Je't aime Ryanair??

The beauty of cheap flights is also its biggest vice - they’re cheap. For 40€, you can fly roundtrip from Pisa to Paris. How wonderful! What RyanAir neglects to tell you, is that your flight will land an hour and half outside Paris where your only option is one bus company that charges about 26 euro roundtrip to get into the city. Still, you try and look on the bright side, forget the fact that your seat doesn’t recline, you have negative legroom, not even one free drink, and just enjoy your flight followed by another hour and a half bus ride.

I had the pleasure of not only flying with RyanAir to Paris (Beauvais), but of flying RyanAir from Pisa airport. Our flight was of course, in ritardo of a hour and a half. For those of you who haven’t travelled to the beautiful country of Italia, you will not be aware of how Italians have absolutely no sense of forming a line. Once one person saw an airplane they thought would be ours and so stood in line, the entire herd of passengers waiting formed a “line”. I put line in quotations because “line” to Italians means everyone standing around, it doesn’t matter where, just stand near someone, whether you stand to the side of the real line or directly behind someone, it doesn’t matter. So I decide, being the “expert traveller” that I am, to sit comfortably in my seat and wait until the doors are actually open and just slyly make my way to the front of the blob of people and casually blend in with the rest. This of course works like a charm, and while I am not first on the plane, I was not in the back. Upon entering the beautiful RyanAir jet, I discover that none of the first rows are full, everyone had filled into the back of the plane. No idea why, but I took a seat in the second row to make sure I got off the plane first! (Obviously!)

RyanAir thinks they save gas or something if they do not allow passengers to sit in three rows towards the front of the plane. These aren’t the first rows of the plane, but somewhere random towards the front (like rows 3-4-5). Well, this apparently causes confusion to many travellers and requires an announcement every two seconds of how those rows are not available. It is surprising how people will still sit in those rows. I saw one couple being told by the flight attendant DIRECTLY and they STILL tried to sit there. Upon landing in Beauvais, the passengers gave the pilot and crew (and probably plane as well) a traditional round of applause. To be honest, after the worst landing ever (I thought we were going to crash into the runway and then explode), I was both grateful and surprised to be alive as well.

Paris.

What a beautiful city. I have never been one to ooo and aww over Paris. I’m not the typical girl who yearned to stand under the Eiffel Tower with her lover and walk hand-in-hand. I always thought of rude French people and cold. Nevertheless, I had to check it out. At top of my list of things to do in Paris were: Louvre, Eiffel Tower, eat, croissants, crepes, Notre Dame, bread, shop! Not necessary in that order. I am proud to report that we managed to check every item off the list! Thanks to Daniela and some of David’s friends, we were able to check out the best of Paris in two days (probably less than that). I could’ve wandered around the streets of Paris all day, drink a cafè au lait and eat croissants all day long. The shopping was amazing and the city had so much charm. I didn’t even feel like I needed a map because everywhere you wandered to was beautiful!

I returned from Paris with a wonderful surprise awaiting me at home! A new kitchen! After only a few days, the new kitchen is up and running! The dishwasher is still mysteriously not working, but other than that, the rest is up! Valentina and I have shared some meals together already and I made lots of tea and soup this weekend (I was sit in bed). I have attached some pics….

A dopo!

Milano and Public

I ventured up north this past weekend to the small, quaint city of Milan…you may have heard of it before. Milano will always hold a special place in my heart after my unforgettable six month stay in the bustling, urban city. I was lucky to leave work early to catch a train up to Milan. Since I was here, inflation has gotten the best of Trenitalia and my ticket went up from 33 € to 44€ one-way for the Eurostar. What a rip-off. I sucked it up and got excited for a great weekend!

Milano Centale was changed by Mussolini to demonstrate the power and strength of Italy. And while it definitely is a beautiful and huge building, I don’t know how much power you can show when your train almost never arrives on time. Anyway, I pulled in Centale and was greeted by a newly remodelled stazione. When I lived in Milano, the station was under construction the entire time and really just looked old and dirty. Now, you are welcomed by clean walls, new electronic message boards and confusing criss-crossing pathways down to the biglietteria and metro. It is a beautiful improvement.

