Wednesday, October 16, 2013

A Brief Run Through the Plaza De Mayo

Did you know Buenos Aires is the number one visited city in South America? Even above Rio de Janeiro? I didn't, but Wiki told me so. It's not hard to figure out why, what with the beautiful European architecture, the parks, the museums, the wine, the beef and being the starting point for trips such as Iguazu Falls and Patagonia.

Yesterday, I continued my exploration of Buenos Aires by venturing down to Plaza de Mayo. FM and I were there a couple years ago when we briefly hopped over to BA from Montevideo, Uruguay. But it was a cold, wet, blustery day.

Yesterday was much nicer. Temperatures are already peeking into the 80's. It's going to get warm around here. . . 

At the beginning of Diagnol Norte, facing the Tribunale. This street will lead us directly into the heart of  Plaza de Mayo

Just need to jump across the Avenue of the 9th of July, the largest boulevard in Buenos Aires. And look! There's the Obelisco!
The Cabildo - basically City Hall
Metropolitan Cathedral of Buenos Aires
Looking up the Plaza from the River side, the statue in the middle is the Piramide de Mayo

Casa Rosada - Mansion and offices of the President. Can you imagine how close you can get to the front gates?
Bank of the Argentine Nation. Pretty impressive.
And this is the Secretary of Intelligence, note the antenna. SPOOKy. LOL

Looking toward Puerto Madero, that landscape has changed dramatically

Secretary of Defense Building
And then I took the bus home. The right bus. First try. Amazing!
We've been pretty guilty of hanging around the house at night, which is COMPLETELY unlike us. I bought a post-season package from MLB.com so we can watch all the Tigers games (AND NO COMMERCIALS - how odd) on the computer. WIth the games starting at 9 pm and our fave bar clear on the other side of town, it's a bit hard to get FM into bed before 1 AM.  So, I've been cooking and we've been cheering (and drinking lots of wine). 

Will have to cheer harder and louder tonight. 


Tuesday, October 8, 2013

We Moved On Up. . . To the West Side. . . (I think, I'm still directionally challenged)

Today was the day I fell in love (at least a little) with Buenos Aires. I haven't been in hate, just a bit of ambivalence. It's definitely interesting, it's lovely, it has it's shabby chic charm, but up till today,  I was a bit blah. 

It's spring. 

The air is fresh, the breezes are cool, the ground is warming up and smelling of dirt, the trees are starting to bloom, the hemlines are rising . . .  The tree-lined streets of Palermo Hollywood, our new neighborhood, offer a variety of architecture, eateries and drinking holes. 

I did a little park tour, bought some ground coffee for the house (at Starbucks, ARGH, no choice), found a cute sweater. . . just strolled around like an average Porteno (that should have a tilde above the n but I'm too lazy to figure out how to do that on Blogger, and it means a person from Buenos Aires).

Digging the old school signage. Parilla means grill, so these are places for MEAT, BABY! You know, ARGENTINIAN BEEF!?!?! Nom Nom Nom
Very strange flowers on a very big tree. . . .

Plaza Italia

Entrance to the Zoo. Didn't go today. Waiting for Mommy and Daddy to take me. They arrive 11/1!

Looking down Libertador Street. Such a gorgeous day!

More blooming. Park in front of US Embassy.

Monument of the Spanish. . . 

Close-up!

3rd of February Park. . . 

Heron posing for a pic

Digging the architecture

Remind you of anything, Grand Rapidians??? Can you say Art Prize. There's nothing new under the sun, apparently!

Even the graffiti is cool
See? LOL

More quaintness. . . .

The Argentinians dig their dogs. They hire people to walk them. Not unusual to see someone with 10-15 dogs on a leash meandering down the road.

Our street.

How does the elevator know FM lives here???

View from our balcony



Friday, October 4, 2013

Don't Cry for Me. . .

Yes. For the past three days I've had the theme from "Evita" stuck in my head. I sing it. I whistle it. It's there. Hopefully that will pass. Soon. 

Other than that, just getting our feet on the ground and our bearings in this very large city. And, of course, taking lots of pictures. We are hanging at the Sofitel Retiro until tomorrow when we move to our lovely and spacious hotel in Palermo. Looking forward to getting settled into our new apartment and neighborhood.

During our long weekend here a couple years ago, we never made it to this part of town (or several others, of course), so have seen a few new things.

Avenue Libertador, looking toward Torres de Catalina Norte

Kavanaugh Building, designed to look like the prow of a ship, overlooking San Martin Plaza

Tower of the English, across from San Martin Square and the main train station

The train station!

Dog park inside San Martin Park. For 100 Peso you can leave your dog here for a WEEK. That's about $17.

The reason why I'm here. Sorda. LOL

Perhaps the most iconic of Buenos Aires monuments, The Obelisco. Built in 1936 to celebrate the 400th year of the first foundation of the city

The economy here has really taken a huge dive in the last couple years. This is a homeless encampment near the National Congress. Fitting, I'm sure.

Plaza Congreso

Love this sculpture. . . 

National Congress

Dogs seem abundant and popular. The profession of dog walking is huge. You see them all over town with a bunch of bowwows on leashes.

Tribunale

Not sure what this building is, but love the combo of new and old

Meat around the fire in the window of Las Nazarenas, a popular restaurant for traditional food

Square near the Cemetery of Recoleta (neighborhood)

The entire cemetery is walled off, but you can see some of the grave monuments above the wall.

This is peeking inside. I didn't go on the tour today, but I can only assume some VERY important people are "buried" in here. Each of those little buildings is a grave!

Taking a break in the park at Plaza Lopez. A beautiful day today!

Interesting buildings and awesome palms in the Square

This town is FILLED with HUGE Rubber Trees. The root systems are enormous and gorgeous

Sacred Heart Church in Recoleta. A very picturesque area of town.
Getting lots of opportunity to practice my Spanish, so far so good. Have managed to secure SIM cards for our phones and know what we have to do in order to get transportation cards. Haven't been on the subway (Subte) yet, mostly just hoofing around.

Also, haven't had a "true" Argentinian dinner, either. Which basically involves eating sometime after 9 and includes lots of beef and wine. Going to try and fix that tonight. FM's boss is taking us all out to dinner!

Hasta Luego!