31 December, 2009
Mar del Plata
A video of our first day in Mar del Plata, we're walking around Avenida Luro the main street to a fair, where some locals were doing a native dance called zamba. It's an indigenous dance in three-quarters time.
First day at the beach.
30 December, 2009
Graffiti in Buenos Aires
It's amazing the amount of grafitti there was in Buenos Aires. The majority of it, however seemed to make a political statement of some kind. Very little of it was artistic or aesthetically pleasing. All of it looked out of place. Especially in Plaza de Mayo where the graffiti in the following videos is from. The Plaza is essentially where the National Bank, Metropolitan Cathedral, Monument for Argentine soldiers and offices for the president are located. Yet, graffiti was prominent throughout the area.
A collection of graffiti from Buenos Aires, one of
which reads:
"Iglesia Basura, vos sos la dictadura."
(Garbage Church, you're the dictator)
"Matrimonia Gay= Sida"( Gay Marriage is Aides)
A collection of graffiti from Buenos Aires, one of
which reads:
"Iglesia Basura, vos sos la dictadura."
(Garbage Church, you're the dictator)
"Matrimonia Gay= Sida"( Gay Marriage is Aides)
Habitición 1906
We got back from Palermo Soho at sunrise (5:30am). It was pretty crazy, considering that the neighborhood was still going strong, the club was not shutting down, anytime soon. And although we met no Brazilians that night, I think we can all agree it was a fun night. We slept for about 2 hours, woke up at 7:30 to catch the bus towards Mar del Plata. I sat in that coach bus, and was out.
Mar del Plata is pretty awesome. At first it reminded a lot of people like the Jersey shore, because its definitely a beach town. But don't worry this is no SEASIDE (despite James' fond memories of that trashy-seaside-resort). I kind of would equate it to Miami, if any US city, because everyone is on vacation.
We checked into our room for the next month - 1906. Already its better than the hotel in Buenos Aires:
1. There's water.
2. The elevators go faster than one floor a minute.
3. The room is not reminiscent of a cave (the windows open, and there's no tunnel to the room.)
See for yourself, Habitición 1906, en Hotel 13 de Julio.
So we explored the main walking areas, and stopped into some shops and cafés. Made some friends in the candy store. People speak less English here than in Buenos Aires; we really used our language skills. Favorite moment was when our friend Michaela at the candy store said in her broken English: "You Spanish is better than mi English" Its nice to impress the locals.
We definitely got lost exploring the city looking for this restaurant recommeneded to us by people who went on the program yesterday. We ended up in the "hood" part of Mar. We were a big group of about 10, and asked the police for directions when they pointed us to the other side of town, we decided to stay in the neighborhood we had stumbled upon to which he said, "Ten Cuidado" (Be careful) that was enough to convince us to give up and head back to the touristy section, which we did and enjoyed drinks outside.
One thing I've noticed about South America is kids are out way later than in the U.S. we were sitting outside yesterday and kids who were like 8 and 10 were walking by with their parents at 2am. Even when on vacation, I don't think, I was ever out with my family that late. I don't know when these people sleep. It's insane.
Mar del Plata is pretty awesome. At first it reminded a lot of people like the Jersey shore, because its definitely a beach town. But don't worry this is no SEASIDE (despite James' fond memories of that trashy-seaside-resort). I kind of would equate it to Miami, if any US city, because everyone is on vacation.
We checked into our room for the next month - 1906. Already its better than the hotel in Buenos Aires:
1. There's water.
2. The elevators go faster than one floor a minute.
3. The room is not reminiscent of a cave (the windows open, and there's no tunnel to the room.)
See for yourself, Habitición 1906, en Hotel 13 de Julio.
So we explored the main walking areas, and stopped into some shops and cafés. Made some friends in the candy store. People speak less English here than in Buenos Aires; we really used our language skills. Favorite moment was when our friend Michaela at the candy store said in her broken English: "You Spanish is better than mi English" Its nice to impress the locals.
We definitely got lost exploring the city looking for this restaurant recommeneded to us by people who went on the program yesterday. We ended up in the "hood" part of Mar. We were a big group of about 10, and asked the police for directions when they pointed us to the other side of town, we decided to stay in the neighborhood we had stumbled upon to which he said, "Ten Cuidado" (Be careful) that was enough to convince us to give up and head back to the touristy section, which we did and enjoyed drinks outside.
