El Ateneo Buenos Aires

"Nothing to do, nowhere to be
A simple little kind of free
Nothing to do, no one but me
That's is all I need"
- John Mayer

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Location: Buenos Aires
Arrived from: Toronto
By: Plane
Arrival date: 29/04/13 …

I've been noticing some stark differences between Argentinian life and American life during my first week in Buenos Aires. For example, I went to Pilar with Victoria and Jemima (we call her Meema) on Saturday for a BBQ and "fun in the sun" day. On our way there, we stopped at a gas station to fuel up. Normal enough. As we pulled up to the pump, all …

Buenos Aires is known as one of those big ticket, international capitals (the types you see on the bottoms of swish store ads), yet to me it seems to be an understated city that grows on you day by day as you explore more barrios (neighbourhoods) and learn more of its turbulent history and big-hearted, passionate people.

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The Sheraton Liberatador is an extremely comfortable hotel (and I got a great price online; half what they were asking in the hotel!) While the area around looks run down, it is only a block from a very nice pedestrian mall lined with smart shops (Florida St) with a modern shopping center built around a gorgeous domed ceiling worthy of any church …

Why is Josepho smiling?















Well, he clearly isn't anymore (thanks to his shyness after Heidi asked to take his picture), but he had a huge smile when Dan saved his paper airplane from the top of another market stall. Josepho bides his time making fun with the scarce …

The eager beavers take a break, but as we both cannot quietly accept the destiny we actually chose ourselves, other options need to be investigated. So how do you we get more insights of the city and practise our poor Spanish? Locals seems the obvious answer. But as we are not those to pick people from the stress like 'Hey, wanna chat for a hour …

... great restaurants. 7-Florida street, perhaps longest promenade in de world. Stop for English tea or cognac at the Richmond cafe. 8-El Ateneo bookstore in Santa Fe avenue y Callao, a turned of the century theater restore as a bookstore/cafe. Get some ...

... The first is a real classy, trendy jazz bar while the second was a lively, locals hang out.  When I think of great Buenos Aires nightlife, I will fondly recall these two great nights.  Great music, cheap (at the locals place) drinks, buena ...

We arrived in Buenos Aires on Wednesday morning to 30 degree heat, and were greeted by a friendly taxi driver named Ricardo who delivered us promptly to our hostel just outside the centre of town. He warned us about the bad bits of the neighbourhood and ...

... Peron is buried (otherwise known as Evita - yes, as in the awful Madonna movie which I saw in theaters). The song choice for Buenos Aires which I couldn´t stop singing was "Don´t Cry for me Argentina"(from said movie). It alternated with La Bamba - I ...

... a lovely local restaurant. It's the general custom throughout Argentina to eat out from 8ish but it was really prominent in Buenos Aires and restaurants are generally most packed with people starting meals anywhere between 10.30pm and 12am! Gran Parrilla ...

... perusal.  However, after the peacefulness of El Ateneo it was back out to the busy, loud, and dangerous streets of Buenos Aires. Pedestrians seem to have no rights here and drivers are very aggressive. Drivers use their car horns frequently, ...

... ;            After a lot of walking, it was nice to spend a lazy afternoon reading in El Ateneo on Avenida Santa Fe.  El Ateneo is no ordinary bookstore, because it's housed in an old theater.  Bookshelves replace ...

CITY GUIDE TO BUENOS AIRES One big travellers tip INFORMATION * TimeOut - Buy a TimeOut BA mag (available on the streets, espec. Florida and Santa Fe)(2005 is best, specifically for BA; 2006 is for Argentina and Uruguay) - the best guide to BA, ...

... hetzelfde moment! Met Simon gingen we ook uitgebreid eten (steak en wijn, natuurlijk!) en we praatten bij en haalden herinneringen op. Buenos Aires was een geweldige afsluiter van een nog mooiere reis. We hebben ervan genoten en zijn blij dat we via deze ...

... Jörgen gets the desired backpack...tadaaa! One happy guy he is! -yes I am!- On the Avenida Florida, THE shopping street of Buenos Aires he finds a much maller camera bag, for only the camera and so the new collection is complete. It still is ...