The beauty of Milan, however, is not in the train station or the incredible Duomo, but I find it really in the food and nightlife (ovvio). The great thing about Milano is that pretty much every bar or club begins its evenings with aperitivo. What a wonderful word that is…you purchase and pay for your tasty drink and are given the key to a buffet (usually warm unless the place isn’t that great) of warm delish food. We ventured all the way downstairs from Tucker’s apartment, literally the place was next door and had some big fruity drinks (literally had huge cornucopias of fruit on top of drinks) and in this case, what can only be described as, Indian meets Italian food. Cioè, cous cous, curry, rice, salad and of course, some pasta for good measure. It was an ok aperitivo, definitely not the best in Milano. The night only got better as we ventured to a discoteca called Gattopardo (apparently the name of a film and that’s all anyone could say about the meaning of the name). The club was gorgeous and used to be an old church (ironic much?); the DJ spun on the alter and the upstairs balcony was another bar…our table was on the ground floor right under the balcony in the picture…you can see the curtain, right next to the bottom bar. It was a great night full of our favourite songs and dancing til 4am…

Another amazing point of Milano is the after discoteca panino cart. The streets near clubs (and not for that matter) are lined with carts full of yummy cold cuts, salsiccia, cotoletta and many many delish treats…always the best way to end your night!

The rest of the weekend was spent catching up with friends, wandering around the streets of Milano and enjoying on of my favourite cities! I headed home Sunday, exhausted from no sleep and dreading work bright and early on Monday. My train ride home was only 26€ since I opted for the (as David says) grindo train that takes almost 5 hours. The thing about Italian trains is that you never know who you will have near you. This time I was lucky enough to experience a crazy, smelly, and presumably homeless non-Italian man next to me for the second half of my trip. I went to the restroom and upon returning to my seat, was met by a man who ignored me the first fifty times I said excuse me that’s my seat. He then got up and I went and sat down and he sat right next to me. I immediately put on my iPod, full blast so I’d have an excuse to ignore him and just stared right out the window. Sure enough, he tried to ask me something over and over and I ignored him, so he turned to the girl across from me and asked about a stop I think and she didn’t know so he asked the girl across the middle (both of them had iPods on as well mind you) and she said yes, it’s coming up…then he didn’t stop “signorina, signorina, signorina” for about 5 minutes and asked the same questions. Finally I asked him to please move and I sat further back…then the train collector man came and while he was checking the ticket for the girl across the pathway, the man snuck behind his back and slipped into the restroom. Man you gotta love public trains….

Speaking of public transportation, I’ve been lucky enough to be taking the bus from Capannori to Lucca train station every morning for work. Since my father won’t even think about me having a motorino or even a bike for some reason, I’ve gotten used to doing my part to save the environment, one bus ride at a time…Anyway, Friday I needed to go into work early so I could leave early for Milan. So, instead of the 8:09 bus, I took the one at 7:12 (who knows about the schedules, ps). Never again will I take that bus. The bus was “full” of bratty pre-teens going to school. Now, I say “full” because they do not move away from the doors. Meaning, I was on of the last to get on the bus and had to SQUEEZE on whilst getting the bus door shut on both myself and my suitcase several times…yet NO ONE moved away from the door. All three doors on the bus were crowded with these kids and yet, the ENTIRE middle of the bus was as empty as a plate of tordelli at any family dinner. And it’s not like the teens were getting off on the next stop, they rode the bus all the way past my stop crowding the doors and the bus driver, while the entire middle of the bus was like the middle of the Mojave desert. I had the bus doors open and close on me about 5 times. The only good thing from that bus ride was that I didn’t have to use my 1.5€ ticket because I couldn’t get to the stamp machine and so I got a free (although miserable) ride….