One thing I've noticed about South America is kids are out way later than in the U.S. we were sitting outside yesterday and kids who were like 8 and 10 were walking by with their parents at 2am. Even when on vacation, I don't think, I was ever out with my family that late. I don't know when these people sleep. It's insane.
29 December, 2009
Brazilians and La Boca
UPDATE TIME:
Yesterday (Monday), we woke up early to get on the orientation and bus tour, which took us through Buenos Aires, we basically got to see all the spots we had walked the day before. It was nice to hear all the stories behind the buildings and neighborhoods and not have sore feet. I have to admit, I took a few naps. Ingrid (our tour guide), had a monotonous voice that dragged on. Near the end of the tour we finally made it to a neighborhood we hadn't seen yet. La Boca.
La Boca is awesome, it used to be one of the poorest neighborhood made up mostly of Southern Italian immigrants It was such an isolated neighborhood, that its citizens appealed to Italian Government in the turn of the 19th Century to make it part of Italy. The neighborhood, which is centered around the main street Caminito, is marked by street tango dancers, brightly painted buildings and street markets. The whole study abroad group, went to Teatro Caminito for lunch and a tango show, which was awesome. They served us empanadas as an appetizer. Then for the main course they brought out this HUGE slab of steak for each person and salad and fries for the table. It was delicious. Some people didn't like the steak, but it was exceptional for me. The tango show was awesome, as you can see:
After then Tango Show and some postre (dessert), we were free to explore the neighborhood. Our first stop was El Museo de Cera (Wax Museum), which was a pretty humorous but funny look at Argentine history through the medium of wax statues. Haha, $10 pesos well spent. I'd say.
Then I found the love of my life in a tango dancer, and for $20 pesos we danced and got a few pictures that I will post soon. We walked around and then decided to take a bus (el colectivo) back to the hotel area. We got on the bus and met some very nice Brazilian tourists, who were in town for New Years. It's amazing having a conversation in 3 languages. They spoke English really well and Spanish not so well, but we felt like speaking spanish, between the three languages we communicated that A. We were having a great time in Buenos Aires. B. We like Seinfeld and C. We wish we were in the city longer. We got off with them in the neighborhood of San Telmo, my favorite so far. It's a lot like Boca, with its charm and European flair, but it's not as tourist-y. The group of us (by the way which is James, Alex, Michelle, Maria, Christian and Emma) saw the beautiful Basilica of Ave Maria, which was much more attractive than the Cátedral Metropolitana which is the Plaza de Mayo, which we saw on the tour. We dallied through San Telmo til we got the Subte (thats the subway = subterraneo) and took the B Line to the neighborhood of Once, which is supposed to be the Jewish Area of Buenos Aires. It did resemble the Diamond District a lot, but not overwhelmingly Jewish. Although, it was quite a site to see Hasidic Jews running a Pizzeria, while speaking Spanish. Who would have thunk?
After some cat naps in the hotel, we headed out to Palermo, the "night life neighborhood" even though it was a Monday. At first we couldn't find anything terribly exciting, thinking to ourselves, wow New York would be more active on a Monday. We got a quick bite at a Brazilian restaurant in honor of our new friends. Still pumping with energy we kept exploring, and after a friendly Argentine bartender suggested we do like David Bowie and "dance in the street," we began to think we'd find no discotecas. But we were wrong travelling up to Honduras Calle, we found the main crossroads for Palermo SoHo (they call it SoHo on maps and everything) at Plaza Serrano and it was hopping (mind you this is about at 1 am by now). We checked out a few spots and were about to go into a club, when we met our second set of Brazilian friends for the day. As it turns out, they were leaving the club for dancing in the street as we were about to enter. So we joined them and danced in the street with our new amigos from Sao Paolo. The two couples were on a cruise, and spoke even less English than our first friends. Maybe it was el vino tinto or their our outgoing ways but we continued to have a great convo with them, dancing and exchanging ideas in a trilingual conversation, for 40 minutes. We learned how to make dirty gestures in Brazil, that James looks like Eminem to Brazilians, and that what we call grinding, they call franking or is that freaking or was his name Frank? Nevertheless, we exchanged emails and now want to go to Sao Paolo. What a night. By then it was 3:30 and we were ready to call it a night. We took a cab back and I realized that Buenos Aires is a city for cab drivers. Not only do they have yellow lights to warn you of red lights coming but the lights also go through a yellow before their green, so drivers can jump read lights mad easily. Wow, I was amazed at how fast we got home with our driver, down Avenida Santa Fe.
