Buenas Noches, Buenos Aires.
There seems to be a curse upon my travels. Every time I go somewhere something goes wrong. At least this time I didn´t end up in an ambulance on a Greek island.
Aerolineas Argentinas staff went on strike and so there was no flight to Rio.
That´s right, NO flights out of BA. The airport was a chaotic scene, like a refugee centre with people sleeping on floors etc. Lizz and I frantically ran around the airport until we managed to buy two extremely expensive seats on an unknown airline. We were very lucky. The others simply had to stick it out in BA, but we were still delayed by a day and lost $400 each.
I wasn´t too heart broken about another night in BA. I wasn´t ready to leave and so we checked into the airline paid for hotel and went out.
In this tiny restaurant off Chile (the streets in BA are named after countries)we met a waitress called Jem who offered to take us out on the town. So we went back to the hotel in the part of town to get ready to go out with someone whose name we didn´t know. As we were waiting outside her flat a van of hot firefighters hollered at me. When you´ve made an effort to look nice, that´s actually pretty cool.
Jem couldn´t get a babysitter so since we were all dressed up we jumped into a cab and went to San Telmo, the area where the tango originated and where the famous antiques market takes place every Saturday.
On a Monday night there isn´t much going on in any town so we wandered the streets aimlessly until we saw this group of young people hanging around a record store. We went inside. There was free wine. So we drank it. And hung around as if we belonged there until someone managed to tell us that we´d come to an album launch party of a funk band. So we listened. And it was absofuckinglutely amazing. It was one of the best gigs I´ve ever been too. I bought the album, spoke to the bassist and left in high spirits.
But that´s Buenos Aires for you. The streets echo tango music, people dance on the streets and when your flight get cancelled you end up at an amazing gig, sipping wine moving to beautiful music.
Argentina captured me in some way. I saw a wedding party last Saturday, cuddled a Argentinian baby on the way back from San Areco, met two attractive men (the gaucho cowboy who put the ring on my finger and Augustine at the tango lessons), got hollered at in a non-sleezy way by firefighters, danced tango with local people and had so many lovely conversations with waiters and art gallery staff. They are amazing, amazing people and I love this country and these people for how open they are and how welcome they made me feel.
Cafe Dorregas is on the major square in San Telmo. Customers are welcome to carve their name into the wooden walls. I left my name above the doorframe on the left hand side. I had to leave something behind because I want to come back and find it there one day.
Aerolineas Argentinas staff went on strike and so there was no flight to Rio.
That´s right, NO flights out of BA. The airport was a chaotic scene, like a refugee centre with people sleeping on floors etc. Lizz and I frantically ran around the airport until we managed to buy two extremely expensive seats on an unknown airline. We were very lucky. The others simply had to stick it out in BA, but we were still delayed by a day and lost $400 each.
I wasn´t too heart broken about another night in BA. I wasn´t ready to leave and so we checked into the airline paid for hotel and went out.
In this tiny restaurant off Chile (the streets in BA are named after countries)we met a waitress called Jem who offered to take us out on the town. So we went back to the hotel in the part of town to get ready to go out with someone whose name we didn´t know. As we were waiting outside her flat a van of hot firefighters hollered at me. When you´ve made an effort to look nice, that´s actually pretty cool.
Jem couldn´t get a babysitter so since we were all dressed up we jumped into a cab and went to San Telmo, the area where the tango originated and where the famous antiques market takes place every Saturday.
On a Monday night there isn´t much going on in any town so we wandered the streets aimlessly until we saw this group of young people hanging around a record store. We went inside. There was free wine. So we drank it. And hung around as if we belonged there until someone managed to tell us that we´d come to an album launch party of a funk band. So we listened. And it was absofuckinglutely amazing. It was one of the best gigs I´ve ever been too. I bought the album, spoke to the bassist and left in high spirits.
But that´s Buenos Aires for you. The streets echo tango music, people dance on the streets and when your flight get cancelled you end up at an amazing gig, sipping wine moving to beautiful music.
Argentina captured me in some way. I saw a wedding party last Saturday, cuddled a Argentinian baby on the way back from San Areco, met two attractive men (the gaucho cowboy who put the ring on my finger and Augustine at the tango lessons), got hollered at in a non-sleezy way by firefighters, danced tango with local people and had so many lovely conversations with waiters and art gallery staff. They are amazing, amazing people and I love this country and these people for how open they are and how welcome they made me feel.
Cafe Dorregas is on the major square in San Telmo. Customers are welcome to carve their name into the wooden walls. I left my name above the doorframe on the left hand side. I had to leave something behind because I want to come back and find it there one day.