Buenos Aires
The main reason for me to go to Argentina was because I was making my way down to Ushuaia to embark on a trip of a lifetime — to go to Antarctica! 🙂 But I figured I should make a few stops on the way.
I stopped in Buenos Aires because I have so many friends who love that city. Most of the time, I’m not a fan of visiting big cities, so I didn’t expect all that much. I was wrong :). Buenos Aires turned out to be the perfect combination between Tel Aviv and Paris. It had all the charm of Paris, the same architectural style, the same wide boulevards lined with rows of trees. But at the same time, it had the creativity and liveliness of Tel Aviv. It’s perfect, really.
There are a few attractions to Buenos Aires. One is the cemetery La Recoleta — the city of the dead. In this cemetery, every grave is a building and there are alleys going through it. I had seen such cemeteries before, but they are still very beautiful and peaceful places to wander through. And like every place that has history, it has a number of celebrities buried there. The most popular one is perhaps Evita. It was nice to take a stroll and see how the graves changed from 200 years ago vs now.
Another attraction is the district of Palermo. It’s a lively, young and artsy district. I loved all of the little boutiques, the outdoor cafes, the street singers, and the art market. At the market, they sold all kinds of creative items: colorful belts, beautiful lace, jewellery etc. I got quite attached to a particular jewellery stall. It was a young brazilian who sold many unique items. The first time I walked by, I only watched. I then returned to buy a necklace. I then walked by a 3rd time debating whether I should buy a 2nd one. By the 4th time, I bought another 2 necklaces and the guy gave me additional earrings as a gift. He was quite entertained by my numerous trips. 🙂
Palermo wasn’t the only place to have a gorgeous market. The Defensa street, also has a beautiful market on Sundays. It starts at the Plaza de Mayo and seems to never end. It’s mostly meant to be an antiquity market, but there are also all sorts of other creative items to buy. There are so many things I loved about these markets: the items were genuinely different from anything I had seen before, people didn’t hassle you, and people didn’t try to overcharge you for things just because you are a tourist. In fact, once a guy made me pay less than 3 Argentinian women who bought the same item before me.
Eventually, when you get to the end of the market after what seemed like several kilometers, you’re a short walk away from the Boca district. The Boca district is known to be the most “dangerous” place in Buenos Aires, but a few streets of it are really beautiful, colorful and very touristy. I spent some time sitting in a cafe and watching people dance tango (most cafes hire professional tango dancers for the tourists). I was quite enchanted by it, I must admit. Obviously both dancers were in perfect synchronization, but it was impressive to see them so in tune with one another. You could clearly see that they were lost in their own world, going from an occasional smile to a more focused and even sad expression. Although it was a display for tourists, it felt authentic in some ways.
There is one more thing I really loved about Buenos Aires. Like every southern place, people from Buenos Aires eat late. They have lunch at 2pm, tea at 5pm and dinner at 9pm. The tea time is the thing to notice here. Argentinians seem to love sweets and create these amazing cakes. They are indeed quite sweet, but also gigantic and incredibly delicious :). I could not have been happier with my key lime pie with a 5cm thick layer of meringue. So good!
In addition to that, people in Buenos Aires were absolutely wonderful. So many times I had people go out of their way to welcome me or help me in some way. There was this one teenage boy, who was trying so hard to find someone at the bus stop who would let me use their bus card in order to save me the equivalent of 30 cents. I was trying to tell him that it really didn’t matter, but he insisted. The receptionist at my guesthouse also wrote a full page of Spanish/English phrases on a piece of paper just in case I needed anything. I was impressed. Surprisingly, Argentinians don’t really look like the stereotypical latinos. They look quite European actually. I really did feel at home in Buenos Aires.
After spending 3 days in this city, it became one of my favorite cities in the world. A place I could definitely see myself moving to!
For more pictures, go here.
