Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Backpacking in South America - Buenos Aires pt. 1

Writing a reeeeeal quickie from the bus station before we get on our 22 hour (gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!) bus to Porto Alegre.  Back to Brazil we go!

I have so much to write about Buenos Aires!  First of all, I love love love this city.  I love everything - the style, the music, the atmosphere!  Ro and I saw a lot in the 4 days we spent here but at the same time had a chance to relax a little, sleep in a little (and by sleep in I mean wake up at 8 for breakfast, eat, and then go back to bed for a couple more hours), and get to know the city slowly... it was great!  I have to try and remember as much as I can.

We stayed in Hostel Suites on Avenida Florida this time, which is a more uppity version of Hostelling International.  It was a really nice hostel with lots to do and lots of action all the time but we didn´t really LOVE it like we did some of the others (Hostel Natura in Foz).  It was just really busy but without the same feeling of companionship you have at smaller hostels.  Plus, there was no WIFI in the rooms.  A huge thumbs down from me!  So, it´s been difficult to write the Bs As blog becuase of that.

The first day out on the town Ro and I walked down to the docks in search of dessert and coffee.  All we found was a Catholic University with some very NON Catholic looking students.  Ro wondered if it was now ok to show a lot of cleavage and thigh in the Catholic Church.  Down by the water it was too expensive so we wandered back up to the neighbourhood of San Telmo which is where they sell a lot of antiques and have a huge HUGE fair on Sundays.  I will take this opportunity to express my infatuation "oh hell let´s just call it what it is" OBSESSION, with outdoor fairs/markets.
 Poor poor Ro. 
Everytime we pass ANYONE selling ANY kind of crap - it could be anything - jewelry, belts, magnets, hand painted anything, barbequed guts and livers (they have that here) - I am all over that market like... well, like blood on guts and livers.  (YUCK btw).

So anyway, one other nice thing about this hostel is that everyday you can go pick up a food stamp meal ticket that you can use in the bar to get a free dinner.  I joked becuase we are truly at the point in our funds where we need food stamps to eat.  Ha!  Backpacking is fun!

The next day we went walking in the Recoleta Cemetary area.  This is the cemetary where Evita is buried and also the walking tour our Lonely Planet book told us to go on.  So we walked around the area for about 3 hours or so, toured the cemetary (very awesome and creepy, complete with cobwebs on caskets and wrought iron fences, and black cats roaming the premise), saw the Engineering school which is a big Gothic Churchy looking building.  Wandered down to the UN park where they have this big metal flower that opens in the morning and closes at night like a real flower.
After the tour was over, we called Ro´s cousin Carla who is living and studying in BsAs for 6 months.  We had some things to drop off to her so we took the bus to her house, hung out for a bit and then motored back to our hostel to eat our free dinner. (They only serve between 8:30 and 9 people, you understand)

TO BE CONTINUED

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