I shed an aul´ tear in the back of the taxi that took us to catch our bus out of Buenos Aires. Not since the Bangkok days have I felt so at home and relaxed in a city. San Telmo, the area where we set up home, stole my heart completely. It´s hard to beat a few beers on Plaza Dorrego of a sunny day while watching a bit of tango in the open air. We made it a daily occurence and chatted away to the waiters in spanish an´all!
The morning we arrived we stumbled across a brilliant hotel with some dodgy decor which became home sweet home for an unexpectedly long stay of almost two weeks. The very same morning we crossed the street only to stumble across a local caf which was to become our daily breakfast spot for the duration of our stay (see the "los ensaladas mejores a Buenos Aires" blog). The spanish was a flowin´ with us here too, hunger is a great incentive to learn a language.
A trip to the city centre had us gazing up at the balcony of the Presidential Palace where Eva Peron made that speech, which was later to become that song, which was later to be belted out by none other than Madonna herself from the very same balcony.
Cafe Tortoni then, a Buenos institution they say, for some lunch with Kasia and Kevin, on the final leg of their trip. Cafe Tortoni is quite a fancy setting, lunch was served up by waiters in bow ties. We felt ever so special.
La Boca next and time for some touristy tango. Definitely the most colourful part of the city, all the buildings painted in brightly coloured paint, left over from shipyards apparently. A great place for a few photos and a drink in the sun if the mood took you, and it did. Well we are on our holidays!
Found ourselves strolling around Palermo the following afternoon. Palermo is an awfully trendy and young district with lots of trees and nice boutiques that frightened the living daylight out of our budget.
What better way of getting to see the sights than to be shown around by a local?! We had our very own local to show us around for a day. Thanks for the tour Nick, it was so great to meet you on your home soil. You should definitely give Ireland another visit sometime, we´ll see if we can ward of the rain next time.
Another busy day saw us fighting back the tears at the grave of Evita at the Recoletta Cemetery, followed by some rather fine art at the Musee de Belles Artes, Monet, Cezanne, Rubens, Miro, and Pollock to name but a few of the artists on display. I had a look to see if Granny´s famous drawing of a little girl or Jean´s interpretation of an ashtray with peanuts were there too but no joy! Nearby the museum stands a massive metal flower structure called Floralis Generica which actually closes up like a real flower at night.
More relaxing in San Telmo for the weekend left us even more besotted with the place. Some cheap bubbly on saturday afternoon inevitably leads to a big night on the town. Meandering around the antiques fair on a sunday was the perfect cure for our hangovers and we even unearthed a few vintage gems in the process.
Our love affair with Buenos was broken up briefly by a stint just across the water in Uruguay, which I´m sure is lovely in season. We were more than a little bored however and rushed back to our new home away from home as fast as our little back-packing legs could carry us.
The arrival of our good buddy Ray (Hope the rest of your trip went well Ray and you didn´t miss us too much), whom we met in Egypt at the beginning of our big long holiday, meant even more fun, more chillin and more hangin, more debauchery, more shopping and more forgetting what day it was in our favourite city in the world.
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