Sunday Markets

Defensa/Plaza Dorrego.

Probably the best I have ever seen.






((No more words))

Maria

Maria is my new flat mate from Brazil (seriously, can I make friends with people who AREN'T from Brazil?!) and naturally, she speaks Portuguese. She also speaks pretty good Spanish, because its close to her language. English, she speaks VERY little. It's very fun trying to have a conversation and I believe I have crossed another thing off my bucket list: lingua franca.
Speaking in Spanish is the only way I can really communicate with Maria (with the exception of those conversations that involve sentences that are one English word long, and a lot of pointing) but I think this counts! She is teaching me a lot more Spanish too which is very helpful.

Yesterday Maria and I made plans to have the cheapest dinner possible and then go to see the free tango show that was in the streets of Plaza Dorrego.

I ordered everything in Spanish (with a little more pointing this time..) but had a bit of a mix up with the beverage order. Water (agua) comes in two forms. Sparkling (con gas) and still (sin gas). For one thing, I wasn't paying attention when the waiter asked which one i would like. And when I heard "sin gas" I thought he was saying "si, glass?", as in "yes, you want a glass?" So I said "no, no!" Thinking of bottled water instead. So I got soda water because I said "no, no" to sin gas. That sucked because not only did it cost an extra 15 pesos, but I KNOW better! I was just concentrating on talking with Maria instead of my order. Anyway, Maria beat me to it when it came to asking for the bill. She didn't realise that I had that one down pat! (But probably didn't have much confidence in me after the "sin gas agua" incident.)

After dinner, we walked to Plaza Dorrego (for my second time that day, as i spent the better half of the day at the markets that dwell there of a Sunday) and found that the entire plaza was one big boozy orgy out in the open. Teenagers and hippies alike swarmed the place that i thought of so fondly until now. There was definitely marijuana and potentially other drugs, a LOT of alcohol and broken glass and a whole lot of baby-making (or otherwise) on the side of the road. Maria was pretty keen for this tango show and was asking a lot of questions and received a lot of "baked" answers. I was not the most comfortable I have ever been, but felt safe with the charismatic Maria. We were eventually told (by a questionable source all the same) that the tango is on every night, except for tonight. And we didn't need an excuse to hang around after that so headed back home.

Today, we ventured to the colourful streets of La Boca. (First time on a South American public bus!) We took photos of every brightly coloured building, went to a local market, managed to throw off the local weirdos trying to perform for money, bartered for cheaper items and even went to the famous futbol stadium, "BOCA". I don't care for sport of any kind, really. But Maria was keen to see what all the fuss is about, as she sees this stadium on TV all the time in Brazil. The museum and field tickets were only $10 so I went along with her anyway. The stadium was really nothing to brag about. It was very small. (I mean, I don't spend a lot of time in stadiums, but it's about a 10th of Stadium Australia's size.) I didn't recognise any "famous" faces in the hall of fame and I certainly didn't want to spend 100+ pesos having my photo taken on the field with some trophy that's supposed to be a big deal.

Anyway, we made our way back into the main part of town (by bus) and managed to have lunch at a fancy restaurant (food was a gag though!) and dessert at an amazing little cafe on Avenida De Mayo. Today I learned how to ask the waitress which flavours of icecream they have.
("¿Cuales sabor de helados tiennes¿" incase you were wondering. )
We each had chocolate and lemon yummmm. There's just something about ice cream in Argentina.

We walked and walked to the other side of town. I thought we were just walking for the sake of it, but apparently we were going to see a tango show! We paid US$30 each for front row seats of a theatre that was attached to this "la-de-dar" shopping center. And the show was SO good! It was 4pairs of dancers in art-deco attire, a guy singing in between costume changes and the music behind it all was this ADORABLE 4 piece band. All old men with so much age and character behind their eyes. Grand piano, double bass, accordion and violin was the highlight. I could take these guys home and just watch them (and listen of course) the whole time. I know we went to see the tango dancing, but these men really were the highlight of the show. And at the end of the performance, the musicians each got a standing ovation. (The guy on accordion was my fav. Aw, maybe a close call with the violin man!)

