Feliz Día de San Patricio!

While there was no parade like NYC, there was definitely a celebration- green beer included, as seen below. The crowd poured on to Reconquista, the well known Irish street in town so that Argentines and ex-pats alike could raise a pint in the Kilkenny Pub to wish one another a muy Feliz Día San Patricio!

This was just a quick share to show BA represented the Irish well!

Hope yo were all able celebrate St. Paddy's Day in your own way! Besos!

Long weekend get-away: Mar del Plata

For the first time in 35 years, the Argentine governments declared Carnival a national holiday- so Argentines had both Monday and Tuesday off. Now I’ve been in Buenos Aires on 3 day weekends and the city pretty much shuts down: stores are closed, the streets are deserted and Amy and I often felt like we were the lone men standing. I imagined that a 4 day weekend would convert BsAs into a ghost town. Since this was my first weekend without Amy, I was thrilled (and un poco relieved) when my friend, Nora, invited me to go to Mar del Plata with her and two other people for the finde largo.

Mardel, as the locals refer to it, is about 4 hours south of Buenos Airies without traffic, but going to Mardel for Carnival is like going to Southampton for 4th of July- you need to add at least 2 more hours to your travel time to account for traffic. Fortunately, in Argentina you are able to ride in nice comfy reclining seats so it makes enduring traffic a little easier. We left for Mardel at 5:30AM and arrived by 12 noon. We were in our bathing suits and ready for the beach by 12:30.

Sitting along the coast.

Nora and I found a great spot on the coast that had beautiful view of the Atlantic ocean and an infinity pool to enjoy! We spent the day relaxing on lounge chairs and sipping on smoothies, I couldn’t have asked for a better day. That night, we met up with our other two friends for dinner; we of course went for asado. The Argentines of the group seemed to be able to sniff out the best asado restaurant in the city. We found a popular steak house and after a short 2 hour wait, we were seated for a delicious asado at 11pm.

A view of the pool from the first day.

The next day we decided to go a beach outside of the city. The beaches there were beautiful. They reminded me exactly of the beaches in the Hamptons: there were kids building sand castles, people playing paddle ball, surfers; I really felt like I was back on Long Island. I also introduced my friends to my favorite beach activity which is combing for sea glass. For me searching for sea glass is almost instinctual, I can remember combing the beach for hours with my Nanny as a kid and for me it is like searching for a treasure- a true simple pleasure in life. By the time we left, my travel companions were combing the beach for sea glass too; I think I may have turned them on to a new pastime. While walking back to our hostel, we saw a crowd outside a restaurant, we figured in must be good so we decided to see how long the wait would be. It was going to be an hour at least, so we put our names down on the list, went back to the hostel to shower and returned just in time to be seated. We couldn’t have planned better! I thinking I am finally figuring out how to work the waiting system down here.

Pablo, me, Jon at the beach!

Day 3 was rainy so we did what we had to do- we took in a movie. El Cisne Negro starring Natalie Portman, it is one the few Oscar nominated films I have seen. I haven’t really been following the movies this year so I had no idea what to expect. I thought the movie was going to be an uplifting story about a ballet dancer, I was way off, I am still having nightmares.

Nora and I enjoying pizza! (Ame, found others who love Roquefort!)

Our last day we went to another pool on the coast and enjoyed are last plate of rabas (fried calamari), we ate many rabas this weekend (apparently the city is known for them). After that we were on our way home, back to Buenos Aires.

Last moments of soaking up the sun!

Guest Blogger: Courtney visits BA!

Wow.


What a fantastic trip.  Muchísimas gracias to Amy and Caitlin for putting up with me for 9 days and showing me the best of BA (and Iguazú).  I thought that instead of going through the details day by jam-packed awesome day, I would share my Top 5 highlights of my trip, plus some honorable mentions as well.  In no particular order, here goes...


Top 5:


1.  Beef and red wine.  And then more beef, and more red wine.  I had heard great things about the beef in Argentina, and I have to say that it exceeded my already very high expectations.  I'm drooling just thinking about it.


I learned an important word: jugoso.  It's supposed to indicate medium rare, but I discovered that it seems to have a different definition depending on where you are.  The first jugoso steak that we had, at La Brigada, I think there was still a heartbeat on the plate.  Possibly the rarest that I've ever eaten steak, but still wonderfully delicious.  And for those of you who've ever tried unsuccessfully to share a steak with Amy unable to convince her a little pink in the center is delicious, you'll be happy to know that she's now moved over to the dark (pink) side.  After confirming that the purple steak on our plates was safe to eat, she promptly devoured it.


La Cabrera hit the mark with a perfectly cooked medium rare, and even though it was well past midnight and we had already stuffed our faces with the most amazing prosciutto (and mozzarella for Ame), we enjoyed every last bite.


Ame's favorite restaurant Don Julio interpreted our request for jugoso completely different, and brought us out a steak cooked medium. Still very tasty, and we were just thankful that they seated us at all given that we showed up after midnight on a Sunday night smelling like sweaty soccer fans.


And oh, the wine! A bottle of a delicous Malbec that costs the same as just one glass costs in NYC... might as well just order another bottle!


2.  Iguazú Falls.  Ame and I were completely blown away by Iguazú Falls. We've seen many a waterfall in our travels and were a little skeptical as to whether these would really impress us, but they surely delivered. I could not stop taking photos (and videos), I just had to capture it from every angle.  We walked along all of the various paths (and somehow timed it perfectly to avoid the massive crowds of tourists), got soaked in the spray of the waterfalls, saw incredible rainbows, hiked down to a more secluded waterfall and ate our picnic lunch at the top of the waterfall, saw lots of wildlife including pretty butterflies, surprisingly cute coatis, adorable monkeys, ginormous spiders and a large snake (thankfully we did not see it cross our path ahead of us and only realized it was there when other hikers pointed it out to us after it returned to the forest) and went on a very fun and refreshingly wet boat ride right up to the base of the falls.  Small world story: As we were rolling our eyes at the annoying American school group that just happened to be sitting next to us on the boat, one of the adults in the group started talking to us.  Turns out they are from Mattituck, the town over from Riverhead, and one of the women used to be a teacher at Riverhead High School.  They seemed less annoying after that.

