As many of you already know, when I was back home looking for a job I was originally looking in Buenos Aires. Now, I know why I didn't find one. A LOT more people speak English! Even the taxi drivers...B.A is an international city. I mean, it is called "Paris of the South". But after a short weekend trip there, I can admit that I am glad I ended up in Santiago. There's something about the big cities like Madrid and New York that aren't as appealing to me. Santiago is smaller and friendlier to me. Like Boston!
For me, Buenos Aires reigns supreme in two things: food and shopping. And maybe soccer? (We'll see...). They have open markets and street vendors similar to Europe (especially Seville). I have missed those "ferias" with tons of artisan jewelry, leather bags, crafts...etc. And where you find these hippie markets...you always find excellent street vendor food. The first day we ate CHURROS (fried dough sticks) near the first feria that we walked through. Women were selling them out of baskets, so they weren't like "Churros y Chocolate" in Spain...but still, who doesn't love fried dough? On Sunday morning when we were passing through San Telmo we ate the best empanadas. Remember those? Like a calzone filled with spicy ground beef and onions and who knows what else but i didn't care because i was starving and it smelled like heaven...it was fried and kind of soggy because again, they were homemade and toted downtown in a basket. The oldest women in B.A was selling them...she was so cute. We totally got ripped off though...that scoundrel! But, they were so delicious I would have paid even more. In general, food and drink is much cheaper in B.A. Turns out, Santiago is the most expensive South American country (which is why I have a job in the first place!). Also the taxis were cheap too...which was good for us since we didn't have time to waste figuring out the bus system. We did take the bus twice and it was hardly as efficient as the micros in Santiago. You paid for them with coins (which aren't a common currency in B.A...so before getting on we had to round up exact change!). In Santiago you have a "Bip" card which you can add money to to pay for the buses and the metro. It's WAY more efficient...obviously.
Accommodations.
Ok let's back up a bit. I went to Buenos Aires two weekends ago (June 5th) with my friends Celine and Sonia. Celine is a co-worker of mine at Duoc. She also came through "TeachingChile" and she's not your average English teacher because she's also French! Her roommate Sonia is from Madrid and a student here in Santiago. We woke up at 4 a.m and got a transfer to the airport for our flight at 7. They have been connected with the "Couch Surfing" network which I was also familiar with from my time in Europe. It's an online network of people who offer up their couch or spare room for travelers. The idea is to host/meet new people and potentially one day you might go an visit them in return. It has the potential to be dangerous, but we we lucked out. Sonia contacted a guy named, Santiago, who had good recommendations and was willing to host all 3 of us. He shares an apartment with his brother, Frederico in barrio Palermo. They ended up being even better hosts than we could have hoped for! They took us out to lunch when we got there and invited us to their friends "asado" for dinner that night. And they had 3 couches for us so we had a comfortable stay! Oh, and did I mention that couch surfing is free? Yup.
14 Argentinean boys.
Like I said, we were invited to an Argentinean asado at the brother's friend's house. His name is Santiago as well. And he's half Irish! Anyways, when we got there we went out into the backyard and it was all set up for the barbeque. Argentina-style. The friend was already cooking steak in the outdoor brick oven when we arrived. We ate the steak right when it was done cooking- so they kept putting more and more on our plates. You know I'm not a huge red-meat eater (in fact, before moving here I hadn't eaten it in like 4 years...) but this was REALLY good steak. Malbec red wine from Mendoza and asado...mmm.... As the night went on more and more friends kept arriving until there were about 14 Argentine guys and the 3 of us. It was pretty hilarious...we played card games, tried the most disgusting alcohol that I've ever tried (Fernet...a typical alcohol...it's very bitter and strong! ) and tried to follow conversations in Argentinean Spanish. They pronounce their c's like che's and they Y's like Jah's....I like the way it sounds. Also, turns out there's a lot of Irish influence in Argentina. They say that during the Potato Famine the rich Irish came to South America and the poor one's went to the U.S. The Dad was Irish. They had a ton of Irish decorations around the house and a map of Ireland in the 1800's...I found the O'Hanlon county/town on the map so the Dad and I ended up talking about Ireland for about an hour. For us, that night ended at around 4...things were getting rowdy. They boys were all dancing and singing and gearing up to go out to a club or something. We made a quick exit because we needed to get up early the next morning and take advantage of the little time we had for sightseeing.
Sunday.
That morning we aimed for early but didn't make it out until around 12. We headed toward San Telmo neighborhood by taking a bus first to visit "La Casa Rosada". This is the main government building and the site of many historical events. C'mon, you've seen "Evita". We walked around there and also the "Plaza de Mayo". Then we walked through the sunday feria/fleamarket which was pretty incredible. There were so many people selling jewelry, leather items, matte cups, souvenirs, clothing...etc. It was overwhelming. We slowly walked through the whole thing and stopped to get lunch along the way. Then we went to "La Boca" neighborhood which is a typical tourist stop in B.A. It's nice to look at but it is overly staged for tourism and it doesnt't feel like anyone in Argentina actually lives there. However, later that afternoon we did get to see a little tango show while having some espresso. It was going to be dark soon so we got in a cab and went to "Puerto Madero" to walk around and get a view of El Río de la Plata. We ended Sunday night with Santi and Federico...we went to a tango hall for a bit to see where the locals dance and then played board games in a really awesome restaurant/bar.
Monday.
Unfortunately, Celine and I had a plane to catch at 5 in the afternoon! We got up relatively early and headed to check out some more of the city. As a final destination, we had "Milanesas" at a restaurant near the boys apartment. Milanesas are a thin cut of meat, breaded and fried. Celine and Sonia had "Milanesa Napolitana" with tomato sauce, ham and cheese. Mine was just straight up. If you've ever had "chicken fried steak" in the South- it's the closest thing I can compare it to. And back to Chile we went stuffed with Milanesas and severely lacking in sleep.
