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Well, where do I start? When you first arrive here you instantly know you´re in a capital city. After weeks of travelling around through the countryside and visiting lots of pretty places, I felt like a bunny in headlights. I was a little overwhelmed by the scale of the place. I stood out like a sore thumb, dressed in my traveller gear, especially when we checked into our 4 star hotel for our last few nights on the tour. I slightly cringed when I saw my reflection in the hotel mirrors!! But this place is amazing, it really gets under your skin. Many people arrive here and never leave and I can totally see why.
Buenos Aires (BA as we now call it), is vibrant, full of beautiful parks, colourful buildings, incredible architecture, amazing restaurants and night clubs. Anyone who is anyone comes here. So many people just come here for their holidays, that´s how good it is!
I spent the first few days getting my bearings and climatising to life again in a big city. Before I left home, Rachel and I agreed we´d try and meet up here on our different travel routes and we did. The
last time I saw her, we were having dinner at my place in manchester. It was so good to see her a few months later on a totally different continent. I ran 11 blocks to see her and her brother before they headed north off on the route I´ve just done. BA´s a lot bigger than it looks on a map! We only managed to catch up for an hour and half, but it was well worth it. She´s just done the route I was about to do and vise versa, so we wandered the streets of San Telmo sharing our travel tips and stories from our adventures so far.
Our first night in BA was Angela, our gap tour guides, last night with us so we went for our first argentinian steak in San Telmo. For me it was quite a big deal, after 17 years of being a veggie, it was my first proper steak ever and what better place to have it than argentina. The waiter recommended a steak lomo, they cut a extra thin slice for me. Everyone said it was amazing, but I still struggled to get my head round eating what to me
still looks like a piece of flesh. Great experience though and the vino tinto made up for it. Every guy I´ve been speaking to is pretty much on a diet of steak while they're in south america.
On our first full day, Louisa and I ventured out to recoleta markets to see the grave of Eva Peroni (evita) and explore the saturday markets lined with tonnes of incredible handmade gifts. The most popular purchase was the famous leather goods and we all couldn´t resist buying something as a souvenir. In the evening we went to "Filo", a gorgeous italian restaurant just off florida street. We had some amazing pizzas. It really reminded me of Matts and Phreds in manchester.
Sunday we went to the antiques markets. I´ve never really got into vintage clothing, but after this I think I may well have found myself a new hobby. So many beauiful things - I think I´ve been missing out. After we´d warn ourselves out shopping we checked in to the famous Milhouse hostel. Four of us from our group were staying there and Rebecca who I´d met at our hostel in rio joined us too. We had our final
night out with the gang and then the partying began. If you want a quiet night here, then it is definitely not the place for you. For us however, it was perfect. We had a blast and made loads of new friends. Admittedly I spent a lot of time with a very sore head, especially having discovered the cocktail list. 10 pesos for one or two for 15 and they are so strong! The milhouse is full of aussies, irish, israelis and brits and we all know how to party. It reminded me a little of uni. In the day everyone was asleep and then at night everyone suddenly came back to life.
Despite the impressive amounts of alcohol being consumed, Ami, Ofelia and I managed to get out on the bikes. We did an afternoon tour round the northern part of the city, visiting recoleta again to get ice cream and palermo and the surrounding parks. It was so good - very civilised and it was gorgeous day to do it. We got the history on the various statues and buildings around the city and learnt how much the argentinians still hate the brits after the falklands. Always
good to know! Another day we did a day tour in La B oca, the home of tango and visited the football stadium where maradona played. The football history was impressive and the colourful buildings are a really treat for photographers. It´s a really poor part of the city and unfortunately this makes it pretty dangerous. The frenchy´s from our tour got attacked by some locals and their treasured SLR camera got stolen. It was so sad, so much love had gone into the photos.
Like the spanish the argentinians don´t start a night out until the early hours, so we did our best to embrace the siesta culture. Once upon a time I could get away without it, but sadly not anymore. I don´t have the stamina I used to. We made the most of the hostels party scene and BA´s impressive array of clubs and we managed to see "La Bomba", a bongo group. The energy from these guys was incredible, we didn´t need to drink we were so high on the music. Amazing!
Naturally I had to have a go at the tango. This dance has attitude and it is very, very sexy. We did
a class at the hostel. My canadian dance partner and I had a lot of fun standing on each others feet. Flip flops aren´t the best thing to do it in. Apparently the higher your heels, the better you´re meant to be. Flips flops summed me up. We did the tourist thing and went to a tango show where we got another lesson. There was plenty of audience partcipation and I got to dance with one of the pros! Felt like I was starring in the show for a few minutes. Great night.
All in all, BA was so much fun, I loved every minute and didn´t want to leave. I was only meant to spend 5 nights there and ended up staying for 7 nights instead. I had to force myself to leave. Rebecca and I have decided to travel to the wilderness of patagonia to detox and recover.
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amanda
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Jane, you are looking tanned in your pictures. Sounds like you having an amazing experience, meeting loads of different people from all over the globe, trying new foods (flesh), drinking a variety of drinks and learning new and exciting things! Why go half way across the world when you can go to the SU at Salford Uni - hahaha. Seriously, I am very jealous... Looking forward to seeing the Patagonia pictures. Keep on blogging and most of all keep on have fun! Take care for now, Mandy xxx