My little Paris

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Sometimes it´s hard saying Goodbye to some places and Buenos Aires is one of them.
The French in me enjoyed the arquitecture and culture, and the Australian in me loved the partying.
Here I was, sipping my submarino (hot milk with melted bar of chocolate) at one of the numerous cafes and catching with a delight of recognition my neighbour dunking his medialuna (small croissant) in his coffee! (I was called weird in Ozland for doing just that!).

Buenos Aires - 1st time (2nd Dec-15th Dec)

Living in the city:

Buenos Aires was for me a good compromise between living in a city (being central was very handy) and still experiencing something exotic. Having travelled for 4 months in poorer parts of South America, BA was a refreshing place where I could enjoy the shopping, the parks, the funky lunch places, the busy night clubs and milonguas (tango and others dancehalls), with handy metro and buses, and all this without worrying about the spending as BA is still cheap (12pesos for full executive menu lunch = A$6). And the best part was that I s t o p p e d and felt at home in our rented apartment.

Unit
Ah, yes, the unit. Well, finding one in a foreign country as you can imagine is not that simple. First you have to find out where they are advertised: having exhausted the internet options, I started reading some newspaper and having to ask for help to decipher the ads. Generously, the waiter sat with me to share brain power. I did find one but not before I got my purse taken from the Locutorio (tel/internet place) where I had left it under my 10 pieces of paper and 2 newspaper. I missed most my family and friends's telephone numbers to contact them for XMas!. Oh oh, how do I pay for the calls I had just made? Again, generously the shopkeeper said I could come back tomorrow to pay. I found the Argentinans and Portenos (from Buenos Aires) to be quite so polite (with regular Gracias, Buenos Dias, open doors, etc) and friendly too. For example, when signing the contract for the appartment I finally found, I was invited to stay for a special lunch at their office. Wine with empenadas (half circle pastries) and champagne and selection of ice-cream. The ice-creams are the best in Argentina (got to try all the ´Freddo´ flavours!). In a mix of French, English and Spanish, they discovered, horrified, that I had left my job back in Australia for this trip. The economic hard times of the past have made Argentinans hanging on to their jobs you see. I was initially shocked to see people regularly emptying the street garbage bags until I worked out their efficient way of recycling by families who seem to have allocated themselves a corner of a street to grab valuable out of the garbage bins, all put back together for the garbos to pick up later on. No one bats an eyelid here and the same 'recyclers' come back each night for their 'business'.

So I moved in the unit (650U$/month), bright, very central close to Recoleta and unfortunately therefore quite noisy. There was 4 bus stops in our street and these noisy machines are efficient by their uncivilised timetable until 2, 3, 4 in the morning! (Their old but handy metro system shuts at 10pm). Ah, but get use to those hours once you're here otherwise you'll miss the best part of B.A., the nightlife. And that doesn´t mean clubing, a simple meal wouldn't start until 8.30pm and with daylight until past 10pm, you could easily get to the 'normal' midnight going out time. Ok, another way around is to go out on Wednesday nights after work to join the groovy crowd at the Museum or Opera Bay clubs around 10pm (be warn, we are talking thousand of people here!) See photos. I was lucky to be introcuced to some good people from Rip Curl who showed us (Bill & Grant arrived before I left) some of the best spots here.
But, did I say a simple meal? Oups, my apologies, BA has fantastic restaurants with tapas, the usual parillas (everywhere BBQ restau), sushies, good wines (eg. Trumpeter), real spanish hot chocolat... and plenty of smokers. But the scene is cool and I am not sure if the young middle-managers are really comfortable financially or just pouring all they earn playing the part. I was indeed surprise at the amount of young people who seem to be placed favorably in the working hierarchy in shops, offices, restaurants. No agism here (there were 2 older ladies at the solicitor's office too).

Tango
So what did I do for 2 and a half week? Well I made have rested 1/2 day and then I got busy with Tango lessons, book a French speaker for Spanish lessons, enrol at the Gym/Yoga next door and ...phew... bought some Tango shoes of course. I discovered the psychology of Tango with quite a surprise: the man leads you see and the woman is entirely, well... following. Quite a similar path to my present position at the back of the motorbike with little say in its course and stop overs. So I became curious about Tango. The dance is a mix of class and sex. Yes; sex. No rubbing of bodies but intense eye contact and that ´following´/surrounding thing I am getting my head around. It was also very good for... my posture. Every details counts before the steps are taught. However, I did managed to learn something -to the point of hurting in my new tango shoes- at a nearby Borges Cultural Centre. I went out once in that first stay in BA with a japanese girl, keen to check out the milongas (dance halls) and our second try got us to La Viruta, packed with young people dancing tango, salsa, rock, etc (I even made a little attempt a dancing tango there, hope noone saw me mind you).
Of course, you'll see good dancers in the middle of the shopping street in Florida Av. or at the Sunday Dorrego Antique market, but the absolute best was the Tango show Ted and I saw in my second trip to BA (and extensively photographed in between jaw gappings). For 120pesos you get treated to wines and appetisers with accordeon (which I love) in the front part of the cellars of this monastery (Michelangelo) and then moved to dinner before the show starts (see photos). Very very professional and so diverse because Tango can also be quite an athletic dance. Ted has the best photos of course ( Ted's website).

Tourist and local things:
And I did the touristy thing of course, scounting them before Ted's visit: The Recoletta cimetery with more cats than people there, markets, parks, ... ah!, nearly forgot the open air opera concerto which was attended by at least another few thousand locals (Espanol Plaza closed for the occasion). Beautiful music and singing with the late sun setting on the statue of Liberty (no photo cause I didn't want it stolen but have since found BA very safe -in best neighbourhoods-). I have also tried the Japanese gardens (near the zoo) where I actually wrote a whole piece on my madenning lack of sleep during my travels so far. Not so zen.

Buenos Aires - 2nd time (23rd Dec-30th Dec)

So I returned with Ted, proud to show him the city but upset cause he was to leave again soon for 5 weeks this time.
But what happened to Xmas you might ask? Well, Bill,Ted and myself (Grant was in Australia) went to this oyster bar discovered previously and had a lovely lunch -with champagne-. BA was a relief because most things are CHEAP. I visited several times this funky area of Palermo, in search of little designer shops, but, now too popular, I didn't find them affordable enough to my taste/purse (and Ted is constantly watching my bike space allocation!).
It was safer for me to go out at night with Ted in tow so we did so until early morning a few times. The Opera Bay club (40p entry for this mini Sydney Opera look alike) for example was busy with youngish people to be found in their 7 different dancing floors spread out next to a swimming pool, on the deck facing the harbour, on top of it, with other places for pop, techno or rock music. Loved it.
We also checked out a few yuppy places (Gran Danzon Bar) to compare them to our local Oscar restaurant (eh eh). Very nice places abound because there is taste in this town, and they enjoy decorating their place too. (shame I couldn´t bring back those great thick bed covers).
Shopping wise you will probably have heard about the leather bargains (they eat sooo much of those poor creatures no wonder) but I did not succombe (shoes don´t count cause they are a natural flowing part of my life, ok Ted?!). Actually I realised that I compare each countries CPI by the prices of their shoes (handy comparison).

Ahhh. Buenos Aires. Will I see you again?

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