked out the window, it was unmissable. I have to say though, even though Leandro and his friends talk a lot about how the suburbs have degenerated lots (one of his friends wants to leave Buenos Aires and move to Mar del Plata, because he thinks things has dis-improved here so much) the city is so beautiful, and I have not felt unsafe once. When we are not at home, Leandro and I speak in Spanish together too, so as not to attract too much attention to myself - although I can't help but feel that it's pretty obvious just from looking at me that I am not from around here. It's good for me though, and it will surely help to improve my Spanish.
Yesterday evening a couple of Lean's friends came round and we had dinner together - more fernet and meat. YUM. Today I don't think we will do much as the weather is so bad. But I don't mind really as I am pretty knackered from yesterdays excursion.
Oh
and one more thing I keep meaning to make a note of - people drink so much coke here! It is everywhere!! There are even shops with Coca Cola signs up instead of the usual shop names. People buy the stuff in litres here - in fact the coke bottles are much bigger here than at home. I guess it is used a lot to mix fernet with too, which might be a reason.
I think that's all for now, I will update again soon. I put on plenty of photos this time, so scroll down to see more.
Sending love and kisses to everyone xxx
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