It was about 9:30pm by the time the show finished (dinner time!) and I was ready to eat then and there. But we made our way back to the hostel and I ended up waiting a further THREE hours for Maria to be ready for dinner. Eventually we head out (and I am quite grumpy and hungry at this stage, being MIDNIGHT and all... Not to mention exhausted from the massive day of adventuring and walking every which way..) and we happen to bump into one of Maria's friends she met at the hostel, who doesn't speak English at all. This was all very nice. But I was HUNGRY. Let's walk and talk, people!

The whole dinner, I am shoved to the side because Maria can finally speak fast Spanish to someone without having to make sure that she's being understood. She even pointed to me, said something under her breath and they both laughed. When I asked what they were speaking about, they both shrugged and said "nada". And this went on Until about 1:30 when I finally finished eating.

Pretty annoyed by this whole situation of exhaustion, hunger, feeling completely isolated and ganged up on.. and patience coming to an end. After my meal, I just got up and left, paid my bill and said "see you back at the hostel."

Pretty amazed that I did that because normally I am such a tolerable person. But when a girl's gotta eat...

Don't make me wait 3 hours, just to be ditched.

On a happier note, please enjoy the (iPhone) photos from today. I always manage to leave my camera at home on the great photo-op days. Hopefully these will do the experience justice.

Cena para uno, por favor!

Tonight I asked for a table for one (yes for the second night in a row!) at a pizzeria a few blocks down the road. Not only did I ask for an English menu (and yipee! They had one!), but I was able to have a brief conversation to the waiter about where I'm from. You don't sound impressed...?
It was all in SPANISH!! Hah!

I poured over my Lonely Planet book of Argentina while I had my bruschetta pizza and Sprite, looking into what other adventures I can take myself on.

Walking home on the cobbled stone streets, I was practically SKIPPING with joy and actually had a laugh-out-loud moment because this whole experience is just surreal.

(Talk about a shift in mood! Take a look at my Whinge Fest blog post, barely 2 days ago!)

I am in Argentina (?!?!?) alone (...) and speaking in Spanish to the locals (!!!!) while I plan a spontaneous trip around the country(..!!) I must have looked drunk or something, laughing and half running, half stumbling down the road... and the thought of watching myself from the outside just made me laugh even harder.

What a great time to be alive.
What a great time to be me.

Hallelujah.

Dinner for one

2 glasses of red wine, bread basket and marinated beans, pumpkin ravioli with tomato, garlic and chilli sauce, a complimentary glass of champers.

A Swiss/Canadian man trying to speak in English to me but I had a bit too much wine to really understand what he was saying.

Ordering and asking for the bill in Spanish.

And all for under $20.

Friday 25 January

I find that if I say
"Perdon, no hablar español"
(Sorry, I don't speak Spanish) before attempting to speak to anyone, they are much more gracious and slightly more patient. Today I met a lady while losing myself on Defensa (the antique laden street on the way to Plaza Dorrego). Her name was.. Well I've forgotten it already. But she was extremely lovely. Not a word of English, besides the word "beautiful", which she repeated while pointing at me and smiling. I bought 50 pesos worth of antiques (roughly AU$10) and almost didn't want to leave. The building I was in was a 2 story mansion in the 1880s, which had three courtyards on the bottom floor alone, where I met.. Whatever her name is (man, I wish I remembered)! The bottom courtyards are now the home of antique and art stores, although years ago it was to school children who were deaf/mute.

Lollie, I think you and I would be able to spend a whole day here. As a loner, not as long. I so badly want to rave about places with people (in English) and chat about the amazing, the not so amazing and have a knowing response back.

As I write this, I'm sitting on a sunny window ledge of Starbucks in Plaza Dorrego while I pass the hours with attempting a certain logo for my nieces back home. "2 bugs and a rosebud". It's harder than it sounds. I even have a few good ideas! But when you have an image in your head, it's hard to put that onto paper.

