the Buenos Aires skyline from 20 stories up
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| From Argentina Nov 2008 |
Buenos Aires has a very modern feel to it with a population of around 13 million. Despite Argentina as a whole being classified as a 2nd world country, Buenos Aires feels distinctly first world. I felt quite poor when we went to one of the downtown shopping malls. While I generally feel that my salary lets me live quite comfortably in the U.S., I don't think there was much of anything I could reasonably afford in this mall.
a mural from the mall I couldn't afford
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| From Argentina Nov 2008 |
Near the Naval Hotel that we stayed at, there was also a pedestrian mall filled with little street-side cafes, shops, and street performers. We saw street musicians and living statues and tango dancers. I have to admit that I was a little disappointed with the tango dancers. They weren't really the greatest dancers, but it was still neat to see them preform live in the pedestrian mall. Unfortunately, I didn't have the camera with me when they were dancing because I would have liked to have pictures of the dance.
a live statue of a saint (I don't remember which one)
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| From Argentina Nov 2008 |
street art
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| From Argentina Nov 2008 |
Buenos Aires has fantastic architecture, much of which has a heavy European influence. I'm no good with architecture terms, so I'm not going to embarrass myself by attempting to label styles and totally mess things up.
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| From Argentina Nov 2008 |
the Obelisco de Buenos Aires
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| From Argentina Nov 2008 |
a pedestrian bridge in Buenos Aires
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| From Argentina Nov 2008 |
One last thing about Buenos Aires: the city and the country for that matter thrive on fútbol (soccer). We didn't go to a fútbol game while we were there. The timing didn't work out, and I guess their sporting events aren't the safe, family-oriented events that are here. Actually, when I told Diego early on that I thought it would be fun to go to a fútbol game, he said only if I wore my worst jeans and really dressed down and didn't talk so that no one would know I was American. Anyway, those were all moot points since we didn't get to go.
On our last day there, however, we were having coffee/tea at an outdoor cafe when several buses full of River Plate (D's favorite team) fans drove by. The fans were hanging out windows and waving River Plate flags and singing songs (all the teams there have specific songs their fans sing throughout the entire game). Just sitting there, I could feel the rhythm pumping through my body. Diego knew the song of course. I think he still had it stuck in his head 12 hours later when we were waiting for the plane to leave for the states.
1 comment:
Your running travelog has been very interesting. But I'm glad you're here in this country now. :)
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