time to play catch up and post about the inauguration trip. since then i haven't really done much of merit anyway. the friday after we returned i went to the 5 way birthday which was fun but i was entirely exhausted. the moment i got home i kicked off my shoes and fell asleep in my clothes. it must have been no more than 15 seconds before i konked out. and then this past sunday i had brunch with dan which was entirely sad because he's not left to portland. good news if he will return every 6 wks for work. but still. dan is gone. he was a huge part of my life back in the day. and i'll never forget that. other than that i was just catching up on work and sleep. catching up on work caused me to go to bed at 2 and 3am two nights in a row which then caused me to have to catch up on a LOT of sleep. so i think i'm good now finally. i need a haircut but that might wait til next weekend. we'll see. so now to recap the inauguration trip!
alex, amanda and i were one group that set off to the east. neil flew out on his own to DC. rick followed a couple days later. greg and betty also went straight to DC as well. alex, amanda, and i flew to NY and then took a train to philly. our flight to NY was nice but we didn't sleep much. so when we arrived butt ass early, all we wanted to do was get the fuck to philly. well our bags didn't seem to want to get off the plane which delayed us literally an hour. we finally got on the airtrain and headed to jamaica station to then take the LIRR train to penn station. when we were standing on the platform at jamaica station it was like 8am and seriously 7 degrees. my hands and nose were HURTING. gah. so terrible. amanda was covering up so much that she fogged up her glasses. precious! once we got to penn station we got some krispy kremes and dunkin donuts coffee (with their special cream and sugar mixture) and settled down to wait. our train to philly was on time except the minor detail of barack obama being at philly's station right when our train pulled in. thusly our train had to wait to enter. but once we got in we saw all the hoopla. no obama in sight (he apparently was somewhere in the building though) but lots of cops and all that. alex's parents picked us up and we went home. we were going to shower but chitchatting took forever and then it turned out the water heater was broken and there was no hot water. so we had to go to the schnieder's house to shower. that was hilarious. after that we decided to just stay up and get on with the day.
the details of the day i forget, but i do recall we went to get cheesesteaks. amanda seemed to like hers. i liked mine. we got it with cheese whiz. it's better that way. no doubt. later that night was alex's dad's surprise birthday party at marcy and joel's. his dad had NO idea. it was so cute. we all got ready at julia's apt and then went over to the party and waited for alex's dad, david, and mom to come. once they came in he had NO idea and was thoroughly surprised. it was awesome. the party was FABULOUS. the chef was the head chef of buddhakan which is a schmancy restaurant in philly. i've been there. it's really good. asian fusion style. so the menu of the party was really damn good. i shit you not, the fish i had was some of THE BEST fish i've ever had in my life. it was simply amazing. the table was beautiful. there were cookies with characters of david on them. it was just awesome.
the next day we took amanda on a tour of the city including the liberty bell and independence hall. i forget what else we did. i know we had a very chill time there. no crazy partying or drinking since we were too lazy to go into town with the cold and all. plus we had to wake up early to take the train to DC. so the next day we took the train to DC and when we got there neil and rick came to get us. neil took amanda back to lily's apt with the bags and rick stayed with alex and i. we went over to the govt buildings to get our inaugural tickets. rick didn't get his cuz he decided that he'd watch the show from his client's office which overlooks the capitol. but alex and i stood in this long ass ling for our tickets. see the image below at the top.
after about an hour or two of waiting we got our tickets. then we headed down the mall so i could see the sights. of course i didn't really get to see things properly since the city was buzzing with people from all over for the inaug. but it was cool ot see the washington monument and such. the mall is way larger than i expected. we met up with amanda, neil, greg, and betty at the monument. they started at lincoln memorial and we started at the capitol. so the monument was middway. rick was with his brother at a museum. later that night we got some grub at a local bar and then got some drinks nearby in dupont circle. we headed back rather early to prepare for the EARLY morning ahead.