Yesterday (Monday), we woke up early to get on the orientation and bus tour, which took us through Buenos Aires, we basically got to see all the spots we had walked the day before. It was nice to hear all the stories behind the buildings and neighborhoods and not have sore feet. I have to admit, I took a few naps. Ingrid (our tour guide), had a monotonous voice that dragged on. Near the end of the tour we finally made it to a neighborhood we hadn't seen yet. La Boca.
La Boca is awesome, it used to be one of the poorest neighborhood made up mostly of Southern Italian immigrants It was such an isolated neighborhood, that its citizens appealed to Italian Government in the turn of the 19th Century to make it part of Italy. The neighborhood, which is centered around the main street Caminito, is marked by street tango dancers, brightly painted buildings and street markets. The whole study abroad group, went to Teatro Caminito for lunch and a tango show, which was awesome. They served us empanadas as an appetizer. Then for the main course they brought out this HUGE slab of steak for each person and salad and fries for the table. It was delicious. Some people didn't like the steak, but it was exceptional for me. The tango show was awesome, as you can see:
After then Tango Show and some postre (dessert), we were free to explore the neighborhood. Our first stop was El Museo de Cera (Wax Museum), which was a pretty humorous but funny look at Argentine history through the medium of wax statues. Haha, $10 pesos well spent. I'd say.
Then I found the love of my life in a tango dancer, and for $20 pesos we danced and got a few pictures that I will post soon. We walked around and then decided to take a bus (el colectivo) back to the hotel area. We got on the bus and met some very nice Brazilian tourists, who were in town for New Years. It's amazing having a conversation in 3 languages. They spoke English really well and Spanish not so well, but we felt like speaking spanish, between the three languages we communicated that A. We were having a great time in Buenos Aires. B. We like Seinfeld and C. We wish we were in the city longer. We got off with them in the neighborhood of San Telmo, my favorite so far. It's a lot like Boca, with its charm and European flair, but it's not as tourist-y. The group of us (by the way which is James, Alex, Michelle, Maria, Christian and Emma) saw the beautiful Basilica of Ave Maria, which was much more attractive than the Cátedral Metropolitana which is the Plaza de Mayo, which we saw on the tour. We dallied through San Telmo til we got the Subte (thats the subway = subterraneo) and took the B Line to the neighborhood of Once, which is supposed to be the Jewish Area of Buenos Aires. It did resemble the Diamond District a lot, but not overwhelmingly Jewish. Although, it was quite a site to see Hasidic Jews running a Pizzeria, while speaking Spanish. Who would have thunk?
After some cat naps in the hotel, we headed out to Palermo, the "night life neighborhood" even though it was a Monday. At first we couldn't find anything terribly exciting, thinking to ourselves, wow New York would be more active on a Monday. We got a quick bite at a Brazilian restaurant in honor of our new friends. Still pumping with energy we kept exploring, and after a friendly Argentine bartender suggested we do like David Bowie and "dance in the street," we began to think we'd find no discotecas. But we were wrong travelling up to Honduras Calle, we found the main crossroads for Palermo SoHo (they call it SoHo on maps and everything) at Plaza Serrano and it was hopping (mind you this is about at 1 am by now). We checked out a few spots and were about to go into a club, when we met our second set of Brazilian friends for the day. As it turns out, they were leaving the club for dancing in the street as we were about to enter. So we joined them and danced in the street with our new amigos from Sao Paolo. The two couples were on a cruise, and spoke even less English than our first friends. Maybe it was el vino tinto or their our outgoing ways but we continued to have a great convo with them, dancing and exchanging ideas in a trilingual conversation, for 40 minutes. We learned how to make dirty gestures in Brazil, that James looks like Eminem to Brazilians, and that what we call grinding, they call franking or is that freaking or was his name Frank? Nevertheless, we exchanged emails and now want to go to Sao Paolo. What a night. By then it was 3:30 and we were ready to call it a night. We took a cab back and I realized that Buenos Aires is a city for cab drivers. Not only do they have yellow lights to warn you of red lights coming but the lights also go through a yellow before their green, so drivers can jump read lights mad easily. Wow, I was amazed at how fast we got home with our driver, down Avenida Santa Fe.
28 December, 2009
Some videos from the first day in Argentina around Calle Florida
I don't even remember what we were talking about, this
is the corner of Calle Florida and Avenida Córboda about
four blocks from our hotel.
The memorial at the Plaza de San Martín which
is about six blocks down Calle Florida. It reads:
"You, Argentinians, fight for democracy and your cause
is not only legitimate but also holy in the eyes of God
and of the free people of the world."
