.jpg)
tags are priced incredibly low. 20 pesos (SGD 10) for a very nice top!! Mamamia!! Too bad we need to rush back to the hotel as the tour agent gonna picked us up at 10 for our half day city tour!It was a short and hurried tour, basically all done in a little van. I guessed everyone just want to rush home to watch the Game. It was an exciting day for Argentina as t
.jpg)
hey are playing against Serbia and Montaga. The driver chauffered us ard the city and the tour guide, a young , frenly lady briefed us on the history, the buildings, blah blah blah... in a very fast spoken English. First it was Reccoleta- the famous cemetry neighbourhood, then the Plaza de Mayo which we stopped for ten minutes , taking pix of the monument dedicated to the 25th of May, 1810 the Argentine Revolution Day, AND the old Cabildo aka Town Hall, La Casa Rosada aka Pink House, (It's pink and its color comes from an old tradition of mixing oxblood with the plaster. The upper left balcony of Casa Rosada is the immortalized balcony where Evita gave her speeches), AND the Catedral Metropolitana de Buenos Aires aka Metropolitan Cathederal AND of course the Big Fat pigeons. The tour guide pointed especially to us the white shawl of the mothers painted on the floor of Plaza de Mayo. It was a sad history but now people remembered it as another tourist attraction. Then we passed by the Obelisk which sta
nds in the heart of the city, and then the color house area - La Boca neighbourhood with the interesting 'Las Casa Amirilla' aka yellow house, and finally stopped at the 'Bombonera', the soccer stadium for the Club Boca Juniors(one of the most famous Argentine Sports Club, best known for its football team and the superstar Diego Armando Maradona). .jpg)
Along the way, we had been monitoring the score thou we do not hv a TV with us. The driver was listening to the live radio and seems like Argentina was playing a very good game! People honked and whistled and cheered whenever Argentina scored another goal.We paid to enter the Stadium and its Museum. Nice stadium but its nothing really really impressive thou we nvr gave away any chance to pose for the camera shoot.
There was a sexy female Tango Dancer on the street who looked HOT an
d Steven took 2 very stylo-milo shoots with her. Post-card Perfect!! Coincidentally, we bumped into a Brasil based Singapore Vendor KC Goh just when we were about to leave. What a small world it became when people are fated to meet each other.
.jpg)
Next, we set off to La Boca most famous street, artsy calle 'Caminito'. We were given 30 mins to tour along the street which didnt seem enough to us gringo at all. We marvelled at the colorful part of town where people paint their homes and businesses in wild colors. La Boca was at the south of Buenos Aires, next to the smelly river Riachuela. I understood from the tour guide that the reason the wooden buildings were so colourful was because this region was previously populated by sailors who had to paint boats. And what did they do with the left-over paint? They painted their houses with them.Some of the buildings were decorated with caricature-dummies, looki
.jpg)
ng out of the windows of the colourful wooden buildings. These are heroes of Argentina, like Juan and Eva Peron and Maradona waving down from a balcony.This region was quite a tourist playground. There were
.jpg)
many souvenir stalls and shops. There were expensive cafes and restaurants. And there were cut-out boards where one could pay to take photos by placing one's face against the hole and pretend to be playing football with Maradona OR doing a sensual tango with a babe one would NEVER get the chance to do so in real life. Argentinian kitsch yet we enjoyed it. Towards the end of the street we saw a very handsome guy posing for Tango at 5Pesos. So Dawn and I queued up in a long line of man-hungry women.(arghh.. dun ever categories us as Samantha in Sex and the city!!) .jpg)
He helped me to put on the big purple hat, and a furry flirty purple scarf around the neck. Oh man, I tried very very hard not to laugh and to look sexy but FAILED miserably. I could feel my heart pouncing when he looked straight in to my eyes in such a close distance... Oh my.. i was melting away.. (Haha.. well.. i m just exaggerating!!) When we were about to leave, the game ended. Argentina scored 6 goals to 0 of Sergia and Montenegro. Wow. Wow. Wow.