The kitchen is being put in or partially installed or something today…

We’ll discuss that later!

A dopo….

Caffè and Comune

It has finally happened for me. Less than two weeks into the new job and I was asked to go to coffee with two of the technology developers. They work in the “open space” with me and I always watch as the wander out the door to enjoy a nice caffè normale. This time, much to my delight, I was invited to share in a caffè. Now, I had just had a cappuccino not more than 30 minutes before the invite, but there was no way I was turning it down! We wandered down the closest bar, about 4 doors down and the two guys got normale and I got a macchiato. We engaged in the normal first coffee convo; where I was from, why on earth I would leave wonderful San Francisco for Pisa (the million dollar question I get everyday), etc etc….it was the best macchiato yet!

Yesterday I ventured to the forever dreaded Italian Comune. Luckily I was able to just go to the local one in Capannori and not the one in Pisa or Lucca that would be fifty times crazier. Well, for me, just getting to the Comune was quite the task. I spoke with Giuseppe the night before (was at the Picchi’s for OBAMA-RAMA…holla) and he was like, o yes, it’s super close, you can walk from your house. He told me to pass Pracchia (my favorite bar in the world), pass the post office to the stop sign, turn right and then immediately left and you can’t miss it! He then mentioned something about the building made of vetro (glass), but I didn’t fully catch what he said, and I just assumed that was the Comune (in the glass building). So, I woke up Wednesday morning, after getting to sleep in until 7:45 and headed out to try and get to the Comune by 8:45 (when I assumed they opened) to beat the morning crowds. Well, I made it to the glass building, looked around and realized that the entire building and area around it was deserted. Not like, we open at 9, not 8:45 deserted, but like we never open and/or don’t exist here. I literally walked all around the building, even went in and walked up the stairs to the different floors and thought there was no way it could be here. I called Giuseppe again and he just said maybe it didn’t open until 9:15 and I had to go up the stairs to the second floor and he said that like the stairs are so obvious that I was an idiot if I didn’t see them. Well, the stairs in the glass building were in the middle of the building through a little hallway. Not so obvious to me. So, I waited and waited. No one. It was very odd because usually at Italian government offices, lines start to form thirty minutes before they open because it takes so long. The only things there were two stray dogs, one chasing after the other the entire time. 9:00 came and went, then 9:15 did as well so I called Giuseppe again. This time I told him exactly what I did and how I arrived and where I was, exact latitude and longitude as well….and, he concluded that I was in fact at the wrong spot. “No no noooo,” he said, “you're wrong.” Great. So, turns out I had to walk down further and the Comune was passed the glass building. Sure enough…there it was with all it’s huge flight of stairs glory. I headed up and luckily found a not so huge crowd waiting.

Now the whole reason for me to go to the Comune was to get a carta d’identità. I got my little number and immediately seen. The woman then informed that first I need to register…so, back in line I went. Five minutes later I was called, turns out, my AIRE (a form for Italian living abroad) had not yet been received from the Consulate in SF. Of course not…I only filed it five months ago. So, the woman (who was really nice and wearing the cutest shoes) said it wouldn’t be a problem, we would just register me now. She went over to a cabinet and pulled out a huge paper book…aka a book of extra large paper bound together with a tearing paper cover. She wrote my name and where I was from in it and that was that. Only in Italy would they write the names of stranieri in a giant paper log that's falling apart. She then entered some info into the computer and then told me I had to wait (of course!) to get my carta. Someone was going to come to the apartment to make sure I was really living there. If I wasn’t home, they will talk to neighbors, etc, to confirm it. Once they call me to confirm, I can come back and apply for my carta d’identità.

I’ll keep you posted.
A dopo...

p.s. I'm learning about links, etc from Gregory (thanks Greg!), so sorry if they're random but I don't really have any cool ones yet!

italia - beginning

I have been back in the homeland for exactly 9 days and 16.23 hours and my has it been great!

