April 10, 2006
Day 194
Andrea Visit Day 2
Today we slept in and caught up on some much needed rest. We got up just in time to have some medialunas, sweet crosissants, at around 10:30. They are very good. Then we went to the mall to check out the Salvidor Dali exhibit at the museum there. Yeah, I know, museum at the mall? Different. Dan enjoyed the work of Dali more than I did, but I'm still glad I can say that I saw his work. It's just too abstract for my taste. (Dan Says: The only difference between him and a lunatic was that he was not a lunatic.) Then we decided to visit the other main exhibit that was there, which consisted of photographs by Robert Capa. His pictures covered the Spanish Civil War, WWII, and the Indo-China War(pre curssor to Vietnam). I liked this much better than Dali's work. The captions to the pictures were in English first of all so I could understand what the pictures were about. There were a few that were in Spanish only, but I knew enough about the history that I could guess what it was talking about just by recognizing a few words. I learned quite a bit from viewing the photos, which also added to my enjoyment of them. By the time we were done looking at art it was time to get back to the hostel to go on a guided tour of the city.
We were running a bit short on time and I asked Dan about lunch. It was already after 2pm and my tummy was telling me I was about two hours late for lunch. The whole time schedule here is much later than in the U.S. People don't even think about going to eat supper until at least 9pm or later. Anyway we had just enough time to pick up some empanadas. Empanadas are sort of like a hot pockets, but freshly made, not processed. There are many different kinds that you can get. We had ham, chicken, and beef. They all had egg in them, which is different, but they were soooo good. I decided that we need to get this in the U.S. Dan and I are currently trying to figure out how we might finance the opening of a Solo Empanadas store in Madison or Rochester. I think we could make a killing. (Dan Says: If it's such a lucrative idea, why are you putting it here?).
We got back to the hostel just in time to make our tour. We enjoyed our empanadas on the small tour bus as others were picked up. The tour around the city ended up taking about 3 hours. We visited four or five out 47 neighborhoods that make up the city. We were able to get out and walk around a few of the areas. The tour was fun because we were able to see a lot in a short time. Now we will go back and visit our favorite places later in the week. Then we can explore them at our leisure. Highlights of the tour include the Pink House, like the White House in the U.S. in which the President of Argentina works, the Boca Juniors Stadium, and the Boca neighborhood. We plan to go back the main cathedral and the Boca neighborhood. After visiting the Boca Juniors stadium I decided even though I had cheered for River yesterday that I would be a Juniors fan. Why, you ask? Well Boca's colors just happen to be the same as the old school Brewer colors. Cool huh? So I will be coming home with some Boca stuff. We drove past the zoo, museum of modern art, and the cemetery, where Eva Peron is buried. We plan on going to all of those places as well.
After our city tour Dan went to check out the availability of another hostel for the rest of the week. I stayed back at the hostel and started work on my very first blog. Dan brought back the most bitter coffee I think I've ever had from McCafe, which is Starbucks, McDonald's style. I think they put about half a pound work of sugar packets in the bag, so that helped with the bitter. At about 9:30pm we decided it was time to get some supper. Dan has been telling me how great the steak is here, so we walked to one of the more modern neighborhoods to check out some restaurants. I really like this part of the city. It was very nice and there are life size fiberglass cows scattered around either dressed up or painted in different ways. It reminds me of the cow like things around downtown Milwaukee. Although these are realistic except for their costumes/paint jobs.
We checked out the menus of a few different restaurants before settling on one. They seemed to have a good variety of beef dishes for the best price. It was the nicest restaurant I've ever been to, and I still could wear jeans there. Linens and very professional service. We ordered a bottle of wine to go with our meal. The food was outstanding. The steak was cooked to perfection and was so tender you barely needed a knife to cut it. We were able to sit at our table until about 1:00 and the only reason we had to leave is they were closing. Here the wait staff only visits your table when needed and won't bring the bill until you ask for it. People are welcome to sit at the table for as long as they please. This is good as long as you aren't in a rush. (Dan Says: It was a great meal, but it did cost about $35 total.) After dinner we stopped to get ice cream on our way back to the hostel. It was pretty good, but not quite the same as in the U.S.
All in all we saw a lot today. It was also a very good food day. Everything I had I loved!!! (Dan Says: I'm just doing my job, ma'am.).
Hey sister, glad you are having a good travel experience.
Dan, sounds like you are doing a good job of tour guide. Please be sure to take Andrea somewhere to buy me a bottle of wine. Go Brewers!