Everything is Closed on Mondays... Except for Steak and Ice Cream!

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I woke up after my late night adventure much earlier than I expected, and actually felt pretty good. My watch on the other hand appears to be dying a slow death. The screen went wonky for a while. It eventually came back, but I had to reset the time. I think it's just the battery going, but I don't think I can really rely on it to be my alarm for the rest of the trip. Early morning buses are going to be dicey...

One thing that dawned on me is that I've been travelling for almost 48 hours and haven't met a single Australian... It's odd, but I don't expect that to last.

I spent the morning looking into booking a flight to El Calafate to begin my trip working my way up from Patagonia, ending on the beaches in Uruguay... Or I might go to Uruguay first. I really couldn't figure it out. The combination of available flights, prices, and weather was making things complicated, plus the fact that, despite having a month to kill, time is still limited. I decided to think about it later, and hit the town.

I took the metro over to the cathedral area to check out what was going on. The new pope of the catholic church, Pope Francis from Argentina, was announced last week, so I expected there would still be some celebrating going on. But other than a few vendors trying to cash in on Pope Francis t-shits, mugs, and photos, there wasn't much going on. I guess some of the initial excitement has worn off. There was a couple of big screens set up and cameras, so it looked like they were setting up or taking down for or from something.

I walled through the Maderna neighbourhood, which was full of modern condos, and upscale restaurants. The skyline of new condos reminded me a bit of Toronto, weirdly enough.

On the other side of the neighbourhood is a large ecological reserve. I thought it would make for a nice walk, but it was somehow closed. I'm not sure how you close a park (a free park, no less) but the free park was closed.

It turned out “closed” would become a theme for the day, but I wouldn't realize it right away.

I headed over to the modern art museum, and passed a man sleeping on a dirty mattress surrounded by sleeping dogs, right next to a BMW dealership. It was an interesting juxtaposition, and a reminder that while people in Buenos Aires seem well off enough, not everybody shares in the good fortune, and Argentina is not without its issues.

I stepped into what I thought was the contemporary art museum (it wasn't but I hadn't figured this out yet), and while it was supposed to be free (but I was in the wrong place) it ended up costing me 20 pesos (because it was a different gallery). This was a modern art gallery though, and it fit the stereotype of a modern art gallery. Most of the art work were paintings that were all one solid colour. I like art, but I really have a hard time getting behind entire paintings of one colour. Especially when that was almost all of what was in the gallery, which I had paid 20 pesos to get into, which I had thought was supposed to be free, because I was totally in the wrong place.

I suspected it, but I didn't confirm i was wrong until I walked outside, and actually looked at the name of the place, and confirmed that it was not the contemporary art gallery. The contemporary art gallery was, in fact, next door,and it was closed. So I didn't even notice it before and just thought thatthe nice shiny metal and glass entrance next door was the main entrance. It was not. I had fun though, and it since the contemporary art gallery was closed it was better that I did something instead of nothing anyways.

I thought I'd take another try at art on this fine Monday, and I made my way over to the National Fine Arts Gallery. I decided to take my time, and walked through the San Telmo area back towards the cathedral before catching the metro back to the metro over to the gallery. I'm going to keep this story short and just tell you now that it was also closed. Everything is closed on Mondays. I later confirmed this with the copy of Lonely Planet I have on my phone. Probably should have read it beforehand...

It was a beautiful day to walk around though. 25 degrees and sunny in March is not something you often get to see in Edmonton, so it was still a win.

And on the way back to the hostel, I totally redeemed my day by eating the best ice cream I've ever had in my entire life. I also had to use French again to order it. French seems more useful here than English, actually. I should have brushed up before the trip... or just learned some more Spanish. That would have been good too.

Apparently the subway gets completely packed on weekdays during rush hour. Should have been obvious, I guess.

Then I went out and had the best steak I've ever had in my entire life. And I can't even what second place tasted like, and I don't care. This was too good. Argentinians are very very proud of their beef and their steak, and it shows. They believe they have the best beef in the world. Now, I can't really comment and say I agree or disagree because I've never really sought out the best steak possible back home, mostly because I don't have an unlimited amount of money. I'm sure I could come close with some fine Alberta beef, but the meal I had was probably a quarter of the price of the equivalent back home. I could probably be made to believe that Argentina has the best steak in the world, but I'm probably going to have to try a few other places before I can say for sure. I know, it's hard work and all, but someone's got to do it.

I changed my mind again about my next move after Buenos Aires. Just based on flight availability and weather, I decided to head to El Calafate first. After sleeping on it to confirm that's what I wanted to do, I woke up the next day and booked the flight for the next day. This was a load off my mind after spending more than a day running through possible options and combinations of itineraries and plans for the rest of my trip. Now I was free to enjoy a day in Buenos Aires with nothing else on my mind.

