I arsed around today until it was time to catch my bus to catch my bus to BA..... 18 hours, not a bother!
Sat 10th/Sept
Wahoooo I finally arrived to my hostel at 4pm. I choose to stay in Millhouse as it was recommended by everyone whos to BA! Its a massive party hostel with a sister hostel a few blocks away and every night there was something on in either one of them.
Id been told countless times how amazing BA is and I was like yea yea Im sure its just another big city with good night life but as I found out over the next few days everyone was right, Buenos Aires is amazing!!! Its a huge city with so much to see and do, I originally planned to stay 4 days, I ended up staying 9!!
I was in a 6 bed dorm with some great girls so we all headed down to the other Millhouse tonight to party! Now I thought that Argentinian day was crazy in Salta its even worse here..... people dont go out to clubs until 2am. 2am!!! At home Id be heading home at 2am never mind going out. This was going to take some adjusting to!!
Irelands first RWC game was on at 3am our time here. No TV stations in Argi were showing the match so a bunch of us Irish from the hostel streamed the game on the hostel PC and cheered on the boys!
11th/Sept Sunday: RECOLETA
BA is made up of six main zones; La Boca, Centro, Palermo, San Telmo, Recoleta and Puerto Madero. Each area has its own unique character and there's something to do in each place. My plan for the week was to explore one area a day and see where that got me!
It was a slow start to the day after the late night last night but after we got ourselves together myself and my new buddy Bryony took a walk down to Recoleta, an upper class neighbourhood with great buzz about the place on the weekends.
Our hostel was located in Centro so we were right in the middle of all the different neighbourhoods and located next to BA's main street Av 9 De Julio. This road (BA's O' Connell St) is 14 lanes wide! Its massive and takes about 5 minutes to cross!! We took a strole down the Av and headed towards Recoleta.
The minute we got to the main square in Recoleta I knew I had fallen in love with BA. It was filled with market stalls, musicians, cafes, street vendors and families having picnics on the grass. There was just such a great vibe about the place. After a wander around we found a little cafe and sat in the sun and ate lunch.
We then wandered further around the area and found the famous 'Flower'. This is a gigantic electronic sculpture that opens at 7am and closes its petals at 8pm.
At this stage it was quite late in the day so we decided to leave the famous Recoleta Cemetery till another day and head back to the hostel. We had a lovely cup of coffee before walked back passing fabulous buildings that looked like they belong in Paris. The place is just beautiful.
Mon 12/Sept
So today we decided to head back down to Recoleta to see the cemetery. The cemetery has many famous Argentinian people buried there however the most famous of all is Eva Perion or Evita as she was know.
I knew nothing of her but I did an aul Google before we left so I had a basic background. Basically she grew up in poverty, became a famous singer/actress, married the president of Argentina and then in her own right became a massive political influence in the country. She died at the age of 33 from cancer & her husband had her body embalmed. Her body then went missing for 14 years! It was found and then kept in her former husbands and his new wife's dining room before it was eventually put in the plot in the cemetery! A crazy story but a true one.
The cemetery is amazing. A crazy thing to go sightseeing to but it is spectacular. Its like a little city. All of the graves are in tombs above ground and are really ornate. It was here you got laid to rest if you had money.
We were given a map when we went in so we headed straight for Evits grave first. It was very simple compared to some of the others.
I keep saying the term grave but I don't know if that's what you can call them. The coffins are not underground, all you have to do is look through the glass and you can see the coffins stacked on top of one another. In some of the older graves the glass is broken and coffin lids are falling off, I didn't stop to look at them ones properly. Its a great thing to see but at the same time there is an uneasy feeling about it. I don't think Id like my coffin to be left there in plain view for everyone to see! We also found a 'wall of drawers', basically drawers of coffins in a wall, obviously for the less well off that could not afford a tomb.
Argentinians are now buried underground, however as we were leaving the cemetery there was a funeral procession. Obviously a very very wealthy family (you could tell by looking at them) still had room in their tomb here.
