June 24th, 2009
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This would be the last stop on my trip. I love this city. I think it is one my favorite cities. I could really see myself living there. I was fantasizing working for a US company while living there. I could party all night, wake up late do some work, and then party some more.
I really got used to having dinner after ten and then going out to the wee hours in the morning. My latest night, which was the second to last night of the trip, ended at 10:30 in the morning. Met some friends for drinks, and then we went out to dinner. Left the restaurant at on,e when we noticed that the only other people there were staff sitting at the bar. We then went to a bar until closing. Then danced tango at Salon Canning until four and headed to another bar. We weren’t ready to go home yet. We talked until we noticed that the sun was up and then ordered another round. By that time we had already been drinking coffee with beer chasers. Something that I really liked. It was kind of awkward stumbling home in the bright sunlight while the city was already in full swing.
¡Ah Mi Buenos Aires Querida!
argentina, buenos-aires, south americca 09, travel
June 11th, 2009
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I stopped here for just one night, before flying out to Iguazu to see the falls. I came back after Iguazu for a few days.
argentina, buenos-aires, south americca 09, travel
December 19th, 2006
Sorry that it took so long, but here are some random thoughts and observations from the trip. For those that keep asking me about pictures, I haven’t had the time to setup gallery again on my site, but you can check out pictures at Marilee’s site, here, here, and here.
Eating
Dinner usually starts between 9 and 10. A formal dinner can take up to three hours. No one is in a rush. If you are in a restaurant, the wait staff doesn’t come by your table unless you catch their eye. They just leave you alone until you need something. Which is really great. You never feel rushed.
The portions also seem smaller. One of the days that we were shopping, we stopped at sort of a ‘fast food’ place. I say ‘fast food’ because it was a similar setup to a ‘fast food’ joint in the states, but they served things like Chicken Panini sandwiches and instead of fries, it came with a small salad. If you ordered a combo, the drink that came with it was of a size small from when I was little, probably 8 to 12 ounces.
Every single beverage that we had minus coffee, the soda at the ‘fast food’ place, and the chop (draft) beer, came in a bottle. We never had a glass of water at restaurants, it always came in a bottle.
Personal Space
Portenos have less personal space than what we are used to here in the states. They are close talkers and even closer dancers. Tango is usually danced in a close embrace, sometimes called a three minute hug, which I was expecting. But I was not expecting that in a discoteque. I was annoyed at first aat the drum and bass club when people kept bumping into me. Then I realized that it was just a personal space issue, and that they were not bumping into me, they were just dancing. Once I figured that out it didn’t bother me as much, and I just “invaded” other’s personal space as well.
Driving
We didn’t drive while we where there, but it looked like it would be a ton of fun. First of all there aren’t any large cars. They are all relatively small to the cars we see here in states. In fact the first time I drove my car when I got back I immediately thought to my self how nice it would be to drive in a smaller car. They drive like complete maniacs, but a controlled chaos sort of way. They really don’t pay attention to the lanes painted on the ground. Wherever there is space for their car to fit into, they take it. Which means a lot of tail gating. I felt like I was being driven around in a go cart race whenever we took a taxi.
Speaking of taxis, they never used their headlights at night. They only used them to flash other cars when they approached an intersection that they were not planning on stopping at. According to one of the taxi drivers that we asked, they don’t use them because they are blinding. In retrospect they really don’t need them because all of the streets are lit up with street lights.
Another interesting thing that happened to us, not once, but twice while taking a taxi was that they had problems with their breaks. The first time, the driver kept jumping out the car at red lights, with tools in hand, and kept fiddling under the hood. Marilee and I just kept looking at each other wondering what the hell was going on. The driver informed us that the brakes were not working right. He got us to where we wanted to go at a discount because he kept stopping. The second time the driver just pulled over and told us that he couldn’t take us any further because his brakes were not working well.
Taxis are pretty important part of the transportation system in Buenos Aries. I would estimate that close to, if not over fifty percent of the automobiles on the roads there are taxis.
