So, I don't really know where to start. I honestly should be doing my reading but I can't focus because I feel like a delinquent because I have not updated my blog in almost a month. I cannot believe how fast the past few weeks have flown by! So here's my plan of action: I am going to write a brief blurb (which, let's be honest, may or may not be brief knowing me) about each day/event of importance since I got back to BA. Even the very abbreviated version may be epic. I'll write in segments so you can read whatever interests you. It might take me a few entries to finish this pero bueno, listo. Dale.
Tigre
First, it must be said that there has been a día feriado (a holiday when classes are canceled) every week since I've been back. On the first of these feriados, my friends and I set out for the Tigre River. We took the Tren de la Costa (it's not actually on the coast, pero bueno...qué sé yo?) and made a few leisurely stops at little towns along the way. We walked around a cute antique fair and had an absurdly long lunch in San Isidro topped off by Freddo helado (como no?). By the time we got to Tigre it was almost 4pm. As soon as we got off the train, we walked over to a little stand that was advertising boat tours just to ask where the best place would be to walk along the river. Long story short, the man who owned this boat tour company ended up offering us a "special student price" (which he later told us he made up just for us...I'm telling you it pays to travel with a group of attractive girls) and for $100 pesos (about $30US) per person he took us on a multiple hour private boat tour on the Tigre river! While it definitely could have turned out to be a little sketchy, our calculated risk really paid off. We spent the afternoon exploring tons of tiny branches of the river delta and chatting with Fernando (our guide) about funny cultural differences we've encountered, our experiences in Bs As so far, and, of course, general philosophies on life and love. It became quite clear that he has spent a lot of time cultivating his theories... especially on romance. We gave ourselves facials with the nutrient rich Tigre mud and then went swimming to wash off. We also walked/swam on the large sand bank in the middle of the Rio de la Plata. We ended our tour at a quiet little bungalow where we shared a bottle of Malbec as the sun set and Fernando whipped us up some dulce de leche crepes drizzled with chocolate. All in all, the day could not have worked out more perfectly. It was completely random and unexpected... which pretty much describes almost every day here.
Argentina vs. Venezuela
The first Saturday I was back, Sammy, Sujata and I went to the world cup qualifying game between Argentina and Venezuela at the River Plate stadium. Somehow, Sammy and I managed to get great seats and it was an absolutely stunning evening--perfect soccer conditions. We all wore our Argentina jerseys and tried to sing along to the many, many fight songs. The singing at these games is really quite impressive... it just keeps going and going. There was an entire section that basically drummed, jumped, and sang the entire game. Argentina played beautiful soccer and trounced Venezuela 4-0. You can imagine how crazy the crowd was! And especially lucky for us, 3 of the goals were scored in the second half when Argentina was attacking right in front of our seats. After the game, Sujata (pobre) had a stomach ache so she wasn't able to join me and Sammy for our dinner date at a great little parilla in Palermo Soho. Soccer and steak... I love Argentina!
Mar del Plata
The following Thursday was another día feriado and none of us have class on Friday, so Sujata (I forgot to mention that here she goes by Xuxa...like the Brazilian singer), Sammy and I headed to Mar del Plata for the weekend, which is a 6 hour bus ride from Bs As. We booked a bus at 6:50am on Thursday morning and had the brilliant idea to go out all night on Wednesday and go directly to the bus station. It seemed like a great idea at the time. It turned out to be a marathon of a night and let's just say I was not a happy camper by about 6am. But we made our bus and proceeded to pass out on the plush leather seats that recline almost 180 degrees. When we got to Mar del Plata, we found a really nice hostel in a great location, and after a shower and some lunch, I felt moderately more human and somewhat prepared to face the day.
It wasn't a great beach day (a little chilly because it was the end of the season) but after walking around a bit we spent most of the afternoon sitting outside on big comfy chairs at a little boardwalk cafe. Our waiter, Adrian, was thoroughly entertaining... not all that interesting but an absurd character and so Argentine. For example, he was drinking a Caipirinha on the job and talking on his cell phone and didn't seem all that concerned about it.
That night, after a very necessary 2 hour nap, we had a fabulous paella dinner at a local dive called Cocina Mamá. From there we headed to a fun Cuban bar which turned out to have great Mojitos and really nice/cute waiters who recommended that we hit up a little boliche with a live band... so we did. It was a good choice. I fell in love in Mar del Plata. Enough said.
The following day, we woke up to sunshine! So we headed out to the beaches further south and enjoyed approximately 20 minutes of sun before it got kind of windy and cold. Because we hadn't gotten enough of Adrian the day before, we headed back to our favorite beach side cafe and spent the rest of the afternoon laughing and sipping hot chocolate (really hot milk served with a well of chocolaty heaven at the bottom that you get to stir up yourself). That night we found an authentic little Japanese restaurant (actually owned by Japanese people!) and had some pretty good sushi. Not very much variety but pretty high quality. We had another great night out and somehow managed to get up in time for our bus after a very restful 2 hours of sleep. We had to get back to Bs As by Saturday afternoon because we had tickets to the Los Piojos concert that night. But that it a story for another day...
To be continued... chau! Un beso grande!
No comments:
Post a Comment