ok so the THE MORNING of the inauguration was something like no other. alex and i got up earlier than everyone else because we had to get a jump on going to our area to stand since we had tickets. rick was going to his client's office and the rest were going to the parade where they had tickets. we got up at 5:30 and were out by 6am. we got to the train station a bit later and we hit massive crowds. oh man. i never thought we'd get on a train. especially since the a man got sick on the train and they evacuated the train and told me to go to the other side of the platform to get on a train going downtown but then that all turned out to be a big fat LIE and they started the train up again and lot of people got screwed. FINALLY alex and i got on a train and literally i couldn't move. i was so fucking smushed it was intense. at one point i got my hand into my pocket to snap a couple photos and the one of alex and i super close up just about says it all. that's how cramped we felt. i was just miserable. but i kept thinking, it's all for a good cause. once we got to our station there were massive crowds there too. we had to form lines just to exit the station. that's the image next to the one of alex and i. after we exited the station there were massive crowds there too. that's the image below alex and i. and then finally once we got the area where the blue tickets entered, there were massive crowds there too. and they weren't letting people in til 9am so everyone just waited. that was a BAD call on their part because it took so long for people to get in that i read some people with tickets just never got in. that fucking sucks. once we were in it was just amazing. we had a great view (all things considering). i could see everything but the people were super tiny. but at least i could see everything. if you were on the mall you wouldn't even be able to see shit at all. so we had a great position in relation to everyone else. the energy around there was just so positive. everyone was so happy to be there. i felt so good. i felt proud to be american at that moment. witnessing obama being sworn in. just awesome. i'll never forget it. the crowds. the energy. people chanting. people cheering. people booing (bush). everyone united for one cause. once it was over it kind of felt surreal. like did that just happen? is it really over? all this preparation for this? and now it's just over?! so then we filed out with the crowds and got some lunch.
see these photos above. that's the mall COVERED with people. they look like ants! see the bottom photo. i was somewhere in the back of that area before the pool and before the mall. so comparatively speaking, i was close. the mall is 1.2 miles so there you have it. i was 1.2 miles closer than a lot of people.
anyhoo, alex and i just walked around looking at random shit waiting to meet up with everyone. most people were going to be at the parade for hours and hours. so finally once they were done we met up with them. and they were SO COLD. oh man i felt so bad for them. so cold and so hungry... :( but they saw obama up close as his car passed by. that's worth something! we walked around for far too long and finally got food. then we went to this AWESOME bar called dan's cafe. it looked so fucking shitty and was the epitome of a dive bar. the best part about it was that you buy a fifth of liquor and some mixers and they give you some glasses and ice and you make your own drink. it's awesome. and so cheap! you can make like 4 drinks for $13. oh it's marvelous. alex knew about it cuz he used to live in DC. and i got JOEL to come out and see me. joel as in the joel i met on my cruise to hawaii who used to send me "love" letters and all that. well he's gay now and still living in the DC area. so he came down to have some drinks. that was good times. alex got trashed and we had to drag him home on the metro. poor pumpkin alex. always falls asleep. haha
the next morning we had to get on the train to NY. neil was on a different train than alex, amanda, rick and i. we didn't allot enough time apparently and also lily's car wasn't there to drive us so we were in a HUGE CRUNCH. we got a cab to take us all the way to the train station and we almost missed the train. we were running. it was like a fucking movie. we looked so funny. but hell, we made it. and once we were on the train we slept!
once we got to NY alex and i met up with jason to get his keys and take our shit to his house in brooklyn. so good to see jason. i miss that boy. his house in brooklyn is super cute. we got some bagels with whitefish salad. YUM! then alex went record shopping and i met up with amanda for some clothes shopping. eventually neil got into town and he and rick met up with amanda and i. after some shopping we split off and amanda and i found jason and then alex and we got ramen at this really fantastic (yet slightly pricey) ramen place. it was totally worth it cuz it was so good. then we tried to go to that PDT phone booth bar but to no avail. so we had hot totties at the bar across the street and just chitchatted. rick and neil were staying with adrian in washington heights (ie, way the fuck far away) and none of them wanted to out drinking. so around midnight we bagged it in. amanda went to her hotel and alex and i went back with jason. the next day neil and amanda went to the moma and alex and i slept in. we met up with them at the moma and then met up with jason and adrian for some lunch. we doddled around a bit after that and then alex, amanda, and i had to get to the airport. neil was staying in NY longer and rick had left that morning. so alex and i got our stuff from jason's and went to JFK to meet amanda. and that was the end of the trip. such an amazing time. not to ever be forgotten. i'm so glad i was there for a part of history. a positive part of history. i still get excited when i hear the words "president obama."