The smell of the air as I stepped out of Pisa International Airport was refreshing and full of opportunity for the coming year! While tired (we landed around midnight) and body sore from the long flight and trying to help Pops lug around my four jam packed suitcases and four carry-ons, I arrived in Italia full of life and energy. There is just something about the crisp winter air here that opens your eyes and brings a sense of calm to you.

Our first day in Italia was La Befana. A national holiday, so it was nice to not have to start work my first full day here, but it also meant that everything was closed, so we couldn’t do any work for the apartment. The beauty of a holiday in Italy is that it really is a holiday. No work for anyone, not even most stores.

I started work subito dopo on January 7. The office is a loft-like three story building with lots of windows in the front and none in the back! It’s an interesting layout with the main floor structured around two conference rooms in the middle. David and a majority of the communications team are in the back. I have been set-up, after about a week of desk floating, in the “open space”. The open space is a set of about fifteen cubicles in the front of the first floor. It’s nice and bright because the entire wall is windows. Work has been a lot of learning and trying to take in as much information about different projects as possible. Everyone in the office is really nice and some of them are hilarious. There is one guy who is this big guy with glasses, he is very loud and gets mad very easily (from what I’ve heard coming from his office). Well, everyone here calls him Pallone (his real name is Paolo)(sorry but if you don’t know a little Italiano that name won’t be very funny to you). Another guy around the office is called Skywalker. It’s pretty funny working in an office with technology nerds. I look at some computer screens and have no clue what is going on and think that my brother would fit right in! My first travel was my first Friday on the job to Roma. Had to catch a morning train to Rome, sit in on different lectures, went for a quick look at the always wonderful Trevi and then dinner followed by a three and a half train ride back to Pisa. What a day!

I take the bus and train to work everyday. It has been very easy and straight forward everyday except today. Firstly, the buses (see min 1:28 from the link) in Italy never arrive on time and seem to have no schedule whatsoever. My bus is supposed to “arrive” at 810 in front of the Chiesa around the corner from my apartment. On average, I’d say it arrives around 8:20 (I learned this after running out of the apt one morning at 8:10 only to get to the bus stop, sweating, and then waiting for fifteen minutes). Today it didn’t show up until 8:30. Then when we took the turn onto the main street just outside the walls of Lucca, I guess the bus driver cut someone off or something because next thing I know there is a man yelling at our driver, car stopped in the middle of the road. No clue what exactly was said, except the driver ended it with vaffanculo stronzo. Not a good start to a day…

Life in Italia has been wonderful. My Pops hooked up the apartment before he left and took care of pretty much everything for me. Now I’m just sitting tight waiting for my new bed, kitchen and the internet to arrive! It’s going to be amazing….Pops, David and I took a trip to Esselunga to stock up before he left. We went to a new one close to the apt and were stunned by the size of the place. Not to mention you needed sunglasses to work in there - the white brightness could kill someone! We're still confused as to why you can only buy at max a twelve pack of toilet paper and a three pack of paper towels. Someone should introduce Costco...

The beauty of working in Italy is that you can, and are encouraged to take a thousand breaks a day. Whether for your tenth macchiato of the day, for a smoke, or even just a small giro. I think I might have a heart attack from the amount of coffee I’ve taken up (I have no clue how you do it Gaily!) However, this also means that co-workers might not be available at any time you may need them and they might take a little longer than you might want to do something.

Example, setting up my email address. At my previous job, I had an email address the second I walked into the office. Here though, it took ten days. Part of the adventure…learning to work and adjust my working habits to my new environment.

This Saturday – Firenze!

