After nearly 3 weeks in Buenos Aires and 3 different hostels we finally tore ourselves away...and boy was it hard! Our first week was spent doing an intensive Spanish class – 4 hours a day. This was the most brain power we’d used in a long time! Poor Mitch was shattered – he had a one to one class because he was the only beginner and his teacher refused to speak any English to him. I think the funniest lesson was where he was trying to explain what kind of music he liked and started pointing to his shins to describe the band! The teacher started translating Shins into Spanish...there was much confusion!! Anyway we got through the week and were determined to show off our knowledge of the language...we quickly realised that people don’t talk to you as slowly as the teachers do! Once we had time to stroll around and enjoy the delights of the city we quickly fell in love with it. We spent our first Sunday strolling around San Telmo market – sitting in the sun with a bottle of wine and choripan in hand watching the world go by...there’s nothing like it! I also managed to pick up a pair of vintage Ray Bans for 150 pesos – what a steal...apparently my birthday present from Mitch. We spent another day strolling around Recoleta and visited Evita’s grave. The cemetery was so interesting...nothing like we’d ever seen before. And of course we sampled the amazing Asado (BBQ) many many times...washed down by many a bottle of Argentinean wine. Our fabulous friends from Buenos Aires also brought us to some amazing places around the city that we wouldn’t have found otherwise – to see some amazing tango dancing in one of the best venues we’d ever been to and some very interesting clubs and parties to boogie with the porteños! And then came the biggest party of the century...25 de Mayo celebrations started the last weekend we were there. It was the 200 year celebration of the revolution in Argentina. We were just blown away by the celebrations. They went on for 4 days taking place on the main avenue (Avenida 9 de Julio) in Buenos Aires. The entire city shut down to celebrate on the streets! There’s nothing like standing in the middle of 2 and a half million people while they belt out their national anthem...it was insane! Although my favourite bit was on the last night when after the national anthem everyone started jumping singing “If you’re not jumping you’re English!” . I was gutted we weren’t in the crowd for that part...Mitch didn’t mind too much! Anyway, with very sore heads we tore ourselves away from Buenos Aires and our extremely hospitable friends – Clarisa and Inti to make our way southwards to freezing Bariloche. The prospect of skiing and snowboarding definitely pushed us on to that bus! Mitch had already started pricing 2 bedroom flats in San Telmo so I had to get him on a bus quickly.
(pic: Mitch looking out at Rio de la Plata)
No comments:
Post a Comment