Day 38

Thursday 9^th December 2010

OH MY GOD!!

Was I beat up in the night?

Is my brain in a vice?

Is there a mini marching band inside my skull?

These are just a few of the questions I asked myself before realising that the tasty cold and crisp Quilmes almost killed me!! And when I sobered up at about 13:00 it was without doubt the worst hangover I have had this year!

Suzanne was fine and had planned a full days walking….yey!

We set off and found that BA has got a very European feel to it. The city is huge and linked together by a subway system. It costs 1.10 pesos to travel on the subway (less than 20p!!) and it’s superb. Not that we used it for the first 4 hours, oh no, the old feet haven’t covered enough ground so far this trip so we took them on a trek!

Franky has given up on writing the blog and fallen asleep so I’m taking over:

We left the hostel and headed for the centre of town. First up – Havanna for some decent coffee (the Starbuck’s of BA). Superfast wifi, paninis and caffeine – we’re loving it!

From there we head to the Plaza de Mayo or town square. This is at the heart of BA and the city’s most important avenues radiate outward from here – so it seemed like a good place to start! The Casa Rosada (or pink house) is home to the executive government offices. It was originally painted using a mix of whitewash and oxblood – the resulting pink is supposed to represent a blend of federalist red and unionist white and symbolise reconciliation between the two factions of 19^th century Argentinean politics. It is from this balcony that Eva Peron (Evita) famously addressed her adoring supporters. 

In front of the Casa Rosada is the Pyrimide de Mayo. There appeared to be some sort of well organised demonstration with people waving flags and marching round and round the pyramide. Apparently such protests are staged in and around the plaza almost every day. That seems like it would require some degree of organisation so as not to coincide with another protest…. Do the marchers have to book in several months in advance? In which case how fired up about the issue are you still gonna be by the time to get your protest slot?!?

We left the square and headed off into the bustling heart of Microcentro down Florida street
– the busiest pedestrians’ shopping street in BA. This was NOT the place to be on a Thursday lunchtime 2 weeks before Xmas! Franky needed a few bits (headphones, aftershave etc) so we had to brave the mental throng of shoppers.

We walked the length of Florida street to the Plaza de San Martin, named in honour of Argentina’s great liberator General San Martin. It contained huge rubber trees which were really easy to climb and a statue of the guy himself.

The other thing of Franky’s ‘shopping list’ was new reading material. We had been assured that we would be able to get hold of English books when we got to BA and set off across town to Ateneo Grand Splendid which is the largest book store in South America. This was actually stunning as it is housed in an old theatre and they did have one small section of English books – albeit at vastly inflated prices!!!

Leaving here we decided that we’d had quite enough of walking – although it IS the way to see most of the city - and headed underground to the Subte or subway. This was fast, cheap and pretty easy to navigate once we got the hang of it. It left us wondering why we’d pounded so many miles of the pavements in the city before trying it out!

This is me 'learning' the Tango on the pavement!

We headed back to San Telmo (the area our hostel is in) and discovered a second hand book shop full of English books just a stone’s throw from our hostel – oops! We were able to pick up a few books without breaking the bank AND we can sell them the books we have finished with so we don’t have to lug them around any more – result!!!

We decided it was high time for a Frank nap and headed back to the hostel to action this.

Suitably refreshed we headed out once again for tea. We headed to el Desnivel, a parilla restaurant in San Telmo. Parillas are the most popular eating places in Argentina. From the outside this is not somewhere that you would choose to eat but it was highly recommended by the guide book so in we went – and we were very pleasantly surprised. We clearly weren’t the only ones as another British couple climbed out of a taxi as we were leaving and looked up at the sign with a certain amount of trepidation. This was a typical no frills parilla – it was huge inside and brimming with locals and tourists. We were shown to a tiny formica table for two as cheerful waiters dashed to and fro with sizzling slab of meat – straight from the grill.

Fortunately we’d done a bit of research into what was expected as the menu just reads like an inventory of a cow – including various cuts of steak, ribs, kidneys and even tripe! It’s basically like a pick and mix mixed grill – without the egg! Steering clear of the offal we went for a T Bone steak, a quarter of a chicken a chorizo sausage, provolone cheese (an inch thick disc of goat’s milk heated over a grill), chips and a mixed salad. The point of the parilla restaurant is to stretch out the eating experience and chat a lot between courses. Each thing is brought to your table as and when it is ready. So we had bread and salad, followed by the sausage and grilled cheese, then steak, chicken and chips. It was all washed down with a good bottle of Norton Roble red wine. Mmmmmmmm! A great end to our first day in BA.