Buenos Aires was the first stop of our Global Honeymoon. We booked an intensive week of Spanish lessons (here are our 6 lessons learned @Elpasaje) and explored the city on our free time.
We never were the biggest enthusiasts of ‘the big city life’, but with so much people expressing their unconditional love for ‘the most European of all South-American cities’, the expectations were high.
Yes, we absolutely loved strolling down Palermo Viejo which reminded us of our hometown Antwerp, and we enjoyed a day’s rest in the Ecological Reserve outside the city very much, but Buenos Aires is – indeed like most European big cities – very loud, grey, polluted and anonymous.
If you’re planning to go to Buenos Aires, here are some of our experiences:
Purple Jacarandas
Summer is just peeping out here in BA. The traditional trees, Jacarandas, are in bloom with magnificent purple flowers. It makes a nice contrast with the grey buildings in the street.
Art
The environment of big buildings and large streets is humanized by art. It makes the bricks diverse and places more inspirational. Art, dance and performance all fit perfectly in the matrix of street life.
El bomba de Tiempo @CCKonex
We went to see El bomba de tiempo. It’s a group of percussionist that reacts with their beats to the audience. The performance takes place at the Konex Cultural Center under the stars and has a festival ambiance to it. Although our audience wasn’t quite the most extraverted, people were dancing their heart out. It’s good fun!
Palermo Viejo
Palermo Viejo felt like home (Antwerp). With lots of terraces, bars, healthy food, local people, little streets and lots of art. We absolutely loved it.
Ecological Reserve behind Puerto Madero
The ecological reserve is a big park with a view on the ocean, right behind Puerto Madero. The locals hold family barbecues with vibrant Latin music right beside the Reserva which itself is very calm. We laid down in the grass all afternoon just listening to music. It’s perfect to regenerate from the city, take a deep breath, eat a picnic at the seashore and to just do nothing J
San Telmo market
The market of San Telmo is a huge market that takes place every Sunday. After strolling around, stop at the ‘barbaroja’ bar. They have a nice collection of homemade beers. Nothing can beat what we have back home, but it’s a nice try 😉
Argentina’s finest: steak
The steaks are perfect! They’re huge and they bake it on top of a big fire in the restaurants. It isn’t cheap like we expected but with the size of the portions, you can easily share one, so we did J (we notice the locals don’t share plates, most of them are pure carnivores 😉 Be aware that cooking vegetables isn’t their specialty 😉
To sum up
Again, we realize we aren’t big city people. We heard amazing stories about Patagonia though, so we can’t wait to start traveling with our Suzy in Argentina!
