Wednesday 3/18/15 - I was still in rest mode, so not much was on the agenda. In the afternoon, I met up with a friend, Tere, at a park to just enjoy the beautiful weather. Tere is studying abroad in BA from Mexico, so it was really cool to here the differences in the Spanishes. After enjoying the park for a bit, we walked around to find her something to eat, but she finally decided on Subway. Considering the amount of Subways in which I have eaten in the USA it is only fitting that I find myself in an international Subway, even though I did not get anything to eat.
I took a nice easy stroll home and snagged a pizza for dinner before catching up on more rest.
I took a nice easy stroll home and snagged a pizza for dinner before catching up on more rest.
Thursday 3/19/15 -
Today I felt back to normal. I caught up on some things on the computer in the morning and then decided to go on more of an aimless walk to check out the different parks on Buenos Aires. I stopped by the botanical gardens, the zoo (did not pay the entry fee, but it looked cool), the Japanese gardens, and walked through Palermo and Recoletta a bit. I did need to purchase some new flip flops because my old pair broke, but that was not super urgent. I made a few stops at McDonalds and Starbucks to use the wifi, but I ended up walking for about 4 hours before settling down in the Japanese Gardens to relax and read. The Japanese gardens are basically just a huge grass field with trees spaced out so there is scattered shade. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, so laying on my towel in the shade was very pleasant. Except for the drum line practice going on 200 yards away, but oh well.
I packed up and started walking toward La Cabrera, one of the most popular/famous/well liked steakhouses in Buenos Aires. It is a fairly expensive place and extremely tough to get reservations, but from 7-8 they offer their menu for 40% off. In Argentina, the culture is to relax and do a lot of hanging out and conversing during meals, so a nice steak dinner like this can take multiple hours. But since La Cabrera does not start taking reservations until 830pm, they open their kitchen from 7-8 for 40% the entire meal. But the catch is that you have to leave at 8, which is not much time for a steak dinner and really contradictory to Argentinean culture. However, I was fine with eating a bit quicker and enjoying one of the top restaurants in BA at a very discounted price.
I got there at 6:35 and there was already a small line. By the time 7 came around, there was a pretty decent line of about 25 people, mostly English speaking travelers. They sat us in a smaller room and almost immediately took our food orders. We had plenty of time to examine the menu in line so this was not an issue. Knowing that I could take food to go if needed, I splurged. I ordered a rib eye with blue cheese on top, a side dish of potatoes and eggs, and a caesar salad.
I was sitting at a small, 2 person table facing the street, and there happened to be another solo consumer, so I gladly welcomed the host to seat her next to me. I was not glad for long though, this lady really made me laugh. First, she had no idea she was doing the 40% deal, she just thought she was going to dinner at some place near her hotel on her last night in town. So that news came as a very pleasant surprise to her, but she was not thrilled to have to leave in an hour. She also did not speak any Spanish, so it was comical to hear her fail at communicating with the very nice waiter. Once she finally picked which wine to drink, she decided to order the same steak as me because she simply had no idea. I really could go on and on about this lady, but I think it might be best to just eliminate her from my La Cabrera experience. Even though the chances are she will never read this, I will take the high road here and just say, she did not enhance my time spent at the steak house.
My potatoes and salad came out first, and (granted I was starving) they were irregularly tasty. I tried really hard to not eat as much and remain hungry for the steak, and I somewhat succeeded. The rib eye was extremely impressive, and the blue cheese on top really put the finishing touches on it. Definitely worth the hype in my opinion, the steak was gone pretty quickly. They also served some small side dishes and a cheesy corn dish to be split between my neighbor, Ms. Delightful and myself. (I know she is a Ms and not a Mrs because when I revealed I was from Texas, the first thing she said was ¨Oh, my ex-husband is from Texas!¨ Fantastic!). All of this food combined with the bread at the beginning made for an overly filling meal. In fact, it was one of the rare occurrences in my life where I had to ask for a to-go box. I was more than happy to spread this meal out into 2 though.
The waiter brought the check right before 8pm (which is usually rude in Argentine culture, you ask for the check when you are finished during a normal dine out experience), but I was ready to go and carry my food twins on home with me. Ms. Delightful told me that she enjoyed the wine more than the 2 bites of her steak she had taken and that she wanted to stay and drink wine because she could not find a good bar to go out to in BA. I questioned whether she had been looking with her eyes open.
