Saturday night Ana and Fernando came to my place. I was ashamed to admit I have only watched 5 of the 48 DVDs they lent me about 1 month ago... but hey, I returned those 5, so that's a good thing I did. Then the 3 of us and Matias went ten pin bowling. It was great, although I don't get it why each person gets 2 bowls each time it's their turn- considering my second bowl failed to hit any pins about 90% of the times, I think if we changed the game to just 1 bowl I would be a much better player. I might start this new game. But it was a good thing that Matias wanted the side things up (to stop the bowl form going off the sides) although I don't know why he asked for it, as he was the best and rarely had a bowl going towards the sides. In the defense of us 3 adults- he does go ten pin bowling often, and we never do. Bloody kid!
When we got home we played a Simpsons board game (the one I got Matias for his birthday! Yay, he's using it AND it was actually his idea to play it!!). It was absolutely hilarious, cause some of the things you gotta do is make up songs or dance, so we recorded our best performances, we were in stitches playing.
Sunday was quite an unusual day. Sunday I was a tourist in my home city. A real tourist I mean. Full on, with double-decker, open-top, hop-on hop-off, tourist bus included. And it was awesome! Diego (Luli's brother) and Phil (his English friend) picked Matias and us up from home and the 4 of us headed into the city. CBD. Sunday. Very hot. The only people there were tourists. It was very strange to see this other side of the city, to see these streets which are normally bustling with people so quiet and deserted, and the only people around being tourists. Tourists with their cameras and maps. And us. Playing tourists for the day- we had our cameras, but unfortunately we didn't need maps, damn it, it was almost perfect! So before we got on this bus, we walked over to the Obelisco (Buenos Aires's most famous landmark, a monolith) cause Matias said he had seen it a couple of times before when driving past but never actually stopped at it. So that HAD to be fixed. Photos included. We already felt like the biggest tourists ever to roam this city and the day had just began.
The bus was next, with audioguides which you could plug into your seat in 8 different languages. Matias verified that only about 4 of those worked. And the audioguides in some seats were broken. That's when I remembered I was still in Argentina and not overseas. But it was still a great tour, going past all the famous landmarks in Buenos Aires city, and with a great view from the top floor. Although I was a wimp and moved downstairs into the AC half way into the trip, cause the sun was way too hot for my liking. So let me mention just some of the things we saw: the Pink House (government house), cathedral, Plaza de Mayo (May Square), congress building, historical buildings and palaces, the river side, Puerto Madero (a port/docks- come- posh restaurants area, kinda like a Darling Harbour area almost), and different neighbourhoods such as Recoleta, San Telmo, La Boca (where the team Boca Juniors YUCK is from).
We got off at La Boca- I love this neighbourhood. For those who know Buenos Aires- it's the neighbourhood with all the colourful tin houses, where immigrants used to live in "conventillos", with dozens of people in these tiny tin houses, renting one room per family to live in. And it's the place where every weekend they set up touristic stuff- markets, people dancing tango on the streets, tango shows in every restaurant, etc. We had lunch there and I got a picture leaning against a traditional "farolito de Buenos Aires" (Buenos Aires street light post), which is a traditional argentinean postcard image, the way tangueros (male tango singers) used to stand, against a light post, their hat low covering their face, and a cigarette in the mouths.
At the end of the whole tour we went back to the Cathedral and went into it. Inside, is San Martin's coffin (the guy who liberated us from Spain, who crossed the Andes mountains on horseback, that guy), and the ashes of the Unknown Soldier. It's amazing that I had never been inside the Cathedral before, shame on me! I travel around, and everywhere I go, I go see the Cathedral, and whenever I know there's an Unknown Soldier somewhere I go out of my way to make sure I go and see it... but had never done it in my own home city. I can now finally say, after 30 years: Buenos Aires Cathedral and Unknown Soldier: ticked.
Last stop was the Manzana de las Luces ("The Lights Block") which is a full block in the heart of Buenos Aires city, which used to house the University where many smart argentineans studied in, and even Albert Einstein was there as a guest speaker once. That's why it's called the Block of Lights- because the Lights were all the brilliant genius minds of the time studying there. It also houses a convent, a church, and the most prestigious public high school in the city. But it's all falling down to pieces- especially the church, the building is full of cracks and they are doing some serious work on it to prevent it from collapsing. And of course the famous tunnels. Which was very disappointing to not be allowed to walk through them (I've read online that they used to be open to the public on guided tours, but they stopped allowing it because stupid people were taking off bits of the walls when visiting as souvenirs- I hate idiots!). But anyway, we saw the entrances to them, which are underground (Duh!) tunnels that join the Block of Lights with other parts of the city, hundreds of metres away (Government House, the Cathedral, some mansion which used to belong to some rich person). There's lots of theories about why the Jesuits built them- they say for contraband, for protection/escape/attack in case of wars, or just to secretly move around the city between the key points in it.