bah!!! i'm so behind on my homework that i have no time to post about the inaug. but suffice to say it was AMAZING. i will post photos and stories later. i'm trying to finish upload and captioning my south america photos. nearly done. that's one thing out of the way....
god i'm tired.
i'm both excited and nervous all at once. my stomach churns at the thought of seeing obama being sworn in. i'm so overwhelmed with the concept of it all and also overwhelmed by the masses of people i'm about to face. it's exhilarating and frightening all at once. i can't wait to see how this all pans out. it could be all out chaos. i don't know. i wish i could bring my big camera but they said no camera bags and i don't want to have to carry it around for many many hours and maybe have it broken or lost or stolen. so the point and shoot it will be. i'm sure i won't be able to see anything anyway. i'm figuring my photos will be more of the atmosphere surrounding the event than anything else. oh man. i can't wait!!!
bah! bitch time.
i'm so fucking tired. i'm so fucking broke. and i have so fucking much to do. oh and i must have been in the car for like 2 hrs tonight going to and from class because traffic was so fucking terrible getting to class (i was late for crying out loud!!) and on the way home the freeway was just plain closed in one part so i had to take streets and it took forever to get home. UGH!!
but least life is good though. i went to south america. i'm going to obama's inauguration. and my package design class looks like it's going to be really damn fun. (and a lot of fucking work!) so i just need to take some deep breaths and get through this month. the money will work itself out by the middle of next month. all bills will be paid and life will resume to a normal monetary balance. i will finally have enough time to finish my trip photos even though i wish they were already done and posted. seriously this week has been nonstop i have had shit to do every night except monday. and the tiredness is due to having to cram all these random errands and things to do in a small amount of time. but after this DC trip all can get back to normal. so i predict mid-feb i'll be in good shape.
whoa! i just found out via myspace that tyson got married on halloween in vegas. wtf?! ahh everyone is fucking getting married. this is too much for me. too goddamn much.
HOLY SHIT!!! alex's dad pulled strings and got us tickets to the inaug. rick also got one from his congressman back home. holy fuck. this is going to be insane. i'm slightly worried to be honest. i'm sad the rest don't have tickets though....
back to the daily grind. ugh. today was hard. work felt SOOO long. bah!!
the journey home was long and tiresome. we got to the BA airport with no delay and checked in and ate some lunch. we had an hour left before our flight boarded and thought that was ample time. til we were met with a line to check our airport tax. then a line for security (only 2 scanners open!!). then a line for passport control. i swear it took 45min to do all that. so then we rushed to duty free to get some cookies for our coworkers and some wine for brian and jessica and then we went to board the plane. of course the damn plane didn't board on time. we rushed for nothing! once we got on the plane i realized we were given seats in the middle. i hate the middle!! and i then realized we had these same middle seats for our long flight home as well. we had to get that changed. the plane took off and i swear i was about to have a heart attack. it was twisting and turning in the air in a way that made me feel like the pilot had no control of the plane and it was going to just crash. of course it didn't but for those 2 minutes or so i felt entirely panicked. seriously, i was breathing very heavily. ugh. and then when we approaching santiago we had to fly over the andes which are like over 20,000 ft in the air and so you could clearly seen them not that far below the plane and thoughts of how a plane crashed into them in the 70s were freaking me out as well as the turbulence that goes along with flying over a mountain range. once we landed i was just glad to be on the ground.