And I pretty much just redid everything I'd tried to do the day before. I went to the national art gallery, which had work by Renoir, Degas, Monet, Picasso, and Rembrandt among others. It was a little on the small side and didn't have as much Argentinian art as I had assumed, but for free I have no complaints. The contemporary art gallery (the real one) was actually neat. There were some interactive exhibits, with lights and record players and stuff.

The ecological reserve is pretty much a large wetland. There are some walking and bike paths running through it, and it it's a popular jogging spot. It made a nice place to sit on a bench for a bit.

There was lot's of pope related activity on TV, with the pontification happening that day, so I went to the cathedral square to check it out, but it was over, and pretty empty. Everything was being taken down. It doesn't seem like I missed too much.

I met up with Adrien at the hostel to hang out for the evening. She's a paediatrician from Ohio who spent a few months in Buenos Aires taking a cooking class as kind of a different way of learning Spanish. She had just come back from a trip to Patagonia and gave me some advice for my adventure south.

She had heard about an afro-latino music concert, and we set off to find it. Apparently we got there way to early, but it gave us an opportunity to have a couple of drinks and Adrien introduced me to fernet y coca, an Argentinian classic. It tastes a bit bitter, but not bad. Adrien says most people don't like it the first time they try it, but then it grows on you and you crave it sometimes. I could see myself getting there.

The music was great, there was lot's of dancing and a great crowd. People were very relaxed and happy, so it was a great atmosphere. The only thing missing from this Afro-latino party was (oddly) the “Afro” portion of the equation. There's a reason for this that Adrien explained. Yellow fever ravaged Buenos Aires in the 1800's. All of the rich (white) people fled the city, but the poor (including all the Africans) were stuck behind and tragically died instead. But the African cultural influence still lives on in some capacity, and it was evident in the music.

I also met my first Australian of the trip after the show. He was having a pretty good time (read: wasted), and after a brief conversation we lost each other. I'm sure I'll meet more, but I really expected to meet several by now.

So after that history lesson, an Australian, and some awesome music, we met up with Tiffany, one of Adiren's friends and headed off to a club. It was Adrien's last night in Buenos Aires, and she was trying to pack all of her BA experiences into 24 hours, and I was lucky enough to be along for the ride.

The only hiccup was when I tried to get money out of the bank. It wouldn't work and I tried a couple. Uh oh. I know there's a daily limit that is placed on withdrawals by the Argentinian banks, but I don't think I visited the bank earlier in the day or anything. So that kind of weighed on my mind all night, and I had to watch my spending just in case.

We arrived at the club (Kika) at around midnight. It was empty. Totally empty. It's ok. This is normal. It didn't start to fill up until around 2:30.

My role for the evening was to help keep the creepy guys away from the girls. This was actually really easy. All I had to do when I saw someone looking at either of the girls, was face that girl and dance facing them. Then when someone started moving towards the other, I'd just turn a little towards the other girl and the guys would move away again. It was kind of weird. And really, there's no way anyone could have thought that I was with both girls. That's ridiculous. But I guess that's part of the machismo culture here, and if a girl is with a guy (or even might be) she's off limits.

We left at around 3 am when Adrien got sick of battling the crowd, and I don't blame her. It was pretty packed when we left. I did run into Robin there randomly just before we left. He was veerrrry drunk, and started speaking to me in German. Even when I told him to speak English, he kept speaking German. Eventually he figured it out, but he was not in a fully functional state of mind.

We headed out and back to the hostel. I checked my clothes that I had handwashed on Saturday night, and they still weren't quite dry. So it must be a little humid around here...

The next morning I got up at 9 to try and sort out my banking issues after breakfast. I tried the bank machine, and no issues whatsoever. Ok, so whatever I guess. Hopefully it keeps working.

It was my last morning in BA before heading south, and Adrien was heading back to the states as well. She also had a friend leaving for Chile, so we all met up for mediadores (delicious, rich pastries) and coffee. They're both cool folks, so it's a shame to say goodbye after just meeting them, but such is travel.

I said goodbye and headed back to the hostel and grabbed my taxi to the airport. The airport that has a lot of the domestic flights is actually pretty much in the middle of the city, so it wasn't too long a trip

So now I've taken two taxi rides in Buenos Aires, and seen people driving for a few days, so I'll leave you with my observations on what it might be like to drive here.

There are sometimes lines painted on the road to divide lanes, sometimes not, but they seem to get totally ignored regardless. Drivers are just driving wherever, sometimes straddling two lanes, and drifting around as they please. It's not even as though they're trying to take the shortest line between where they are and where they're going. I don't know how to describe it.

Drivers do often signal, but the signal often doesn't mean anything. I think it's just to let other drivers know that they might do something at some point, maybe. Lot's of people were using their hazard lights instead of left and right turn signals, so it was pretty ambiguous.

Stop signs also only seem to apply when you can see another car coming. The locals seem to manage no problem, and just know how to watch out for each other, but overall I wouldn't recommend trying to drive here...

Next stop: Patagonia!

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