So that was it. A very unusual day. Being a tourist in my own city. Seeing my normally busy, bustling city go quiet and taken over by foreigners. Learning about its history and looking at all the historical buildings which I normally walk past without ever bothering to look up. It was a good, long day.
When we got home we played a Simpsons board game (the one I got Matias for his birthday! Yay, he's using it AND it was actually his idea to play it!!). It was absolutely hilarious, cause some of the things you gotta do is make up songs or dance, so we recorded our best performances, we were in stitches playing.
Sunday was quite an unusual day. Sunday I was a tourist in my home city. A real tourist I mean. Full on, with double-decker, open-top, hop-on hop-off, tourist bus included. And it was awesome! Diego (Luli's brother) and Phil (his English friend) picked Matias and us up from home and the 4 of us headed into the city. CBD. Sunday. Very hot. The only people there were tourists. It was very strange to see this other side of the city, to see these streets which are normally bustling with people so quiet and deserted, and the only people around being tourists. Tourists with their cameras and maps. And us. Playing tourists for the day- we had our cameras, but unfortunately we didn't need maps, damn it, it was almost perfect! So before we got on this bus, we walked over to the Obelisco (Buenos Aires's most famous landmark, a monolith) cause Matias said he had seen it a couple of times before when driving past but never actually stopped at it. So that HAD to be fixed. Photos included. We already felt like the biggest tourists ever to roam this city and the day had just began.
The bus was next, with audioguides which you could plug into your seat in 8 different languages. Matias verified that only about 4 of those worked. And the audioguides in some seats were broken. That's when I remembered I was still in Argentina and not overseas. But it was still a great tour, going past all the famous landmarks in Buenos Aires city, and with a great view from the top floor. Although I was a wimp and moved downstairs into the AC half way into the trip, cause the sun was way too hot for my liking. So let me mention just some of the things we saw: the Pink House (government house), cathedral, Plaza de Mayo (May Square), congress building, historical buildings and palaces, the river side, Puerto Madero (a port/docks- come- posh restaurants area, kinda like a Darling Harbour area almost), and different neighbourhoods such as Recoleta, San Telmo, La Boca (where the team Boca Juniors YUCK is from).
We got off at La Boca- I love this neighbourhood. For those who know Buenos Aires- it's the neighbourhood with all the colourful tin houses, where immigrants used to live in "conventillos", with dozens of people in these tiny tin houses, renting one room per family to live in. And it's the place where every weekend they set up touristic stuff- markets, people dancing tango on the streets, tango shows in every restaurant, etc. We had lunch there and I got a picture leaning against a traditional "farolito de Buenos Aires" (Buenos Aires street light post), which is a traditional argentinean postcard image, the way tangueros (male tango singers) used to stand, against a light post, their hat low covering their face, and a cigarette in the mouths.
At the end of the whole tour we went back to the Cathedral and went into it. Inside, is San Martin's coffin (the guy who liberated us from Spain, who crossed the Andes mountains on horseback, that guy), and the ashes of the Unknown Soldier. It's amazing that I had never been inside the Cathedral before, shame on me! I travel around, and everywhere I go, I go see the Cathedral, and whenever I know there's an Unknown Soldier somewhere I go out of my way to make sure I go and see it... but had never done it in my own home city. I can now finally say, after 30 years: Buenos Aires Cathedral and Unknown Soldier: ticked.
Last stop was the Manzana de las Luces ("The Lights Block") which is a full block in the heart of Buenos Aires city, which used to house the University where many smart argentineans studied in, and even Albert Einstein was there as a guest speaker once. That's why it's called the Block of Lights- because the Lights were all the brilliant genius minds of the time studying there. It also houses a convent, a church, and the most prestigious public high school in the city. But it's all falling down to pieces- especially the church, the building is full of cracks and they are doing some serious work on it to prevent it from collapsing. And of course the famous tunnels. Which was very disappointing to not be allowed to walk through them (I've read online that they used to be open to the public on guided tours, but they stopped allowing it because stupid people were taking off bits of the walls when visiting as souvenirs- I hate idiots!). But anyway, we saw the entrances to them, which are underground (Duh!) tunnels that join the Block of Lights with other parts of the city, hundreds of metres away (Government House, the Cathedral, some mansion which used to belong to some rich person). There's lots of theories about why the Jesuits built them- they say for contraband, for protection/escape/attack in case of wars, or just to secretly move around the city between the key points in it.