we were in transit for 7 hours in the santiago airport. luckily transit wasn't just a waiting area as it usually is. they had stores and places and eat and even some wi-fi spots. so we occupied ourselves well enough. at one point i decided to go smell a lot of the perfumes at duty free and i determined most perfumes suck. haha and are way too pricey. we tried to change our seat to no avail. turns out our flight was overbooked and they were trying to get people to bump and take the flight the next day! ugh. and the best of all was when we were about to board and they decided to confiscate my wine i bought for brian and jessica because it was bought at argentina duty free and even though we didn't technically enter chile (we were in transit DAMNIT) we couldn't bring it on the plane so they fucking took it from me. to the day i die i swear i will curse at the man (men?) who fucked the world over with their liquids scheme in london. they have made air travel just THAT much worse for me and many others. i usually can't do carry on anymore because i have too goddamn many liquid toiletries. bloody hell. anyway, the flight itself was quite good. i slept for most of it and we landed nearly an hour early. so we got out to the curbside by 6:40am only to find that super shuttle doesn't really start running til 7am. in fact the airport itself doesn't really get going til about then. there were like not taxis and basically no one around. so we waited and waited and finally got on the shuttle and then circled around more and dropped off people and around 8:45am we were home. 2 hours after we started our process to go home. never again will i take super shuttle home. to the airport is fine but home. never. ugh! the rest of yesterday was spent napping, doing 3 loads of laundry, and trying to just readjust to being here. settling bills and shit. so yea. here i am. tired and staring at all the photos i have to condense, crop, color correct, and/or scale down. it's daunting and i hope to be done by this weekend. cross your fingers for me.
oh and fucking hell! ollie got married at the end of december. brian and jessica got engaged. and chris at work fucking eloped! goddamn 2009 is going to be BIG i predict. i think i'm ready. we shall see. congrats to all!
9:31am (buenos aires time)
one last anecdotal thing before i go since i forgot last night and i am waiting for alex to finish his coffee. so the other night we got back to the hotel early and were waiting for the tango show so alex thought he'd take a bath. well...
alex is really good about baths cuz he takes them all the time. but he misguaged the speed of the water coming out and all of a sudden the shit is totally flooding out the bathroom. oh holy fuck. and this is the four seasons! so we both frantically go in there and take all the towels and bathrobes and try and mop up the water as quickly as we can cuz some of it was getting onto the carpet outside the bathroom. i guess nothing leaked to the room below us cuz we never heard word about this. THANK GOD. and also thank god the bathroom has drains in the floors. but oh man. we sat there trying to wring out the towels as best we could but ultimately they were all sopping wet. poor cleaning lady the next day had to literally drag the bag of towels out the room. i saw her! she was dragging the bag cuz they were all so heavy. ugh what a mess. i have some photos of it. it was comical in a sense and dreadful in another. anyhoo, that's that. off to the airport in a couple hours. 7 hr layover in chile. ugh! i always hate the travel back...
11:33pm (buenos aires, argentina time)
well. this is it. the final night. alex and i just returned from the most amazing steak dinner ever. i swear i'm sweating meat and red vine. but i'll get all o that later. it's been awhile since i've written. i have so much to say. buenos aires is filled with so many things to do that we've really packed it in. some long walking days. i swear we walked like 8 miles one day. we've done so much in the past few days that the entire trip has felt both long and sort of two-parted. patagonia and hiking being one part and buenos aires being the second part. both parts of the trip were so different that i think it helps to make it feel even longer which is awesome because work is like a distant memory. ok, now to recap from where i left off.
so we got to the airport in el calafate only to be met with INTENSE wind. i swear it was nearly as strong as the winds we encountered at night in patagonia. i got out of the taxi and the wind was blowing the door back. sand was kicking up and getting in my mouth. hair was all over my face and i couldn't see. ugh. what a mess. i was wondering if the damn plane would fly in this wind. and sure enough, YES. ughhhh. the airport is really small. it has one place to eat and one store. the gates are all upstairs and there are 5 of them all right next to each other. all the planes are boarded and disembarked on the tarmac so it's like the old school way. we got up the gate and noticed a lot of people we went trekking with were there. the thing about el calafate is that there is only one reason to go there. to go on excursions. specifically the glacier. if you are lazy you do the bus tour that takes you to the glaciers and if you are more adventurous you actually trek the glacier. people we saw in the lines at the border checks in chile/argentina we then saw in town having the same ATM troubles we had and then saw on our trek. and then again on our flight out of el calafate. anyway, we all sat there watching the first plane land and all the people disembark in the intense wind. people were being blown around left and right. one man lost his glasses and started running for them. bags were being blown off the trolleys as the men were loading and unloading the plane. it was just dreadful. the wind gusts were so strong you could feel them through the cracks of the windows in the terminal. ughhh. you could see some people, including myself, were visibly worried about the flight. but another plane came in and we saw one take off and ultimately we fought the winds walking out to the plane and it took off to much shaking as it went up. but luckily (i suppose) we were seated next to miss chatty cathy who distracted me with her chitchat for the following 2.5 hours.
