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So....it´s taken a while for me to get to write this blog due to the hecticness that has become my life since travelling but here it is...my crazy week in Buenos Aires, the home of Tango, Dulce de Leche and the heart of football!! To warn you....we all had a ridiculous amount of fun during our time in BA, so much so that we extended it!! :) and i apologise for the length of this particular blog!
So, once we got off our magical and amazing bus from Igazu we took a cab straight to our hostel...Milhouse Avenue! It´s the 2nd hostel for the owners of milhouse but this building is only 3 months old so it was absolutely stunning, more like a 3 star hotel than a hostel which was nice! However, we immediately weren´t too impressed with the atmosphere, there were lot of older travelers and lots of people who appeared to be holidaying...who ALWAYS looked nice which was tough for us as we do look like tramps ever so slightly! haha..sorry mum!!! Anyway, we checked out the other hostel which was like a block away and made a reservation there for monday!! As the journey had taken a while...19 hrs, and i hadn´t eaten meat in over 5 wks my first question to the receptionist was...WHERE IS THE KOSHER MCDONALDS!?!?!?
Buenos Aires is the only place outside of israel with a kosher McD´s and i was sooo desperate for meat that me and the girls caught the subte (underground) to Carlos Gardel and entered the shopping centre where the meat was awaiting me! I cannot explain how excited i was, when Kate pointed out the Kosher sign i ran, like an excited child with my shorts falling down so the whole world could see my bum (i have managed to lose weight since my depature from london so even though my shorts were rolled up i was unable to stop them falling down at such an exciting time haha)!! I managed to put away not one but two Big Mac Meals, i had to get the second one as i had eaten it so fast that i didn´t actually get to taste any of it haha! I did later go back for chicken nuggets but they had closed for shabbat, probably for the best as i was stuffeddd!!!
We decided to embrace the shopping mall as most of our clothes are pretty much trashed already which is a very sad time! You won´t believe what we found...the one and only C&A, it is our new love! Since rediscovering how amazing it is i have bought a purple barbie top from there...i am telling you all this as i am still very excited by the top, it has a shoe and says Barbie in bright pink, as you can tell i love it a lot! Anyway, i will shut up about my top now haha!!
As Buenos Aires is such a city where everything comes alive at night, that night we drank at the bar, and the girls were going to Crobar, the place to be and i was planning on staying in, as it was shabbat but the girls decided aganist the club and we just played pool all night! we are amazing at that! haha!!
SO our first full day in BA we decided we would check out one of the many markets they have all over the city! We walked all the way from our hostel in Ave de Mayo to Recoletta, and for those who don´t know how far this is, well its not exactly close and took us way longer than we thought, but bless the girls, they walk with me everywhere every shabbat! They have been amazing and i do feel the need to mention that!!
So Recoletta is a nice area of BA, it holds big markets on the weekends, but is famously known as where the cemetry where Evita is buried is. We had a lovely mooch around the markets, which was full of beautiful jewlerry (all out of my budget sadly) and gorgeous pieces of artwork. As the market is in the middle of a park we sat down near a band and lay on the grass listening to beautiful music. Argentina has a very European feel to it, i honestly felt like i could have been sitting in Italy or Spain!
Just as we were thinking ´this is the life´the rain started!! GRRR!! we had to make a run for it but as we were so far from home and it didn´t look like the rain was about to stop anytime soon we had a lovely walk in the rain home...singing as we went! The three of us were literally dancing and singing through the streets of BA, least to say people were giving us very strange looks especially as we were soaked through and were making no attempt at staying dry! Way we saw it, we were going to get wet either way so why not embrace it! Who said the rain had to ruin our day haha!!
As i mentioned earlier, BA comes alive at night! Nobody goes out before 2/3 am so between the hours of 9 and 11pm, became our nap time which was always much appreciated! So on our first big night out we made the most of happy hour at the hostel where it was 2 cocktails for 12 pesos (2 pound and 40p or something crazy cheap) - we got 4 drinks each!! Needless to say we were feeling rather merry on our way out to PACHA which is a club also in Ibiza. We had a fun night out, but the music was house and as we couldnt afford to drink at the club we soon got fed up of the music and came home about 5.30ish - so very early in BA time ha!!
BA is full of unique and very bohemiem places, so sunday after a failed attempt at getting tickets to a football match, we went to a place not far from our hostel called San Telmo. They have a HUGE market up on sundays selling antiques, art work and other beautiful things. We came across a little photo booth where you could dress up as flapper girls, cowboys etc...so us being the lovers of dressing up that we are we jumped at it (and it was within budget wooop)! We dressed up as 1920´s girls, in gorgeous dresses and head sets! Although we met the most irritating israeli on our travels that day that we eventually managed to lose...we had an amazing day! We did see the most talented artist ever (i think) who would put on a piece of music and paint the singer, he painted with his hands and was jumping around slashing paint everywhere making a huge mess of himself but he came out with the most spectacular paintings! They were unbelievable, Nially, i did want to get you one for your room but couldn´t carry it round for another 8 months or so, so sorry bro haha!!