So that was it. A very unusual day. Being a tourist in my own city. Seeing my normally busy, bustling city go quiet and taken over by foreigners. Learning about its history and looking at all the historical buildings which I normally walk past without ever bothering to look up. It was a good, long day.
Oh! And I had forgotten: as we were leaving we walked past a table with 3 guys with blue shirts. So I just told Matias to go sit with them and asked them if I could take their picture, just for the heck of it, having no clue who they were. Afterwards, Diego told me they were Dakar people (as the Dakar finished today in Buenos Aires) and when I got home I googled some Dakar pictures. I have no idea who the 2 guys on the left are, but the guy on the right is a South African pilot who won the Dakar last year and came 7th this year. Pretty cool, huh?
El sabado a la noche Ana y Fernando vinieron a casa. Una verguenza, solo vi 5 de los 48 DVDs que me prestaron hace como un mes, pero aunque sea les devolvi esos 5, asi que algo bueno hice. Despues nosotros 3 y Matias fuimos a jugar al bowling. Estuvo buenisimo, aunque no entiendo por que a cada jugador le toca bowlear 2 veces cada vez que es su turno- ya que cuando yo bowleaba por segunda vez no tiraba ningun pino el 90% de las veces, creo que si cambiamos las reglas de juego a un solo bowl por turno voy a ser mucho mejor jugadora. Deberia crear este juego nuevo. Pero fue bueno que Matias quiso que subamos las canaletas (para que el bolo no se pueda ir para los costados), aunque no se por que lo pidio, porque fue el que mejor jugaba y rara vez se le fue un bolo para los costados. En defensa de nosotros, los 3 adultos- Matias juega al bowling seguido, y nosotros jugamos una vez cada mil anios. Maldito ninio!
El sabado a la noche Ana y Fernando vinieron a casa. Una verguenza, solo vi 5 de los 48 DVDs que me prestaron hace como un mes, pero aunque sea les devolvi esos 5, asi que algo bueno hice. Despues nosotros 3 y Matias fuimos a jugar al bowling. Estuvo buenisimo, aunque no entiendo por que a cada jugador le toca bowlear 2 veces cada vez que es su turno- ya que cuando yo bowleaba por segunda vez no tiraba ningun pino el 90% de las veces, creo que si cambiamos las reglas de juego a un solo bowl por turno voy a ser mucho mejor jugadora. Deberia crear este juego nuevo. Pero fue bueno que Matias quiso que subamos las canaletas (para que el bolo no se pueda ir para los costados), aunque no se por que lo pidio, porque fue el que mejor jugaba y rara vez se le fue un bolo para los costados. En defensa de nosotros, los 3 adultos- Matias juega al bowling seguido, y nosotros jugamos una vez cada mil anios. Maldito ninio!
Cuando llegamos a casa jugamos un juego de mesa de los Simpsons (el que le regale a Matias para su cumpleanios. Si, lo esta usando, y fue incluso idea de el que juguemos!) Fue muy gracioso, porque algunas de las cosas que hay que hacer es inventar canciones y bailar, asi que grabamos algunas de nuestras actuaciones, nos cagamos de la risa todo el juego.
El domingo fue un dia poco usual. El domingo fui una turista en mi propia ciudad. Una turista de verdad. Bien completo, con omnibus turistico, de 2 pisos, sin techo, con paradas en las que te podes subir y bajar donde quieras y tomarte otro que pasa mas tarde para seguir. Y estuvo espectacular! Diego (el hermano de Luli) y Phil (su amigo ingles) nos buscaron a Matias y a mi por casa y fuimos al centro. El centro. Un domingo. Dia muy caluroso. La unica gente que habia eran turistas. Fue muy raro ver esta otra cara de la ciudad, ver las calles que normalmente estan llenas de gente silenciosas y desiertas, y que la unica gente que se veia fueran turistas. Turistas con sus camaras y mapas. Y nosotros. Jugando a ser turistas por un dia- teniamos nuestras camaras, pero por mala suerte no necesitabamos mapas, carajo, fue casi perfecto! Antes de subirnos al bus turistico caminamos hasta el Obelisco (un monolito, el monumento mas emblematico de Buenos Aires), porque Matias dijo que lo habia visto un par de veces pasando en el auto pero que nucna habia frenado y estado parado enfrente. Asi que TENIAMOS que cambiar eso. Con fotos incluidas. Ya nos sentiamos como los mayores turistas habidos o por haber y el dia recien comenzaba.
