Buenos Aires III
Trip Start
Aug 19, 2008
1
15
Trip End
Oct 04, 2008
Buenos Aires,
Argentina
Friday, October 3, 2008
We are now in Buenos Aires. We arrived very late Monday night, or rather very early Tuesday morning, and took a taxi to our hotel.
Tuesday was Paulīs birthday, and he was greeted by some lovely presents. He particularly appreciated the bag of winegums.
We were still quite tired from the flight, so we had a fairly lazy day. In the afternoon we visited the Police Museum. This is somewhere we tried to go three years ago, but it was closed for refurbishment. The main reason we wanted to go was to see the stuffed police dog, although Iīm not sure why this was such a fascination as I pass the stuffed dog at Slough Station every day without paying it much attention.
Anyway, this time the museum was open and we spent a couple of hours there. It was full of uniforms from different eras of police history, medals, guns, and lots of information about crimes and how they were solved. The police dog was there, although he seems to have been more famous for winning prizes in dog shows rather than for genuine police work. He was kept company by the skeleton of another dog, another prize winner I think.
The top floor of the museum was a bit gruesome, with lots of graphic exhibits and photos, but on the whole it was very interesting.
In the evening we went to the cinema and then to Status, the Peruvian restaurant for a birthday dinner. We shared a dish of fried fish and seafood, with chips and refried beans (so thatīs fish, chips and beans), and followed up with a "cake of three milks", a cake made with milk, condensed milk, and presumably some other kind of milk, which was very good.
On Wednesday we decided to remedy our ignorance about Argentinian history, and we visited the Museum of National History in Lezama Park. We walked around room 1, which seemed to give an overview of the nationīs history, and then found ourselves back in the lobby. We walked through again and the same thing happened. We asked the girl on the cloakroom, "is that it?", and it turns out they have been renovating and are re-opening the rooms one by one. So far they have done one. So we are still pretty ignorant about Argentinian history after all.
When we came out it was raining, and it was the first time we have been caught in the rain in six weeks, which is incredibly lucky really. Even then it didnīt rain for long, and we jumped on a bus and went back to the middle of town.
In the afternoon we visited Cafe Tortoni, one of the most famous cafes in Buenos Aires, and consumed hot chocolate and churros beneath the benevolent gaze of a bust of Pirandello. A very touristy thing to do, but not to be missed for the "faded elegance".
For dinner we ended up back at the Peruvian restaurant, largely for another chance to have our three-milk cake and eat it. We did try to go to another restaurant. We even got as far as sitting down and looking at the menus, but it was no good, and back we went for another helping of fish, chips and beans.
Yesterday we visited the Tango museum. This is upstairs from Tortoniīs, and so the building itself was worth the five peso entrance fee. There were lots of photos of old tango stars and objects belonging to them. The best thing was that a five-piece tango ensemble were rehearsing there, so we had a chance to hear some tango in the making.
In the evening we went to the cinema, and then we went to a nice little parrilla restaurant a half-hour walk away, as we decided that our final evening meal should involve some steak.
Now is our final morning, and we are just going to get some food before taking the long bus ride to the airport.
Hasta luego,
Lisa and Paul
