Buenos Aries II

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Viva La Boca!!! God what a game!

It finished Boca 0 - FC Lanus 0, but we were watching the fans more than the match. I cannot begin to describe the passion and love that the Boca fans have for their club, but that was last night and we've done so much since then that I don't want to miss anything out for anyone reading this that's wanting to come to visit Buenos Aries.

On Thursday we went to rent some bikes that we had seen people knocking about on, as we found out the other day that walking round B.A (Buenos Aries) is a massive task. Unbeknownst to us at this point you have to have Argentinian citizenship or an Argentine passport to rent these bikes. We found this out after eventually finding a place in the guide book that said we could rent the bikes, walking in and in broad Yorkshire explaining we wanted to rent some bikes for the day 'to bike it rahnd Bwenos Areez' and also explain that we did not speak a word of Spanish. The guy kept saying 'passporto?' And we kept saying yeah. He looked at us gone out then said 'passporto?' again, we said yeah again. He then made a face I did not understand and showed us the directions to the actual place we could rent bikes as this place was not it. (We have learnt in just under a week that the guide books will only be useful in Patagonia, when we can use them to throw on our camp fire) We got to the place where we could actually rent the bikes and were told that they were only for Argentinians with Argentine passports. Now, we are clearly not Argentinian, we had the most un-Argentinian clothes on you've ever seen and were speaking broad Yorkshire so why the guy in the first place actually asked us if we had Argentinian passports, then actually sent us on our way believing we had one is beyond me. We seriously need to sort out our Espanyol.

We're glad we couldn't get a bike though as we got the chance to see and do things that we would have probably just biked past unawares. We found the mighty battered beef sandwich, tenderised deep fried beef in a foot long bread roll, it was that nice I've circled the place we got it from on our map so I can go back and get another. We tried these meat pies that we had seen coming out of the oven in every other cafe window we past and both wet our pants at how nice they tasted for just under a pound. We also managed to find this beautiful, huge pink building called Casa Rosada where apparently Evita sung that song from in the film (I've never actually seen the film, this is only what Laura's told me, if its not Robocop or Terminator or directed by Quentin Tarrentino then I'm not bothered but it was a cracking building non-the-less) From what I can gather I think Evita was like a Princess Diana figure who married the president of Argentina then ran for vice-presidency herself before her untimely death to cancer when she was just 33. I think she started off as a singer or actress and she had a massive impact on the working class people, especially in B.A and there's a huge picture of her singing into a microphone on the side of one of the tallest buildings on one of the busiest roads running through the centre of B.AWe also had a wonder into a massive church that you were allowed to walk round, so I lit a candle for me Grandad, me Auntie Mave and me Dads best mate Wayne and said a little prayer to keep Barnsley in the championship. It was absolutely scorching as we were walking round that day and we're both now sporting the famous British tan of a red nose and a red neck.

That evening we came across a butchers that had a doorway inside that lead to a restaurant that we have took to calling Sloppy Joe's. Its cheap as chips and that's also what you get with your meat. While I'm on about meat 'Asado' is what the Argentinians (that ones that we've met anyways) class as their best steaks. The cut of meat is the rib cage that has skewers threaded through it that makes the meat look a bit like Jesus nailed to the cross, this is then placed round a charcoal fire and cooked. I've had 3 so far cooked this way, 2 from Sloppy Joe's and one from a place we had to go in to use the toilet as I was literally seconds away from disaster and felt rude not ordering anything after I had made such a mess - and although its not the best meat I've ever had the way it's cooked makes it one of the tastiest. It comes out smoked and some bits are rare and some are burnt but by Christ it tastes phenomenal. The best meat I have had came on Friday night at a restaurant called La Cabrera in the Palmelro Vieja district of Buenos Aries. But more of that later.