A dopo...

foz do iguazu

Our first full day in Brasil we finally went to Iguazu falls. For those that are still not on gmail, it has been part of my gmail chat name for some time (the wiki page). I was anxiously waiting our arrival. I cannot even begin to try and explain the beauty of these waterfalls. They are the second largest in the world and just leave you speechless from the minute you first see them around the corner.

the group before the jeep tour

We were taken on a jeep first to go a little through the jungle. Our guide told us a little information and interesting facts and then left us at the boat spot. We all boarded, took off our clothes to our bathing suits, put our life vest on, and waited to be stunned. You are on the boat for about 10 mins leading up to the falls and they do some boat tricks, etc, and then you get a little glimpse of the water around a turn and the adrenaline starts going! Billy, the New Yorker with us, said he heard that the negative ions from the water gives you some sort of ¨high¨or something, makes you giggley and happy, something....I think he was right...
We were driven under one of the falls on the boat and then dropped off to just wander up trails and stare at the amazing-ness and beauty from any and all angles. It was truly indescribable. I wish I had better pictures right now to share, but these are the only two that would upload. More will be coming, I promise!
Vale and I on the boat and Valentina, Charley, Ann, Carly and I next to the falls:



After what can only be explained as an amazing experience, we headed back to our hotel and showered and relaxed a bit before heading out to our first Brazilian BBQ. Valentina and I were sitting at the end of the table with Todd and Fawn (an older couple from the US) across from us. Turns out we chose the right seats! We were trying anything and everything they brought to our table. Tastings that night included: delish steak, pancetta wrapped chicken, chicken and turkey testicles, pork, chicken hearts, and some piña grilled with cinnomon on it....just to name a few... Included was an unlimited salad bar, rice, polenta sticks, fried banana, and a table full of desserts. The four of us probably ate more than everyone else combined. Everyone had finished their dessert and were ready to leave while we were still gesturing si to the servers who were masterfully cutting and serving the meats using one hand. It was amazing. I still think I am pretty full from that dinner two days later.....seriously.....

Portugese is extremely difficult for me to try to understand/read/speak. I was ok with my Spanish, getting by just fine...but Portugese is just so difficult!! Man, I want to learn it now...

ja to no brasil

Our arrival in Brasil was kinda crazy. We arrived on Saturday morning and had been to three different countries in 24 hours (Uruguay, Paraguay and Brasil). We got to our hotel in Puerto Iguazu on the Brasilian side of the border early in the morning. We dropped off our bags in the hotel and headed to Paraguay for a few hours of shopping. It is famous for cheap electronics and just cheap shopping in general. I felt like I was back in Mexico with people all in the streets trying to sell you crap and putting fake Adidas socks and sunglasses in your face. I bought a five dollar watch so that I could lay off asking Valentina or others for the time for a day or so and what I think were legit Pringles, but may have been immitation for a snack. It was too hot and muggy outside to wander and inside was mainly electronics (like Vaio computers for $650).

Valentina and I were over it after about an hour of avoiding tripping on people and ignoring salespeople. So, we sat down and watched everyone and tried to figure out why they were buying huge fleece blankets when it´s about 90 degrees outside and only getting to get hotter. Or why they were wearing some of the interesting and definitely unique outfits...

We headed back to Brasil, crossed the border from Paraguay that was really a carbon copy of the TJ border...aka people walking back with lots of cheap crap, tons of traffic and people selling stuff between the cars.

We came back to Brasil and went for a delish feijoada. It was essentially a buffet of a bunch of different meat stews, beans, rice, salad, etc etc. It was yummy! We also had caipirinhas and Vale and I had caiprifrutas. It was awesome. There were 15 of us at the meal, we each had the buffet, minus one veggie, and at least one drink each. The total bill for 15 people? $160 US. Amazing.
AT THE FEIJOADA:

Our tour leader, Carlos, arranged for us to have a party at one of his friend´s houses on our first night in Brasil. It was such a great party. There is another GAP tour currently in Iguazu, so they were also there. We had a huge BBQ with the best steak and sausage and beers and caipirinhas and music and dancing and good conversation all night. It was great. After, of course, we hit up the local club. It was definitely interesting since it was ¨ladies night¨and they decided to have some random strippers dance for all the women. It was pretty ridiculous and should´ve ended an hour before it began. After though, we danced the night away...

In front of the club:
(Jugo, Felix, Charley, Carly, Me, Vale, Carlos)

I love Brasil.