That evening i had my seoncd kosher mcdonalds, it really was a very amazing thing of BA! especially as it cost the same as the non kosher one so i could eat meat with the girls for a change, yaya! fun times!
The old milhouse hostel, where we moved on Monday was so much better than where we had been staying and i would highly recommend it to anyone going to BA, so Alissa take note haha! Anyway, at the new hostel i managed to find a large group of Israeli boys and seeing as it was Purim i arranged to party with them! The hostel has 3 parties a wk and luckily monday is one of those nights...and what was better was the happy hour of two cocktails for 8 pesos (1 pound 60 - bargain) so i did fulfill the mitzvah of getting drunk on purim people! wooop! ánd what better way to do it than with a group of 6 hot israeli boys hehe!! After the party ended we moved to a club across the road from the hostel where all three of us managed to get hit in the head as a fight broke out right next to where we were standing! Although it hurt like hell (i managed to get hit 3 times trying to move the girls out the way) i found the whole thing hilarious and continued dancing the night away - aint no stopping us!!
Although we had a night to remember, when i got bak to the room i found lorna half asleep wondering around muttering to herself! As i was a little drunk i found this very funny until she finally managed to get out that she had fallen off the bunk bend in her sleep and had hurt her hand! I immediately went into action and got the largest piece of ice you have ever seen from the freezer with the help of the security guard who thought i was a tad insane (nothing knew there i guess lol) and between me and kate, who decided we were going to make a splint from a tree branch we put her hand in a bandage until the morning! We didn´t realise how seriously she had fallen and did find the whole 2 hours that it took for us to get it sorted very ammusing, putting kate in a cage where our bags get locked away as a joke and just generally being stupid! When we woke up the next day, we were horrendously hungover and realised that Lorna´s fall wasn´t so funny afterall, we never went to hospital but we did buy her a splint and hard core painkillers - poor thing her whole hand was swollen and blue, thankfully she is doing much better now, but it really does always happen to her!!
Our hangovers wouldn´t let us forget the night before, but we managed to feel better just in time for a tango lesson at the hostel! Unfortunately Lorna couldn´t take part but me and kate partnered up with some guys and learnt the steps! I´m not gonna lie to any of you reading this, we are pretty good tango dancers haha! The dance is just so sexy, after an hours lessons where legs were rubbing and down other legs i think i knew my partner pretty well lol!! We had such fun, and i asked the techers (who turned out to be a jewish argentinian) where else we could learn! woooop!!
BA is a city with just soo much to do, and we managed to get into the swing of partying ALL night and then getting things done in the day as well, so the next day we trotted off to the zoo which is considered a large attraction in BA as it offers some amazing animals, including a polar bear, elephants, a white tiger, lions, rhinos and many more! The laws must be totally different to what we know at home as the cages for the animals are very different, and i reckon some of them are rather easy to escape from! But it was a very fun day and only cost us 3 pound! After our trip to the zoo we chilled in the botanical gardens and decided it was time for my third kosher maccy d´s, and the girls decided they were going to eat there too which was a great experience for them...they loved it!!! ha!!!
As i mentioned, i asked the tango instructor, Ariel, where would be a good place to get tango lessons outside the hostel, and he recommended a place called La Catedral...this is an old converted theatre with the most incredible atmosphere, it´s such a unique and sexy setting! As the rain had set in, and in BA everyone stops when it rains the class was empty so we basically got a private lesson which we loved! The teacher was very impressed with us and commented on how fabulous we were (so very true lol).
I mentioned earlier that Recoletta is where the cemmetry is where Evita is buried, along with many other important people from Argentinian history. When we visited this cemmetry we were shocked, it is so different to any other in the world. The Argentinian really respect their dead and have very flash tombs, rather than tombstones! Families are together, and basically have volts...you can see many of the coffins, some are covered in white sheets and others are just out. Was a very strange experience....but it was fascinating! Evita´s grave is surrounded in flowers but no where near as glam as some of the other tomb stones that are within the place....it has little roads with names and everything!
Now, those who know my mother (whom i love a lot hehe) she has a tattoo on the back of her neck, and following our expedition to the cemmetry i decided i would get one in the same place. Now, for those who don´t like tattoos, dont read the next bit haha! In BA there is a shopping mall called Bond Street that is just full of tattoo parlours, its crazy! But with Kate holding my hands, and Lorna watching the man i got my first tattoo on the back of my neck of a flying butterfly! I love it a lot...and yes it was done in a very clean place i promise and is doing superbly! haha!!
To celebrate my tattoo...well we find any and every excuse to party, we had a party at the hostel that night. Before i attended the party, i met up with a friend from Uni who is attending uni in BA for a yr and met her lovely Argentinian boyf! Was a lovely evening Zoe, and great to see you!! So, the party was just as crazy as the other parties, but we ended up in a club called LOST at about 3am...now this club is by far the most amazing place! EVER! it was proper save the last dance style club, all hip hop and r´n´b music which is of course my love and everyone was just going crazy on the dance floor! There was no wipping the smile off my face, mich i needed you there!!