.jpg)
We lost Steven while cheering for the Argentina's team. Hence i took out my hp trying to call him. Thats it.. The only time i took my hp out and the last time i ever seen it again.. I lost my hp in Buenos Aires.. =( Oh, I LOVED my N6110! I L-O-V-E-D IT. In fact its a gift to me just before i left SG. Pauline kept calling me 'Ah Blur' for my absent-mindedness and world no.1 scatter-brain. Now i just had to walk around with the sign 'BLUR' on my forehead.
Next, we were driven to San Telmo, the well-knowned Tango dancing area. Many of the tango shows are in small pubs and bars which you can interact with the pro dancer. I was told that one can even mastered the basic tango in the so-called Tango-house within an hr!! The last destination of the super-hurried half day tour was Puerto Madeiro, which we had dinner last nite. It looked so different from the nite but STILL an excellent place to stroll away your morning..1.jpg)
Steven's contact in Argentina had been waiting for us in the Hotel. A chatty, funny 26 yr old guy whose name is Gonzalo. He suggested a walk in the city and hell!! It turned out to be a two and a half hr walking tour before we had a chance to sit down for lunch!!However, it was a real cool interesting way to know the city, while you really walk on the street, listened to the local guy introducing his own city history, structure and architechure. I love the celebration of world cup Victory at the
Obelisk where Gonzalo brot us to. Basically, the Obelisk is not only the landmark of the city but also the place where all celebrations are held. Everyone was cheering and singing, holding their national flags proudly and dancing around. The joy was contagious and we too joined in the fun!! We saw a guy in his Argentina jersey waving his big Argentina flag so I asked to take a pix wif him. Kekee.. the funny chap happily obliged but he quickly removed the light blue jersey and revealed his true-self!! It turned out dat he was actually a Mexican and he was wearing the Green Mexico Jersey beneath. Ha.. too late to say 'No', so we took a pix wif him.. %~$@&*#We then kept walking around the clean and orderly city and headed for Puerto
Madeiro. There were a lot of colourful, specially painted cows statue around this area. We was told that there are 120 of them and it was actually an art exhibition by the artistes from all over the world. The 'Cows' will travel all ard the big sities in the world and stay in each city for a month. So lucky of us to meet the 'Cows' which travel ard the world in Buenos Aires!After the super long 'stroll'.. we were all famished and cant wait to be served a good meal. Gonzalo brot us to one of the restaurants which serve the best steak ( Well.. Portenos (people of the port), as citizens of Buenos Aires call them
selves, are famous for their beef steak hence basically every restaurant are famous for that). Of course, steaks in Argentina are like pizza in New York, or sashimi in Tokyo -- everyone lays claim to "the best" spot which they evangelize without much thought to what else is out there. OK, so I exaggerate a bit, but seriously, these people eat a lot of meat, and when they do, they consume it in mass quantities. Check it out for a good laugh: Argentina on Two Steaks a Day . Gonzalo told us that Puerto Madeiro is actually one of the high-class area where all the rich ppl, upper class socieety and of coz luxurious tourist (like us) frequent!! These resaturants are not only famous for their steak but also their well-decorated interior. At the lower-end places, they sometimes put pictures of their steaks in the windows, and some of the slabs of meat are so monstrous that even the most stalwart carnivore would think twice before ordering.The restaurant that Gonzalo bring us to was nice. It was called La Cabelleriza aka the Horse Stable. Well.. in fact the decoration of the restaurant was inspired by the horse stable indeed. Hence we were the little ponies eating the food served by the gaucho.
Hehe... We tried the steak and the wine. I am not a beef person and the well-done steak seemed a bit tough and hard to me. Pauline is a vegetarian so there aint much things for her to choose from and yet Gonzalo recommended the excellent grilled vegetables, served on a steamingly hot grill pan, with the jacked stuffed potatoe and a huge variety of different salads and side dishes. The 'San Telmo' wine was good. According to Gonzalo, the wine in Argentina are cheap and good , just like the beer in Rio or the coke in US. =) He also recommended us a place where we can enjoy a Tango show as well as learn Tango at the same time. However, the place is in Pallermo neighbourhood (near his house) and we got no choice but to give it a go as it did not seem to fit in our tight schedule.After lunch, we continued our city leisure stroll. Kind Gonzalo was nice to show u
s around and walked us through the city which he had done all his life. On the way we saw some graffiti on the wall... if the one in Brazil was nice, then this was certainly classic. It is not only nicely-painted but also tells a story. Graffitis in Brazil are, well, just grafittis.
