Buenos Aires Days 1 and 2

Day 1

I arrived in Buenos Aires (B.A.) and checked into my hostel. I took a long walk down one of the major pedestrian shopping streets and found a place called “California Burrito Company.” How could I pass that up? Sadly, it was nothing at all like a California-style burrito.

Buenos Aires feels like a big city so it feels familiar in ways to me. Lots of people husting and busting around. Lots of well-lit stores. Lots of restaurants. Cars and traffic. Diesel exhaust and honking horns. It massive and a little overwhelming. The architecture is interesting – lots of French influence, which is interesting because the people here seem to be very much Italiophiles.

Day 2

I took myself on a walking tour of the sights in downtown B.A. I saw the Congressional Building, Casa Rosada, Cathedral Metroplitana with the grave monument of General Jose de San Martin – all of which are distinctly French and Italian baroque. The Casa Rosada is where Evita Peron made her famous speech – you know, the one with the big microphones, her hand raised high in the air and her mouth open as she passionately speaks to the crowd and inspires her people. Mostly, the Casa Rosada (so named because it’s literally pink, the tint made from the blood of cows) is a museum showcasing modern Argentinean artists and their works dedicated to portraying Argentinean life and culture. The Catedral was epic, as they all seem to be here in Argentina. Massive and filled with religious art, numerous ornate altars, statues, icons, murals, and so forth. The monument to General San Martin was grave and impressive. Two ornately uniformed guards stood at the entrance to the monument within the cathedral to guard it, from what, I’m not sure. Maybe they were simply there to create ambiance?

I also took a nice long walk down to the Museo Fortobat, a small modern art museum showcasing the collection of the family Fortobat, an old money, influential family in Argentina. Portraits of the family graced the walls along with pieces from Warhol and Argentinean modern artists. It was a small collection, but well chosen and the museum itself was a very nice piece of modern architecture.

I walked home via Florida Street, THE pedestrian-only shopping street in B.A. Despite the upcoming Easter holiday, it was crammed with shoppers, and we all shuffled along in tandem to make our way up the long avenida.

Buenos Aires is definitely a walking-friendly city. There is so much to see along every street. I’m certain I walked at least five or six miles a day. My dogs were barking at the end of pretty much every day.

I went to a “closed door” restaurant tonight, which basically means it has no “storefront” but may be in a hidden restaurant or in someone’s home. In this case, Casa Coupage was simply a nondescript door on a nondescript street in Palermo Soho, a very hip part of B.A. It’s run by two Argentinean Sommeliers who offered me a seven course meal and an accompanying seven course wine pairing. Unfortunately, I was counting on small samples of wine with the courses, since of course, how could you think of drinking seven glasses of wine by yourself? Apparently not so, even though I didn’t finish several glasses of wine, I think the ones I did drink were being refilled when I turned my back. The evening ended up in a haze and with me pouring into the taxi and later realizing that I had grossly undertipped my servers and left my sweater at the restaurant. Despite my intention and understanding that I would have a sophisticated dining and wine tasting experience, I ended up feeling like I might have made an ass of myself. I went back several days later to retrieve my sweater and drop off the remainder of the tip. Fortunately, my server was there and she seemed neither angry nor embarrassed on my behalf in the least. That tells me I likely held it together despite my less than completely sober state and didn’t do anything too ridiculous. I know that the wine and the meal were excellent, at least what I remember of them.