It ended up being $320 pesos (roughly $30 USD) for this far-too-much-food, high class steak dinner. I casually strolled home, literally laid on the balcony and tried to avoid movement. I had hopes of meeting up with friends later and or going to a bar, but those fell through for a few reasons, one being I could not move until about 3 hours later.
Today I felt back to normal. I caught up on some things on the computer in the morning and then decided to go on more of an aimless walk to check out the different parks on Buenos Aires. I stopped by the botanical gardens, the zoo (did not pay the entry fee, but it looked cool), the Japanese gardens, and walked through Palermo and Recoletta a bit. I did need to purchase some new flip flops because my old pair broke, but that was not super urgent. I made a few stops at McDonalds and Starbucks to use the wifi, but I ended up walking for about 4 hours before settling down in the Japanese Gardens to relax and read. The Japanese gardens are basically just a huge grass field with trees spaced out so there is scattered shade. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, so laying on my towel in the shade was very pleasant. Except for the drum line practice going on 200 yards away, but oh well.
I packed up and started walking toward La Cabrera, one of the most popular/famous/well liked steakhouses in Buenos Aires. It is a fairly expensive place and extremely tough to get reservations, but from 7-8 they offer their menu for 40% off. In Argentina, the culture is to relax and do a lot of hanging out and conversing during meals, so a nice steak dinner like this can take multiple hours. But since La Cabrera does not start taking reservations until 830pm, they open their kitchen from 7-8 for 40% the entire meal. But the catch is that you have to leave at 8, which is not much time for a steak dinner and really contradictory to Argentinean culture. However, I was fine with eating a bit quicker and enjoying one of the top restaurants in BA at a very discounted price.
I got there at 6:35 and there was already a small line. By the time 7 came around, there was a pretty decent line of about 25 people, mostly English speaking travelers. They sat us in a smaller room and almost immediately took our food orders. We had plenty of time to examine the menu in line so this was not an issue. Knowing that I could take food to go if needed, I splurged. I ordered a rib eye with blue cheese on top, a side dish of potatoes and eggs, and a caesar salad.
I was sitting at a small, 2 person table facing the street, and there happened to be another solo consumer, so I gladly welcomed the host to seat her next to me. I was not glad for long though, this lady really made me laugh. First, she had no idea she was doing the 40% deal, she just thought she was going to dinner at some place near her hotel on her last night in town. So that news came as a very pleasant surprise to her, but she was not thrilled to have to leave in an hour. She also did not speak any Spanish, so it was comical to hear her fail at communicating with the very nice waiter. Once she finally picked which wine to drink, she decided to order the same steak as me because she simply had no idea. I really could go on and on about this lady, but I think it might be best to just eliminate her from my La Cabrera experience. Even though the chances are she will never read this, I will take the high road here and just say, she did not enhance my time spent at the steak house.
My potatoes and salad came out first, and (granted I was starving) they were irregularly tasty. I tried really hard to not eat as much and remain hungry for the steak, and I somewhat succeeded. The rib eye was extremely impressive, and the blue cheese on top really put the finishing touches on it. Definitely worth the hype in my opinion, the steak was gone pretty quickly. They also served some small side dishes and a cheesy corn dish to be split between my neighbor, Ms. Delightful and myself. (I know she is a Ms and not a Mrs because when I revealed I was from Texas, the first thing she said was ¨Oh, my ex-husband is from Texas!¨ Fantastic!). All of this food combined with the bread at the beginning made for an overly filling meal. In fact, it was one of the rare occurrences in my life where I had to ask for a to-go box. I was more than happy to spread this meal out into 2 though.
The waiter brought the check right before 8pm (which is usually rude in Argentine culture, you ask for the check when you are finished during a normal dine out experience), but I was ready to go and carry my food twins on home with me. Ms. Delightful told me that she enjoyed the wine more than the 2 bites of her steak she had taken and that she wanted to stay and drink wine because she could not find a good bar to go out to in BA. I questioned whether she had been looking with her eyes open.
It ended up being $320 pesos (roughly $30 USD) for this far-too-much-food, high class steak dinner. I casually strolled home, literally laid on the balcony and tried to avoid movement. I had hopes of meeting up with friends later and or going to a bar, but those fell through for a few reasons, one being I could not move until about 3 hours later.