El Agua no funciona...
First let me tell you about the good things I did today:
After arriving in Buenos Aires Ezeiza Airport at 6 am (local time that's 4am NY time), we (James, Maria, Michelle, Alex , Emma and I) took a cab from the airport to our the Liberty Hotel on the corner of Calle Florida and Avenida Corriente. We checked into our room, and met the wonderful conierge guy--Hernan. After about an hour of a cat - nap, James and I went exploring up Calle Florida, even though it was about 10am, local time, it felt like 1pm, because the sun was perfect and the breeze was better. We went back to Hotel Liberty, scrounged up a few compadres and headed out to some lunch. I ordered pizza, I know it sounds american but it wasn't. Pizza in Argentina is way different, more garlic, less sauce, different kind of bread. But it was good. I enjoyed it. I also tried the world famous mate, which is just supposed to be a strong tea. It was good, nothing too too special though. It tasted more or less like regular tea. Then we headed down Florida Calle a la Plaza de San Martin. We kept going and crossed the largest highway in the world ( Avenida 9 de Julio) passed through the neighborhood of Ricoleta. Everything there was pretty much closed, because it was a Sunday and a holiday weekend. Finally we reached the street fair at Plaza de Francia, where local vendors were selling everything from leather belts (I got one for 60 pesos), orange boxes, scarves and jewelry. We stayed there for a good half hour. and relaxed in the sun. Then we hiked up the Avenida del Libertador and Avenida Las Heras to the Botanical Gardens, on the way stopping at a MacDonalds to pee and get a bottle of water. I don't get why foreigners make fun of MacDonalds, the one here was nicer than a lot of the regular restaurants we've been to, there was a cafe and air conditioning, so I liked it. The Botanical Gardens were beautful, mad stray cats though which was weird, but we just walked around. And took another nap. We took the subway from Scalabrini-Ortiz to Catedral, which dropped us off basically where we started the day, near the Plaza de Mayo. Maybe it was all the short naps in between but we definitely felt like we covered a lot of ground. After an hour recuperation in the hotel (where we discovered that the running water was still not working in our hotel, did I mention that yet? None of us had a legit shower since we arrived, I know gross), we headed back out. Since they told us the showers would be working by 9pm, we figured we could shower after a night out in the San Telmo area (which is the ritzier area by the port). We had a quick bite at a restaurant called Havana Club. That's a lie there was nothing quick about it, we had a very leisurely but sweet waitress, who must've had a jetlag too, because it was a while before we got our drinks and sandwich of jamón y rúcula (thats arugula). We then walked the port and crossed the port over to neighborhood of Puerto Madero. We ended the night at a place called Spell Cafe, where we could enjoy the nice air in Buenos Aires by drinking ala fresco.
By the time we got back to the hotel at about 12:45am, we thought the water would be working. We thought WRONG. The water in our showers still was not working so I dialed "0" for the operator and tried out my Spanish skills, "El agua ya no funciona? No nos hemos duchado desde 6!" So the bellhop guy offered to open up a room on the second floor becuase apparently it had running water. So the four of us from 11 (James, Michelle, Alex and I) headed down to 2 to maybe clean off 2 days of traveling, and one day of trekking around the city. The faucet was so temperamental, we had to call again. This time they told us to wait for someone to come up. James worked his magic, though, getting it to work. But at scalding hot temperatures. HAHA you should have heard him through the wall. He figured third degree burns were worth smelling good. The girls gave up and called their friends on the 1st floor who had water. I called again and was guaranteed the water in our room would work by tomorrow morning.
"¿Es cierto?" I asked. Luckily the showers did work this morning and I will not smell. But what a test it was. Time for the orientation meeting. Pictures and videos to come.
