Back to BA with Nina for the week! No shower sandals necessary this time! Woo hoo! We've rented out an apartment in Palermo Chico. It feels so nice to just walk around without shoes on, to sit around and watch tv, and it's great not to deal with random people who snore or are annoying. haha.
Our first day started with us getting stopped on the street (within 5 minutes of leaving the apt) by an old lady who was absolutely shocked with our clothing choices. While everyone in BA is dressed for the "fall", Nina and I were dressed like it was summer time (it was like 73 degrees and sunny). Fitting in in BA on day 1: FAIL. We already stick out bc of our looks, but our clothing choices pretty much solidified our tourist status. lol.
We started every one of our mornings the same way: searching for a breakfast spot for at least 1 hour. For some reason Argentinians love drinking coffee and eating wack little pastries, but what about eggs and fruit and yogurt? I don't think I was ever fully satisfied after breakfast. =/ We explored Recoletta, San Telmo, Mancerat, and Palermo. We also attempted to go shopping on a Saturday only to discover that it was Labor Day in Argentina, which meant that almost every shopping store, including the massive mall, was closed..on a SATURDAY. What the shit? Why don't they just give people off on Monday!? The stupid holiday kept us from getting tickets to a soccer game, too. Really depressing. Just like we spent hours searching for breakfast in the morning, we spent hours trying to figure out how to eat dinner at a decent time. I didn't realize that restaurants close at 4:30pm and although they reopen at 8:30pm, no one is at the restaurants to actually eat dinner until 10:30 or 11pm. How do people wait that late to eat? Since I didn't eat out at all the first time I swung through BA (I was on an ice cream and guacamole diet), I had no idea this is what happened, and Nina and struggled to wait until late at night to eat dinner, especially since we spent at least 6 or 7 hours a day just walking after a crappy breakfast.
We spent one night at a tango show. WHAT A WASTE!! First we get charged a ridiculous amount to go to this thing (we heard it was good, so we figured why not?). Second, we show up to this show and there are only TWO other people in the place. Right, so there are only four people at this show and it's Friday night. We bought a bottle of wine thinking we would need it to get through the show since we were so tired. The bottle of wine ended up being a mistake since it made us get stuck there when we wanted to walk out. The Asian girl sitting next to me was falling asleep during the show! She was asleep during some of it, and the people who were working were laughing at her. Then, I got called up by one of the tango dancers to dance with him. Umm..no thanks? That didn't work, obviously. So now, I'm stuck at a show that is SUPER LAME and BORING, and I'm being forced to dance tango and look like a retard while attempting in front of two strangers, and Nina who was recording the entire thing. Thanks sis. Wait until it's your turn. Sometime during that, one of the girls watching the show managed to escape by pretending she was going outside to smoke. SO LUCKY! We got stuck there until basically the end, but Nina did get pulled up to dance. Unfortunately, the camera battery ended up dying at that exact moment! Ugh! We tried to make a quiet exit after her dance since the Asian chick got pulled up to dance, but one of our shopping bags caught onto something, and Nina ended up knocking over the bottle of wine and our glasses making a massive mess on the floor and all over the white table cloth. So much for a quiet exit. haha.
Overall, BA the second time around was a nice chance to relax and rest up after the Machu Picchu trek. We did get to shop a bit, so I was definitely happy about that, and even though we had some wack food experiences and a ridiculous tango time, it was really nice to re-visit the city. I realized that the city was not as amazing as I thought it was the first time I went. Not sure I'd want to go back again. lol. Still great to visit though, so you should go!
Next up, my final stop, Lima. :(
It's so great to hear from you that you have a good time in Buenos Aires.
ReplyDeleteI was there with some friends in March. We were staying in a Buenos Aires apartments but it was the same, 1 hour looking for a good breakfast. We found it in Cafe Martines they have yogurt, orange juice and helthy stuff. Very good!
Good luck on your trip!