Friday -
At Iguazu Falls, I ran into a guy from California (which was a surprise at first because he looks middle eastern… because he is), named Gabi, who happened to have the exact same itinerary as me with Lollapolooza and then Patagonia. So we had exchanged information and he was returning to BA today and was staying at Hache’s apartment with me. Gabi’s flight was supposed to land at 2:30, so I figured I needed to be at the apartment at like 3 to let him in. Where there is no wifi, there is no communication for a lot of travelers, so once Gabi left for his flight from Mendoza (like 10am), I had no more communication with him until he arrived at the apt, or found wifi. So I hung out in the morning, got some stuff done on the computer, not wanting to do anything too adventurous and then have to come back to the apartment and risk not being there when he arrived. Turns out I got a text from Gabi at 3pm saying it would be another 1.5 hours til he arrived. Apparently the airport was farther than I thought. I couldn’t leave though because I had to be there when he arrived. Well, traffic sucks and Gabi arrived a bit before six.
He unpacked a bit and we settled and then we headed to get dinner at a pizza place called Pizza Guerrin, recommended by my buddy Mauro from Rosario. We took the Subte and got there around 8 pretty starving. Sat down upstairs at this place that looked like a 50s American Diner and started browsing the menu. The restaurant was pretty empty because it was still roughly two hours until Argentine dinner time, but when the next party of 4 came, the host sat them at the table literally right next to us. The other 50-60 tables in the place remained vacant. Not sure the reasoning behind this, but it was semi-curious.
Anyway, we ordered our pitcher of beer and fuguzetta, and when the pizza came out, we were pleasantly surprised by how hefty it was. A lot of cheese and onions. Another thing about Argentina is that good condiments come hard to find. There is rarely ketchup or mustard or hot sauce (nothing is really spicy in the country in the first place) or anything on the table unless you ask. So when we asked for a sauce to dip the crust in, the waiter was kind of confused, but he brought us some very bland “salsa picante”, which did the job.
Barely able to finish the pizza, we left the place extremely satisfied and started walking semi-aimlessly and semi to find a bar/night spot. We ended up walking all the way home and decided to call it a night after an ice cream stop and strolling through the mainstreet of a less secure barrio or two. It was definitely more fun to have someone join me in the apartment and during daily activities.
At Iguazu Falls, I ran into a guy from California (which was a surprise at first because he looks middle eastern… because he is), named Gabi, who happened to have the exact same itinerary as me with Lollapolooza and then Patagonia. So we had exchanged information and he was returning to BA today and was staying at Hache’s apartment with me. Gabi’s flight was supposed to land at 2:30, so I figured I needed to be at the apartment at like 3 to let him in. Where there is no wifi, there is no communication for a lot of travelers, so once Gabi left for his flight from Mendoza (like 10am), I had no more communication with him until he arrived at the apt, or found wifi. So I hung out in the morning, got some stuff done on the computer, not wanting to do anything too adventurous and then have to come back to the apartment and risk not being there when he arrived. Turns out I got a text from Gabi at 3pm saying it would be another 1.5 hours til he arrived. Apparently the airport was farther than I thought. I couldn’t leave though because I had to be there when he arrived. Well, traffic sucks and Gabi arrived a bit before six.
He unpacked a bit and we settled and then we headed to get dinner at a pizza place called Pizza Guerrin, recommended by my buddy Mauro from Rosario. We took the Subte and got there around 8 pretty starving. Sat down upstairs at this place that looked like a 50s American Diner and started browsing the menu. The restaurant was pretty empty because it was still roughly two hours until Argentine dinner time, but when the next party of 4 came, the host sat them at the table literally right next to us. The other 50-60 tables in the place remained vacant. Not sure the reasoning behind this, but it was semi-curious.
Anyway, we ordered our pitcher of beer and fuguzetta, and when the pizza came out, we were pleasantly surprised by how hefty it was. A lot of cheese and onions. Another thing about Argentina is that good condiments come hard to find. There is rarely ketchup or mustard or hot sauce (nothing is really spicy in the country in the first place) or anything on the table unless you ask. So when we asked for a sauce to dip the crust in, the waiter was kind of confused, but he brought us some very bland “salsa picante”, which did the job.
Barely able to finish the pizza, we left the place extremely satisfied and started walking semi-aimlessly and semi to find a bar/night spot. We ended up walking all the way home and decided to call it a night after an ice cream stop and strolling through the mainstreet of a less secure barrio or two. It was definitely more fun to have someone join me in the apartment and during daily activities.