Well we arrived in Buenos Aires around 10 am Tuesday and we had such a big day planned. I actually slept well for the first time on an overnight bus so that really helped. It was Shelby's first day and last night in Buenos Aires so we were going to make the most of it! We had booked another food tour for that day at noon and then we had our included tango experience that night. Our bus was a little late so we were worried about getting to the restaurant by 12. However we weren't TOO worried because I had looked up the address on google before hand and google said it was only a 10 min walk from our hostel. We got into the hostel at 11 am, checked in (which was very slow) and got ready to go in about 5 mins. We both really needed a shower after being on the bus for 19 hours but we couldn't actually get into our room yet, plus we were running low on time. So after much rushing around we left the hostel at 11:50, thinking we would get there by 12 no problem. Well we walked about 2 blocks before I realized google hadn't pinpointed the right address. I didn't realize this before hand. I started to panic a bit but thought we should just hop in a taxi and let them take us there, hoping the actual address was close. Well it wasn't. It was pretty much as far away as you could get from our hostel. It took over half an hour in the taxi and according to our tour guides it would have taken us about 4 hours to walk it.. Oops. We ended up being 30 mins late but thankfully it was just us two on the tour so the guides had stuck around the restaurant and were actually just about to leave when we walked in. We met at a little Parilla restaurant to try Chorizopan. A Parilla restaurant is one which specializes in grilled meat. They all have huge grills set over a coal burning fire and they cook all kinds of meat on it. It takes longer to cook but they always have lots of meat cooking at one time. Chorizopan is an Argentinean specialty, but it is just a sausage on a bun, with different toppings. We tried a salsa like topping and an oil/herb topping. It was really good! Then we moved on to a little empanada restaurant that serves delivery empanadas so we ate them on the corner. The empanadas in Argentina are different than the one we had in Bolivia. In Argentina they are much smaller and baked instead of fried, which definitely changes the taste, but I like them both. After empanadas we went to a secret Parilla! Apparently there are "secret" Parillas around buenos aires that are supposed to be just for the locals, so they don't become too touristy. This one have the big iron gate shut on the front of it and its sign was turned to closed, so of course I would never think about going in there if I was just walking by. The only way you can get in is by ringing the doorbell, and then someone working there lets you in. This specific Parilla also changes its name every couple of weeks so no one can right reviews about it on the Internet! So they really do stay well hidden! Apparently when the guide first approached the owners about letting their tourist group come, they said no (of course) but his business partner knew the owners well so after much convincing they decided to allow it. I felt quite lucky getting to go there! We had a big steak to share between us, a bottle of Malbec red wine, salad, roasted egg plant, bread, and grilled provolone cheese! It was all really tasty. The steak was pretty good but not the best steak I have had. After the Parilla we went to a ice cream shop where they make home made ice cream and change the flavours everyday. It is also a really thick ice cream, close to gelato. I was lucky to have gotten there on pistachio ice cream day!! So I got that and also banana split flavour and both were really good! It was very nice that day so we sat outside in the sun and I got some tips from the guides on what to do during my stay. They gave us a list of their favourite restaurants and the younger girl (probably a few years older than me) who was learning to guide, suggested the graffiti tour that I would do on Friday. The main guide was a guy named David who was probably in his 30s. The two of them were both from the states. They told us a lot about Buenos Aires while we were on the tour. There about 12 million people who live in Buenos Aires. They have the second most national holidays of any country in the world (only behind brazil) with 44 national holidays. They said sometimes its even more than that because they randomly make up holidays hahaha. How awesome. Every Friday and Saturday are "friendship days" where everyone goes for supper with their friends and every Sunday they have these big BBQs (I forget what the word is for them) where they have all their friends and family over and just grill and cook and drink and eat all day! I would love that! Also Argentineans eat over 220 lbs of beef or something every year. David said Americans eat like a third of that. I can't say Argentineans have a healthy diet, but it is really tasty. Most people don't eat breakfast, they just have a coffee. Then they eat lunch around 2 and supper between 9 pm and 12 am. Also they love to party! David said their party nights start on Tuesday and go until Saturday!! So basically you get Sunday and Monday off from partying and that's it! Also since they eat so late, no one goes out to the clubs until around 3 am. Pre drinking starts around 1 am, they go to the club around 3 am, then go home around 7 am!! And the usual work day is from 11-7. Crazy schedule!! After the tour they helped us catch a bus back to our hostel where we got ready for our tango night.