Friday morning we again read in our guide book that you can hire bikes in the Palmero Viejo district so set out to do so. After getting there and being told that we cannot rent bikes from pretty much anywhere we decided to go it again on foot. (Can you see why that guide book is going on the fire?!) Our mate Posh Cath had told us about some parks that has these big lakes that you can take a boat on and row round so we set off to do just that with a bottle of red wine (you can take the boy out of Barnsley...) it was mad hot again so rather than walk round trying to find these boats we just got ligged out on the grass next to this beautiful lake and took it all in. After we drunk the bottle and Laura had passed out face down on the grass I saw what looked like our 'movie star' friend sat under a tree. I did that thing you do when your drunk and something's too far away and closed one eye to help focus. It was him! I ran over and was like 'WHEEEEY! It's you!' He greeted me in a similar loud manner that woke Laura from her coma and she came running over doing the one eyed 'WHEEEEY!' thingy aswell. Now, doing a spot of research into Buenos Aries I've found out that its the 2nd largest city in South America, has a population of over 2.8million and has a square mile radius of about 79miles, just walking round it this past week has given us a scale of the magnitude of the place so to bump into this fella again is proper needle in a haystack shit! Whaaaat! After much Oh my god!ing and No way!ing from both parties he told us his name was Alejandro and that we must take his email address down and contact him when we return to B.A after Iguazu Falls and we'll go out and have a few cervezas! Mental. He seems proper sound, even Laura's drunken story about how we thought we saw him on a giant billboard in the centre of town didn't deter him from seeming genuinely pleased to have bumped into us again. I can't wait to go out for a few beers with him and his high - flying amateur dramatic type friends and emailing him will be the first thing I do if we stick around for a day or two in B.A after Iguazu Falls. After going our separate ways with Alejandro Laura and me decided to stay on the booze and hit a few bars before the steak place we heard so much about. Palmero is cool as fuck and definitely has a Brick Lane in London or a Greenwich Village in New York type feel. Loads of one off shops and mint pubs and bars so we tackled about 4 or 5 boozers then went for some steak.La Cabrera had come recommended by everyone and all over the Internet it says that it's possibly the nicest place to eat steak in Argentina. So we decided to go and throw our budget for next few weeks out of the window. We got there around 10pm and was asked if we wouldn't mind waiting an hour or so as the place was full. We were going to put our names down and go for some more beers when Laura asked if we could sit outside and the lady said yes of course we could, and we got sat down straight away. As we cannot speak hardly any spanish (yet) we did not know what we were ordering and at first the only words I could understand were Heineken and Chorizo and I was happy with that, a pint and a sausage. Away went Hugo, our waiter, and he came back with a chorizo sausage, a couple of dips and a litre of Heineken. I've not had many chorizo sausages, only that dried stuff you get from the Asda or Morrisons but this was proper nice and washed down with an ice cold beer in an ice frosted glass had already put a smile on our burnt faces. Then Hugo came round with what looked like a spice rack filled with dishes with things like guacamole, baby corn, sun dried tomato paste, salads, mashed potato, sweet corn relish and other stuff that we dipped our bread in then he came out with our steaks and we tucked in.

When we went to South Africa for the World Cup a couple of years ago we stayed on a farm where the owner gave us some lamb from this farm to put on the barbie/braai and until Friday that was the nicest thing I'd ever eaten.

Then Hugo brought out the side of this cow that was about an inch and a half thick and the length of my arm. The photos don't do it justice. All you virtually had to do was suck it and you could just swallow it. Jesus just talking about it now makes me want to go back. Laura got hers with blue cheese on top and couldn't eat half of it as it was that big so they wrapped it up for her to take home. I think in total it all came to about 60odd quid with a few litres of Heineken and on one meal that means from now on we're living on the bread we get for nowt in the morning from our hostel.We got on the bus back to centro to our hostel about 00.45 and walking back through Palmero noticed that it was only around this time that the majority of people start to go out, it was getting packed. We been steadily on it though all day so the bus was the best idea although driving through some of the places on the way home got a bit sketchy as we didn't really know where we were but the driver and some student looking kids assured us that the bus went to where we wanted and it did, so we were all good.