I just went and had a look at the street vendors across the road, selling all kinds of interesting things. Spoons turned into mirrors, forks turned into bracelets, coins turned into stencils of famous people.. The list goes on.

There's actually a bit of a (boring) story about these cotton bracelets I bought. If I only bought one thing from every place I'd been in South America, it would be a cotton bracelet. I see all kinds of travellers wearing them, and I want one from each destination. Sounds cool, right? Only that it was impossible for me to buy any! In Quito, I didn't have cash to buy one. On the Galápagos Islands, I searched Isla Isabela only to discover that they don't exist over there. On a different island, I found someone selling them but it was pretty chunky and not really what I was looking for. At Quito airport, I saw them through the window of a shop, but it was 4am and everything was shut. Found someone selling some at Lima airport in Peru, but i didn't have any peru currency. On a walk with the brazilian boys, I saw someone selling them on the side of the road, but they didn't have change from 100 pesos. Yesterday at Plaza Dorrego, I saw a street vendor selling them but when I went up to buy, the lady said "half hour you wait here. Girl come back half hour." Well even half an hour later, she hadn't come back. The lady shrugged when I asked how much. So today I came back and FINALLY got my hands on the bloody cotton bracelets. I chose out 8 different colours (one for each day I was in the Galápagos Islands) but she charged me 5 pesos each and I only had 30 pesos on me. She said I could have 7 for the price of 6, so I put one back.

Starbucks didn't have wifi (what?!) so started to make my way back home..

Overall today wasn't so bad. I got lost on purpose, to try and take my time going back to the hostel. Of course, this meant that I spent more money while stumbling across incredible stores. I have no self control. I tried my hardest to have a budget lunch. I went to the mini supermarket close to home, bought a couple of mini bread rolls, a small wheel of Camembert, 4 slices of jamon (ham) and a small packet of sugar-glazed biccies. I sat myself down in the 2 story mansion and constructed my first sandwich. The Camembert was the strongest cheese I have ever tasted in my life. I desperately felt like wine afterwards but thought that I had better hold out until dinner. I couldn't eat more than half of my breadroll and sacrificed the rest to the bin and had a meringue brownie and dulce de leche frappacino from Starbucks to wash down the taste.

Plans for dinner:
Leave the hostel and get a table for one. Somewhere. Anywhere.

Whinge fest

I should have taken advantage of the fact that I was following around Spanish/English speaking brazilians. I did not pick up much Spanish from them, other than "¿Mozo, por favor nos trae la cuenta¿"
Which means, Waiter, please may I have the bill?

Apart from not being able to read menus, the main thing keeping me inside my room was that I was actually very embarrassed to be eating alone. That, and I was nervous to go outside by myself. I was so lucky to have 3 days with people who let me follow them around the whole time.

When they left, I moped around, feeling sorry for myself for about 4 hours (no siesta, I was too distressed) and then thought it was about time I ate some dinner. I walked PAST about 15 restaurants before I gave up and started walking home again. And on an impulse, I stopped by one of many pizzerias. I saw the menu and it looked like every single pizza came with tuna on it. Grozz! Unless I interpreted "aceitunas" incorrectly. Anyway, I got 2 Gorgonzola empanadas. Time to try something new! Exciting stuff!! Loved them. Gorgonzola was a pretty heavy flavour, but it was the only word I recognised! Next time I will get a different filling.

The room-to-myself didn't last long. Probably 2 hours actually. My new roommate, Nick is from England. He was staying in a hostel around the corner but they didn't have room for him to stay an extra night. Since I met him, he's spent most of his time at the other hostel, only coming in to sleep at night. He hates the heat and kept saying how uncomfortable he was in the summer clothes he was wearing. Meanwhile, I am sprawled on my bed, marvelling at the heat and humidity, so comfortable I can barely move! Anyway, he's only here one night.

