Today was my “act like a tourist day”. Oh! I forgot to start with last night – my date J
Hernon picked me up at the apartment at 10:30 – yes, I did type that correctly. 10:30! Things work a bit differently here, huh? And we were going to dinner that late. And…I wasn’t even tired. Maybe there’s something in the air. Well, since Frank’s Bar wasn’t open, we went to another “hidden” bar/restaurant called Puertauno – which translates to Door 1. It was in the Chino barrio – which is the Chinatown neighborhood of BA and to get in you literally went up to a huge black door. There were no signs advertising the place and I’m fairly sure you had to know a passcode or something to get in as the doorman (aka bouncer) was not real friendly until some rapid-fire Spanish was exchanged between he and Hernan.
Behind the huge simple door was a very hip, cool restaurant. I really should have taken a photo but I thought I might embarrass my date if I did that. And perhaps expose a secret that I shouldn’t have. Instead I’m showing a photo from the internet. It’s probably better than what I’d take anyway. In order to try some more typical food of Argentina, we ordered rabas fritas which is Argentina’s take on calamari. It is fried squid rings served with just lemon. But they tasted completely different from what we get at home. Much saltier – in a good way! And the lemon cut the salt just a little bit. Delicious! For my main course I had Bondiola which is a pork dish in a dark sauce served with sweet potatoes – which are not sweet potatoes but are potatoes that are sweet. A big difference. But the bondiola was a success. Crunchy on top and juicy in the middle. Clearly my culinary writing could improve but you get the idea. I (finally) had some wine and we talked – again – for hours. We talked about everything from the sexiest languages and people to Latin and American movies. It was a great time! I can’t remember the last time I almost got kicked out of a bar because they were closing. Last night I did it again! It was a gorgeous night and Hernan wanted some ice cream so we walked for a bit around the Belgrano barrio searching for someplace still open. But to no avail. I got back to my apartment at 2:30 – very late for this old girl but it was totally worth the 4 hours of sleep!
Today was another spectacular day in BA. Very warm for this time of year according to my host and more Carolina blue skies. So I wanted to take advantage of the weather and finally get on the silly tourist bus. So after class I boarded the Buenos Aires bus. This was stops at 25 locations around the HUGE city and you can get on and off at your leisure. The school recommended I do this in order to figure out where I wanted to spend more time later. It was fascinating. I was on the bus for a total of 3.5 hours and really got a good overview of the city and where I need to return in order to shop/buy art/see live music. I’m so glad I did it. I saw all of the important monuments and wore a silly headset so got to hear the history behind all of them.
During the tour, we passed by the Puerto Madera – the port of BA. Anyone that has been on my Facebook page has seen a picture of this port at night. It is my cover photo. I’d been told my multiple people that I had to see it. It is a very new and very wealthy barrio in BA. There are skyscrapers right on the river as well as a private university and luxury hotels and condos. It’s stunning but a little boring. It doesn’t have some of the charm of the rest of this city if you ask me. But my teacher recommended a restaurant on the river in the neighborhood so I’m going to give it a shot. It is very safe here and also absolutely beautiful as the lights from the surrounding buildings are reflected in the water.