The day after our legs were shot so we stayed in the hostel most of the day and chilled ready to go to war for Boca Juniors the day after.

The morning of the game I woke up with a similar feeling in my stomach that I get when Barnsley have a big game and it was all too tense so to calm myself down I agreed to walk round San Telmo market with Laura that morning. For me after you had walked past 5/6 stalls you had seen them all although you had not seen them all as the market was about a mile and a half long and culminated in a market square at the end to walk round if you had not already had your fill of old flutes, 'hand made' jewellery and crap toys.The one thing that was really good though that we both noticed was that no-one was ever bothering you to look at their stall or haggling you to buy anything you didn't really need. All the people we did talk to were really nice and informative at just how old these really old flutes were. One bloke who looked the part dressed in old ragged inca gear actually played Laura a piece on this old flute and although the sound was quite pleasant the way he played it was possibly one of the funniest things I've ever seen and I did my best not to piss myself every time he changed notes and did a little wiggle and looked deeper into Laura's eyes. Laura was of course flattered but I'm telling you underneath his inca facade there was a generic 9-5 office job and if he really did spend all his waking days baking clay to shape into these, admittedly beautiful, flutes then I'm a monkeys uncle.

After we got back from the market we got on the beers ready for the big game and after a pre-match ritual of 2 meat pies we set off to meet our guide.We had both decided that if we were in a group we would just probably go down to the stadium and get tickets for the match but due to it just being Loz and me we thought it was best to go with a company tour that provided a guide that could guarantee our safety. We got to the meeting point and met Santiago, a die hard Boca Juniors fan who worked for the electronic company Sharp Mon-Friand who on match days got paid to take people to see his beloved Boca Juniors. We had to wait a bit for some more people who were coming to the game with us and we got talking about how we came about wanting to attend a Boca Juniors game. Laura explained that she had read that the passion of the fans was unrivalled and wanted to see first hand if it could top a Sheffield derby and I explained that it was a conversation with my uncle Dave that got me interested in Boca Juniors when I was really young. I don't know why I can remember this conversation, as its just stuck in my head from an early age but I can remember us talking about Marradonna and our Dave told me had played for a side in Argentina called Boca Juniors and that they were one of the most successful footballs clubs ever and I'm telling you now I knew there and then that I'd one day get to stand on the terraces at 'Estadio Alberto J. Armando' and cheer them on.It's fair to say that Santiago felt our love of football and took to us right away.This guy knew everything about football, not just in Argentina but he had so much knowledge of the game, the English leagues and even got into the ribs of a couple of American guys that came to the game with us about clubs in Seattle and New York. I'd easily have a tenner on Santiago to beat one of my best mates Bailey to a football knowledge quiz, and Bailey has an encyclopedic brain on footy.Santiago told us that originally Boca was founded by five Italian immigrants (after the Brits that came over by ship to work on the Argentinian railroads had brought football over with them) and were originally, like all the football clubs of that time (1900's) playing in a home strip of black and white stripes and an away kit of pink. The people of Boca decided that this wasn't for them and they wanted to stand out to be different and so they were to change their colours to the flag of the next ship that docked in the port... that ship was Swedish and had a flag of blue and yellow and so it was to be.

That is now the colour that will bleed out of me right after all the Barnsley red has gone.

