Pretty much the rest of our time in Buenos was spent as we did the first day. Waking up late & then cruising around the streets, semi bar hopping, semi playing tourist, sampling food at random intervals & even doing a little bit of shopping! I picked up a shirt & Ric a pair of jeans. We were both looking for a T-shirt but the slogans they attached to images or just the slogans themselves were, like they are in non English speaking countries, just off the mark. My favourite being “I taught your girlfriend that thing you like”!
The Blundell Bruddas!!
We walked for miles over the time we were there, all thanks to the guidance of Map Man!! We had some great meals along the way too. Argentines are supposed to be quite good at BBQ & I can attest that they are!! We had lunch, which was actually breakfast, @ 1600 one day at a restaurant. I picked the 27 pesos to have a 3 course meal and you had various options for each course. 1 Aus $ will get you around 3 pesos, so it’s a pretty sweet deal. I had a great meal that you definitely couldn’t get for $10 back home. Homemade pate on thick crusty bread, then a wedge of meat that was beautiful. There was a little bit of fat on it but that was easily worked around & the meat was cooked to perfection. It was probably the first, proper dose of red meat I’ve had since leaving Aus in Dec. Dessert was a roasted almond encrusted slice of ice cream, drizzled with this rice & oh so sweet chocolate sauce. Best meal I’d eaten since Toni took Dan, Lynda & myself out for a ‘Company Dinner’ our first night in New Orleans.
We finally managed to make phone contact with Pablo - I have a feeling that their landline system may not be too stable…? We were to meet on Sunday @ around 5pm at his house and then his Dad was going to come pick us up & drive the 45mins to the stadium. We were going to see Boca Jr - Argentina’s best team - play Gymnasium, in Pablo’s hometown!! Pablo’s Godfather was an assistant trainer for Gymnasium and had managed to secure us some decent tickets.
Sat was supposed to be the day when Ric & I ventured out to see the coastline & possible beach of Buenos Aires. Woke up & it was bucketing down. We decided to see if it would wear off & we both ventured down to our local café, where Stephan showed us his photos etc. previously mentioned. Our Spanish was much better by this stage & we ordered the whole meal in Spanish!! It’s funny, every time we at least attempt Spanish, we get smiles & laughs. We’re not using all the right words - we’re still trying to figure out and, to, then etc. & we’re not always getting the right version of the verb but we do get our message across. Spanish is kinda like French but it’s not all just male & female, there’s different version for if you’re talking about ‘them’ or ‘we’ as well as ‘you’ and ‘I’! Slowly getting the hang of it!!
We sat @ our local for around 4 or so hours. Reading our books & slowly sipping on beers. For dinner we went to a fantastic place. We’d graced them the previous day for a beer but decided it was worth sampling their fare - which it was!! I had thin fillets of fish wrapped around spinach & something else that escapes me!! It was then wrapped in proscuitto (no idea of spelling!) & then baked. It was served on a bed of mash with these home made, thinly sliced potato chips. Was a gold meal! Cost 35 pesos for something that would easily be $35 or upwards back home. It was another of those situations where our waiter spoke to us in English & we conversed back in broken Spanish!!
Pablo & I recieving some 'attention' from the belly dancer @ the Indiana Jones Bar!!
We arrived home around 9, relaxed from our day if doing nothing & were planning to go out for a few drinks when the apartment phone rang… It was Caro!! She’d only just realised we were in town, that we were leaving on Mon!! “You want cervesa..? Vino..? Si..? We come to you. Pablo, Mariella, me & maybe more! Ok..? 1130 your house? Understand..? Chiao!” So 2 hours later we met Caro, Mariella & Pablo on the corner of our street & went out for a night on the town!! We caught cabs to a district that Ric & I hadn’t seen yet & we then walked around & they were pointing out this & that. You could detect a great deal of pride that we were there visiting them & they were showing us around. We finally settled into an Indiana Jones themed bar… I don’t know if this was because we were Westerners but there was definitely the Disneyland connection going on!! It was also good to see that Ric got along with them & that they warmed to him really quickly. I think they were also impressed that my Spanish had improved since the last time I’d seen them only 3.5 weeks previous & that Ric was speaking it too!!
Pablo & Ric, who appeared to both strike up a good friendship!!
Pablo & Caro insisted that we leave our wallets in our pockets. Ric managed to sneak in a round - a few beers & a bottle of vino but that’s about all we could do for the evening. When we left, Caro had hired a car & they then proceeded to drive us around Buenos showing us the darker & seedier side!! I would have had no idea that there is a transvestite prostitute network in the main park area of BA!! The area is kinda like the Botanical Gardens except there’s more roads going through it!! We stopped for one more round of drinks - again we couldn’t get any pesos on the table!! Although I did get my 1st ‘official’ Tango lesson from Caro!!
We got home and crashed around 4am, having promised Caro we’d meet her @ 1030 to out for coffee & then see some Argentine tango & other sights. For guys who had become accustomed to 12 odd hours sleep a night, & being a little merry, this was a scary prospect!! Especially as we had futbol that night… Lucky for us that we had experienced bad weather & spent the day reclining & relaxing!!
Ric & his Argentine posse of amigos- Pablo, Caro & Mariella.
It was the perfect way to finally catch up with a few of the Argentines - organised at the last
minute, throwing caution to the wind & just assuming that everyone will just fall in line!! Kill-om-bo!! (Argentine chaos - I’m going to have to learn to write Spanish too I’ve realised, not just speak it badly!!)All of us!! Finally got someone 2 take a photo of the whole gang!!
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