We decided to dress up (influenced by everyone in buenos aires being super fashionable) so I got to wear a dress I bought in Costa Rica! Unfortunately I had only Toms and flip flops to wear so that kind of ruined the effect but I still went with it. The tango night consisted of about an hour dance lesson, supper, and a tango show. The dance lesson was pretty straight forward. We practiced the steps by ourselves and then had to partner up and switch up our partners every so often. The room was too small for the amount of people and everyone was moving in different directions so my poor feet got stepped on a lot. Plus a few of the guys I was partnered with were not real great dancers. The man is supposed to lead which was hard for me to take when they are so off the rhythm haha but I had a few really good partners too! After the lesson we got little certificates of accomplishment and then sat down for our meal. You got to pick a starter, a main, and a dessert. I got stuffed chicken for my main dish which was really good but my starter salad was basically only lettuce and I got flan for dessert which I now know I don't like! They did have all you can drink wine though! We were sitting with three girls from Ireland who we got chatting with for the night. That was where I first heard about this crazy historic event that happened like 30 years ago. Apparently communism was gaining popularity in Argentina which the US government deemed unacceptable so the US military moved into Argentina and basically became their government. After that over 30,000 people disappeared from Argentina. What was happening is that the military was taking anyone who was for the communist view, or even anyone against democracy, and taking them in for questioning and what not, and many of them were never seen again. Even people who were not politically affiliated but they were leaders in the community, student leaders, priests, etc were taken and disappeared. If a woman had a baby but the family was known to be affiliated with communism, the military would take the baby away and give it to a democratic family so it could be raised on the "right views". I was really surprised I had never heard about this because it seems like a pretty big historic event. There is a museum in buenos Aires dedicated to the event and the girls from Ireland had gone to visit it that day. The one girl said she went specifically because her dads cousin was one who disappeared and I guess he was an important person because she said he had an entire building dedicated to him. I can't imagine. Anyway, back to tango. Apparently professional tango dancers are completely spontaneous when they dance. There are different places where the man puts his hand or presses that tells the woman what they are doing next. Cool hey! Also doing tango in stilettos is super impressive. The show was very entertaining and after the show the Irish girls invited us to their hostel to party. It was Shelby's last night so we went and had some drinks with them and actually met up with some other people we had met in Iguazu which was cool. And that was the end of the first day in Buenos Aires! We got home around 3 because we had a city tour the next day at 9!

Next day we got up in time for our tour but they were a little late, plus we had to pick a bunch of other people up so the tour started quite late. Unfortunately Shelby had to be back at the hostel early for her flight so she had to leave the tour 2 hours early! The tour was a bus tour around 5 different neighbourhoods in the city. I didn't love the fact that I was stuck on a bus but I got to know the city quickly and take note of the areas I wanted to come back to see more closely. We did get to disembark a couple times to take pictures. The first neighbourhood we saw was Recoleta. We stopped here in front of the university and a big park with some neat lookin statues and things. There are a lot of parks in Recoleta and almost every park in the city has a statue or monument of some sort in its center. After Recoleta we visited Palermo, an upscale neighbourhood with the expensive boutiques (Louis Vouiton and all the others), lots of beautiful buildings and beautiful tree lined streets. Then we visited the city centre where my hostel is located. The city centre is also really beautiful because there are so many beautiful buildings. There is a huge white obelisk that marks the centre on the busiest and widest street in the world. The obelisk marks their Independence Day. The street has 16 lanes, and 2 side streets that make it appear even wider. Even for all that it is always super congested. One day I was walking down that street when their was a protest going on of some sort and they were just standing in the middle of the street blocking all the traffic and it was backed up for miles. I felt bad for everyone. We headed to the Plaza de Mayo which is focused around the pink government building where the WOMAN president works (go Argentina). This is where Shelby and I said good bye! It was very weird to suddenly be on my own again but I've gotten used to it again pretty quick. After going through the city centre we hit up La Bolca. This neighbourhood is famous for it's junior soccer team and it's super colourful street, Caminito. The houses on this street were originally painted with the old paint from cargo ships who docked not far from the site. All the houses are bright yellow, blue, red, green, and purple. It's a really cool street to walk down but super touristy. You can't walk two steps without someone trying to sell you something. Then we headed to Puerto Maldero, a really trendy and newly refurbished neighbourhood. It is on the river and actually used to be the main port for ships until it was abandoned years ago. It sat for a long time before they had the idea to refurbish it. It just finished its refurbishment in 2010. It is a really beautiful neighbourhood now with big boardwalks along the river, trees, grass, and beautiful bridges. The old warehouses have been turned into cool upscale restaurants that are some of the best in the city. That marked the end of our city tour. After the city tour I went back to the hostel and planned out what I wanted to do for the rest of my stay. I wanted to see a lot and had to figure out how to pack it all into two more days! I hadn't figured out the public transportation system yet (Taxis are expensive and they have a subway and many bus lines) so that night I decided I would try to stay close to my hostel. The teatre colon (an opera house), the palacio Barolo (a light house), and the El Ateneo (supposedly the most beautiful bookstore in the world) were all within walking distance of my hostel (although I think I overestimated). That night I decided to go to the lighthouse to see if I could get in on a tour before it closed. I got there too late but was told I could come back for one tomorrow night. So then I decided to walk to the bookstore which I knew was still open. All this walking took over an hour and was around 30 blocks just to get there! By the time I arrived at the bookstore I was tired and still had to walk home. But the bookstore was worth it. It is located in an old opera house. You walk in and are in the old lobby which has beautiful marble floors and pillars. Then you walk up a few red-carpeted steps and get to look out over the golden banisters to where the stage used to be located, and now holds a restaurant. To either side of you stretches the spots where the seats used to be and then you see the private balconies along the sides of the stage. There are three floors of balconies plus "downstairs" where the main floor and stage are. It was all really beautiful. White marble and gold paint and red carpet and dim lighting. It was exactly like an opera house should be but it was lined with thousands of books instead of seats. I took a few pics and actually wanted to buy a book but I forgot they would all be in Spanish! So I left empty handed and trudged slowly back to the hostel. I was so exhausted after my day of walking over 60 blocks. I took part in the "free" dinner at the hostel (free if you buy a drink) which was a huge disappointment but I was too tired to go out anywhere. It was just one of those personal pizzas you would buy at a grocery store with mozzarella cheese on top. How creative! Also I got straight up asked out for the first time on this trip and possibly my life... Usually people like to beat around the bush and feel things out but this guy just came up to me and asked me if I wanted to get a beer with him! He was probably so blunt because he couldn't speak English that well. Of course I said no and he was on his merry way. This is what happens when I have no friends to eat with and guard me! :( I went to bed early because I had gotten barely any sleep the night before. I really didn't like my roommates in this new hostel. Everyone in my room was older (like 40) and one lady was super weird and liked to turn up the heat so it was blasting at 30 degrees!! It was like a sauna in there and every time I turned the heat down or unplugged it she just plugged it back in! Finally I got into b**** mode and we came to a compromise at 25 degrees... Still too hot for me but better than 30. And it was really weird because she would turn the heat on then lay out in just her underwear! First of all, if you are cold, put on more clothes, not less. Secondly, no one wants to see you naked. Also I was on a top bunk which I hate because its super hard to get up and down on the little shaky ladders they have at most hostels and I always drop stuff on the floor and have to get down to get it or have to get down to go to the bathroom or grab something I forgot. It gets to be annoying. The lady below me who came in after Shelby left snored SO LOUD. Like a man. It was terrible. It would continuously wake me up and I would have to shake the bunk bed (see how stable they are) until she stopped. Ok end rant.

Next day I decided to go to the Teatre Colon to get a tour of the opera house. I arrived for the 10 am tour but was told an English one wouldn't run until 12 so I had a couple hours to kill. I wake back towards by hostel and spend an hour walking around one of the best malls in buenos aires, just a few blocks from where I was staying. It is super beautiful. It's all done up like it's a palace or something in Europe. It's all marble with gold accents. It has a big fountain in the middle, a glass domed roof, and painted ceilings like you see in Europe with pictures of angels and what not painted on them. Unfortunately most of the stores were way out of my league but there was one cheaper store I bought a shirt from. I realized after I bought the shirt how the stores work here. They put out one shirt in a random size and then you are supposed to ask for your size. I didn't know that so the shirt I bought I tried on in a size probably too small for me but I thought it would work as they didn't have any other sizes to see! But whenI brought it up to the front to purchase they went to the back and got a new one that was all wrapped up in plastic and put the other one back on the rack. So after that I figured it out but it was a little late! I went to the food court and had a hot chocolate and a banana muffin before I had to go back to the colon. A word on the desserts here... There are so many!!! There are bakeries and pastry shops every two feet and every restaurant has a huge selection of delicious looking desserts.. It's so hard not get one! Plus they have lots of fruit and white cake and creamy desserts which are my favourites! They put dulce de leche in a lot of their desserts. It's just a really sweet and thick (not at all runny) caramel. They also have these desserts called alfajores which I like but I don't like them as much as the locals do. They are crazy for them. They are like two soft cookies with dolce de leche in the middle and white chocolate covering everything. That's the standard kind but there are lots of varieties.

My tour of the opera house started in the foyer! We learned a bit about the three architects who designed the opera house (started around 1890 and finished in 1908). The first two architects were from Italy and both died at age 44 so people started thinking the opera house was cursed. One died when he caught his wife in an affair with their butler and the butler shot him! Crazy. After the two died they made sure to hire a man not from Italy but Belgium, who was already 45. They had all the materials for the opera house shipped from Europe and even used European immigrants to construct the building because they knew how to work with the materials. The rooms outside the stage room all had tile mosaic floors with tiles that were like 1 cm x 1 cm. It was such a big area and it was all laid by hand! No wonder it took them 20 years to finish the place. In all the rooms where there was gold accents, the first 2m up the wall was painted gold and the rest of the wall was all real 24 k gold leaf. All the chandeliers in the place were all original as was pretty much everything. They refurbished it awhile ago but just repainted and what not. They left a patch of wall to compare the before and after colours from the refurbishment. The walls were just a black/brown before because people used to be allowed to smoke in there. They painted it over with the original colour. The chandeliers all weighed two tons and held over 500 light bulbs each (they had electricity by the time the opera house was finished). They had a beautiful room that used to be for the first class tickets during intermissions but is now used for a hall for smaller performances. They had a beautiful grand piano set up in there. After going through the front rooms we made our way into the actual auditorium and got to sit in the president's booth! It was opening night for their new opera "Othello" so while we were there we got to see them testing out their set (they had a big rotating circle divided into three different sets) and the different lights. One very cool thing about the auditorium was the big chandelier in the middle of the room. The whole apparatus could hold 15 musicians in an inner corridor so if they need any sound effects to come from above (thunder, birds, angels, etc) they use that little corridor! It was a gorgeous opera house and I wished I had bought some tickets for the show!

After my tour I took the subway (for the first time!) to Puerto Madero (the refurbished old port). I walked around the port for about an hour. It was very windy that day and reminded me of sask! But it was really pretty, I like that neighbourhood a lot! All the restaurants are gorgeous in the old warehouses and across the water is the yacht club with everyone's massive yachts bobbing about and some nice apartments and offices and stuff. After my walk I wanted to try one of the upscale restaurants so I just randomly picked one and walked in but I think I picked one a little too upscale because everyone there was in their business suits and ties! And I was in my hoodie and jean capris with a huge hole in the knee. As soon as I walked in I wanted to walk out but there was already someone there taking me to a table! They sat me in a corner away from all the fancy people haha. I ordered a steak and it was definitely the best steak I've had in my life! It was cooked perfectly, just a little pink, and so so so tender and juicy! After lunch I went and picked up my laundry and changed into something a little warmer! Then I headed to the lighthouse to try and make the 5 pm tour. I took the subway this time instead of walking but unfortunately I got off at the wrong stop so was pretty lost when I walked up from underground and I didn't make the 5 pm tour, but I was definitely on time for the 6 pm tour! I went to a nearby Starbucks (quite a popular place in Argentina) to have a chai tea latte to pass the time. While I was there I definitely witnessed some elderly abuse which was really sad! A guy I can assume was this elderly lady's son was just yelling at her the whole time they were in there! Which was the whole time I was there and was about 45 mins. It was really annoying and also really sad! Anyway I was glad to get out of there when I could. The tour of the lighthouse was ok information wise but the view of Buenos Aires at the top was definitely worth it! The building was finished in 1923 and is actually just a bunch of offices but it designed very beautifully. It has many interesting facts in its design. The owner was a member of the free masons so there is a bunch of symbols around to represent this. The building is also designed around Dante's "Divine Comedy", a famous poem about heaven and hell. The building has three sections (from floor to ceiling) to represent hell, purgatory, and heaven. The carvings around the columns and crown mouldings differ as you climb up, from snakes and beasts and dragons in hell to angels in heaven. The number of floors was also modelled after the poem as was the height of the building itself, which was the tallest building in South America for 10 years after it was completed. The view at the top of the lighthouse was very cool! Buenos Aires is huge, you can't see the edge of it. And it was sunset which made the view even better! I went back to the hostel for awhile before heading out for supper at a restaurant my food guide had suggested, Cafe San Juan. It was in a neighbouring part of the city, San Telmo, but was still too far to walk at night (about 20 blocks each way) especially now that I was alone. Plus it was cold! The recommendation he gave me said I would most definitely need to make a reservation but I decided to try it anyway! When I got there all the tables were reserved but they had a spot at the counter that separated the kitchen from the dining area. So I sat down but as I was reading the drink menu I saw that they only accepted cash which I didn't have enough of! So then I was embarrassed and I had to leave (I had already ordered but just) to get more money from an ATM 5 blocks away. So I quickly walked there and back and by the time I came back to the restaurant it was packed (although it's very small, there's only about 8 tables). I sat back down and ordered some wine and waited for my salmon! I really liked sitting in that spot because I got to watch the two chefs cooking which was awesome and got to chat with them a bit. That meal was definitely one of the best I've had! The salmon was delish and it came with a really great Arugula salad and roasted vegetables. I also got dessert (of course), a creamy cake with fruit topping. I ended up staying for 3 hours so it was 11 pm by the time I left. I walked back to the subway only to find it locked up!! I had no idea it closed at night. I headed back towards my restaurant which was also in the direction of my hostel, trying to flag down a cab. I stopped three cabs but they all waved me away after I said where I was going. I was so annoyed!! So I ended up just walking back to my hostel which was 20 blocks away so it took me about half an hour and I was so full and it was really cold and I was alone so it was rather unpleasant and I was a little scared but I didn't encounter any trouble and got back safely.

