Week #2 - Buenos Aires

Week #2 and we are feeling much more like ourselves. Jet lag last week was a killer and Mark had a cole which was a bit of a bugger.

Summary

• Visit to La Boca = very beautiful
• Visit to football = crazy!

Sightseeing
La Boca
On Saturday we visited a famous area in Buenos Aires called La Boca. It's an area where Italian immigrants painted their houses with leftover ship paint so they are really brightly coloured. We took a local bus out to Boca. I think we've got the hang of the local buses now. It seems there is a standard charge to go anywhere which is great.
We had a really nice day wandering around La Boca looking at the houses and little market stalls. We grabbed some lunch and watched free tango shows for a few hours in the afternoon. The weather was really hot so it was nice to just sit around. Unfortunately, silly me, I lost the mini guidebook that we had. :-(
(Sorry Simon!!)

Football - Boca Juniors
On Sunday night we went to a football match. OMG, I've never seens anything like it in my life! We had to take a guided tour as apparently it's dangerous for tourists to go there by themselves! That in itself made me nervous.
When we got the match there was a lot of police outside the standium and the guide was very specific about where we should sit. Later we found out why - people from the stand above ours were spitting over the edge onto the people in our stand who were not under cover.
When the stadium filled, the Boca fans started chanting all sorts of things and throwing their hands in the air. It was quite loud and seriously intense. The best, however, was yet to come.....On the opposite side of the pitch was the stand reserved for the Boca "hooligans". A precession of flag bearing fans filled the stand followed by drums and trumpets and chanting. It was truly crazy. This continued throughout the match and was accompanied, at times, by lots of jumping. The opposite stadium looked like a giant mosh pit!
Unfortunately, Boca played pretty bad and lost (4-1). When the match ended we were locked down in our stand and the stand opposite was locked down while the rest of the stadium was emptied. Approx. 30 mins later we were allowed to leave. I found out later this was doen to avoid riots! I should have realised this when we were greeted by police in riot gear as we exited the stadium.
It was an amazing experience but so intense!

General
I am taking a second week of Spanish school this week. I think I'm starting to get a bit better but I have a long way to go. At least I can order a meal and ask for directions. Those are the most important I think.

Missing you all at home! I'll post again when I have something interesting to share.

El Camanito - the colourful area of La Boca

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Boca fans

Week #1: Buenos Aires

Well, blog post #1 is a little daunting, what to write? We arrived safe and well in Buenos Aires on Monday but jet lag has been our enemy for the past few days. Although, I think we're beginning to adjust now. We actually left Sydney at 11am on Monday and arrived in Buenos Aires at 9am on Monday so I'm constantly getting the days mixed up.
Note: There are highlights of this post at the bottom for anyone who either doesn't want to or doesn't have time to read my ramblings.....

Spanish School
We have been attending Spanish school these past few days which I have found useful in that it makes me feel more comfortable trying to communicate although I'm still pretty terrible with the pronounciation (I can't get my head around "ll" being pronounced "shya" amongst other things). The class is small and consists of a Norweigian couple studying Spanish for two months (very committed), two English backpackers doing the travel thing before starting their careers as lawyers in London and an American woman who has just given up life as a Corporate Lawyer in a top tier firm in NY (yes, I must be subconsciously drawn to lawyers.....).
Most useful phrase so far? Quiesera.....  which means "I would like..." and can be used for ordering meals, buying tickets, shopping etc so it's great. We have also learnt some pretty funny things as well, the best one I think was todays clarification that the word for husband/wife (esposa/o) is very similar to the word for hand-cuffs (esposas). Mark thought that was very appropriate.....

Sight-seeing
Unfortunately, it's been raining quite a bit since we arrived so our sight-seeing had been reduced to a quick walk through the main area (floridas and Plaza de Mayo). However, today was a beautiful, warm day so we visited the Cementerio de Recoleta. The cemetary was unbelievable, there are so many ornate musoleums the resting place of Eva Peron (Evita). It's one of the biggest attractions in the city so we headed there to have a walk around and it was lovely, if not a bit creepy.

General - Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is a nice city and similar to Melbourne in some respects. It also reminds us a bit of Shanghai in parts.
The people here are so lovely and have been helpful when we've been lost etc. Something I found interesting is that the men are very respectful and wait for a woman to enter/exit a door, lilft, subway before entering. I can't say chivalry is dead, that's for sure.
We've found it quite easy to get around as there is a subway (called the supte which I think is cute) and it's dirt cheap (25c each trip). We've foudn this the easiest way to get to school and downtown. They also have heaps of buses which we took today for the first time, they are also cheap (25c-50c a trip) and I think we've got them figured out so will be using them more.
There are loads of cafe's and restaurants so there's no shortage of food. However, meat is in everthing so I'm not sure it's the place for vegetarians!

We are getting adjusted and starting to enjoy ourselves and make plans for the next leg of our trip but we are hoping to do a few things here before we leave in about a week's time, maybe a football match, a visit to La Boca and/or a cycling tour of the city. I'll keep you posted.

Trust you are well! Please feel free to email, we love to hear how things are going at home.

C

Highlights

• We're finally getting over jet lag
• Spanish school is good for gaining confidence to use the language (and learning funny things like the word for husband/wife is similar to the word for hand-cuffs)
• We visited the cemetary and it's beautiful. A strange tourist attraction but beautiful.