Musings from Buenos Aires - Buenos Aires Day 6

April 22nd, 2014

I always end my trip blogs on the plane ride home.  And honestly, unless something unforeseen happens on a plane, there isn't much of a story.  So I figured I would assume the plane ride went well.  Instead, here are some of the thoughts and such from this very quick trip.  It's all of the brain droppings I didn't have time for each day.

"Just wait until you get the meat sweats."  Adele to me during Friday night's Parilla experience.  I did not get meat sweats, but I did eat my weight in meat over the last few days.  I'm not a super red meat eater, but I did partake hard here.  It was all so good.  I also never have swollen ankles.  My ankles are oddly delicate.  But today, as I sit on the couch and try to decide when exactly to take a nap (answer - NOW), I look down at my ankles and wonder what in the holy hell just happened.  My ankles are currently the size of my neck.

Meat, glorious meat.  This was a half portion.

I had read about the denizens of Buenos Aires and their stylish ways.  Now, we were only out for one night (out meaning socializing, not that we were being held captive), but it actually seemed to be a very casual and laid back sort of city.  When we went to brunch on Sunday, we each wore a cute dress.  Cause, brunch.  Plus, we brought a few nice dresses for tango time (see below).  So we needed to wear them at least once.  We were overdressed for brunch (though many people made an effort, but we were the most dressy) and super overdressed for walking to the restaurant.  

We figured out the reason the ladies in Buenos Aires wear flats.  Cobblestone streets.  They're barely walkable in flats.  In heels...ugh...

We were supposed to dress up for Tango.  That was in all of the guidebooks.  You are there to see and be seen.  We...were not.  So we decided to dress...cute, but casual (in other words, dress like we normally do thankyouverymuch).  And, thank goodness we did.  Sure, there were a few people who dressed up.  There were some...interesting outfits.  But for the most part, people were dressed for comfort (except for the shoes) and we seemed to blend in.  Had we dressed in our "Tango Dresses", we would have attracted undo attention.  Something I was not going to be comfortable with, based on the language barrier and the severity in which my feet were hurting.

Single ply toilet paper.  That can go away any time.  Though I am happy we can flush the single ply.  Which was different than Peru.  So that's something.

Because, Alf.

Candy Crush is alive and well in Buenos Aires.

It's Fall.  Autumn.  The crisp leaves falling smelled the same as it does back home.  In October.  But we have just gotten out of a brutal winter (then again, to some it may still be going on).  Crisp fall leaves are not what we want to smell.  Bring on the Spring!!  Bonus points to sunshine, though.  This is something we very much have not seen in Chicago recently.  I'm actually concerned we are in some kind of a nuclear winter right now...

Missed it by that much...

Mosquitos.  These little bastards were a surprise.  The last night, we sat outside and ate dinner.  But I don't think that was where the plethora of mosquito bites came from.  Nope.  I think they came in as we opened the window to air our room out a bit.  Then they lived with us overnight.  It's the only reason I can think as to why I have symmetrical bites on my knees.  And why there is a giant one on the top of my foot.  And the one one my hand.  And the one on my arm.  It's nearly a week later (I always lag on the last day's post) and these babies are still quite prominent.  Especially the one on my foot. 

Spanish, man.  I need to learn Spanish.  If I want to do more of this whole South American Travel thing (which I DO!!), I need to start to figure out the language.  I'm getting slightly better, but I am solely relying on Adele for communication.  So, where to learn Spanish...

Now, about the wine.  Very rarely did we see a place that served wine by the glass.  It was strictly by the bottle.  And the bottles were cheap.  For American standards.  Well...for North American standards.  Luckily, Adele and I train hard for these kinds of occasions.  A bottle of Malbec with dinner??  Easy.  Bring it on.  Especially when after we did the math, a bottle of wine was around $20 USD.

The wine made it home!!  Along with two goblets.

Break out the time tables in advance.  Know your multiples.  The exchange rate for Argentinian Pesos and US Dollars was 8 to 1.  And man...my mental math is a bit rusty.  I could get so far with simple division.  But for the heavy stuff, I was pulling out the calculator.  And some of this should not have been heavy stuff.  Wine was $144 Pesos.  Which made it...I don't know...$12 USD??  I stopped trying to calculate near the end.  Cause it would just frustrate me.  "Is this $18 USD or $26 USD??"  Dang math.  At least it was good in the a favor of the USD.  Cause soon I'll be dealing with the GBP, which blows.

Dogs are everywhere.  No cats.  We really had to watch where we were stepping since there was dog crap all up and down the sidewalk.  At first, I was cursing the dog owners.  Until I saw how the dog situation worked.  People owned small, fluffy dogs.  Most were wearing coats.  The dogs, not the people.  Though the people were too...sometimes.  People seemed to pick up after their dogs.  But there were packs of dogs roaming the sidewalks.  These were the bigger dogs.  Dogs who were friendly and such, but they were the ones crapping on the sidewalk without any regard to the poor saps trying to maneuver both the cobblestone streets and the landmines.

Dog.

I'm sure there's much more that I need to say about Buenos Aires, but I've already kept this going more than anyone cares about these days.  We landed in Dallas, then again in Chicago.  We were exhausted, both physically and mentally.  Neither one of us did much for the rest of the day and we met up again with society (aka "work") on Wednesday.  The question asked, "Did you have a good time??"  And the answer was a vigorous YES.  Yes, we had a good time.  And yes, we would go back in a second.  Until next time, Buenos Aires.  Until next time.

As long as I have my suitcase, all is right with the world.