I can't believe I haven't even been in Buenos Aires for a whole week yet. It's day four and I have walked myself stupid across the city, going into practically every store. I'm exhausted. And I'm over it. I don't have enough money left to see much else of Argentina. And I can't afford to go into every store! This is the antique capital of the world and I spent enough money in the first store I walked into. Then walked out and found a whole street of them. It was amazing. But upsetting at the same time. I'm hanging out for the markets!! There are 3 that I really want to go to and they are all on Sundays.

I've had enough of Burger King as well. They are more common than McDonalds in Australia. Or more common than Starbucks in New York. And I can just point to the pictures to get the message across. After 3 Burger King meals in 3 days, I am no longer feeling slim and fit!

So far I've been to the cinema twice. First, with the boys, we saw Catcher something or rather. The Tom Cruise one. I was a little bit hoping that it would be in Spanish. But it was in English, with Spanish subtitles. I went to the cinema again today to see Wreck It Ralph or "Ralph Demolicia" and that was completely in Spanish. It was great because the pre-movie before it was a beautiful 5 minute silent film. And when the movie started, it was a bit hard to follow but by the end of the movie, I felt as though I'd watched it in English. That's the great thing about cartoons. Good one, Disney! Shane you should watch it! It's about video games and there is a car constructing scene! ;)

Bit sad, considering the best part of my day was going to the movies. And to watch a kids movie no less.

I am in a bit of a whingey mood in case you hadn't noticed. I even opened the letter from Jana marked "read if you want to come home". That was no good because it said that I CAN'T come home. It's what I would have wanted her to write if I'm being honest with myself. But it was also the last thing I wanted to hear.
I wanted the letter to say: "You know what? You're probably upset and homesick. So come home and everything will be OK. I'll even pick you up from the airport myself and we can surprise Shane."

Well. Looks like I'm not coming home just yet. Another month trapped in Buenos Aires is just what I need. Just me, Candy Crush and the wifi that is gradually turning to shit.

Buenos Aires day uno, dos

Jana booked a nights worth of accommodation for when I got to Buenos Aires. That was extremely helpful as I hadn't had the opportunity to book anything with the incredibly weak Internet I was getting. Then all I had to do was show the address to get to the hostel.

BA airport was a bit of a joke. Lined up to get my passport stamped. Waited about 30 mins in line, only to be told at the counter that I needed to pay a tax first. I had to pay on a computer, print it out and then line up again. Luckily they had these computing and printing facilities close by. But it was US$100 and another 30 mins later before I could collect my bags. Well because that process took so long, all of the belts had stopped moving and all leftover luggage was scattered over the entire floor of the airport between belts 1 and 15. I asked multiple people where I needed to go to find my bags, showing my luggage receipts. One lady told me belt 2. It took about 10 mins to reach belt 2 from belt 14. And my bag was nowhere to be seen. I asked someone else. They said belt 15. So off I went. No bags. Asked someone else, praying all the way. "Belt 2. But it's stopped now so you might have to go looking for it around belt 1."
Pretty frustrated at this point. Eventually found them buried under other bags.

There were no signs with my name or the hostel's name on it when I finally exited the airport. Probably because I took so long. Went to a desk that said taxi and showed them the address. They said it would be 220 pesos or US$40. They didn't accept credit cards so pointed me in the direction of the ATM. I got out 1000 pesos in hundred peso bills and paid the lady. Some kid then grabbed my bags and said "follow me", so I did. When he helped me into the cab, he asked for a tip. Crap. I only have large notes, and I don't think they would give me change. I asked if he takes US dollars and he said ok. So handed him the last of my US dollar bills. When the taxi dropped me at the hostel, he also asked for a tip and I only had US coins! I emptied the contents of my coin compartment in embarrassment. Sorry guys, I thought that $40 was steep.

Anyway, feeling embarrassed, overwhelmed, ripped off, exhausted (arriving at the hostel around 7pm), and hungry as a hippo, I felt like going home. I skyped Shane and cried because I miss him so much. He told me how well I'm doing, as it was now marked just over 3 weeks since we had seen each other and this is a new record for us since we have been married.