when we landed in BA it was one hour later and nearly 7pm. we got to our hotel which was situated in a "ritzy" area. we are staying at the four seasons which is in the top 3 hotels in BA. the alvear (very regal and gaudy), the faena (modernist designed by starck) and the four seasons (typical upscale). all in the same price range and all fabulous in their own way. alex and i feel totally ridiculous staying here without his parents. we don't fit in with all the rich ass bitchy snobs walking around. but whatever. we got the royal treatment as if we paid for it all and the service is downright impeccable. after we put our stuff down we set out for some quick nearby sightseeing and also got our bearings. we went around the area near the hotel and saw the obelisk, opera house, san martin square and some other stuff. it started to get dark so we headed back to our hotel and walked a few blocks to this wine bar/restaurant. very tasty first meal in BA. we kept with the locals timing of eating and started our meal around 10:30pm. we turned in after that and planned our big first day.
BA is comprised of various barrios. the main ones are la boca, recoleta, retiro, palermo (soho and hollywood), microcentro (dowtown), san telmo, puerto madero, and belgrano. alex set out this entire walking tour of retiro, microcentro, and recoleta. we made this huge loop. we saw the pink house (home of the president), plaza de mayo, financial buildings, economy museum, recoleta cemetery, buenos aires design center and craft fair outside, central post office, congresso building, huge flower sculpture and a slew of souvenir shops, random stores and music stores (alex ALWAYS looks for rare random music when abroad). i really swear we walked like 8 miles in total. it was intense. but really good. the weather that day was hot and muggy so walking that much was tiring and gross. but we did it. and we saw a lot of neat stuff.
the economy museum was sadly all in spanish or else it would have been really interesting because of the economic collapse of argentina in 2001. the money devalued so much that there were 1 million peso notes being circulated. there are still lingering issues some 7 years later. one being the ATM situation. i googled some more to find that a lot of ATMs don't let foreigners take out more than 300 pesos at a time which is a huge pain in the ass because that's not even $100 and if you plan to buy shit and eat and all that for 5 days, you will definitely need more. the other problem we ran into that had me downright yelling profanities out in public was when we couldn't change our travelers checks here. we had no issues in chile and in el calafate i didn't have problems, it just took awhile. but here the man said to alex "the signatures on the checks don't match the one on your passport. i can't cash these." if i could scan it right now and i would. but i can't. and that's probably not safe anyway. but imagine signing your name on a slew of travelers checks and just sort of sloppily doing it. well first assume your signature is illegible to begin with as most people's are. and then imagine being a bit sloppy about it. well that was the case here. i mean we are humans. not robots. the signature isn't exactly perfect every fucking time. and i swear to god the man was on crack. the general look of the signature was exactly the same. the key letters that stand out were the same. UGHHH. i was nearly screaming. the hotel told us to go to this place. we walked right back and told the concierge about it and she felt sympathy for us but also said "this happen to me at the bank all the time." clearly the economy is so unstable they are worried about this shit. ugh, just thinking about it enrages me. if the signature matching was THAT important i'd be fucked cuz my passport if so old it's back when i had a perfect, legible signature. now mine is messy and totally different. not once in all my years of travelling has this been an issue. i was fuming!!!