After arriving in Buenos Aires Ezeiza Airport at 6 am (local time that's 4am NY time), we (James, Maria, Michelle, Alex , Emma and I) took a cab from the airport to our the Liberty Hotel on the corner of Calle Florida and Avenida Corriente. We checked into our room, and met the wonderful conierge guy--Hernan. After about an hour of a cat - nap, James and I went exploring up Calle Florida, even though it was about 10am, local time, it felt like 1pm, because the sun was perfect and the breeze was better. We went back to Hotel Liberty, scrounged up a few compadres and headed out to some lunch. I ordered pizza, I know it sounds american but it wasn't. Pizza in Argentina is way different, more garlic, less sauce, different kind of bread. But it was good. I enjoyed it. I also tried the world famous mate, which is just supposed to be a strong tea. It was good, nothing too too special though. It tasted more or less like regular tea. Then we headed down Florida Calle a la Plaza de San Martin. We kept going and crossed the largest highway in the world ( Avenida 9 de Julio) passed through the neighborhood of Ricoleta. Everything there was pretty much closed, because it was a Sunday and a holiday weekend. Finally we reached the street fair at Plaza de Francia, where local vendors were selling everything from leather belts (I got one for 60 pesos), orange boxes, scarves and jewelry. We stayed there for a good half hour. and relaxed in the sun. Then we hiked up the Avenida del Libertador and Avenida Las Heras to the Botanical Gardens, on the way stopping at a MacDonalds to pee and get a bottle of water. I don't get why foreigners make fun of MacDonalds, the one here was nicer than a lot of the regular restaurants we've been to, there was a cafe and air conditioning, so I liked it. The Botanical Gardens were beautful, mad stray cats though which was weird, but we just walked around. And took another nap. We took the subway from Scalabrini-Ortiz to Catedral, which dropped us off basically where we started the day, near the Plaza de Mayo. Maybe it was all the short naps in between but we definitely felt like we covered a lot of ground. After an hour recuperation in the hotel (where we discovered that the running water was still not working in our hotel, did I mention that yet? None of us had a legit shower since we arrived, I know gross), we headed back out. Since they told us the showers would be working by 9pm, we figured we could shower after a night out in the San Telmo area (which is the ritzier area by the port). We had a quick bite at a restaurant called Havana Club. That's a lie there was nothing quick about it, we had a very leisurely but sweet waitress, who must've had a jetlag too, because it was a while before we got our drinks and sandwich of jamón y rúcula (thats arugula). We then walked the port and crossed the port over to neighborhood of Puerto Madero. We ended the night at a place called Spell Cafe, where we could enjoy the nice air in Buenos Aires by drinking ala fresco.
By the time we got back to the hotel at about 12:45am, we thought the water would be working. We thought WRONG. The water in our showers still was not working so I dialed "0" for the operator and tried out my Spanish skills, "El agua ya no funciona? No nos hemos duchado desde 6!" So the bellhop guy offered to open up a room on the second floor becuase apparently it had running water. So the four of us from 11 (James, Michelle, Alex and I) headed down to 2 to maybe clean off 2 days of traveling, and one day of trekking around the city. The faucet was so temperamental, we had to call again. This time they told us to wait for someone to come up. James worked his magic, though, getting it to work. But at scalding hot temperatures. HAHA you should have heard him through the wall. He figured third degree burns were worth smelling good. The girls gave up and called their friends on the 1st floor who had water. I called again and was guaranteed the water in our room would work by tomorrow morning.
"¿Es cierto?" I asked. Luckily the showers did work this morning and I will not smell. But what a test it was. Time for the orientation meeting. Pictures and videos to come.
26 December, 2009
Puerta 22A
My First Post of the Trip:
After some stress about over-booking, I got probably the best coach seat on flight 1015 to Panama City. First row out of first class, aisle, extra leg room, nice neighbor, first one to get the awful breakfast. All in all, it was a good flight to Panama City. I can't complain about my seat, or overall flight experience BUT! How frustrating is it when little kids who do not need the leg room get first class. I mean c'mon, they would be happy to sleep in the overhead compartment, but they get these big leather seats with lots of armchairs. What a joke, first class? Didn't we learn anything from the Titanic? First class must go, we are all equal at 20,000 feet.
Now I'm waiting at Puerta 22A to board a flight to Buenos Aires. So far we had a nice lunch and wandered around. I'll be boarding shortly and hopefully can catch some sleep before landing at 6 AM.
After some stress about over-booking, I got probably the best coach seat on flight 1015 to Panama City. First row out of first class, aisle, extra leg room, nice neighbor, first one to get the awful breakfast. All in all, it was a good flight to Panama City. I can't complain about my seat, or overall flight experience BUT! How frustrating is it when little kids who do not need the leg room get first class. I mean c'mon, they would be happy to sleep in the overhead compartment, but they get these big leather seats with lots of armchairs. What a joke, first class? Didn't we learn anything from the Titanic? First class must go, we are all equal at 20,000 feet.
Now I'm waiting at Puerta 22A to board a flight to Buenos Aires. So far we had a nice lunch and wandered around. I'll be boarding shortly and hopefully can catch some sleep before landing at 6 AM.
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