Welcome to Hostel Buenos Aires
Trip Start
Sep 04, 2008
1
25
33
Trip End
Jan 11, 2009
Buenos Aires,
Capital Federal District,
Argentina
Sunday, December 7, 2008
The rain carried on and off for a few days and really put a dampener on more than my room. The hostel has a great rooftop for lounging around, but itīs not much good when itīs raining. The city is also built to walk around but, again, not so much when itīs raining. On Saturday my friend from Amuata Spanish School arrived at Estoril. Itīs been a while since I spent time with someone who has known me for more than 3 hours. We went to see Palermo Viejo, had a nice lunch and wandered the markets. And then it rained again. This time it was the heaviest rain I have ever seen - by the time we got off the Subte at Av de Mayo it was running in torrents down the road! We got soaked just getting from th Subte station to the hostel; the roads were flooded so high you had to wade across nearly up to your knees in flowing water. In flip-flops that was not easy, I lost them once - an Argentine gentleman retrieved them before they floated too far away. It was a mad scene with even matresses sailing down the street!
On Sunday the rain eased, so I walked to the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes http://www.mnba.org.ar. There was so much to see, old, modern and contemporary art, that I didnīt have time to see it all; I had to scoot back to the hostel to meet Jane. Jane and I parted paths after Cusco: she headed to northern Peru, Ecuador, Florida to meet her husband, and then to Brazil to see an old work colleague; I headed south to the colder parts of SA. We planned to meet up in BA towards the end of our trip. After dinner at Chan Chan, a Peruvian resturant (just for old times sake) we headed to a milonga http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milonga_(place) to watch some locals tango and hopefully meet up with Giselle, a pal I met in Bariloche (I didnīt see her there.)
It has proved really hard to meet up with people here; I was hoping to see Giselle, Natalie & James from Amuata, Kirsten & Elisa from Cordoba. Mobile phones, UK or local, work sporadically and the internet is not a great way to make plans in a strange city. The most successful way of meeting up has been to stay in the same hostel. Itīs been really great to have Jane here and see Dorien again. Shiona from Peurto Madryn has also stopped here for one night, and the Jo I met last week also came back for a night.
After another rainy afternoon on Monday, Jane, Ingunn, Chris - Candadian via New York - and I went to La Bomba de Tiempo (aka Time Bomb) http://www.myspace.com/labombadetiempopercusion. It is an improvisation group, conducted by a system of signs from the director. It was amazing, really good fun, great beats. It was kind of like a live rave I suppose. There we met up with Janeīs friend from school, Andy. He is teaching in BA for the next year, rents an apartment in San Telmo.
This week I also attended sessions at Exspanish, a school recommended to me by a few people back down the road. This time I decided private lessons would be better, my pace and content to fit my needs. I sort of got that, the teachers were very good, although we didnīt get around to the past tense until Friday. Overall I was really pleased with my progress - I must have absorbed more than I thought over the past few months. My converstation is really slow, but not quite so boring, especially now I can talk about what I did yesterday! Iīm really pleased with my comprehension; as long as the chat isnīt too fast I can pretty much keep up with whatīs going on. Compared to Amuata the school is really expensive, and you only get lessons, no board or meals included. The school have put on some social activities, I went to the group dinner in Palermo on Tuesday night which was a good chance to meet some fellow students.
Probably because I only did two hours a day, my teacher gave me tonnes of homework to do each day. Tuesday and Wednesday I left Jane to sightsee with Andy and other hostel types whilst I cracked on with my tarea. Thankfully by now the sun had returned. On Wednesday night the hostel hosted an asado http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asado. It was a great night in with most of the visitors staying on th 6th and 1st floor. This weekīs asado was particularly popular because earlier that day Madonna had announced she was postponing the eveningīs concert. Madge is playing 4 nights in BA, Wednesday was the first date. Just to prove even famous types have trouble with SA airports, the concert was postponed because the sound equipment hadnīt turned up. I can just see Madge filling in the airport paperwork now; what does it look like, what size is it, what is in it, where did you last see it, did you pack it yourself..?
Thursday Jane and I decided we really ought to leave the hostel night scene and try the cityīs instead. Jane, Helen, Shiona and I had some vino blanco (uh-oh) at the hostel first as you shouldnīt really get to a bar before midnight. Already smashed (well I was) we found Andy in some bar in San Telmo and ordered some more vino blanco and a fernet with coke. Fernet is the local drink, it is vile http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernet. It tastes much like Listerine and they drink it with coke. The LP says it is the best way to start off a killer hangover. Doing pretty well (badly?) we left the bar at the respectable BA time of 3.20am in search of a discoteca. I know that Shiona and I didnīt get to the nightclub, that Jane and Helen went on further to look... but thatīs about it. Not sure what happened to Andy.
For us Friday was Madonna Night (having had our Wednesday night tickets moved to Friday night.) She played at the River Plate Stadium a little out of town. Iīve never been to a stadium before, it was huge! Apparently it holds 65,000 people. Superstar DJ, Paul Oakenfold was the warm up act but to be honest he wasnīt all that. There wasnīt any mixing or stage prescence, he may have just plugged in his iPod and pressed īShuffleī. Madge didnīt get on stage until 10pm. The first couple of songs were new, I didnīt know them, and the show was a little dull. But then it picked up and was just fantastic! Into the Groove and Like a Prayer were excellent, the dancing was great, and the set pieces were amazing! I canīt believe she is still throwing it around aged 50+. Actually there were quite a few songs featuring Madge on here electric guitar - including a very angry rendition of Borderline (for soon-to-be-ex-husband, Guy Ritchie perhaps?) Maybe Madge & Guitar is the way forward? There isnīt so much pressure to dance if you have a guitar swinging from your neck. I have some photos on www.flickr.com/photos/bongo76 - she is pretty small in the pics, but considering how short I am Iīm pleased I got any shots at all.
See Madonna live: another Life Long Ambition ticked off the list.