Uruguay

We left Buenos Aires way way too soon and headed for Colonia on about an hour boat ride. Colonia is a small town in Uruguay. We arrived with our city high from Buenos Aires and were greeted by a sleepy town with not much to do but stroll and climb the faro or lighthouse. So, of course, that is what we did.

However, we did enjoy a delicious lunch, Valentina and I split a delish steak and a salad and some vino. Whilst we were living in ecstacy (due to the yummy food), an older man sparked up a convo after overhearing our English, even noting a certain California accent. We ended up chatting with him for quite some time about his travels and the US, etc etc, and then he generously treated us to some helado. After we left him we headed to the ¨old town¨which consisted of some stones and an old canon. On our way there a very older man, we´ll call him Old Man River for this entry, randomly started conversation. He was heading down to start fishing and offered to take a picture of us with a tiny little island in the background. He then said ¨las chicas italianas tienen cultios bonitos¨. We then continued on....

The next day we headed to Montevideo, the capital. We went down to the main market by the sea and explored the city. The buildings were beautiful and the city was very clean and the people very nice. The next day we went to Punta del Este. A beach town that is very famous during the summer because there are a ton of parties. A local told me it is like spring break (what he saw on TV at least). Right now, it´s not summer yet, so there were no crazy parties, only hot hot sun. We were there for awhile and everyone definitely got a little rosy, some (mainly the Irish guy) got more red than the others!

The following day we arrived in Salto. Apparently Salto is ¨famous¨for it´s day spa. We were all so excited to get massages, maybe a facial, or manicure, etc etc. What we didn´t expect was that the last time the spa was used was maybe 1980...maybe... My massage consisted of a woman rubbing some oil around on my back and legs. Was it nice? Yes. Worth $15? Maybe. A real massage? No. I think one of the highlights for me was the oil smelled like an oil we get from Hong Kong that we simply refer to as ¨the birdie bottle¨. I think it´s a type of eucalyptus oil...

Uruguay was not the most exciting of places, but I´m thinking of it as a type of ¨layover¨before Brasil. I wish it was more Buenos Aires time, but now I´m into Brasil, land of caipirinhas and feijoada (two things I´m already loving...)

B.A. Dreamin....

It has been less than 12 hours since I left Buenos Aires and I am already ready to get back there! It is such an awesome city and I could definitely see myself spending a longer amount of time there in the future...

We arrived bright and early Friday morning and were greeted with a near death cab ride experience. I guess in BA they have lanes painted on the streets, but no one cares and just drives wherever they want. I was scared and I have driven with my father and been to Roma and driven with my father in Roma and still thought we could die. Our driver cut across probably six lanes to make a turn and we almost died about 16 times in those ten seconds. But, we arrived safe and sound and in Valentina and my customary fashion, we wasted no time and hit the town right away. We walked and walked and made our way to one of the famous neighborhoods called La Boca. It is famous for it's brightly decorated buildings and tango shows in the streets. It was a really cool spot. We then walked around the busy downtown area and made our way to Ave. Florida, a famous shopping street. We, of course, being the good tourists that we are, contributed to the Argentine economy and bought some good good local stuff!!! Now our problem is where to put all our amazing purchases (but that's just a sidenote)...