anyway, the highlight of that first day was probably the recoleta cemetery. it's just like nothing i've ever seen before. huge ass mausoleums all in one area. it's like a small city with "streets" of dead homes. the mausoleums range from somewhat basic to insanely over the top with statues and monuments. it's just nuts. we spent a good bit of time wandering around there. once we got back to the hotel i think i took a nap. i can't recall. i just know we were going to go to this italian place that brian and jessica recommended but we didn't for some reason. so we took a cab over to palermo (the sort of hip area) and wandered a bit before settling on another italian restaurant for dinner. italian may sound like a funny choice for cuisine in south america but 40% of argentina are latin american and 40% are italian. so not really. that's why you see a lot of cafes serve empandas (we had some that first day for lunch) as well as pizza. very common. we ordered what we thought was a smaller carafe of wine only to find it was a full on bottle. it was so cheap we didn't think it could be a bottle! that did us in and after our meal was done we didn't want to drink anymore so we went back to the hotel.
the following day, wednesday, was new years eve. that didn't stop us though. it even rained a bit. we just kept going. no umbrella or anything. we had another big walking excursion that alex planned. this time we went to san telmo and puerto madero mainly. we took the metro a few times to get around which was fun. we browsed the old cute area of san telmo. saw some shops. wandered around the cobblestoned areas. walked down to puerto madero which is the newly built up area of town. a river goes through there which looks nasty. tried to look at the faena inside but it was closed for setting up for the new years eve party. saw the old military ship and walked across the cool bridge that was built. the area is very boring and has no character. probably because everything over there is so new it just looks like any ole city. no old buildings or churches or anything. just new hotels and condos and restaurants. we walked back through some touristy areas to get some postcards and such. it started raining more so we went back to the hotel around 5ish. we were supposed to make a plan for new years but as the time went on we realized we had no plan. we read there were random parties around town but nothing centralized. so we didn't know what to do. so we got a late dinner and then walked to the obelisk where a slew of people went as well. the countdown was incorrect i think but fireworks went off. just random ones people bought. no show from the city itself. it was fun enough but definitely not as fun as wellington and of course nothing tops the insanity of reykjavik. after we finished at the square we got a taxi to palermo where we walked around and settled on a random bar. we had a drink, got dragged into dancing with some of the people that worked there, and finally went home around 2:30 or 3. totally lackluster.
the day after that we had planned to go to uruguay because we knew BA would be dead since most things are closed on new years day. but i think a lot of people had the same plan as us and most tickets for the ferry to uruguay were sold out so we didn't go. we could have taken more expensive seats and whatnot but it wouldn't be worth it because the town we wanted to see wouldn't be THAT interesting. so we opted out. instead we decided to do some more outdoor sightseeing and go to our tango show that night. we started off the day seeing la boca which is a more rough area of town but known for it's football team and the colorful houses in the area of carmiento. we walked around there for a bit. took a bunch of photos. then headed over to puerto madero to see the part we didn't see the day before and also try and see the faena again. but no dice. they said we should return that day but then when we got there they said we couldn't see the hotel til night time because the day was "for the guests" since it was new years day. whatever. we never returned. it's just a fucking hotel. i mean it's cool and all and from what we saw it's very lovely but as i said before, puerto madero is pretty but very artificial. so fuck it. we walked through the rest of it and then back to the hotel for some lunch. after lunch we went out to the park area of palermo. it's the lower side of it. there we saw the planetarium, the little area where people paddle boat (i was NOT going to do that because the water looked fucking gross), the park areas, the japanese garden (not a very good one) and the zoo. the zoo was closed but we walked by it and saw the italian restaurant that brian and jessica recommended. it was closed so no dice. once we got to the end of the park/zoo area we hailed a cab back to the hotel.
now a note about cabs and a note about the roads. first of all, the metro is nice but doesn't go everywhere. and cabs are so cheap it's worth it to take then instead of walking forever to get to a metro. the metro is 90 centavos which is dirt ass cheap. it's like $0.25. now the first day we were here we walked all over and didn't take one taxi or the metro. but as the days passed and the trip went on, i could feel myself becoming more and more tired and taxis were the way to go. i mean considering the MOST we have paid for a taxi is 18 pesos (about $5.50) i think it's worth saving my energy. however i've feared my life many times. taxis are INSANE here. driving in BA is insane. there are lanes but i swear they are sort of "guidelines" for drivers. people literally drive btwn two lanes and they go right before the light turns green. people certainly do not have the right of way. it's quite scary at times. i mean it's no egypt or anything but for a "modern" metropolitan city, it's alarming at times. the streets here are kind of crazy too. avenir 9 de julio is like the main road in the city and at it's widest point it's 16 lanes with traffic in both directions. and then if you add on the side streets that are attached to it (sort of like how little santa monica is attached to the main santa monica), it's like at least 22 lanes. it's NUTS. it takes at least 2 signal lights to cross it. then there is avenir libratador (or something like that) which has over 10 lanes but it's a one way street. THAT is nuts as well. it's just insane.
