Sunday, 22 December 2013
Anders slept very well the first night, while I woke up at 6am. That's only 5.5 hours of sleeping. Obviously that was not enough, but I couldn't help but to do research about things to do in BA. Around 9:30, Anders woke up and I'd tried to fall back asleep. Successfully I've slept until 10:30.
Our plan for the day was San Telmo antique flea market and La Boca. Before all that we needed to exchange some money in Florida street. Although this is our third time doing this, we were still nervous. Florida street is the main pedestrian street of Buenos Aires. It's filled with lots of shops and around the business district. As we walked, we heard sounds of "cambio"...pause..."cambio." Eventually, we approached one guy standing in front of an office building. He gave us the rate of ARP 9.20 for USD. That's 0.10 pesos less than the guy from yesterday, but we took it. We exchanged the money, but had difficulties checking for the watermark and stripe because of the lighting. As we were checking, he jetted off with our dollars. We were a bit nervous about it all being fake pesos. Good thing it all worked out fine. That exchange was not enough, so we had to go find someone else. Anders wanted to look for the guy we used yesterday, since we knew the money was legit, but we had trouble finding him. After some walking and bickering about who to use, Anders picked this sketchy looking female. He found comfort that she was a woman, rather one of those sleazy guys. Luckily she worked this news stand on the street, so that made us feel like she has an anchor so won't deceive us. We know where to find her if she scams us! That exchange worked out also, with all legit pesos.
After the risky business, we decided to go to the flea market at San Telmo. It's Sunday, and that's the day to go to San Telmo. Although taxis are pretty cheap, I've decided to be economical and take the bus instead. I've got it all figure out on which bus to take and which stop to get off. On the map, the distances looked pretty far apart from each other, so we weren't paying that much attention on the road. We were busy taking selfies and reading about La Boca instead. That's when a man shouted at us Caminito pointing up the street. We got confused and jumped of the bus. Literally I jumped off while the bus was still moving. Uh oh! We were left in the middle of La Boca!!!! Dangerous place! All the guide books told us not roam around there. We thought for a second to get the bus back the other way, but then decided it's best to take a taxi to San Telmo.
San Telmo was a big flea market. Nothing really special to us since we've been to so many of them at other places. Anders does not particularly enjoy "old" things. After a wander with no successful
purchases, we decided to go to lunch. We went into Starbucks and used trip advisor to find a good place to eat. It directed us to San Juan Cafe, which we found after getting a bit lost around the area. The area was not the prettiest, or safest (I suppose). The restaurant door was actually locked. It was extremely packed, so we had to wait for 10mins or so outside. Apparently it was a famous restaurant as they have a tv show. We were lucky to get seated. The place was really cute, and the waitress was helpful with her English. We decided to go for the mushroom and goat cheese crostini and the braised pork with port wine. Yes, one appetizer an one main...we were sharing. We heard the portions were large, and that was correct. The food was good, but a tab bit sweet for our pallet. The experience was nice and we were glad we went there.
With full bellies, I was ready to venture off to another bus ride to La Bocca. This time I've promised to be extra attentive to make sure we got off at the right stop...and we did. La Bocca was really cool.
It's the old part of Buenos Aires where all the ethnic immigrants resides. The buildings were very colorful with lots of restaurants / shops on the ground floor. It was unfortunate that the sun was beaming strong that morning, as we didn't get to capture the good colors in our photos. It was a charming place to walk around. Anders bought himself a Bocca soccer T-shirt there. We wanted to also walk to see the stadium, but we were a bit disoriented with the map. Rather than chance our lives, we decided to skip it. Back to the bus we went. We needed change to get on the bus, so I've kindly asked a street vendor with a big smile to exchange some bills for coins from me. He was so nice he directed me to the bus ticket man. Unfortunately, he also shoved us on the wrong bus that resulted us walking an extra 25mins to get back to the studio! I knew it was the wrong bus!!!! Grrrr....
Our feet were pretty tired from the continuous walking day and night. Anders is a bit bitter about it be because the taxis are cheap, but I think it's always best to be economical and to see the city by foot.
The only thing is that we end up loosing so much time. By the time we reaches the studio, we only had an hour before we had to head out to our dinner reservation at Don Julio at Palermo. No moment of relaxation!
Don Julio is a classic Parrilla (aka steakhouse) in Palermo. It had a huge argentinian grill and there were three cooks in front of it - one for giving out the orders, one for cutting and grilling the steak, and the other to do everything else (eg. Sausages). I was taking photos of them when they took out the different cuts. The waiter saw me and told me to go behind the counter to take a photo with the chef holding a knife cutting the meat. How nice was that (although I didn't necessarily needed that photo). We started with a bottle of Malbec with a spicy Argentinian chorizo, delish! We then had a Classico salad and medium rare (aka "jugoso") ribeye and sirloin. Both were cooked to perfection and it was delicious. Still dreaming about it. When we were done eating, we had the opportunity to decorate our wine bottle to be placed on the wall. That was a lot of fun, although my art work wasn't that good.
We heard that one of the highlights of buenos aires is the night life. Our waiter directed us to a bar area, and it happened to be walking distance. Perfect! The night was still young. Only 10ish, so way too early to get it pumping. According to the guide book, the party doesn't usually kick off until 1am. That was definitely correct as most places were either empty or people dinning. We decided to go to
Taz bar to play pool. It was a huge place, but only us and another group playing pool. I am proud to say, I've successfully kicked Anders beep twice! Well, the truth is that he scratched both times,
but I was close behind :-)
It was about midnight when we were done and the place was still pretty empty. Knowing that I need to do a call for work at 7am, we went home to snooze.
