"Ms. Straw, I am obsessed with Argentina."
"We loooooove Argentina."
Now, I know what they mean. I am obsessively in love with Argentina too.
We started our trip in Buenos Aires:
Buenos Aires
Day One
Some people say that Buenos Aires is like Europe. It's not. It's better than Europe. The parks are prettier, the sidewalks are wider, the cafes and restaurants have better food and it's cheaper. Way cheaper.
We got to Buenos Aires around 6:30 am on Saturday morning. It was raining, but only a little and cold, but of course we didn't mind that. After dropping off our luggage we started making our way to the Plaza del Congreso for a walking tour. We never made it.
First we stopped at a cafe for breakfast. On the chalkboard it said they had cafe con leche with three medialunas for just 10 Argentine pesos, about 3 US dollars. I odered that and got this:
Maybe you're wondering about the diet I claim to be on? Well, I modified it for the trip. Instead of eating all three croissants I just had two, and a little nibble of the third. Oh, and do you see the little shot of bubble water? They serve one with every cup of coffee, even at McDonalds. Yes, we had McDonald's, but only in the airport, and besides, it was delicious.
After breakfast we continued on to what we thought was the Plaza del Congreso, checking out the sights of Buenos Aires along the way. There were a few things we noticed right away.
One: There are a ton of dogs in Buenos Aires. And lots of dog walkers, which means one tiny woman walking like ten huge dogs. Sitting at a cafe for just over a half hour we saw at least three groups this size pass by.
Two: Flower stalls. These all seemed to be very lovingly cared for. On Saturday and Sunday they were selling olive branches, which Brad and I thought was just an Argentian thing until we realized, oh yeah, Palm Sunday.
Three: Newsstands. And you know I was giddy about all that reading material. Suffice it to say, it's not as readily available here.
Four: A bunch of apartment buildings that we would kill to live in. I guess anything just short of killing. We really want to move to Buenos Aires.
We never figured out what the black ribbon was for. Anyone know?
So, eventually we made it to a park, which turned out not to be the park. But we sat for a long time and waited to see if the walking tour would show up. In the meantime we watched a thai chi group do their thing.
Eventually we gave up on the walking tour, since we were sort of engaged in our own anyway and headed off to make a dinner reservation at La Cabrera, which I had heard was the best in town. Being the said best it was full, so we had a long late lunch at an Italian restuarant which turned out to be wonderful. I can't even describe how delicious it was and since I forgot to take pictures of it, you'll just have to be satisfied with this descrption in an email I wrote to my parents the next day:
Yesterday we walked, forever, to this restaurant to make reservations, because I'd heard it was the best. Well we get there and can't make a reservation until Monday night and by this time we are soooo tired. So for lunch we just wander into the closest restuarant. It's Italian and the waiter says we can have the buffet which comes with our choice of entree for 40 pesos, 10 dollars. The buffet has among other things sun dried tomatoes, wedges of parmesean, homemade mozzerrella, salami and procuitto. There's also eggplant, mushrooms and roasted red pepper. All in these tiny little bowls on this medium sized table like if you take too much it's all over for everyone. Well, I'll sum it up by saying it was probably the best meal of my life.
After lunch we checked into the apartment we rented for the days that we were in Buenos Aires. It was a cozy little place in a great neighborhood. The kitchen served us well for wine storage and heating up delicious leftovers.
I was going to do this in one big post, but I'm starting to see that that will take forever. So, stay tuned all week I guess. There's lots more to tell.
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