Weekend in Buenos Aires

My BA experience has been better than I expected. Yesterday I went with the hostal group to the soccer match. It was in a stadium outside of the center so it took us some time to get there. We took a subway - it's nice and clean and has really nice artwork on the walls of the stations. We went through all the security checks and got to our seats 15 minutes before the start of the game. It was River vs. Lanus and our group was cheering River together with, what seemed like 70% of the spectators - because we were sectioned off from the fans of Lanus so it was easy to see. We were sitting in the section of what seemed like the biggest hardcore fans - throught the whole game they were standing singing songs to cheer River and degradate Lanus, waving flags, scarfs (szalikowcy), throwing fists in the air and smoking pot. We were totally surrounded by clouds of marihuana. The stadium can fit 40,000 people and according to my raugh calucation it was probably 30,000 watching the game. 95% of spectators were men, some with baby boys on their shoulders, wearing shirts with the colors and logo of their team and all kinds of unbelievable hairdos - it seems mullet ("z przodu lysina, z tylu dywan" in Polish translation) never went out of style in BA. The game was good and River won 1:0. During the break a big flag was carried around the grounds of the field with letters "No mas violecia. Es mesaje de Dios" (No more violence. It's a message from God." I think it worked because after the game people dispersed peacefuly and there was no vandalism of any kind. We returned to the hostel and shortly after I got on the bus going toward Palermo where I was to meet with Lorena and Sol. There was a rock concert there, in a place which looked like a warehouse adopted for cultural events. The music was good. I was already deaf from the earlier event so the volume of the music didn't hurt my ears so much. We listened to three bands, two of which I really liked. We were standing in the clouds of grass' fumes again. Marihuana has no effect on me but if it had, I would be stoned the enire day from the amount I inhailed as a second-hand smoke. For dinner we went to Palermo Viaja - the Old Palermo also called Palermo Soho - where there is lots of nice restaurants and shops. Two friends of Lorena and Sol joined us and we stayed in the restaurant until 3 am. BA is a city which never sleeps, like NY but even more so. In NY buses run scaresly at night. Here they are so packed at 3 am that it's hard to get on one and they run virtually every 10 minutes.

I woke up late and went for brunch to my favorite Cafe La Federal just across the street from the hostel. When I walked in I was greated by voice of a woman singing tango songs - very beautiful, powerful but lyrical voice. When I get to a restaurant I usually feel rushed to make a decision and it is always hard for me to decide right away what I want to eat. Here, in BA, people tend to rest for half an hour, sip mineral watter, think what they want to eat, start with an apetizer, half an hour later eat main course, then linger with coffee and desert for a while... Here I am not an undecisive freak but a perfectly normal customer. So after listening to the woman singing for a while I started with a board of cheeses and different kinds of bread and beer, followed by superbly delicious ravioli with pumpkin filling and havy cream souce (callories is not something anybody would count here). Delicioso! I also had cafe con leche witch is so good here that it is hard to resist. I stayed in the cafe for 3 hours. When I was drinking coffee a Tango trio came in: a man with a guitar, a singer and the recitator who in-between the songs talks about "the superiority and importance of tango for all men, women and children." The singer and the recitator were men in their seventies, dressed as elegantly as Roger Straus, with beautiful strong voices. The song about "perrito companero" was so sad and moving that I shed a tear or two into my coffee cup, chlip, chlip... I bought their CD because I liked their music so much and to preserve the memory of that wonderful lunch on the first of May 2005. Which brings me to:

Happy May Day everyone! It is labour day here, as it is or was in Poland, and everything was closed today except the antigue stores in San Telmo. The flea and artesanas market was also on, as on every Sunday and oh! what a joy that was! walking through the streets, enjoing all the artesanas, seeing all the clowns and street theaters and listening to all the music and singers performing. I enjoy very much all the antigues and craftwork but I am a very bed customer - I don't crave to possess any of the things I see... only the visual experience and the music (and blankets but there are no blankets here). So I bought another CD with the Argentinian music. I don't have a CD-player with me, since I am travelling light, so the CDs I bought will have to wait until I settle somewhere and get access to some playing device. I have to mention one of the artists whose art was to "harras" random passers-by and play off their response to him - Jerzy Grotowski would love it. So he would take a father pushing a baby carriage by the arm and act as his beloved wife, or kiss a passing-by girl on the cheek unexpectedly. At one point he hailed a car passing by and shook the driver's hand, and pulled another man passing by with a dog and invited him to the car (the dog readily jumped in) and another girl. The people were really cool and they just got in and the driver drove for a hundred meters and let them out. It was just all so funny, that improvised scene and the face of the actor. People were so relaxed and ready to play his game and the other group who was just watching was laughing histerically. It seems that like in every big city of the world the people in the business district are busy walking fast with lips clenched tightly and eyes fixed on the horizon. They don't see the beggers, they don't see the clowns. The walk straight. In places like San Telmo, which is like East Village in NY, people walk slowly, looking here and there curiously, this window and that, that store and this one, they give small change to the beggers and the crippled, they listen to all the clowns' silliness (and wisdom)... During my long stay in the cafe many people selling various articles came in. Nobody frowned at them for bothering them with their stuff at lunch - if what they were selling was needed the would buy it, if not needed they would just say "no, gracias" but in any case they would treat the people who came in with respect. That is so very nice. Here, too, people show their affection towards loved ones and kids in public. Spouses kiss and embrace, their kids kiss and embrace their boyfriends and girlfriends at the same table, older couples hold hands. It's a very tolerant and liberal society it seems. Moms and dads look like the Fockers from "Meet the Fockers" - another comedy which I liked. Wouldn't every one wish to have parents like the Fockers?

My legs are so tired from all the walking I did today that I am going to go to the hostal, put them up to rest and continue Isabel Allende's "Daughter of Fortune" which I found in a used-books shop and it's a really good book. And so great to be reading it now since it is much about the beginning of settlement in Chile and a lot about the colonists-indigenious peoples relations in that time. And, the girl to my right smokes, the guy on my left smokes... I am roasted people!!!