I spent almost my entire time in the city of Buenos Aires.
BA was extremely large and extremely overwhelming. We had to take taxis
everywhere, and I was never able to grasp the layout of city or the ability to
navigate it on my own. Despite some minor disappointments, I still had a great
time with my great friends.
The first day a group of us wandered off of the ship to
explore. Our first stop was the Theatro de Colon. I didn’t go on the tour, but
I would love to eventually attend a show there. The ceiling is inlayed with 14
carat gold! Then we went to the Casa de Rosa (Pink House). It’s the equivalent
of our White House except that you can get a heck of a lot closer.
After that, we attempted to travel to the best ice cream
shop in the world according to National Geographic. On the way, we stopped at
probably the only vegetarian restaurant in the entire country. (We weren’t aware
it was vegetarian.) Basically, the number one thing people told us to eat was
MEAT. Epic fail on our part. This fail was an uncanny preview of how the rest
of our stay there would pan out.
After a subway ride and about an hour-long walk, we come
across the address to the ice cream shop. It is here that we read the plaque
commemorating the shop, which had moved 30 minutes away in 2010. So we settled
for some ice cream about 2 blocks down the road.
That evening we set out for a lovely meal. We would finally
consume this incredible meat that everyone was ranting and raving about. I’m
not much of a red meat-eater, but I felt like I couldn’t not eat it. Everyone
was correct – the steak was incredible. I had these medallions wrapped in lomo
(bacon) with grilled vegetables. Yum. We also had delicious empanadas and cow
tongue (!!) for an appetizer. It was tasty but strange. You just can’t think
about it.
The next day was another strange one. We set out to attend
either a soccer game or a polo match but none of which we could find reliable information
on. We had heard that they were going on, but no reliable sources existed to
get us to an exact location at an exact time. So we walked around a whole bunch
more, grabbed some lunch, and then did some shopping. Recoleta is the main
market district in the city, and it is awesome. There are probably 200 stands
were people are selling their art or their jewelry and other goods. My wallet
took a beating that day.
That night we went to a professional tango show. Despite now
being able to understand the singing numbers, it was awesome. The dancers were
amazing! Argentinean Tango is much more passionate and sexual than the U.S. or
International version you’d see on “Dancing with the Stars.” It was just so
great.
The third day we joined up with some other friends and
headed to Zoo Lujan. At this particular zoo, you were able to pet the animals
however exotic they were. We’re pretty sure they like drug the lions and tigers
(not the baby ones) so they’re super sleepy, and despite my feelings on what
they do, it was still really freaking cool. We fed elephants, pet the large
cats, and then held the baby ones.
That evening we all went out for some famous Argentinean
pizza. It was incredible! Easily the best pizza I’ve ever had.
The last day in Argentina we wanted to go to a polo match.
Like almost everything else we had planned to do in this port, it just didn’t
work out. We spent the morning attempting to meet up with Ashley’s roommate
from home, and after hours of wandering around train and bus stations, we
finally found her! We then went to the neighborhood of La Boca which is most
known for it’s brightly painted buildings. It was a really neat area with a ton
of outside restaurants, performers dancing tango in the streets, and souvenir
shops. We grabbed some lunch, walked around, and then headed back to make
on-ship time.
No comments:
Post a Comment