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Today we celebrate our first month of being in Buenos Aires. And what better way to do so than going to an operaaa and sitting in one of these seats in the Teatro Colon-- http://hotelcarlosprimero.com.ar/eng/index.php?teatro-col%F3n,39
(Sarge kept begging me to go to the Justin Beiber concert, but I had to put my foot down and say no...).
Even though we've been here for a month, we can still say we are very, very American. (Is this a good thing? Meh.) We bought tickets from a Groupon-ish Argentine website for a Don Omar concert (who doesn't want to see this live? -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRWqYR3e7xE), but after waiting 2+ hours in a 15-person line to pick up the tickets, we just turned and left. There was an unbelievable amount of things to complain about, but we were the only ones who seemed perturbed. And we consider ourselves patient people... If that was the case in Jersey, people would be rioting left and right.
On Thursday, the game plan is to take a ferry to Colonia, Uruguay for a few days (and then take a bus to Montevideo, which is also just right across the river). A lot of the expats or turistas living in Buenos Aires take these ferries to Uruguay for the day to renew their tourist visa after 3 months, and our tickets were originally set for late November so we could do that as well- BUT now that our BA "plan" has changed...
...And about the plan... Plan schman. Our 4 months here will be cut down to 2 (surprisingly Teresa the landlord was typical Argentine and very understanding). Mid-November we'll be leaving the city for a more subtle, man vs. nature lifestyle somewhere in the Patagonia. We've looked into renting a car for 2 weeks with a destination in mind, and then stopping in that certain ciudad to WWOOF. And so on and so on... until we can say we've conquered all of the south and can head up to the Mendoza area.
But until then, there's still so much to see in BA it's almost ridiculous. It'd be impossible to see everything BA has to offer unless you're caffeinated constantly and have a longing for public transportation. Each barrio has it's own personality and landmarks, as well as that certain parrilla restaurant (grill) where you need to eat an asado (steak). We've seen the Japanese Gardens, visited the Costanera del Sur (ecological reserve within walking distance from skyscrapers), toured the ethnography museum, rented bikes, but certain things definitely stand out.
- the Madres: a group of older women who dedicate their lives to finding the children of "los desaparecidos," the 30,000 people who were taken away without a word, tortured, and killed during the "Dirty War" in Argentina. Definitely worth a 30-minute google session... They march around the Plaza de Mayo every Thursday from 3:30-4:00. We went to their headquarters/cafe afterwards and it was amazing to see the extent of their hard work.
- The San Telmo market: a market that takes up over 10 blocks (not counting the side roads) every Sunday in San Telmo. There were antiques (even Nazi knives), modern clothing, art, Tango dancing, men dressed up as Jack Sparrow, etc. And it seems we finally found the favorite foreigner locale.
- Being anywhere and people offering a friendly warning about robbers: I've had at least three nice, older ladies stop me and mention that I should put my backpack under my feet or my purse in front of me. Our obsession for Argentines grows every day.
We're also not forgetting to keep in mind that we might actually just miss the small, simple things that are so enjoyable in a big city. AKA bowling and movie theatres. The former: check. The latter: waiting for Paranormal Activity 3 to come out. Duh.
- comments
elly sounds like you guys are having a ton of fun! although, i'm a little sad you didn't go see justin beiber
keating I'm happy you skipped JB. Almost anything has to better