We went for coffee and dessert at the world famous Cafe Tortoni, which was a 'classic', in Gonzalo's word: 'Nothing very touristy fanciful, but just classic Cafe'. With a history of more than 50 yrs, it is known for having famous writers like Federico Garcia Lorca sat here and congragated with other famous writers. Also it was a popular hangoput joint for the best Tango dancers and characters. Each table has a plaque with a famous writers name as where they sat. Its a beautiful place inside with lots a antiques and art work. Sitting in Cafe Tortoni was more than taking part of the local daily life, it was a religious experience, I was sitting in the same place where Borges used to come many times! It was so fully packed and i reckoned that it had now became a tourist attraction more than a classic Cafe.They have a light fare and a full menu. You can have a capuccino and a pastery to a big steak with a bottle of wine. Steven and I had Cortado aka cofee with a bit of milk (higly recommended by Gonzalo) and the gals had hot choc, and we ordered a couple of cakes and it was all under $3 dollars. It maybe very expensive to Argentines but with the devaluation of the peso with dollars its very cheap. In fact, everything in Buenos Aires seemed inexpensive to me after staying in Rio for 2 months.
Gonzalo is picking up saxophone recently and he is completely obsess with it. He got a Jam session tomorrow so sadly he wont be able to join us for the nite. We walked to Avenida Florida, a narrow pedestrian thoroughfare crammed with shops and
shoppers. Its range of stores draws both locals and tourists, selling everything from sports gear, leather jackets, and electronics to designer fashions at the upscale Galerias Pacifico at the north end of the avenue. Located in the city's center, Avenida Florida is a bustling spot consists of numerous fashionable small shops and street stalls plying their wares.. I was told that the Galerias Pacifico mall is the most famous mall on the street. This 1889-built building was originally railroad administrative offices before being rehabilitated into a major Parisian-style multilevel shopping complex. It is supposed to be something to see in it's own right, never mind the shopping, but our limited time prevented us from actually visiting it.Gonzalo bought us some warm sugar-coated almonds and nuts aka 'garrapinada', which Steven and I had been eyeing for the whole afternoon, and man, the almonds tasted fantastically delicious! And then he left us in Florida street went taking the subway, leaving his kisses on our cheeks. Thanks to his hospitality!!
Shit!! I really had forgotten most of the Spanish vocab n grammar dat i learnt in uni.Well, this is my blog, so I'll be damned if I'm not going to document them here if and when the symbolic light bulb flickers in my head. Two sentences i had learnt from our cool fren todae: 'La cuenta por favor' = The bill please AND the useful one, 'Te Amo' = I Love You!! ~~Peachy~~
We were all super tired and even my leg felt numb and sore.. We got back to the Hotel for a shower and preparing for our last programme to call the nite off. A must see and must do thingy in B.A- the TANGO show!!
We had our show in one of the Tango place called La Ventana. It was a theatre restaurant with classic Tango Show. Due to the heavy lunch still digesting in
progress, we skipped the option of having the dinner and we took some fingers food instead. I was told that that if I have not been to the real B.A if i missed the Tango Show. And indeed, i had to admit this after watching the voluptuous Tango show lasted for one and the half hr. I frigging love this place and the show was really FANTASTIC!! I know its pretty lame description but hey.. you really got to come and see wif ur own eyes, how the dancers managed to twist and turn their flexible leg wif the 5 inches stilletos on!! The folklore and the musical was good too. In short, it was really an eye opener, and i how i wished i could have moved as elegantly as the Tango dancers. A very entertaining and unforgettable nite.
What a fruitful day with lotsa walking.. i shall now slumber my way to the next day.. zzZZZZzz
Labels: Argentina, Lets Tuck In, Sheepish Breakaway
.jpg){kind=link}