Most motorcyclist don’t wear helmets on their heads. Some of them do, but it seemed liked most of them wore their helmets on their elbow. Which after seeing how crazy everyone drives, it seems crazy not to wear a helmet on their heads. With that being said, we only saw two motor cycle accidents. I would expect it to be a lot higher. However one of the accidents that we saw was fatal.
There are a lot of street performers in Buenos Aires. When I say street performers I literally mean street performers. At a lot of red lights there are people performing in between cars. Most of them are jugglers, but in Santiago Marilee saw a fire dancer. I wish I had seen that.
Sidewalks
Sidewalks are interesting in Buenos Aires because they don’t appear to be maintained by the city. It looks like each building is responsible for maintaining their own sidewalks, and some are more responsible than others. On one block you can go from some really nice marled sidewalk, to concrete tiled sidewalk, to a cracked and potholed full sidewalk, to a packed dirt sidewalk.
The other hazard on sidewalks is dog shit. People don’t seem to pick up after their dogs. There are also a lot of stray dogs running around.
I loved Buenos Aires. One week was way too short of a time to spend there. I can see myself living there for a little way. It was such a fun city. I plan on going back and investigating Argentina more.
argentina, buenos-aires, travel
December 1st, 2006
We headed down to the micro centre on Thursday after breakfast and walked down Florida which is a big shopping area. We walked around for a couple hours. Marilee bought a pair of boots, which were hard to find due to the fact that it was late Spring there. I picked up a couple of DVDs in Spanish for the class my mom is teaching, and a really cool print of Spinetta, an Argentinian musician, from an artist that felt very passionately about him. We then headed back to the casseron for our private lessons.
That night we headed to a Basque restaurant, Laurak Bat for Thanksgiving dinner. Apparently it was close to not a very good neighborhood, at least for a couple of Americans all dressed up, because that was the first night that we were warned about not walking around at night. When the taxi driver dropped us off, he pointed down the street and then to his watch shook his head and said “don’t walk”. We took that as a sign that it was too late to walk around. We had a great dinner and then headed out to my first milonga in Buenos Aires, Tango Soho. It is run by the teacher that we were taking classes from, so we knew some people there. It wasn’t too crowded. After watching for a little bit and having a drink we felt comfortable to dance. It was really fun.
The following day, Friday, we decided to head out to La Boca, one of the neighborhoods in Buenos Aires. It was mostly a tourist spot, but it was pretty nice. Picked up a couple of gifts there and a really nice painting from a sweet old man that was very excited to tell us about the different galleries in the states that his paintings are sold at
After that we headed back for our daily nap before heading out for the night. Our last dinner was at the place we called “The Garage” down the street from the caseron. We had a very nice dinner and then headed out to Salon Canning, a famous Friday night milonga.
It was a spectacle to behold. All the tables were reserved and we had to speak to the host in order to get a table. We were expecting to get a table in the back since we were nobodies, but we seated two tables from the dance floor. Where you sit at a milonga is very important. It sort of shows your status, and helps to get dances. In a milonga you don’t ask someone to dance by walking up to them and asking “do you want to dance?” There is a whole ritual involved. You scan the room for potential partners. When you find one you hope that they look in your direction so that you catch their eye. Once you catch their eye, you make a gesture towards the dance floor and wait for a response, which can be anything from a nod, a smile, or if you are unlucky a look away. Songs are played in groups called tandas. In between the tandas, a non-tango song is partially played to signify the end of the tanda. At this point the dance floor usually clears until the next tanda begins. Another interesting thing about tango is that you only say “thank you”, when you no longer want to dance with the current partner. You don’t say “thank you” if you want to continue dancing with them. In between songs you stand there and have a little conversation until after a few bars of the current song has played and then you start dancing again. It is very interesting to watch, especially how every stops dancing at the same exact moment when the song ends.