Kate managed to find a contact through someone in her village of someone we could stay with in BA so on Fri, after a few hours sunbathing in the park recovering from the night before we moved across to another part of town called Ácoyte´ ´to stay with a 94 year old woman who speaks zero english and has more energy than tilly and aaron put together - no jokes!! Negra was very hospitable and was just brilliant! Argentinian families are known for opening up their homes which worked well in our favour haha! It was very nice to see a new part of town as we had spent a while ´downtown´as they call it, and as we were very close to some more large and beautiful parks we spent the whole of saturday sunbathing and watching people learn some form of martial arts! It´s funny how things happen here and people just aren´t fazed, but at home we would look at it as if it was the strangest thing we´d ever seen! In the evening we decided to hit up a TANGO SHOW! This just had to be done, and we decided that as we´d been more than amazing on our budget of 5 pound on food and drink a day we would treat ourselves to a meal out! I finally managed to find some reasonably priced fish...wooop! we got chatting to an older australian couple who were next to us who were from perth and absolutely charming, and when we went to order our bill we discovered that David, had snuck off and paid our bill! The three of us nearly burst into tears, it was soo much appreciated and it was one of the nicest things to of done! So thank you Margaret and David! I still can´t believe it happened, felt like something out of a movie at the time!! :)
The tango show was was at Cafe Tortolini...and took place at the back of this rather expensive restaurant! It was a lot of fun, they told the story of tango which is very interesting! For those who know nothing of tango, it started as a dance between men whilst they were waiting in brothals, and it later developed into a dance between a man and woman, however even so there are still a ton of different strands to it as it took a while for people to accept male and females dancing so close together! The woman wasn´t the most amazing dancer, but the male lead was unbelievable! We all sat with out mouths open in shock! Even the stage is so small he was just moving all over the show! It was great to see, and a worth while thing to do if any of you are ever going to Argentina! Tango really is the way forward and i WILL continue to learn it when i get home! :) just need to find me a partner!
South America is crazy for football..and i mean CRAZY! Argentina has loads of teams, but one of the favourites is La Boca. Their stadium is located in the area of La Boca which i mentioned earlier - it is not the safest of places! It is the place where most immigrants go to and they refuse to assimilate into society, and they considered La Boca as a seperate city to BA, even though it is most definately within the city! We met up with a friend of Kate´s from uni, again who is studying in BA for the year and a few of his friends and managed to get tickets for a match happening on the sunday. The tickets cost us 30 pesos - 6 pound! Bargin!!! Before the match we grabbed a bite to eat in the tourist area and waited to meet some more of his friends who unfortunatly got held up at knife point on the bus to the stadium so two of the girls didn´t come! They are the first who i have heard of having trouble in BA, thankfully everyone was ok! Two Argentinian men came to her rescue, and escorted her off the bus and took her to us. I don´t know if it was through a guilty conscious or what, but the two men insisted on staying with us for the rest of the day (they also had tickets to the football) but they made sure we were all safe at all times. Me and the girls named them Daddy Boca and Brother Boca, they were brilliant! :) Getting into the stadium was not an easy task, we were frisked about 3 times, went through a gazillion metal detectors but it was well worth it! It was the most electric atmosphere i´ve ever experienced!!! We got into the stadium about and hr and half before the match actually started to ensure we got seats away from where people would throw cups of piss down into the crowd! delightful i know! As the stadium started to fill up, banners, flags and drums were being set up, half hr before the match there wasn´t a spare seat in the house and we were all standing and chanting at the top of our lungs!
Boca Jnrs were playing Argentinos Jnr, a very small team in comparison! But they had to be shielded by police when walking off and on the pitch incase the boca fans would throw things at them! Kizza, you would have loved this day! seriously!! Boca won 3-0 and omg when Boca scored it was terrifying, intense and just pure madness! I was actually scared for the other team to score! Everyone is so ramed into the stadium that there is literally no room to move! Thankfully they didn´t score...phew!
Getting home from the match which was one of the best things ive seen in Argentina by a long shot (seriously good) was an experience in itself! Getting a cab was out of the question as there were just too many people, and all the buses were full so we walked! Of course we had Daddy and Brother Boca with us, they circled around us whilst getting out the stadium to make sure none of us got lost! It was like we had our own personal security!
In total it took at about 3 hours to find a way to get home! we walked for over 2 hrs, and eventually managed to find a taxi...it was a very stressful time! I blame the cold/ chest infection i now have on this....standing in the cold for so long! Where are all the cabs when you need them!?!?
Monday....our last day in BA :( After packing our bags which we are getting very good at...but is still stressful as everything is always a squeeze, and buying Negra some flowers to say thank you (see mummy we are being very nice girls) we caught an over night bus to MENDOZA!!! Mendoza is full of Vineyards...so wine tasting here we come!!!!
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