Santiago also explained that the leagues in Argentina work a little differently than in England. Over here they take the average points each team has won against each other over 3 seasons and this dictates where you end up in the final standings come the end of this 3 season cycle. At the end of these 3 seasons the three clubs who finish bottom go down and the clubs who finish top of the Primera League and Primera B National (our equivalent of the Premier league and the Championship) play each other in a cup final 'to see who is the true champion of Argentina'. Can you imagine that?! Boca Juniors' most fiercest rivals are a side called River Plate who come from the other end of Buenos Aries. Santiago told us on the way to the stadium that Boca are the people's club, the team from which the real people from Buenos Aries follow who work hard all week to save up to go and scream their team on and that the upper echelon of society's people who don't know what a days work feels like follow River Plate. Up to now Boca Juniors are the most joint successful football club in the world ever along side AC Milan and have never finished a season outside of the Primera League, last season however River Plate, who had previously never dropped down a division got relegated and how Santiago's eyes lit up when he was telling us about it. The Boca fans had made up a new song at the start of this campaign because of this that Santiago roughly translated to;

#River Plate, remember when you went to division 2

River Plate, you will always remember when you went to division 2

River Plate, You burn your stadium

You hit your own players

You will never wash the stain away

Your players are chickens

Your fans are pussys

River Plate, tell me what it feels like to go to division 2#

He said that we will know when the Boca fans start singing this song as the whole ground will erupt and to be fair we got to the stadium early and the reserve sides were playing each other on the pitch before the main game and the stadium was already starting to get in to full swing. The reserve game finished 2-1 to Boca and by the time that game had finished and the first teams came out the noise was absolutely deafening and the place was literally jumping.

As the teams were getting announced the Boca fans were whistling and booing the other teams players until one player got mentioned for FC Lanus that used to play for Boca and all the fans stood and applauded and started to sing a song that Santiago translated to meaning;

#You are forever in our hearts

Thank you for your desire

Thank you for your passion

We will never forget you

How can you come back if you never left#

I asked Santiago what would happen if that player scored and Santiago said that he wouldn't do that to the Boca fans! Literally everyone was on their feet screaming this song, I really do think that if that player had took it round the 'keeper and had an open net he would have put it wide on purpose. Also the manager and assistant manager of FC Lanus, who are actually twins and both used to play for Boca had a montage of their best bits being played on the giant screens before kick off with the crowd going mad every time an eventful clip was played even when the assistant coach got sent off in the second half and had to walk past all the Boca fans the crowd were cheering as though Oakwell had Neil Redfern walking past the Ponty end.

The game kicked off with Boca going for an unorthodox formation of 3-3-1-3 and took the game to FC Lanus with Santiago saying that this was the best start to a match that he had seen this season.

Then, the flood lights went out.

As soon as Laura and me decided we wanted to do this South America trip and we were planning it all a Boca game was high on the list of things to do, we had travelled over 2 days to get to B.A and after 6 minutes half the flood lights went off! The referee got both teams and their management together to see if they wanted to carry on and it was decided that the game should go ahead.A drop kick was then decided with both players kicking ten lumps of shit out of each other and the game was resumed.It was what my mate Lewis would typically describe as a scrappy affair with the only real chance falling to Boca when the number 17 beat the goalie to the ball and struck a post, but like I said earlier we weren't really watching much of the match as the fans were going absolutely bezerck. I've never come across so many nutters going mental in one place such as this. For some stupid reason the FC Lanus fans were housed in the top tier of the stadium and were lighting fire crackers and throwing them onto the Boca fans below and that got the Boca fans going even more mental. In the end Santiago translated a message that was read out over the tannoy that said that if the Lanus fans carried on the game would be abandoned so they eventually stopped. Although the atmosphere did not dip one bit.

I asked Santiago if there was a reason that the fans were going so nuts and he said that it was always like this but the games against River Plate were much more heated. So much so that a couple of seasons ago one fan died after a firework was launched from one side of the stadium to the other and was killed after it hit him on the head.

So much for them inflatable pigs at a Sheffield derby.

At half time you could get an alcohol free lager or a chorizo sausage burger, so we went for the latter.

