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Published: November 2nd 2018
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Finally I decided I really had to make the most of it here and not binge-watch Ru Paul’s Drag Race on Netflix, entertaining though it is. It seemed that the most exciting attraction was the flag monument. The flag is apparently really important here and every town makes a big thing of it. So I walked down Santa Fe from the hotel all the way to the river. I found the monument, a huge concrete thing but minus a flag. It was like stumbling into a fancy dress party and finding that everyone else was in jeans and T-shirts. It was the hugest anticlimax, although, to be fair, I wasn’t expecting too much. There were a lot of people hanging around and having their photo taken and I nearly fell flat on my face in front of them, having failed to spot the shallow steps on the other side. I hurtled along for a bit but kept on my feet and didn‘t look back. Hopefully I will never see those people again.
There was a bit of a to-do going on in front of the monument. People unloading stuff from vans and setting up stalls, waving flags, armed police, all
cars going past honking. It looked like a slightly dangerous political rally was going to start. I mingled and took a few photos. When I asked back at the hotel later it was all because Rosario has 2 football teams and the fans are always fighting. They were actually playing each other so to avoid any agro they were forced to play in Buenos Aires and not locally, hoping that a lot of fans wouldn’t be able to go. The winning side were about to have a bit of a do, all celebrations and rallies take place by the (flagless)) flag monument. In front of it all the zebra crossings are in the colours of the flag, light blue and white. I found the boat ticket office, my activity for Sunday is to go on a 2 hour boat trip, which doesn’t promise to be particularly scenic, and then find the Beatles museum-come-bar and try to blag a free drink on the basis of being born in Liverpool. Google images had photos of a beach area next to the river and some swanky restaurants. Sum total of swanky restaurants I spotted:zero! Definitely not going to try the pseudo-beach, however hot.
I had planned to walk along the river to Bvd. Oroño, but it was a very long way and not very interesting. You can see a wide, brown river and some vegetation on the other side, nothing else. There were some men fishing, a messy lot, even though there are bins they leave plastic bags with decaying squid and fish guts strewn along the path. I felt a bit bereft as I couldn‘t use my phone to see where I was and then remembered my small and useless map. It was actually helpful. I’d gone about halfway and got to a skate park, gave up on the river, then cut up and zigged through the streets, keeping going right and then left and eventually came out on the corner by the hotel. To my absolute ecstatic delight there is a bar next to the hotel with happy hour from 6-9. This was 6 and they were just turning the lights on. The beer on offer was eepa, IPA, which was a bit meh! but had to do. Very friendly bar staff and WiFi so I risked a second pint. They do food but I’d been taken for another huge
lunch and wasn’t hungry.
On the note of steak, at lunch my Argentinian colleagues said that here people never eat it rare. If you ask for poco hecho it is far more hechoed than I like, no blood at all. So I had pork instead, not wanting to offend their sensibilities, they were, after all, paying for mine! The general opinion is that it is really disgusting to see blood and they always send it back to the kitchen if that is the case. So I will have to wait to be back in BA with my other buddies and the safety of a group situation. There is also no hope here of a cheeky drink on the way back from work. They are all drinking coffee and milkshakes. Sadness..... And at lunch they thankfully gave me a menu with an English translation. Believe me, no part of the animal is wasted.,
After a long working day I came back to the bar and asked for a gin and tonic. They got lots of bottles off the shelf and I had to sniff all of them and choose. Cinnamon is really popular here (the name of the cafe
I was taken to for lunch, (where I had gnocchi, tasted like hard lumps of wallpaper paste), but I hate it so opted for the orange one. A very fancy cocktail loookimg thing arrived. Much happier now I’ve found a home from home, although I’d rather be working than on a rest day here. Working is hard work but GREAT here.
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