In Argentina, people do not eat until 10pm or later. We, of course, needed to wait until all the locals were going to be eating to head out, so we waited and enjoy a glass of wine at our hotel and took our time. Vale, Elizabeth (friend from Scotland) and I finally headed out and went to a wonderful restaurant called Siga La Vaca. One of my friends from SD who was born in BA suggested it and an Argentine man and son we met on our flight over, so we figured it MUST be worth a dinner. This place was packed and it was late! I mean, families, old people, everyone was there to get some grub after 10pm. I loved it!!! Sure enough, we were not disappointed. It's essentially an all-you-can-eat Argentine parrilla with tons of different types of meat waiting for you to choose it right off the grill! Plus, salad bar, french fries, bread and a bottle of wine per person. As you can probably guess, I ate until I could no longer move and it was just heavenly! Then, we forgot about dessert and I had some crepe-like panqueques with dulce de leche (a new obsession) and Valentina had to help me finish them off....
Obnoxiously full, we headed to a bar that my friend from SD suggested because his friend owned it. I had told everyone else in our group about it, so they were all waiting for us there. We had a few drinks and chatted and then headed to another bar close to our hotel. This was all necessary because no one even thinks about going out dancing until 2am. So, we were patiently waiting! Valentina's friend from Italia, Alessio, is in BA learning the tango so he can go back to Firenze and teach it there. So, we met him at the bar and he ended up taking us to this awesome local hot spot to tango at 330am. The spot appeared to be a local community center or theatre and at night, the basement turns into this underground haven for tango dancers. I was just mesmorized by the beauty of the dance and the energy between the couples. I could've watched them all night! We also watched two folklore dances, one was called la chacarera and the other I'm not sure of the name, but the dancers waved napkins in the air (they are really supposed to use their shirts, but this was a family place...). I was in love with la chacarera. It was such a cool dance. I want to watch it/do it everyday now!

We got home pretty late that night, so we slept in Saturday and then hit the streets! We went out to Recoleta, but had to be back at our hotel for a meeting at 6pm. This left us all of about one hour to explore the awesome market and everything around Recoleta. As we were getting ready to head back, we needed to obtain some monedas for our bus ride back to our hotel (the bus is 1 peso and it has to be in coin form. Well, little did we know, finding monedas in Buenos Aires would be like trying to find a goldfish in the Atlantic ocean. And no, I am not exaggerating. We went to probably 30 vendors, restaurants, stores, bars, etc etc asking for change or just ONE peso. Long story short, we never found one and ended up pleading our case to the driver and he let two American girls ride the bus for free that day! We headed back to our hotel and officially met our new tour guide, Carlos.

Carlos is from Sao Paolo, Brazil, but currently lives in Parati. He is going to be amazing, we can already tell...he is excited to take us into Brazil and is extremely fun! That night we went on a walk and then headed to La Estancia for dinner at 1030pm. It was recommended by my dad's friend and Vale and I are all about the recommended spots... and of course, we were not disappointed. I think I have eaten more steak here than I ever have in my whole life (and that says A LOT since steak is def my fav food). Vale and I both got bife de chorizo, medium rare, and we shared papas frittas and an ensalada mixta. We each got a mini bottle of wine as well, I got red and she got white (she doesn't like red) and our meal was just delectable. The restuarant is set up so that you can watch the cooks cutting and cooking all the meat from the windows. I'll definitely post some pics as soon as I can. We had some more panqueques for dessert and then headed back to our hotel. Everyone was at the bar we went to the night before, so we headed there to meet up with them. There were about 8 of us, chatting and having some drinks and then we decided we needed to DANCE! Finally!!!! A girl on our group had been living in BA for 6 months and suggested we try The Roxy because it was ¨famous¨. It was definitely not somewhere I would choose to ever go to again, but it was really fun because there were a lot of us and we all were dancing to the cheesey pop and old songs. We ended up staying there until it closed at 730am, talking to locals and other visitors. We watched the sunrise behind the club and still did not head home...it was awesome! We made it home to get some breakfast and then went upstairs for what could only be called a nap.

Sunday we woke up around 1pm and headed straight out the door! We walked around the Congress building down to the Recoleta again since we didn't get enough time there. We went to the famous cemetary there, saw Evita's tomb amoung others, and then continued our walk. There is this awesome fountain/light/sculpture in the middle of a park there and it's of a tulip. I am obsessed with it. During the day, it's open to the sun and then at night, it closes and is lit up red. I just loved it! We then headed to San Telmo for a recommended market on Sundays.
Now, we had been walking all day, on little sleep from the night before, and of course, my bum thigh kicked in and started to bother me. When we finally reached what we thought was the famous mercado, I must admit, I was pretty pissed. Half the stalls were already closing and they were literally selling old crap. Luckily, we still wandered around and exited through another door. It was then that we were greeted by a street PACKED full of people and vendors and street performers. There were guys playing the drums and tons of people walking around and visiting, dancing in the streets and painting or making things to sell. It was awesome and definitely worth the walk! It actually turned out that San Telmo was super close to our hotel, so we headed back after exploring the scene.

