Still in Good Winds
I am still enjoying Buenos Aires and also nursing the flu I got. I just got "home" at 1:00 am - it's another party town, this Buenos Aires.
On Monday I went to visit Teatro Colon - the opera house - and went on the tour around it. During the tour I met Greta - a girl from New Zealand who was also staying in Hostal San Telmo (she went to Uruguay today morning). We visited all the basements of the opera with costumes, wig and mask makers, hairdressers and characterization specialists. It was very interesting. Later that day I walked through Avenida Florida, the shopping district, to see all the hustle and bustle of such area.
On Tuesday Greta and I went to La Boca - an old port which was also the "Italian quarter" long time ago and when the famous brothels were. The climate of the district is preserved and the papermache figures of burdel mamas are hangning over the windows, smiling at the passers-by. There are also lots of shops with souvenirs and restaurants and cafes. Couples dance tango... Very nice. Outside the main touristy street the buildings are run-down but show how the city must have looked when it was just beginning to be built. We also went to the new port and the very modern long promenade along it. I also visited a naval ship which is a 100 years old and now a museum and went into all the capitan and machinery operator cabins, mesa, bathrooms and tiny compartments and narrow "alleys" of the ship. Greta wasn't interested in the ship and waited for me in the outside cafe. Later that day we put on our best dresses (I put on my only "best dress" suitable for the occasion - the sunflower dress), powdered our noses and freshened up our coaffiures and we went to the opera house for Tschaikovsky's ballet "Sleeping Beauty". It was spectacular: the dancing was wonderful, the costumes, the changing scenery. Todo. We very much enjoyed it and then afterwards took a walk through BN by night to our San Telmo district.
Yesterday I went with Greta to the district of Recoleta which is also the house of the Recoleta cemetery where all the influential Argentinians are buried. They are not actually buried. They are placed in large family mausoleums and it's possible to see the coffins through metal gates or glass windows. The mausoleums are huge and of different architectural styles. We visited the Familia Duarte mausoleum where Eva Peron is buried and walked through all the gravesites of all the presidents, scientists, artists, etc. The cementary looks like a city. I haven't seen anything like it before. There were also about 50 cats there, stretched out on the alleys, sleeping on tombs and sculptures of Virgin Mary and other assorted saints. They were all huge and half wild. The men who take care of the cementary-museum take care of the cats as well. It was feeding time when we got there so they were all eating their dinner in the center square. One of them later hopped on my lap when we were sitting on the bench and was purring loudly when I patted his very full belly. Later in the evening we enjoyed barbecue which Pepe, one of the hostal comrades, prepared for everyone and then we went to a Senegalise bar for beer and we talked late into the night...
Today I just spent a lot of time on different buses enjoying the town through the window and went to get a winter jacket for Patagonia! If I wake up healther tomorrow morning I will set out to Puerto Madrin at 9 pm. I went to El Federal for dinner with Sophie (from Australia) and we stayed there until now! I love that place. The Tango trio was there again and we greeted each other warmly. It's nice to become a regular customer at a resturant and get to know all the waiters, the music and the menu... I will go there for breakfast and get my usual cafe con leche and media lunas... Buenas noches, hr, hr, hr........
On Monday I went to visit Teatro Colon - the opera house - and went on the tour around it. During the tour I met Greta - a girl from New Zealand who was also staying in Hostal San Telmo (she went to Uruguay today morning). We visited all the basements of the opera with costumes, wig and mask makers, hairdressers and characterization specialists. It was very interesting. Later that day I walked through Avenida Florida, the shopping district, to see all the hustle and bustle of such area.
On Tuesday Greta and I went to La Boca - an old port which was also the "Italian quarter" long time ago and when the famous brothels were. The climate of the district is preserved and the papermache figures of burdel mamas are hangning over the windows, smiling at the passers-by. There are also lots of shops with souvenirs and restaurants and cafes. Couples dance tango... Very nice. Outside the main touristy street the buildings are run-down but show how the city must have looked when it was just beginning to be built. We also went to the new port and the very modern long promenade along it. I also visited a naval ship which is a 100 years old and now a museum and went into all the capitan and machinery operator cabins, mesa, bathrooms and tiny compartments and narrow "alleys" of the ship. Greta wasn't interested in the ship and waited for me in the outside cafe. Later that day we put on our best dresses (I put on my only "best dress" suitable for the occasion - the sunflower dress), powdered our noses and freshened up our coaffiures and we went to the opera house for Tschaikovsky's ballet "Sleeping Beauty". It was spectacular: the dancing was wonderful, the costumes, the changing scenery. Todo. We very much enjoyed it and then afterwards took a walk through BN by night to our San Telmo district.
Yesterday I went with Greta to the district of Recoleta which is also the house of the Recoleta cemetery where all the influential Argentinians are buried. They are not actually buried. They are placed in large family mausoleums and it's possible to see the coffins through metal gates or glass windows. The mausoleums are huge and of different architectural styles. We visited the Familia Duarte mausoleum where Eva Peron is buried and walked through all the gravesites of all the presidents, scientists, artists, etc. The cementary looks like a city. I haven't seen anything like it before. There were also about 50 cats there, stretched out on the alleys, sleeping on tombs and sculptures of Virgin Mary and other assorted saints. They were all huge and half wild. The men who take care of the cementary-museum take care of the cats as well. It was feeding time when we got there so they were all eating their dinner in the center square. One of them later hopped on my lap when we were sitting on the bench and was purring loudly when I patted his very full belly. Later in the evening we enjoyed barbecue which Pepe, one of the hostal comrades, prepared for everyone and then we went to a Senegalise bar for beer and we talked late into the night...
Today I just spent a lot of time on different buses enjoying the town through the window and went to get a winter jacket for Patagonia! If I wake up healther tomorrow morning I will set out to Puerto Madrin at 9 pm. I went to El Federal for dinner with Sophie (from Australia) and we stayed there until now! I love that place. The Tango trio was there again and we greeted each other warmly. It's nice to become a regular customer at a resturant and get to know all the waiters, the music and the menu... I will go there for breakfast and get my usual cafe con leche and media lunas... Buenas noches, hr, hr, hr........
posted by Asia Kabat at 8:14 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home