I got to meet my roommates, 2 males from Brazil (no female dorms available) and they are really very friendly. Guatavo and Mathias. I described them as friendly in a non threatening sort of way. Gustavo was about to meet a friend and Mathias was going to call his mum. Because I was feeling so intimidated of the world outside of the hostel, I asked if Mathias could come with me to dinner. He said that he would after he called his mum. It was around 9:30pm when we left and I had forgotten that I read that Argentina is a very late sleeping city. Restaurants are still alive at 2am so we easily found somewhere to eat. When I say easily, I mean it was a really difficult decision where we should go. There are 100s of restaurants around. We wound up at a Mexican restaurant, mainly because I was too hungry to look much further. Ordered the first thing I saw, which was chicken nachos and a "limonade", hoping for an American lemonade. It came in a cocktail glass with what looked like salt around the rim. I became very nervous, however it was exactly what I had hoped for and the "salt" was sugar. Delicious. The nachos was a bowl of corn chips and a separate bowl of cheese sauce with bit of chicken roasted capsicum throughout it. So the idea was to dip the corn chips into the cheese sauce. Quite tasty and I finished my food in 5 mins flat. After eating, I felt SO much better. It's amazing what food can do to your mood. I didn't need anything else after my pollo nacho, so Mathias asked if I would like to go for a walk and have a look around the area a bit. Sounds good. Walked around the river and we both spoke about our other halves back home. He showed me where he went to a tango show the night before and said that I must see it!

Walking back toward the hostel, we stopped by Burger King because he felt like an ice cream. He bought 2 sundaes and gave one to me. It looked like a caramel sundae. But it wasn't caramel. It was dulce de leche, translated to English is sweet milk. It tasted like very concentrated condensed milk and normally, people spread it on their bread. SO delicious. But by the end of my sundae, I was over it.

As soon as we got back to the hostel, I rented a towel and had an incredible shower. 3 days with the same pair of underwear was not pleasant. I also paid to stay an extra week in this hostel. It is really quite sweet here. Very colourful and bright and the room has a bay window that is ceiling high and overlooks ye street.

Slept well on the top bunk last night. Got to bed around 1am. Crazy to think I lasted nearly 24 hours and still felt like exploring!

Breakfast is free and is such a good spread! Croissants, baguettes sliced up, to put butter, marmalade or dulce de leche on it, cornflakes, froot loops, fruit, tea/coffee, strawberry milk (no thanks) and freshly squeezed orange juice.

Gustavo at breakfast told me that I was talking in my sleep and laughing about it. Apparently I was saying "No, I'm not dreaming! Nooo!" Which is a bit embarrassing. But a bit funny too.

After breakfast the three of us still looked pretty tired and I told them that today I was going to rest and catch up on sleep. They said that they were about to say the same thing. So we went off to bed again. I woke up about an hour later feeling so comfortable and much more revived. The boys were already awake and talking. They asked if I would like to come with them for a walk. I said sure! Grabbed my camera and was ready within 30 seconds.

We walked for about 2.5 hours before stopping for lunch at a pizzeria. The menus were a bit of fun to try and interpret. I couldn't find the word pizza on the menu so ordered pasta ravioli with a limonade. She asked if I wanted it naturale. I said yes, thinking again of American lemonade and not solo or sprite. But this time, it came out as just plain lemon juice. Still had the rim of sugar, it just was very hard to gulp down.

After lunch we walked and walked. I saw lots of amazing shops that I need to check out but didn't want to bore the boys, so tried to remember land marks so I could visit them in my own time. The buildings in San Telmo are so beautiful. They are old and have so much character.

All of a sudden I desperately needed the toilet (el baño) and so we headed back toward the hostel, because apparently there are no public toilets.

After relieving myself, I went back to the room and plugged my phone in to charge (same as Australian power points!!) and lay down on my bed. Next thing I know, I wake up at 4:30pm and the boys are asleep as well. They leave tomorrow after 8 days in town. I don't know how I'm going to cope without some male bodyguards who translate Spanish into English.

Feeling much better after food and constant napping. Argentina doesn't even do siestas. I think they should. I'm on board.

Need to find an ATM aswell.