A Taste of Argentina

We arrived in Argentina on Monday around 4:00 pm local time. We lost yet another hour and were now 4 hours ahead of California time. We took a silent Uber (our driver didn't say one word to us) to our hostel, Milhouse. The hostel is very nice and really cool. They have their own bar, pool table, computer room, and lounge area. It has a really cool vibe to it. We settled into our rooms and went straight to a steakhouse buffet. One of the workers at the hostel recommended to us that we should go to Siga La Vaca. So we went. Aaron and I mashed some all-you-can-eat steaks until we couldn't move. It was an American dream come true. Afterwards, we headed back to our hostel to freshen up. Our hostel was putting on a beer pong tournament tonight and we were told to sign up. Now, I don't know about Aaron, but I can't remember the last time I played beer pong. I thought, what the hell, let's give it a shot and play. Well, we ended up winning the whole tournament. Now, that doesn't mean Aaron and I are good at beer pong, it was more like the other people were really bad. We ended up winning a free t-shirt, two free cocktails, and free entry into some club. It was a solid first night in Argentina. (However, we never got our t-shirts and didn't use the free entry into the club).

Day 2- we woke up around 10 and decided to hit the town and see as much of Buenos Aires as possible. We headed west and saw the Palacio Barolo, Monolith Kilometer zero Argentina, congress building, oblesico (which is a big monument that looks like the Washington monument), and took a tour of the famed Teatro Colón. All that sightseeing got us hungry, so we decided to stop and have ourselves some Argentine pizza. We went to the best pizzeria in town, Güerrin. The place was packed and selling pizza pies like crazy. Aaron and I both ordered 4 slices of pizza each because we were quite hungry. The pizza was one of the best pizzas that I've ever had in my life. It was so good, I ate all four slices. Our diet went out of the window on this trip, we'll worry about that when we get back to the states. From there, we took the subway up to the Retiro district and then made our way to the beautiful district of Recoleta. It is here that we saw the famed Floralis Genérica. It looks kind of like the big bean in Chicago but instead of a bean, it was a metal flower. After that we made our way back to the hostel to take a nap before conquering more of the city. When we woke up, we were both craving some fine Argentinian steaks (again). So we decided to go to La Carnicería, which is located in the Palermo district. The place was a small place but it was packed with people. We waited almost an hour for a table. The wait was well worth it because the food was outstanding and the steaks were huge! If you want a good steak in Argentina, make sure you visit La Carnicería. When we started making our way back to the hostel, we noticed an awfully lot of people gathering around the center plaza all wearing Boca Juniors gear. We didn't quite know what was going on so we decided to check it out. It turns out that the team in second place in their league standings lost today and could no longer catch Boca Juniors. So that meant that Boca Juniors won the league title, which set the city into a frenzy. People were going crazy, shouting, chanting, lighting fireworks, and honking horns. The list goes on and on. It was mayhem but it was cool to see and be a part of the madness. All in all, we ended up walking 11.1 miles today. This whole trip we have been walking a ton and I'll add up all the miles we have walked and post it at the end of my last blog to give you an idea of how much we walked on this entire trip. My guess is somewhere over 100 miles.

Day 3- Yesterday we visited 6 different districts in the city of Buenos Aires, which is a whole lot of walking for one day. There was one district that we really wanted to see but didn't have enough time yesterday to see it. So today Aaron, myself, and our bunk mate Carl visited La Boca district, which is where Boca Juniors play. Our first stop was the Boca Juniors stadium. We took a tour of the stadium and took a look back at their history in the Boca museum. The thing I noticed right away about the stadium is that they have huge plexiglass walls around the stadium with spikes at the top. It almost looked like a prison but in reality it was so the fans stay in their seats and don't rush the field. Argentinian football is no joke and the fans here take it very, very seriously. Once the tour was over, we walked through the cobblestone streets of El Caminito. The neighborhood was not the greatest but it is known for its bright colors and statues. It was a very unique neighborhood and it is something worth seeing if you are ever in Buenos Aires. We decided to have lunch in La Boca at this restaurant (that I forgot the name of). It was pretty cool because they had a live tango show going on and the people would dance while we ate. It was different but very cool. Afterwards, we headed back to the hostel to nap before heading out to Antonio Vespucio Liberti stadium to see River Plate take on Aldvidiso. River plate was in 3rd place in the division but a win would move them into 2nd place, behind Boca Juniors. We arrived early to pick up our tickets from this lady we had bought them from online. We met another person who bought tickets from the same person and decided to walk to the game together because we heard the fans can get really rowdy and can be violent. We made it to the game with no problem, but in order to get into the game we had to show our tickets to security like 5 times, no lie. It was ridiculous. The game was a crazy experience in itself. The Argentinians really care about their football and were chanting, lighting flares, lighting smoke bombs, and waving flags the entire game. It was a very unique and cool experience. Aaron and I ended up leaving at the 85th minute because we did not want to get caught in the mayhem that was bound to happen afterwards. As we walked out of the stadium we saw hundreds of policemen lined up around the stadium as if they were expecting the fans to riot. The police were wearing riot gear, they had shields, and batons in hand. It was crazy. So we jammed on out of there and found ourselves in the district of Palermo again. We stopped at a little pub place called, Antares Las Cañitas, to eat some dinner. Afterwards, we Ubered on back to the hostel to get some much needed sleep. We have a long day of flights tomorrow and we will be either stuck in a plane or at the airport for all of Thursday.

Buenos Aires is a magnificent city and is truly one of my favorite cities that I have ever been to. I wish we could stay longer but that's the dilemma of booking your flights in advance and not just winging it like the Europeans do. Rio de Janeiro is next on our list and the last stop for Aaron on this South American Traventure. It has been a wild and awesome time so for and we plan to end our trip with a bang in Rio!

The Obelisco monument which is right in the heart of Buenos Aires

#favoritecity #travel #BuenosAires #Argentina