Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Writing this sitting in a darkened hotel room by the light of the iPad trying not to wake someone up. Mind you alarms become a tad moot when the traffic gets going two hours before the sun. The hotel Scala is slap bang in the middle of Buenos Aires, great location just off on the enormous 18(!) lane highway that runs through the middle of the city. I can see UADE business school across the road- about 300m away.
Arrived yesterday morning after a single 13hour plane journey made much easier by a mini upgrade to longer legroom class (gracias Simon!), managed our first bit of haggling - knocking the taxi finder general down from $10 to a rather more comfortable $1. Straight to the hotel, and then straight out to have a mooch around.
Just as cold as the uk, but much less of the cloudy grey stuff. A very grid like city, Buenos Aires seems to be quite simple to navigate, even for someone of my notoriously rubbish sense of direction. The harder job is to avoid a) stepping on the many canine jobbies decorating the pavements b) twisting your ankle on the endemic broken paving c) getting run over by the argentinian motorised hordes having launched yourself into the road to avoid a) & b). Maybe next time I'll just settle for stepping straight in the poo.
Graffiti seems to be a major pastime here, you can see a few examples from the pix, ranging from all sorts of political statements to major pieces of artistry. Lots of references to Belgrano which I'm hoping is the general rather than the ah, ship, but given this is the 30th anniversary of seems a wee bit unlikely. Thankfully everyone we've met is completely charming and friendly, and we have yet to encounter even a hint of the aggression you can normally pick up in cities if you happen to be doing something outrageous like staring at them in a funny way, invading their pavement, or generally breathing without permission. Not even a hint, which is quite refreshing.
Football is THE sport. The first thing we saw on the hotel tv was a uk premier league game and you can pick up shirts of your favourite team quite easily. I was quite tempted by an Arsenal shirt until Lou pointed out that the shirts combination of pink, gold and green didn't really suit my complexion, at least while sober. We met up with a few of the other early arrivals for dinner, at a restaurant that Kevin and Julia (our Globebusters mentors/guides/gurus) recommended. The food and drink were in a word - Fantastico! Probably the best steak I've ever eaten and the Malbec was just glorious. Apparently par for the course while we're in Argentina...I may not leave.
- comments
Simon baker. Steak and malbec. Start as you mean to go on then.