Thank you to everyone who has sent birthday greetings!
I haven't been very good about keeping up my blog since we arrived in Buenos Aires as the routine has changed and I just don't seem to have found the 'sweet spot' for sitting down to it the way I had on the ship. The earthquake excitement had me somewhat discombobulated, as well. I shall try to make amends and will work on pictures tomorrow.
Denise, Emily, Maggie and I did the hop on/hop off tour yesterday so with that and the other tour we took, we have seen each neighbourhood or 'barrio' of Buenos Aires and I reiterate, it is a most amazing city. Each neighbourhood has such a distinctively different flavour from the next so that whether riding or walking you seem to actually feel yourself transitioning to the next. In some cases it is obvious, such as in San Telmo, home of the tango (which originated with the gauchos, only men danced it) or in La Boca, where there will be tango dancers on the street inviting people to come to their milonga to tango or watch a show. In others, it is less dramatic such as the old European architectural influences of Recoleta (where we are) meeting the stunning embassy circles of Palermo.
We had a funny experience today. If you recall, when I was last in Buenos Aires, I told the story of leather shopping in La Boca and how excited Maggie and I were to be coming back after watching Margaret's fun while purse shopping. Well, we have had a few days to do a lot of comparison shopping (more price comparison as the serious shopping hadn't begun yet)so when we went to La Boca this morning to show Denise and Emily all the leather wares you can imagine how disappointed we were to take a look and discover that not only were these bags over-priced but they weren't nearly the quality of some of the stores we'd already checked out. It was a fabulous area to experience and the girls treated me to an AMAZING birthday lunch at a restaurant called Patagonia Sur, one of the top 10 in Argentina but other than that, we decided La Boca was vastly over-rated and went downtown to Florida St. to do our shopping. Florida St. is a pedestrian only street full of leather/silver/clothing/restaurants and lots of people. It is very lively, to say the least. It is full of all of the typical North American chain stores but the Argentinian stores are the place to be. Because of the weakness of the peso against our $ all of the Argentinian products are fabulous value. Leather and silver are where it's at. So.....always one to help out any host country, we have begun the quest. Denise bought me the most amazing handbag today for my birthday. I hope to be carrying it around for my birthday trip for my 83rd! Maggie gave me a beautiful turtle pin that she had bought for me while we were in Chile. Emily gave me a lovely box of what we all thought was truffles but before anyone could take a bite she pointed out that they are candles. Very cute! They will all be lovely birthday mementos along with the incredible birthday memories. Best part of all is that this birthday marks 6 years cancer-free.........YAYYYYYYYY!
We are all so tired from all of the walking (the heat has turned on again after several balmy days) and still full from lunch so we are sitting down to giggle through "It's Complicated" again and will pass on dinner...........hope everyone is well and safe.....love, Sally xoxo
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Buenos Aires Birthday..........
Thank you to everyone who has sent birthday greetings!
I haven't been very good about keeping up my blog since we arrived in Buenos Aires as the routine has changed and I just don't seem to have found the 'sweet spot' for sitting down to it the way I had on the ship. The earthquake excitement had me somewhat discombobulated, as well. I shall try to make amends and will work on pictures tomorrow.
Denise, Emily, Maggie and I did the hop on/hop off tour yesterday so with that and the other tour we took, we have seen each neighbourhood or 'barrio' of Buenos Aires and I reiterate, it is a most amazing city. Each neighbourhood has such a distinctively different flavour from the next so that whether riding or walking you seem to actually feel yourself transitioning to the next. In some cases it is obvious, such as in San Telmo, home of the tango (which originated with the gauchos, only men danced it) or in La Boca, where there will be tango dancers on the street inviting people to come to their milonga to tango or watch a show. In others, it is less dramatic such as the old European architectural influences of Recoleta (where we are) meeting the stunning embassy circles of Palermo.
We had a funny experience today. If you recall, when I was last in Buenos Aires, I told the story of leather shopping in La Boca and how excited Maggie and I were to be coming back after watching Margaret's fun while purse shopping. Well, we have had a few days to do a lot of comparison shopping (more price comparison as the serious shopping hadn't begun yet)so when we went to La Boca this morning to show Denise and Emily all the leather wares you can imagine how disappointed we were to take a look and discover that not only were these bags over-priced but they weren't nearly the quality of some of the stores we'd already checked out. It was a fabulous area to experience and the girls treated me to an AMAZING birthday lunch at a restaurant called Patagonia Sur, one of the top 10 in Argentina but other than that, we decided La Boca was vastly over-rated and went downtown to Florida St. to do our shopping. Florida St. is a pedestrian only street full of leather/silver/clothing/restaurants and lots of people. It is very lively, to say the least. It is full of all of the typical North American chain stores but the Argentinian stores are the place to be. Because of the weakness of the peso against our $ all of the Argentinian products are fabulous value. Leather and silver are where it's at. So.....always one to help out any host country, we have begun the quest. Denise bought me the most amazing handbag today for my birthday. I hope to be carrying it around for my birthday trip for my 83rd! Maggie gave me a beautiful turtle pin that she had bought for me while we were in Chile. Emily gave me a lovely box of what we all thought was truffles but before anyone could take a bite she pointed out that they are candles. Very cute! They will all be lovely birthday mementos along with the incredible birthday memories. Best part of all is that this birthday marks 6 years cancer-free.........YAYYYYYYYY!
We are all so tired from all of the walking (the heat has turned on again after several balmy days) and still full from lunch so we are sitting down to giggle through "It's Complicated" again and will pass on dinner...........hope everyone is well and safe.....love, Sally xoxo
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What you are saying is true. Every neighborhood has a distinctive flavour and that has to do with the fact that each neighborhood in BA represents a different culture or aspect of art, so you will run into some good stuff over there. I remember when I rented a Furnished apartment in Buenos Aires in the neighborhood of Recoleta and I could not decided whether I liked Palermo the most or Puerto Madero, it was crazy!
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Brooke