Blogs from Buenos Aires, Argentina, South America - page 382

Last night I went to see a ballet, Romeo and Juliet, at one of the large theaters here. I went with two of the other Rotary Scholars. It was a nice show. I don't think I'm a huge fan of ballet, it was a little long, but it was beautiful and the music was nice. It was also surprisingly cheap. The opera, ballet, and orchestra are very popular here, and very affordable. Even for locals, the arts are more affordable here than in the U.S., and with the exchange rate, it's a steal for us. The most expensive ticket for the ballet was $35 pesos (which is about $12 US). My ticket in the orchestra was $27 pesos, or less than $10 US! In Washington, the cheapest ticket to the Kennedy Center was like $50 or ... read more

Tonight was amazing. There is a very old and famous bar next to my apartment, Cafe Britanico. Cafe Britanico is probably the most important bar in the area because it is the place everyone goes. Old men and women, working people, young people, hip people, tourists and dogs. It has huge windows that they keep open all of the time and people lean in kissing those they know sitting in those windows. It is where people live, gather and laugh. The landlord of the building has not renewed their lease and they are due to be kicked out at the end of the month. The landlord wants to put a more tourist friendly shop that will benefit them ....not the people that own Cafe Britanico or the community. The people in this neighborhood have come together ... read more

uhh... I went out with Irish people for their holiday last night. It was pretty fun, I got sufficiently drunk... and I got a free t-shirt... holla. I really love this city. I often lament about how I love small towns like Davis. Davis is great because you don´t ever have to drive, and you know everybody. I always thought that cities sucked because the only city I know is Los Angeles. But Los Angeles isn´t a city, its a haphazardly constructed heavily-populated expanse of land that dissolves into the ocean. Buenos Aires has reminded me that REAL city life is awesome. So in answer to your question mister president, ¨Yes I can move to a major metropolitan area and live comfortably, however I have made the decision to return back to the small town I ... read more

Buenos Aires! I made it! I arrived at the hostel, Portal del Sur, at about 7pm - 27 hours after leaving canberra and four flights later. Ofcourse the first person I had to met was a aussie - who I shared my dorm with, along with a South African - who had the pleasure of telling me that their cricket team somehow managed to beat the record one-day total of 434 set by Ponto and the boys. Bastards! So after a couple of beers up on the terrace patio that they have up on the roof here, I was off to dinner with a few more guys and girls from the hostel... and in typical Buenos Aires-style we didn´t actually eat until about midnight. This was followed my many more jugs of beer at some cool ... read more

After a morning in Brazil, we headed back to Buenos Aires and to our last night in Argentina. We booked a place at Cafe Tortoni earlier in the week (you MUST book ahead to get into the back room tango show..especially at weekends) and had been looking forward to it all week. A bottle of Malbec in Argentina's oldest restaurant/cafe juxtaposed with some authentic tango seemed like the perfect end to our South American Adventure. And it was. We had a great night and I'd definitely recommend it. After the show we made it back to our hotel. Got about 4 hours sleep and we were off again to EZE to start our 21 hour journey home. Boo Hiss Boo Hiss........ read more