Bienvendio (welcome)
We understandably awoke late, had a good breakfast in the hostel and then headed off to find some phone cards to phone home. How simple that sounded!
We walked around looking for an international phone-card, and were not having much luck until an oldish Argentinean man helped us by taking us to the `Telfonica` and speaking to the guy behind the counter in Spanish for us. We had a great chat with him as he has been to SA on rugby and cricket (yes cricket!) tours. I did say that I was sad that we would have to kick the Argies butt on the way to winning the World Cup, but at least they had got further than ever before with a semi final place.
I phoned home and managed to get through to Michelle and Dad. We used up one card and then another, but what the hell it is important to hear voices!!
Poor ole Jules has tried ever since the 3rd and has still not managed to speak to her Mum (and today is the 10th). Jules has been trying two or three times a day and always getting a engaged single - except for once when she managed to speak to Ror. So she keeps trying and hopefully will get through?!
We headed off to see some sights, first going to see the National Congress building which is a replica of the White House in the USA. The big statue in front of the building is massive and the stairs are supposed to represent the many hills of the Andes mountains? Have a look at the photo and see what you think?
We had some excitement as a demonstration was taking place in the Plaza de Mayo. As we walked to the Plaza we suddenly realised we were at the back end of the demo. There were some guys on a platform giving it horns, screaming and chanting etc. We had a look at the roman looking Metropolitan Cathedral in the Plaza square and then we skirted the demo and had a look at the famous pink building of Buenos Aires - the Casa Rosada. It was strange to stand looking at the balcony where Evita, and more recently, Diego Maradonna had addressed the people of Buenos Aires, while we could hear crazy guy shouting over the public address system to the people gathered in the plaza.
We walked along the water-front towards San Telmo. The water-front is nothing like the area in La Bocca. Here it is the rich that have begun to settle in fancy apartment blocks and their yachts are clearly visible in the river alongside the apartments. Many USA restaurants like TGI Fridays have set up places along the water-front.
Anyway we walked along and wondered why Buenos Aires had tried to copied the Sydney Opera House? On the water-front there is a weird copy of the Opera House (see the photo) and then we discussed for an hour why the bridge called the ``Women´s Bridge`` was designed as it is! In an attempt to be delicate (yes, I will try) the bridge has a piece of concrete sticking up at a weird angle from it - some part of the female form ........... I think not? We had a good laugh coming up with our own theories for the naming of the bridge - maybe ``woman`` cannot live without this piece of concrete, maybe ``women`` should be thankful for this piece of concrete etc etc etc. We have still not found out why it is designed as it is, but will keep looking for an answer!!
Enough of that .......... getting back to our historical walk - we walked through the cobbled stone streets of San Telmo. The Plaza Dorrego is in the centre of San Telmo and is a Bohemian paradise of cafes, antique shops, local craft stalls etc. Jules was having a great time looking at all the crafts and almost helped a child to be run over! OK, it wasn´t quite like that, Jules asked a lady for a price and while the lady was helping Jules who child suddenly ran off into the street behind her. She ran after him and grabbed him before any harm could come to him. I told Jules the least she could do was buy something for nearly causing a mother to be childless, but she wasn´t´s having it!
We managed to find our Christmas decoration from Argentina and were then doubly happy when we found Desnivel on Defensa street. To explain - the hostel booklet listed this restaurant as ``Incredible steak house, best price``. So we had decided this would be our supper and we wanted to find it during the day so we could return that evening.
We saw a whole lot of church´s, monuments etc. and returned to the Hostel Obelisco. The hostel is great and we can recommend it to anyone going to BA. We ended up having a nap and when we awoke we decided to rather go and have lunch at Desnivel the following day, on our last day in BA.
We headed down the shopping boulevard of central BA, Florida Avenue. We had a good time watching all the people and then had a pizza and salad. The meal was great as a football game was on and people were jumping around watching the game. The waitress was very entertaining and opened our Pepsi´s by putting the bottle under her knee, lifting it up to her waist and then opening with the bottle opener!? When I asked her why she was doing such a strange thing she replied ``It´s sexy in the tango city!``
We were most happy that we had not ordered the Argentinian Barbecue. We had seen a few places advertising it and had almost bought it, but decided we did not want such a big supper. The ``entertaining`` waitress explained that she ``could not live without the BBQ and she would recommend it everyday, the pigs meat, the pigs intestine .........`` and she went of for a while explaining all the bits that are included. Basically they BBQ all the pig for our pleasure!
So we went to bed happy that we had dodged the BBQ bullet and would be having huge T-Bones at Desnivel the following day.
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