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Published: November 5th 2018
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Yesterday was a free day so I decided to make the most of the sights. I’d been looking in the wrong area apparently. The night before I trotted out for a drink to find the bar round the corner in Paraguay advertising Happy Hour was closed, and at 7pm on a Saturday evening. So I went along Cordoba, one of the main streets. My Argentinian colleagues had been persuading me to give it a go. It’s pedestrianised and has a lot of shops with a few shopping arcades too, none of which looked very appealing. There were people selling stuff on blankets on the ground, cheap stuffed unicorns, socks, sunglasses etc. There was a queue (I love a queue and have successfully joined them in the past without knowing what was going to be at the front. Luckily I didn’t. It was for McDonalds takeout. So I ended up in the 1864 bar next to the hotel again. There were 2 customers including me, at 8pm on a Saturday. I should have gone to the river instead.
Yesterday was a lovely sunny day and I was going to do the boat trip but things conspired against me. I walked up
to Bvd. Oroño and it was really busy, lots of families on bikes, people running and a race set up for waiters. They were all registering and being given numbers and equipment, a tray, bottles of coke and water and a glass of orange juice. It looked an absolute hoot but I didn’t want to hang around. The street is wide, a path up the middle, and further towards the river a few American style burger and chips places, but they looked nice places to sit. Then there was Beatmemo. I was looking for it on a recommendation. It’s an English style pub downstairs and upstairs there is a museum, free entry, made by the owner who’s a doctor and basically the biggest Beatles fan in the world. I said I was born in Liverpool and thought I might get a free drink. No such luck!
I ordered a coffee from the super friendly non-English speaking waiter and saw there was a free tour of the museum at 11am on a Sunday. It was 10.55. The waiter said it was in Spanish but the owner would also do it in English. He lie! I necked my coffee and rushed
upstairs. I’ve done many a tour in Spanish without understanding too much but this was in a class of its own. There were 4 others and it was super hot upstairs. We started at 11 and I concentrated for a while. The only things he said in English were the years. I can manage those perfectly well. He stared at me the whole time, willing me to understand what he was saying. The only things he said in English were the year, which I could manage just fine. There were 4 rooms. The first had 4 montages of the childhoods of each of them. We could see John’s bedroom window and some of his homework. Each Beatle took 15minutes. One hour gone. They were only aged 11 by the time we moved on. The second room had their early musical influences. He played a lot (a LOT) of clips from other artists so we could compare them. I had stopped trying to translate but had to maintain an expression of interest/understanding as he was still staring at me. The third room had a lot of merchandise, whoever knew you could buy Beatles sellotape and mothballs? I sidled off to the
loo. I’ll wait, he said, NO thank you, I said. I thought about doing a runner but hadn’t the heart. The 2 remaining customers were university students and said it was a compulsory part of their course. After 2h10m I cracked and made an excuse. We were in the third room with no hope of finishing any time soon. We were hearing about a trip to India by this time so I got a ‘Namaste’ and a kiss, before fleeing with complete relief. I went in feeling indifferent to the Beatles and came out hating them with a passion. But it is well worth a visit, 30 minutes tops, just don’t be tempted in for the tour!
It was lunchtime and I was starving. After looking at the craft stalls in the Sunday (and Saturday) market in the park by the river I saw a nice looking restaurant attached to the museum of contemporary arts and decided it was that or the boat trip. Lunch won. The museum is housed in some huge brightly-painted silos, a great landmark along the river if you are not sure where you are. I got a table right next to the river, had
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American diner type place. Super busy, on the sunny side of the street wine and read my kindle while I waited a long time for my steak. I loved every minute. You can see the bridge way down the river. This is where the ‘beach’ is, called Floridiana. You can swim in the river there but not very far out. It’s really deep and a muddy colour but would do on a hot day. You would need a taxi, it’s really far from the centre. I saw my boat sail past at 3. Damn you, Beatles!
Today started wet so I came along to an organic cafe at San Lorenzo/España, called Tiendas Naturales, painted red, plants, chill out music, also open in the evening and has a happy hour. Boat trip later!
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