Nos subimos al bus, con audioguias que enchufabas en el asiento, con explicaciones en 8 idiomas. Matias comprobo que solo 4 idiomas funcionaban. Y las audioguias de algunos asientos estaban rotas. Ahi es cuando me acorde que estaba en Argentina todavia, y no en otro pais. Pero igualmente fue un tour buenisimo, pasando por todos los lugares famosos de la ciudad de Buenos Aires, y con una vista buenisima desde el piso de arriba. Aunque yo fui una maricona y me mude al piso de abajo con aire acondicionado a mitad de camino, porque el sol pegaba muy fuerte para mi gusto. Voy a mencionar algunas de las cosas que vimos: la Casa Rosada, la catedral, Plaza de Mayo, el congreso, edificios historicos y palacios, la costanera, Puerto Madero (puerto convertido en zona paqueta de restaurantes, una onda como Darling Harbour en Sydney), y distintos barrios como Recoleta, San Telmo, La Boca (de donde el equipo Boca Juniors YUCK es originario).
Nos bajamos en La Boca- amo este barrio. Para los que conocen Buenos Aires- es el barrio con todas las casas de colores hechas de chapa, donde los inmigrantes vivian en conventillos, con docenas de personas en estas casitas chiquitas de chapa, alquilando una habitacion sola por cada famila para vivir. Y es el lugar donde todos los fines de semana organizan cosas para los turistas: ferias, gente bailando tango en las calles, shows de tango en todos los restaurantes, etc. Almorzamos ahi y me saque una foto bajo un famoso farolito de Buenos Aires, imagen tipica de una postal de Buenos Aires, como se solian parar los tangueros descansando contra un farol, con sus sombreros bajados tapandoles la cara y un cigarrillo en la boca.
Al final de todo el tour en bus volvimos a la Catedral y entramos. Adentro esta la tumba de San Martin (el tipo que nos libero de Espania, que cruzo los Andes a caballo, ese tipo), y las cenizas del Soldado Desconocido. Es increible que nunca antes habia entrado a la Catedral en mi vida, una verguenza! Viajo, y a cada lugar que voy, entro en la Catedral, y cuando me entero que hay un Soldado Desconocido en algun lugar me aseguro de ir a verlo siempre... pero nunca lo habia hecho en mi propia ciudad natal. Asi que ahora finalmente puedo decir, despues de 30 anios: Catedral y Soldado Desconocido de Buenos Aires: hecho!
Nuestra ultima parada fue la Manzana de las Luces, que es una cuadra en el corazon de la ciudad de Buenos Aires, que tenia la Universidad donde muchos argentinos inteligentes estudiaron, y hasta Albert Einstein fue una vez a dar una charla ahi. Por eso se llama la Manzana de las Luces: porque las luces eran las mentes brillantes y geniales de la epoca que estudiaban ahi. Tambien tiene un convento, una iglesia, y el colegio secundario publico mas prestigioso de la ciudad. Pero se esta cayendo a pedazos todo, sobre todo la iglesia, el edificio esta lleo de grietas y estan haciendo trabajos para que no se venga abajo todo. Y por supuesto los famosos tuneles. Que fue una decepcion que no pudimos caminar a lo largo de los tuneles (lei en internet que solian estar abiertos para que camine la gente en las visitas guiadas, pero dejaron de permitirlo porque la gente estupida se llevaba pedacitos de las paredes como souvenirs- odio a la gente idiota!). Pero bueno, vimos las entradas a los tuneles, que son tuneles subterraneos (obviamente subterraneos....) que unen la Manzana de las Luces con otras partes de la ciudad, a cientos de metros de distancia (la Casa Rosada, la Catedral, una mansion que pertenecia a no se quien rico). Hay muchas teorias sobre por que los Jesuitas las construyeron- dicen que para contrabado, para proteccion/escape/ataque en caso de guerras, o simplemente para poder moverse en secreto por la ciudad entre los puntos claves.
Asi que eso fue. Un dia poco usual. Siendo turista en mi propia ciudad. Viendo a mi ciudad normalmente llena de gente y ruidosa, volverse silenciosa y acaparada por los turistas. Aprendiendo sobre su historia y mirando los edificios historicos por los que normalmente paso por enfrente sin siquiera levantar la vista para mirarlos. Fue un buen, largo dia.
Ah! Y me olvidaba! Cuando nos ibamos pasamos por una mesa con 3 tipos sentados con remeras azules. Asi que le dije a Matias que se vaya a sentar con ellos y les pregunte si les podia sacar una foto, por que si, sin saber quienes eran. Despues de sacar la foto Diego me dijo que eran tipos del Dakar (porque el Dakar termino hoy en Buenos Aires) y cuando llegue a casa busque por internet algunas fotos de Dakar. No tengo idea quienes son los 2 tipos de la izquierda, pero el de la derecha es un piloto sudafricano que salio primero el anio pasado y septimo este anio. Bastante copado, no?
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