After a pretty much un-eventful second half on the pitch, with the fans still going crackers with around 15mins left suddenly the whole stadium was shaking with the Boca fans singing the song about River Plate getting relegated. The hairs were standing up on my arms and neck as we could feel the stadium shake to this quite catchy song. I'm not kidding, it was immense. Everyone was screaming it. Parts of the ground subsided with singing it sometimes but the tune was always in the air and was in full voice again as the final whistle went. As we descended from the third tier down the narrow stairways the sound of the song was bouncing off the concrete and eventually faded as the crowd dispersed outside.

We've both said without doubt it was the best atmosphere at a game of football we have ever been to, and we've both been to big games for our own clubs, but for a 0-0 game it was ridiculous. I think as I write this now the day after the game, sat on a bus, that if Boca would have scored people would probably still be going nuts.

If your in Buenos Aries and you like football or banter or mild violence you have to go to a football match. End of.

We booked with a tour company called Tango Tours and our guide Santiago was the perfect host. He knew everything that we asked and more and would seriously recommend asking for him if your planning on visiting a game.

As I look to wrap this blog up I need to mention our hostel for people reading this that are looking for places to stay in B.A. We said that its a shame we didn't really get a hostel in the Palmero area and would recommend anyone looking to get a hostel in B.A to look at getting one there as its proper nice, and feels really safe. Not that our area where our hostel is (centro) doesn't feel safe, it's just that it definitely feels a bit edgy after dark in some parts, but we don't go round there unless we have to. We only wanted a hostel to be fairly central so we could be in and around everything but this place is that bloody big wherever you are your probably a good hour away from what you want to see. Our hostel (av de mayo 1385) is mint though, really clean and the people are sound. I've got this thing going with the old cleaner lady that makes the breakfast (yes Grandma, I've been getting up for breakfast) and although she cannot speak a word of English and I struggle with the Spanish we both know that if she was about 60 years younger and I wasn't taken by the beautiful northern star that is Laura Cook, we might have just got something going on as she makes a cracking jam sandwich and I think she likes my teenage mutant ninja turtle pyjamas.

Our time in B.A has now come to end as we board a bus to Puerto Iguazu. Walking up to the bus station to leave through all the busy streets and passed all the sketchy looking people in the shanty towns with our bags on in the sweltering heat, with orange dust blowing up from the floor through the gaggle of different languages being shouted between different sketchy looking faces, being passed by big rusty flat-back trucks and beat up old classic cars on the road was the first time I've actually felt like a proper backpacker and its a brilliant feeling.

We've got a right stint of travelling coming up now with a 17 hour bus ride to Iguazu Falls, a nights stay in Puerto Iguazu, a 17 hour bus back to B.A then straight on a 22 hour bus to Bariloche.

Bring it on, after watching the Fresh Water episode of the Planet Earth series around 500 times before we set off on our trip we are now headed up to Iguazu Falls to see it in all its beauty and we cannot wait. Thanks for reading this if you've managed it all. Im sorry for any spelling mistakes as I've done it over several days and the iPad spell checker thing proper does my head in.

We've just got on the 17 hour bus now as I finish writing this and we'll have to see what happens as the big burly bloke who was throwing our bags on asked for a 5peso tip and Laura told him to do one as he only asked us because we're English.Hopefully they'll be there when we get off, wish us luck !

Mick & Loz

X

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Comments

[Anna George]

Eating like Kings!
Brilliant Blog - love reading this with my cup of tea b4 I start my day! Yes food appreciation. Stay safe love you both georgie Xx

[Nicola]

Hey you two, loving your blogs keep them up, hope you still had your bags at the end of your bus ride. Xx only 2 and a half weeks and I'm back to work Barrie keeps texting me doing a count down xx

[Mum]

How long is this blog ???
Took me 2 days to read!!! Looks and sounds amazing. Don't know if I've done this right xx

[Uncle Nigel]

Well where do I start, Can I say what a brilliant blog so far. Very informative and funny, Once I had wiped the tears of laughter away at the fourth attempt to read the paragraph containing your near miss at the restaurant and not forgetting the French Guy! Love to you both,Keep safe and Write on!