That night I went out with a Buenos Aires local for some drinks and a mini city tour. We hit up another recommended neighborhood, Las Cañitas, for a mojito! I wish I could've spent more time in that neighborhood because there seemed to be a lot of bars and restaurants. We had some very interesting convo about the differences between BA and SF and life in general in Buenos Aires for someone my age.

I'd say Buenos Aires has only two vices: 1. water constantly dripping on you from the air conditioners from 1800 and 2. little kids that do sketchy things. Valentina and I had an encounter one night walking home from dinner on a major avenida...suddenly we were surrounded by what seemed like 50 7-10 year-olds, but may have really been about 10. Still, they really went for Valentina, but I pushed on out of my way because I had no idea what he trying to pull. They were clearly not exactly private-school-kids and Valentina thought she was going down...luckily, she pushed through the pack and we made it out all right. We later learned from a cab driver that Valentina had before our boat to Uruguay that there are thousands of homeless children in Buenos Aires. Most of them boys, and they form small gangs, known as ranchadas, and commit petty thefts and do crazy drugs. You can read more about them here: http://www.edmundriceinternational.org/page26/page27/page27.html
After reading the article, some of our encounters with the children made a lot more sense.

We had a ferry to catch this morning at 9am from Puerto Madero. We were meeting in our hotel lobby at 645 to leave. Valentina and I planned on staying up the whole night, but I got back at 2am and was waiting for her in the hotel and passed out cold on the bed and she came back and didn't want to wake me up. Around 3 I woke up and we chatted for awhile until both of us passed out. I woke this morning at 645 to Vale shaking me and saying, it's 645, we overslept! Luckily, 645 was early and so we didn't miss much, but we did throw all our things in our bags and head straight down, dirty hair and all....

Quickie

Hellooo from Buenos Aires!

Just wanted to say that a better post will be coming soon, but the internet is from 1901 here and is so ridiculously slow and my computer is the first one ever made so it's giving me a headache from staring at the screen.


BUT, I have survived the longest bus ride in history (I know Davide you beat me, but longest in my history) and am in love with BA.


I'm off to maybe dance some tango in the streets or eat some yummy steak...update coming soon....



Hasta.

Bariloche

Last night was of course...OBAMARAMA. We rang in the beginning of a new start right....with lots of vino, chips, friends and songs. That's right, we managed to somehow create about over 20 songs in celebration of the man! Hits included: "obama, you so fine, you so fine, you blow our mind, obama, o o obama" "sweeet o-ba-ma - wa wa wa...." "it's fun to stay with the o-b-a-m-a, it's fun to stay with theeee o-b-a-m-aaaaa, he has everything that you're to enjoy...." etc etc. Be on the look out for a cd soon!
We were joined in our celebration by some other Americans from another GAP tour that was passing through Bariloche. They were doing the same journey (Santiago - Rio), but in reverse. In their group were two couples of over 50-year-old Americans and they were drinking and getting into the Obama spirit with the rest of us! It was quite a great night...

We arose the next late morning to winds and drizzle outside. We are in Bariloche, the mountains in Argentina, and so are welcomed by the beauty of the lake and mountains, but also the not so perfect weather. Still, we headed out to explore the town a little more. We made a quick stop to the bottom of the hill from our hostel to a beautiful steel BBQ set up right at the top of a park. A local was grilling up some meat and filling the streets with the most delicious smells. Valentina and I split a churrasco and choripan (sausage sandi) yesterday and today I was looking forward to another juicy churrasco to start my day. Whilst enjoying my sandwich a dog found us. