We decided to go for a walk. We used google map to point us in the direction then left the apartment (and wifi) behind. Google map said it was an hour and a half walk... Lies! An hour and a half later we weren't even half way there. There's traffic lights at every block and the streets are busy. We got to the the end of a long road and arrived at a crazy busy area. We think it was the bus station. We thought the first part of the walk was busy but at the end of this road and all up the following road people had multiplied! There were people sat on the floor with a blanket down and their merchandise lay on top. They were selling things from t'shirts, furry bigfoot style slippers, babies socks... Yep a woman had 3 little socks in her hand shouting out for someone to buy them. She must have lost one or found all 3 odd socks on the floor.
Further up the road people were selling cakes and rice and fruit and flowers. All this was on the pavement so everyone was forced to walk in single file. It was the only time in Buenos Aires that we were nervous about our bags. Locals held their bags over their shoulders and clutched in front of them so we didn't feel out of place doing the same.
As soon as we saw a coffee shop we dove in for a little break from the madness. Buenos Aires is a huge city so when there's so many people in such a busy area the pollution and sweaty-ness can get to you. It was getting to us. The coffee shop was lovely and clean and the waiter was really nice. He asked where we were from but tried to guess first... Australia was his first guess. We told him Inglaterra then he started talking about Argentina v England at rugby. We're not sure whether he was in the rugby team or whether he watched it but apparently England won. After a coffee and a brownie we went back on the city streets. It wasn't too long before we spotted the cemetery. It's not like a normal cemetery. 'Recoleta' is where the rich and famous are buried and have been buried for centuries. We wondered around and were amazed by these mini tombs. Some were buildings with huge drawers for coffins. One draw had smashed so the rotting coffin was revealed! We didn't look too closely (but still took a picture). We heard that Eva Peron was buried here so we wondered around looking for her grave. What we noticed was the number of cats. Creepy! We gave up looking and asked the security at the front gates. There's a map at the entrance so we wondered back into the cemetery. No wonder we couldn't find Eva's grave. It is very understated in comparison to the rest of the tomb/graves here. People had put fresh flowers in the wrought iron gate were she lies. After a few pics we headed out of cemetery into the shopping mall. We walked around a book shop looking for an easy to read Spanish book. We didn't have a clue so we gave up and flagged a taxi back. It was always 50 pesos in the taxi. The man driving the taxi was called Carlos. He spoke a little bit of English and was really friendly. We told him we'd been studying Spanish in Ecuador for 3 weeks and he took this information and ran with it. He was pointing at things say 'what's that' and we had to reply with the Spanish word then if I spoke English he would say Spanish please. He was really patient and kept encouraging us, like a teacher. He gave us his number before we got out the car so we could contact him should we get stranded anywhere. A lovely man!
When we got home we had a couple of hours before Julian was picking us up. Julian had invited us to his friends house for tea then to a gig. I had a mini dilemma. it was cold out and i only had flipflops and trainers. i couldnt wear running trainers so flipflops it was matched with a libg skirt to try to hide them. Julian turned up at half 9 with his friend Pablo. They drove us to Pedro's house. Julian rang the buzzer at the metal gates, when Pablo let us in we had to walk down a private street that looked like Downing Street. Pedro through the key out the window and we went in. Turns out Pedro lives in his dads studio. His dads an artist. Classical music was playing in the background the art studio had been set out as a dining room, using the two paint splattered pasting tables as the dining table. Pablo, Pedro and Julian all could speak English so they went out of their way to not speak Spanish to each other. If they slipped into Spanish mode they'd apologise. Of course we didn't mind them speaking their language but it was very thoughtful of them. Pedro brought through the spaghetti Bolognese and we all tucked in with red wine flowing. I'm not a red wine person so I settled on a glass of the massive beer. After we'd eat we said our thank yous and headed to the main road with Julian to flag a taxi to the gig. We went la trastienda. Julian introduced us to a group of friends who were waiting for him then we headed in. It was 75 pesos per person. We got a drink of beer (in a can) then headed for the front. The first act had just started so we had got there just in time. At the interval we were talking to Julian when a man behind us heard us talking and excused himself to ask if we were English. He was all excited because he was training to be an English teacher so wanted to speak to us. Lee was chatting away to the new man and I was talking to Julian then me and Julian looked around and a circle had formed. People were looking at us. Not on an angry way i think more intrigue because I think we were the only English there. We were saved by the band. El mato a in policia motorizado came on. They were really good. The lead singers a big fella!
When people recognised a song you would see them run past, barging people out the way, to get to the front and mosh out. It was a whole different world of moshing. They push the crowd backwards, I nearly lost my flipflop at one point, then they run back to the front of the stay jumping up and down and pushing from side to side. Crazy.... We edged back out the way. After the concert we went for a walk to a bar in San Telmo. Lee got me a pint. I felt a bit embarrassed representing England with a pint in hand then I looked around and everyone had a pint! It was 4 in the morning when we left and the night was just getting started. The gig didn't start until midnight! We went straight to bed when we got home.