3.  Brazil.  Even though this could technically roll up under the Iguazú Falls section, I think it's worthy of it's own Top 5 shout-out.  There was a lot of back and forth whether we’d be able to make it across the border to see the Brazil side of the falls, but in the end all signs seemed to point to Brazil.  And we were so thankful that it worked out.  The views of the falls were different from the Brazilian park and we could see more waterfalls than we realized existed from the Argentine side and were thoroughly impressed yet again (and took another 100 or so photos).  We saw another awesome rainbow, got soaked in the falls once again, attempted to dry off a bit, and then had an amazing buffet lunch before venturing back to Argentina.  Also very cool was the bridge connecting Argentina and Brazil; half of the bridge was painted with the Argentine flag, and the other half painted with the Brazilian flag.  Unfortunately we couldn’t catch a photo of that, but I think it’s ingrained in our memories along with the adventure of our few hours in Brazil.

Amaaaazing buffet

Amaaaaazing rainbows

4.  Shopping in Palermo.  I went a bit overboard with the shopping in Palermo.  It got to the point where I was rather embarrassed by the number of shopping bags that I was holding, and tried to consolidate so that it wouldn’t look quite so excessive.  Though all the bags came back out for the Pretty Woman photo op.  TRIVIA: Name that Pretty Woman quote [Hint: It starts with “You people work on commission, right?”]

5.  Amy's Fiesta de Despedida.  I was lucky enough to be in town for Amy’s Fiesta de Despedida (= Going Away Party).  Amy picked a fun bar in San Telmo and we arrived early and stayed until closing.  It was so great to meet so many of Amy and Caitlin’s friends, they packed the bar and gave Ame a proper send off.  And while it was a sad occasion for the rest of the guests, it was a happy occasion for me because Ame saying “Adios” to BA meant she was returning home to NY!

Honorable Mentions:


The weather – mid 80’s and sunny every day, a very welcome contrast from the NY winter

C. A. River Plate v. Independiente Soccer Game – This just barely missed the Top 5, though I think I look back on the memory of the game with more fondness than the actual experience.  Packed in amongst the Argentine soccer hooligans in the “Popular” (aka INSANE) section of the Independiente stadium was not the most comfortable or pleasant 90 minutes of my life, but it certainly was a memorable and truly unique experience.  I’m very glad I did it, but definitely do not need to experience the Popular section ever again.  For those familiar with the 4/5/6 train at rush hour, picture that level of crowdedness, standing on bleachers, with everyone chanting and cursing at the top of their lungs while chain smoking cigarettes.  For 2 hours.

This was before the insanity started!

Riding bikes around Palermo parks and neighborhoods (and related: learning how to fix a slipped bike chain) – Fun AND healthy way to explore the city

Eating dinner at midnight, staying out until 5am, sleeping until noon – I love vacation.


Once again, a very big thank you to Amy and Caitlin.  I’m so happy I was able to visit and you both made my trip absolutely perfect!

Time flies when you're having fun ...

... as evidenced by the fact that my first blog post was almost a year ago -- ONE YEAR AGO!  Crazy for me to try to comprehend.  Also crazy to think that these 9 months of living and breathing Buenos Aires are nearly done.  Caitlin always says that BA is somewhat of a time warp -- you often feel like you've just arrived because you can remember your first days so vividly, but very early on you feel like you've been here forever.  The city really has a way about it.  I leave tomorrow, and what an experience I've had ... truly indescribable.  


So, some final thoughts from South America from me (Cait I'm sure and hope will continue this fine blog!).


Everyone here's been asking me what I will do for "mis ultimos dias" in BA (now down to 1).  Truthfully, since my wonderful friend Courtney visited me last week from NY, I got to do all my favorite things then, leaving me time to pack and roam around in the sun for my last few days as a wannabe porteña.  She's promised to write a lovely blog post, so I won't fill you in here, but obviously another fabulous visit!  

Court and I at an insane futbol match that she'll fill you in on

I know it's super cliche, but it really feels like yesterday that I had my going-away party in New York, and that was back in May. Just had another one here this past Saturday and felt like a celebrity - people from all over my life here came out for a drink or 5.  It rocked!  Anyone up for a welcome back party when I'm back??  Just kidding ... I think I've had enough parties for myself in the past year to sustain me for a while. :)


You might be wondering why I'm spending my 2nd to last day inside on the computer, but rest assured, I wrote most of this post old-school style, outside in the park earlier today (in the shade of course - way too hot for the sun, especially when one forgets to put on sunscreen).  I don't even want to think about the weather that awaits me in NY.


I'm staring at my bags now as I type this up and they are officially packed (if you can call it that ... stuffed is more like it), to the point that l will definitely be paying a fee for either a heavy bag or an extra bag.  Can't wait to find out which!  


As a final thought, it's going to feel really strange/bizarre/sad to leave my other half Caitlin here and I will probably go into withdrawal in the weeks to come.  On the plus side, I'll see her in May or June either in LA or NY, and as we know, time really flies.  I'm also looking forward to hearing about her last 3 months here.  I know they'll be awesome.     

Cait and I on Saturday

Muchas gracias for listening to me ramble here - still crazy to think this is my last post!!  xoxo