We headed back to the hostel to get ready for that nights antics. Tonight we were heading to Bomba Del Tiempo a live drum show that I was told I could not leave BA without seeing. The gig started at 8 and was held in a huge art house space. Grafitti on the wall, a hippie kinda vibe, it was class. There were ten drummers up on stage giving it socks and everyone was boping along enjoying a few beers and a few 'smokes'.
That night the party was at our Millhouse so after Bomba we headed back to have some fun!
Tue 13/Sept LA BOCA
The hostel runs a few tours so we decided to do todays one which was a tour of La Boca, a colourful neighbourhood and also the neighbourhood which is home to the Boca Juniors football team.
The tour started with a trip to Boca Juniors stadium famous for its CRAZY fans who start a riot at every game and Maradonna... who some say is Argentina's greatest football player, Messi fans will disagree!!!
The tour of the stadium lasted a good hour, we watched a movie, went out to the pitch and went to the museum.
Afterwards we went for some lunch, it was a while since I had a steak so one was in order today! On the way to lunch we passed some fantastic graffiti.
La Boca is famous for its colourful buildings and some of you may have seen the postcard of the two tango dancers posing in front of a colourful building, this was taken in La Boca. It is a poor area and it is from its poverty that the colours first came about. The local residents had no other material to build with except galvanise and so they took left over paint from the nearby docks to cover the galvanise. The leftovers were never enough to paint an entire building one colour!!
After some free time wandering around La Boca, which is not a very big area it was time to go home.... HA I just wrote home... well I suppose it was my home for a week!
Tonight it was time for a Tango lesson! Aghhhh it was hilarious, it was like being 13 again at the school disco! Boys on one side of the room and girls on the other. We then had to pair up with whoever was across from us and they were our partner!! We spent an hour learning the moves and it was gas. At the end we had to dance what we had learned in front of everyone. All was going well until I kneed my poor partner in the balls while trying to preform a rather complicated move! Well I swear I never laughed so much, the poor lad HAHA. It was a hilarious night!
Wed 14th/Sept PUERTO MADERO
As the name suggests this area is the port along the waterfront and was today's destination for myself and Bryony. On the walk to the port we came across Casa Rose, the pink house. It is from here that Evita made her famous speech to the people or from where Madonna sang dont cry for me.....
Puerto Madero.... or the Dublin docks as I will refer to it was just like home! I swear the first thing I saw was a replica or something very similar to our Harp bridge! We walked up and down both sides of the water and I could have just as well been in Dublin on a sunny day.
Today as we had every other day we decided to treat ourselves, so sushi was on the menu for lunch. We found a great sushi place on the water and really enjoyed ourselves! Yum yum yum
La Cabrera.... thee steak house to visit in Argentina was our destination tonight. My self, Bry, Ann, Tina and John all headed off to dinner with serious excitement. Id heard so much about this place and I was dying to try it. I was not disappointed. Simply put it was the best meal I have ever had.
On arrival we were greeted with glasses of champagne while we waited outside the restaurant to be seated. After being shown to our table we tried to make heads of the massive list of cuts of meats that were on offer. While we figured out what we wanted we were given a massive array of breads and dips and ordered a bottle of wine. I eventually went for peppered sirloin and nearly died when it arrived. 5 pieces of meat cooked to perfection. But that wasnt all, next our waiter arrived carrying a huge long wooden board filled with small portions of every side you could imagine and we were allowed to take what ever we wanted! Well I can safely say by the time we were finished we were fit to BURST! Dessert was lolly pops brought to us by our waiter on a lolly pop tree followed by more champagne! I havnt been this spoiled in a long time and I loved it! The service was impeccable, the atmosphere of the place was buzzing and the food was just glorious.
The plan was to head out after but none of us could do anything but go home and lie down!!!!
Thu 15th Sept PALERMO
I had a little lie in today and it was lovely. I then headed off to Palermo to meet Bryony for some lunch. Today was my first experience of BA's metro system which I have to say is excellent and got me to where I needed to go.