anyway, later that night (last night) we went to a tango show at bar sur. it's a very old little bar/cafe. it's tiny as shit. but MAN do they pack them in. at one point i counted over 60 patrons and this place does not hold that many people. it's very popular though and the owner doesn't like to turn people down. some were standing. some were sitting on stools. some were sitting BEHIND the bar. totally crazy. the tango and singing and such happens right in the middle of all the tables. i have photos. it was fantastic. very cozy and just plain good. we had a fabulous time. much better, i'm sure, than the big tango shows at bigger venues or hotels or whatever. and cheaper too!
today was our final day in BA. we had seen just about everything touristy that we wanted to see and had been to nearly all the neighborhoods except we hadn't seen palermo during the day nor had we been to belgrano. so that was what we did today. today was mainly shopping since throughout the trip we didn't really do any shopping. it all mainly sighteeing with maybe a few stores here and there if they were on the way. but today was mostly shopping. we started out by taking the metro to belgrano which is an area that most tourists don't go too. there is a good bit of shopping down there but i didn't buy anything and alex just bought a couple cds. we went into a lot of stores but nothing tickled our fancy. then we took a cab over to the malba museum which is modern latin art. very good stuff. not a huge museum but i was ok with that given that overall my body is a bit exhausted from this trip. it has certainly felt like more than 2 wks which is fantastic. but my body is ready to go home and not be active all the time. though i need to hit the gym like mad after all the good food we have eaten. i mean yea we walked a lot but still! after the malba we headed up to palermo for some lunch and proper palermo shopping during the day. we went to this store called "no brand" which is a brand in argentina that is based on the "identity" of argentina. and while we were there buying stuff one of the owners came in and started talking to us. he's a designer who works had a branding agency and they started this "identity" for argentina that then turned into an apparel and accessories line. i LOVE this shit. oh man i do. i got some souvenirs there for people. and i was quite glad to meet the designer. ugh, i gush. haha after that we went to some other stores where i found nothing. perhaps i was just too tired to really give a good look. either way, i found nothing. we bought some wine to take home and then got a coffee before heading to our final dinner. the big dinner we had been waiting for.
la cabrera.
this place was mentioned in the paper that brian and jessica had folded into this BA guide book and scott and garth had heard about it as well and recommended it. when we asked our hotel to make us a reservation they said that this place is excellent and everyone loves it and getting a table can be hard. so this is why we were eating there tonight. we couldn't get a reservation any other night. and you really need a reservation. the place is moderately sized but the demand is insane. by the time we left there must have been at least 30 people outside waiting. at least the restaurant gives you free champagne while you wait. probably to make you forget that you have been waiting for over an hour. haha anyway, the meal we had was intense. it was cheap for what it was and we left feeling entirely stuffed. like seriously, the piece of beef that came to the table was like a inch thick. and they brought out all these sauces and side bits. ugh i was stuffed. like i kept drinking the red wine and hoping it would break down the meat. cuz omg i felt so fucking full. i swear i've eaten so much red meat and had so much red wine that it's coming out of my pores. haha meat sweats as lawrence calls it. oh but it was so good. SO GOOD. after we finished we came straight home. and now i am writing this all before packing up the bags.
finally, helados. ie, gelato. we've had that once a day while we were here. SO good. ugh so good. i will miss all these tasty treats. helados. empanadas. milanesa. beef. red wine. i told alex when we get home we are on strict fish and salad diets for awhile. we must detox. my body can't take all this food!! but my it's oh so good.
tomorrow we go home. BA to santiago. santiago to LA. we arrive in LA on sunday at 6:40am. i'm NOT ready to go back to work. sigh. so it's goodbye til i get back to LA.
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