Anders slept very well the first night, while I woke up at 6am. That's only 5.5 hours of sleeping. Obviously that was not enough, but I couldn't help but to do research about things to do in BA. Around 9:30, Anders woke up and I'd tried to fall back asleep. Successfully I've slept until 10:30.
Our plan for the day was San Telmo antique flea market and La Boca. Before all that we needed to exchange some money in Florida street. Although this is our third time doing this, we were still nervous. Florida street is the main pedestrian street of Buenos Aires. It's filled with lots of shops and around the business district. As we walked, we heard sounds of "cambio"...pause..."cambio." Eventually, we approached one guy standing in front of an office building. He gave us the rate of ARP 9.20 for USD. That's 0.10 pesos less than the guy from yesterday, but we took it. We exchanged the money, but had difficulties checking for the watermark and stripe because of the lighting. As we were checking, he jetted off with our dollars. We were a bit nervous about it all being fake pesos. Good thing it all worked out fine. That exchange was not enough, so we had to go find someone else. Anders wanted to look for the guy we used yesterday, since we knew the money was legit, but we had trouble finding him. After some walking and bickering about who to use, Anders picked this sketchy looking female. He found comfort that she was a woman, rather one of those sleazy guys. Luckily she worked this news stand on the street, so that made us feel like she has an anchor so won't deceive us. We know where to find her if she scams us! That exchange worked out also, with all legit pesos.
After the risky business, we decided to go to the flea market at San Telmo. It's Sunday, and that's the day to go to San Telmo. Although taxis are pretty cheap, I've decided to be economical and take the bus instead. I've got it all figure out on which bus to take and which stop to get off. On the map, the distances looked pretty far apart from each other, so we weren't paying that much attention on the road. We were busy taking selfies and reading about La Boca instead. That's when a man shouted at us Caminito pointing up the street. We got confused and jumped of the bus. Literally I jumped off while the bus was still moving. Uh oh! We were left in the middle of La Boca!!!! Dangerous place! All the guide books told us not roam around there. We thought for a second to get the bus back the other way, but then decided it's best to take a taxi to San Telmo.
San Telmo was a big flea market. Nothing really special to us since we've been to so many of them at other places. Anders does not particularly enjoy "old" things. After a wander with no successful
purchases, we decided to go to lunch. We went into Starbucks and used trip advisor to find a good place to eat. It directed us to San Juan Cafe, which we found after getting a bit lost around the area. The area was not the prettiest, or safest (I suppose). The restaurant door was actually locked. It was extremely packed, so we had to wait for 10mins or so outside. Apparently it was a famous restaurant as they have a tv show. We were lucky to get seated. The place was really cute, and the waitress was helpful with her English. We decided to go for the mushroom and goat cheese crostini and the braised pork with port wine. Yes, one appetizer an one main...we were sharing. We heard the portions were large, and that was correct. The food was good, but a tab bit sweet for our pallet. The experience was nice and we were glad we went there.
With full bellies, I was ready to venture off to another bus ride to La Bocca. This time I've promised to be extra attentive to make sure we got off at the right stop...and we did. La Bocca was really cool.
It's the old part of Buenos Aires where all the ethnic immigrants resides. The buildings were very colorful with lots of restaurants / shops on the ground floor. It was unfortunate that the sun was beaming strong that morning, as we didn't get to capture the good colors in our photos. It was a charming place to walk around. Anders bought himself a Bocca soccer T-shirt there. We wanted to also walk to see the stadium, but we were a bit disoriented with the map. Rather than chance our lives, we decided to skip it. Back to the bus we went. We needed change to get on the bus, so I've kindly asked a street vendor with a big smile to exchange some bills for coins from me. He was so nice he directed me to the bus ticket man. Unfortunately, he also shoved us on the wrong bus that resulted us walking an extra 25mins to get back to the studio! I knew it was the wrong bus!!!! Grrrr....
Our feet were pretty tired from the continuous walking day and night. Anders is a bit bitter about it be because the taxis are cheap, but I think it's always best to be economical and to see the city by foot.
The only thing is that we end up loosing so much time. By the time we reaches the studio, we only had an hour before we had to head out to our dinner reservation at Don Julio at Palermo. No moment of relaxation!
Don Julio is a classic Parrilla (aka steakhouse) in Palermo. It had a huge argentinian grill and there were three cooks in front of it - one for giving out the orders, one for cutting and grilling the steak, and the other to do everything else (eg. Sausages). I was taking photos of them when they took out the different cuts. The waiter saw me and told me to go behind the counter to take a photo with the chef holding a knife cutting the meat. How nice was that (although I didn't necessarily needed that photo). We started with a bottle of Malbec with a spicy Argentinian chorizo, delish! We then had a Classico salad and medium rare (aka "jugoso") ribeye and sirloin. Both were cooked to perfection and it was delicious. Still dreaming about it. When we were done eating, we had the opportunity to decorate our wine bottle to be placed on the wall. That was a lot of fun, although my art work wasn't that good.
We heard that one of the highlights of buenos aires is the night life. Our waiter directed us to a bar area, and it happened to be walking distance. Perfect! The night was still young. Only 10ish, so way too early to get it pumping. According to the guide book, the party doesn't usually kick off until 1am. That was definitely correct as most places were either empty or people dinning. We decided to go to
Taz bar to play pool. It was a huge place, but only us and another group playing pool. I am proud to say, I've successfully kicked Anders beep twice! Well, the truth is that he scratched both times,
but I was close behind :-)
It was about midnight when we were done and the place was still pretty empty. Knowing that I need to do a call for work at 7am, we went home to snooze.
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