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While winter is arriving in both Holland and the UK, and Christmas is on its way, we are enjoying sun, beach, very nice temperatures and some surf. It is hard to believe that it´s nearly Christmas, as we don´t see much of it in the streets and it is not celebrated that big over here. We hope to spend our Christmas in El Calafate, which is the most southern place we´re gonna go in Argentina, and where the temperatures might be a little closer to the usual around this time of year...
We spent the last couple of weeks in Buenos Aires, a city which we fell in love with from the start. It is hard to explain why, in a way it is a big city like any other, but at the same time it is so diverse and has a small feel to it.
We stayed in a very nice hostel in San Telmo, in an old historical building. On the inside was a patio where all the rooms were connected to and it had high ceilings and a lot of ornaments. San Telmo used to be the area where a lot of artists were housed, now you still see exhibitions, boutiques and a lot of antiquerias. It is a lovely area with, as in most of BA a lot of very impressive old buildings.
We started a language course with Escuela de Rayuela, where we had semi-private lessons from Ignacio. We had already studied some Spanish in the past weeks, and were able to get more to grip on rules and enlarge our vocabulary. After 4 days we finished (unfortunately because of a bank holiday, we didn´t have more time) and we even got a diploma!
In the 2 weeks we were here, we had a lot of walks around town, we saw the colourful area La Boca, where you see pretend Diego Maradonna´s to go on a photo with, where there´s a market and Tango dancers on the streets and where you can drink 1ltr beer for same price as water! In Recoleta we saw the old Cemetary, a little village for rich dead people. Intriguing to see, the chapels with coffins in it, for relatives to think of and talk to the deceased. Some were very well mantained, whereas others were a bit creapy and ruined. Eva Perón (Evita)´s grave is the famous one, and the only one where you still see fresh flowers. In Palermo we had a relaxing day in the big green park, while people bike, run or skate and others are trying to sell Helados (icecream) on a bike.
Most striking things about Argentinians:
- Maté. Everywhere you go, there are people drinking this strong herbal tea, they take a cup and some sort of strawspoon, hot water in a thermos, and sip the strong and bitter (but nice!) fluid.
- You don´t need to have a nice bottom to wear a string on the beach! They seem to think, as long as my white bits are small... It´s not always a good view!
- Nearly twice a week it is bin-day, and the disturbing thing to see is that some people (not the poorest in most cases), rip all the bags open and look for something edible or useful... Result is that everything blows down the street and the smell is not the best...
- A lot of great food; empanadas, the usual snack for in between meals, a pastry filled with either chicken, meat or pork and nicely spiced. Cortado, a stong coffee with poquito milk, very good. Chimichurri, a sauce for meat just goes with everything!
This is it for now, we are gonna get ready for (another) 17-hour bustrip down south! Hasta lugo!
- comments
Jack Niama Que tal Amigos! Nice to read your blogs... great stories and photos. Take care and Feliz Navidad!!!
Anneloes Jeeej, tof verhaal! Kriebels voor BA hoor! Wat heerlijk... Lieverds, geniet! Dikke knuffel xxx