02 - Tequilas and asados

I think its is barely two days since my last blog but I have done loads and need to note it down before I forget!

After a slow start to Wednesday I left the hostel for a wonder, to my surprise the weather was amazing (there are no windows in the hostel!) and I took advantage of the sunshine taking plenty of photos! The city was completely transformed in the sun. I had managed to miss breakfast at the hostel for the second time and while walking down the street I decided I was very hungry and looked to my right and saw a nice local restaurant and took it as a sign. I hadn´t found any information about the 'Mc Tripple Mac' in my guide book but I will be writing to the editors shortly to recommend they add it.

My mission of the day was to get in touch with an old friend from school, Rachel who has been living in Buenos Aires for two years. I found a public phone and with phrasebook in hand, in anticipation of somebody speaking spanish picking up, it was so nice to hear Rachels voice on the end of the phone!

I was due to meet up with Cath again at five but either I got the time wrong or she got bored of my company, I will need to get better at swapping details in the future! Anyway Rachel invited me for a few after work drinks with her friends as she is leaving BA soon and her friends are determined to give her a great send off. We went to a Bar called 'Liquid' (I hope no relation to the UK chain). I sampled a few local drinks, the names of which escape me and the guys from work will be pleased to hear that yes I did dance and yes that is the way they do it here (my moves are wasted in England!) Thankfully a few of Rachels friends speak excellent English so I had a great time! They invited me to an 'Asado' the next day which is a BBQ kind of affair with more meat than you can shake a stick at!

The next day with a slightly sore noggin I headed out for a walk on my own as the weather was amazing again, you heat-wave sufferers in England will laugh to hear I felt overdressed in a jumper! I walked down to the river again where I went on my first day and it was so nice, there is some new Architecture there so I put on my I´m an architecture geek hat and snapped away capturing different angles etc etc... I stopped here to order a coffee and after studying my phrasebook sat on a bench nearby I boldly walked up to the kiosk and in my best accent spouted "quisiera un cafe con letch por favour y una botella aqua". turns out knowing what to say doesnt help much and after lots of confussed nods, shaking of the head and pointing and waving I established that he wanted me to take a seat and the waiter would be over to take my order. After a similar experience with the waiter my order arrived. I would like to be able to embelish the story and say that a bowl of pasta arrived in from of me, however it seemed they had got the right end of the stick and after a nice coffee and some more hand gestures when paying I made a swift getaway.

I chilled out in the hostel for the rest of the afternoon and then headed out at nine over to Rachels house via the tube and some well blagged navigation. We hopped in the car with her friends and drove for an eternity to the back and beyond of the city to her friend Diego´s house for the Asado. There was about 20 of her friends there as it was her big sending off party and it was great. Obviously not speaking Spanish I didnt have a clue what was going on a lot of the time, but once the meat feast had passed and plenty of alcohol had been drunk Deigo set up his TV for Kareoke. Everyone was a bit shy at first however once Rachel had dished out some dubious measures of tequila the songs started flowing! They took a lot of delight in making me sing 'I will survive' with Rachel and once we had started we didnt stop, 'Champagne Supernova'....'Dont look back in anger'.....'Back for Good'.....and so on. One of the main points of laughter for the night was the behaviour of Diego´s dog Llulo who was very fond of Rachels friend Ale. You've heard of air guitar well, Llulo had perfected the art of 'Air Humping´ every time Ale waved his foot, it sort of looked like dancing! Anyway after a brilliant night I crept back in at half five this morning so am consequently a bit tender today, not so tender that I wasnt able to beat my room mate at table tennis 3-1!

Hasta Luego!