The place was very crowded and a little intimidating for us. So we just sat at our table, drank beer, watched people dance, and talked to some of the people that we knew there. At around quarter to three teachers from DNI, a tango school, put on an amazing performance. After the show we caught a taxi with Annette, a fellow traveler from Germany, back the caseron
The next morning was a little sad. It was our last day in Buenos Aires. We got up at 8:30, the earliest that week. Showered, packed, checked out and then went down for breakfast. Our plane was not taking off until 8:40 that night. So we headed out to get Marilee some new tango shoes at Come Il Faut. Which was the best way to shop. If shopping was like that I would go shopping all the time. When you get there, you ring the door bell. Someone opens the little window in the door and decides if they want to let you in or not. Once inside you sit down on a very comfortable couch and they just bring out shoes for you to try on until you find something you like. It was kind of fun.
We then walked around for a little while, and then headed back to the caseron to hang out and wait for the taxi to show up to take us to the airport.
I’ll write another entry with some random details and observations of the trip. So check back soon.
argentina, argentine-tango, buenos-aires, milonga, thanksgiving, travel
November 26th, 2006
Tuesday started out with a little fun. We decided to go check out the Museo de Arte Moderno (The Museum of Modern Art) in San Telmo, but when we got there it looked closed. So we rang the doorbell and the man that comes out informs us that the museum is closed for renovations for at least another year. Damn, now what? We walked around a little and found a plaza. Sat down for some nice cold water, sin gas (without gas), and figured out what to do next.
We decided to go to the Micro Centre, and check out Plaza de Mayo, where the Casa Rosada (the Pink House) is. It is similar to the White House in the states in function, except that president doesn’t live there. This is where Evita spoke to the throngs of supporters out on the Plaza de Mayo from a balcony.
From there we went to the Catedral Metropolitana, which is a very beautiful church, that doesn’t look like a church from the outside. Marilee wasn’t convinced that it was a church until we went inside. We were getting hungry so we found a Cuban restaurant where we had a nice lunch. And then we walk around a lot! Marilee wanted to find a pair of boots, buts its kind of hard since its late spring, and its very hot. We had a little snack at one of the many cafes, and headed back to the caseron for a nap.
Woke up around nine, showered and then headed out to dinner. I love this country. Dinner is really late here compared to back in the states. Ever since Burning Man I have been getting more and more into drum and bass, so I found a discoteca, Bahrein that has a really nice restaurant, Crizia, and drum and bass on a Tuesday night. We arrive around 10 and the restaurant was empty, which made us a little nervous at first, but the waiter assured us that it was only empty because of the disco that night. So we sat down to one of the best dinners we have had since my arrival. I highly recommend this place. The service and food are excellent. We had two wonderful appetizers, breaded and fried Brie, and crab cakes. For dinner Marilee had Pumpkin Raviolis and I really rich and smooth Risotto with Grilled Shrimp. It was so good. For desert Marilee had a bread pudding with fresh whipped cream and dulce de leche. I had a creme brule, that I couldn’t finish because it so sweet, delicious, but sweet. So around one o’clock when we were finished with our meal (every meal is an event here, I love it) headed down to the disco. Oh man, I love Drum and Bass. We had so much fun dancing. The place was so packed, and portenos don’t have personal space issues like we Americans do, because there doesn’t seem to be personal space, at least not at the discos. People just dance on top of each other, which at first was a little annoying, but once I got used to it, it was fine and I had a lot of fun. We left the club around 4am and it was still bouncing. It supposedly stays open until the wee hours of the morning. What a city. This is the city that doesn’t sleep, sorry New York.
Yesterday was sort of a mellow day. Got up around 10:30, went down to breakfast, and then headed out. We went to a botanical garden that is inhabited by hundreds of cats. We then went to the zoo and spent most of the afternoon there. Went back for a nap, and left the caseron for dinner around 10 o’clock (he he).
We went to a section of town called Palermo Viejo, which reminds me of The Village in New York. We found a nice little Italian restaurant, and decided to check out a jazz club. When we go there at 1:30am it was closing down. We were shocked, it was only 1:30. So we went back to the caseron.
Happy Thanksgiving!
argentina, buenos-aires, drum-and-bass, travel