Palermo is another beautiful neighbourhood. Its very trendy, people here obviously have money. The streets are lined with designer boutiques, cafes and restaurants. I meet up with Bry and we went for a massive lunch before going for wander. The other side of Palermo hosts BA's parks and is full of people exercising and dog walkers. We walked around exploring and visited the Japanese gardens. Nothing too impressive but a nice way to spend an hour.
So it turns our Simon, Todd and Jeeke have all made it to BA and tonight they came up to Millhouse to have a few drinks, dinner and a catch up!
Fri 16th Sept PALERMO
It was back to Palermo today on a tour with the hostel which brought us to places we hadnt been to the previous day. Again we strolled through the beautiful parks and gardens and were given some info about the area.
The main reason why we came on the tour today was because there was an Argentinian food fair on that we were being brought to. It was on in a huge building and was full of stalls showing there sweets, cheese, meat, wine, olive oil etc... I was in heaven. My self and Bry basically spent hours walking around grabbing all the frebies we could!!! We also purchased cheese, salami and olive and planned to have a feast for dinner.
After we had our fill we headed back and put on the glad rags for tonights party at the other millhouse.
Sat 17th Sept SAN TELMO
I was shook awake by Byrony this morning at 10am.... It was time for the rugby she was telling me. IRELAND V THE OZZIES (Bryony is an Ozzie). I had got to bed at 7am and was not happy about being woken up but I dragged myself downstairs to watch the game. Good job I did to because Ireland won!!! There was a great atmosphere in the hostel... you could spot the Irish a mile away as we were all sitting there with pints HA. Great morning and Bry never heard the end of it!
Today it was San Telmo and old part of the city with cobbled streets and a very famous antiques market. I was tired today, it has been an action packed week and it was bound to catch up on me I suppose. Anyway I trooped on with the girls and we had fun at the market. It is an indoor place with many weird and wonderful stalls selling off the wall stuff!
Sushi was on the menu again today especially when we came across an authentic Japanese restaurant to eat it in.
After lunch myself and Bry were supposed to go and buy tickets for our bus but that didnt happen as we were both wrecked..... why do today what you can put off till tomorrow! :P
So I was straight home after lunch and into bed for a siesta as tonight I would need all my energy for the Opera!
Yes we were off to an Italian Opera tonight and I couldnt wait. We had got the word that you could buy cheap tickets up in the rafters for €6 so we decided why the hell not. Id never been to the Opera before & I was so excited. We would actually be getting to see two Operas, one short one and then the main one. Now as luck would have it Bryonys mother is an Opera singer. So Bry told her Mam what we were going to see (Sour Angelica & Pagliacci) and her Mam emailed us a synopsis of what the Opera was about.
The show kicked off at 8 in an amazing Opera house just off the Av 9 De Julia. What a great experience. I hadn't a clue what was being sung but thanks to our inside info I got the gist of what was happening! I really enjoyed it and its defo something I would go to again.
So it was across to the other Millhouse to meet some friends for drinks. At this stage it was 11 so we decided tonight would be the night we stayed out till the early hours. A club was picked, a good time was had and bed was reached at 6.30 am after an early morning Maccy D's!!
Sun 18th
HAHA our dorm was gas today. Not one person got out of bed before 4pm. Everyone was dying, it was a disgrace!!!
By the way I was supposed to be leaving BA today with Bryony but after a few drinks last night we decided we loved the place too much and booked in and paid for another night. Im glad now though because if I had to get on a 22 hr bus today I would die!!
We took another quick walk to San Telmo today to check out the Sunday market which was huge, about 10 blocks in length but also required walking which we weren't really up to.
So nothing was done today except some cooking of hangover food by Bryony the amazing chef ;)
Mon 19th
Awww our last day in BA and Im sad to go, I really really love it here and iv had the best week! Our bus was at 7 so we wandered around Centro and Florida street to pass the time.
I LOVE BA :)
Next stop Iguazu Falls!