For my last day in Buenos Aires I wanted to go back to Recoleta and walk through some of the parks there and then I had a graffiti tour at 3. I took the subway to Recoleta and walked about 4 hours through a bunch of beautiful parks one by one. Nothing too exciting happened but I was very content with life. I actually had this content feeling many times in Buenos Aires. I really enjoyed the atmosphere there. My favourite park was a big Japanese garden. When it was time to go I made my way back to the subway and took it to our meeting place for the graffiti tour. The tour was 3 hours and consisted of some walking around and driving to different areas to see a bunch of different artwork. We learned a lot about the history of graffiti around the world and in Argentina specifically, as well as learned about the local artists who had done these paintings. Doing the tour actually gave me a great appreciation for these painters. What I really liked was how the feeling towards graffiti in Argentina is so positive. I won't go into all the details here because it is lengthy, but do to their governments suppressive nature in the 70s and 80s (when graffiti was exploding around the world) it never touched Argentina. They never heard about it until their government became more stable in the 90s and people started travelling outside of the country, saw it in the states and elsewhere, and brought it back to Argentina. It really took off when they started having more political trouble (there were 5 different presidents in two weeks). There were a lot of political messages and posters around the city and everyone was depressed so 5 or 6 people decided to do something about it and they painted funny characters over the posters to try to bring some happiness back to buenos aires (when I say painted I mean spray painted). Then more people caught on to the idea and people started painting all over the city and it started to take off. Because they weren't aware of graffiti when the rest of the world was they didn't adapt the same views towards it as the rest of the world. We all think of it as vandalism but in Buenos Aires most people are HAPPY if someone paints on their house! It is technically illegal there but it falls under property damage and people have to go through a lengthy process to charge someone so no one ever bothers to do it. Because of this, people paint in broad daylight. No one cares! It's very cool. Also because its not considered bad, many painters do ask permission to paint on someone's wall before they do it. I really like all the graffiti we saw. Some of the murals and huge pictures are great and are sooooo impressive especially if you think about how it was done with a spray can. I don't like the "tagging" which is when people spray paint their names on the wall. I don't mind it if its done up nice but if its just painted on like you would do it with a pencil it really doesn't look good to me. I did learn though that if there is a famous or really good painting done on a wall, the walls all around it will be painted with tags (not the actual picture because that's considered disrespectful). Everyone wants to be a part of the awesome painting so they put their name close to it! Also the wars that go on with different walls is pretty funny. Kristy (our guide) said the better and more well known painter you are the more likely your painting will last on the wall but she said the longest she's seen a painting last is about 5 years. Kristy has befriended the famous guys from the Buenos Aires graffiti scene so she told us a lot about each of them as we saw their paintings. After the tour we went to a bar/gallery some of them own together and I bought a print from the guy called "amp". It's kind of an abstract piano thing so I'm going to put it above my piano when I get it back :) . Oh yes I forgot to mention that morning before I went to the parks I went to the Recoleta cemetery (an actual tourist attraction). It is only for the very wealthy so there are many famous people buried there but none I was familiar with. But they all have massive tombs made of marble and stone with beautiful ornate statues engraved all around. It was quite an impressive sight. Then after that as I was walking out a bird pooped on my head. So that was fun.

Then on my way home from the graffiti tour I had more bad luck and ended up getting stuck in the subway for about 2 hours because there was a breakdown and my ride should have been about 20 mins! Then when I got to my hostel there was a huge mix up with my reservation and they thought I was supposed to check out even though I wasn't so I had to argue with them for about 15 mins until they just let me go to bed. Then the next morning on my way to the bus I got lost (I went to the main bus terminal thinking I would be going from there but I wasn't) and was almost late!! It was a bad end to my awesome stay in buenos aires but I still loved it! Definitely my favourite city I have been to so far. If I spoke Spanish I would probably 95% sure move there. And there's so much I haven't talked about but there's just too much!

I'm actually in Uruguay now, in the capital city Montevideo. Fun fact: montevideo is the southern most capital city in South America! So it's freaking cold here right now. I actually got hailed on today walking downtown :( . My way here was really cool. For the first few hours I got to take a huge ferry! There were three levels and tons of windows and enough seats for like 500 people and a huge lobby area with a restaurant and hardwood floors and a glass elevator! It was gorgeous. Ok I'm all blogged out. This blog actually took me three days to finish haha I couldn't do it all at once so I don't blame you if you even get to the end of this. But if you did, congrats! :)

I forgot to mention the dog walkers!! There were TONS of dog walkers around the city with like 15 dogs pulling them along! So funny. Also I'm deathly ill with a cold again :( and the pic with this blog is me in Puerto Madero! To the left are the refurbished warehouses, to the right are the yachts.