Blogs from Buenos Aires, Argentina, South America - page 405

Buenos Aires is a lovely city with tree lined streets and old buildings -at a glance you could be in New York, Paris or London but the best thing is everything costs a fraction of the price. We stayed at the Gran Hotel Oriental in the Congreso area - sounds a bit like the Mandarin Oriental, but at only 5 pounds a night each including breakfast, the name is where the similarity ends! The hotel was a bit strange but fine, as long as you don´t want a hot shower in the evening and you don´t mind walls that have been filled in with cement! Initially we thought our bathroom didn´t even have a shower (or a bath) but upon closer inspection it turned out the shower and the taps were just fixed on the wall ... read more

On arriving in Buenos Aires we were pleasantly surprised by how modern and ´European´ feeling the city is. It lives up to its reputation as ´The Paris of the South´. We found a nice hostel online but when we arrived they hadn´t quite finished building it! However, the people running it were friendly and we stayed anyway. Our first excursion was a trip to watch the local team, Boca Juniors, play football. It was a great afternoon, Boca won and we saw Diego Maradonna cheering his team on from his balcony. Luckily we had no trouble, although apparently it is quite common at the Boca stadium. The next day we enjoyed a completely different atmosphere at the polo. A friend of the hostel owners took us to the match and it was a great opportunity for ... read more

Well, after months of thinking about it, I'm actually here in Buenos Aires! Having spent fourteen hours on the flight from London, I decided to spend most of the afternoon wandering around the city to get the blood flowing again! My first impressions are that it's a big, fairly grimy city but it doesn't really feel hectic. For me, it's kind of 70% Madrid, 30% Havana. I'll hopefully get a better taste for it when Alison and Vanessa are here with me next week. I did start by having my first Argentinian beef at lunchtime though and am looking forward to more of it! The hostel is basic but fine and I even got a big hug from the owner (she mistook me for her goddaughter but it was very welcoming none the less!). I'm heading ... read more

We were told that when we came to Buenos Aires, we should try and see a football match at either River Plate or Boca Juniors to experience the fanatacism of the Argentinian crowds. With looking at the schedules we managed to arrive in B.A just in time for the ´Classico´ between these two giants of the game. We were taken to the ground by bus then walked amongst the cheering River Plate fans through security pat downs and into the crowd. We were warned they might confiscate camera batteries (potential missiles) but luckily they turned a blind eye. The crowd were really hyped up after a two hour build up and when the teams came on the pitch thousands of streamers were thrown onto the pitch, flares were let off, and both sections of supporters twirled ... read more

We got the weather right and managed to be leaving Colon for Buenos Aries just as it started to rain. Abit annoyed that the taxi we booked from the Hotel to the bus station was pinched from under our noses but never mind! Turned up at St Nicholas HI hostel in Buenos Aries on Avenida Bartoleme Mitre. Great hostel with comfy dorm beds. Next to a road but as usual I still sleep like a log! After a brief walk about town, we went on a guided Bicycle tour around the City. this was really good and helped us orientate ourselves too. Today we went to the grave of Evita, which is situated in a huge cemetary with hundreds of tombs? for famous Argentines. After this we went to the Evita museum and learned more about ... read more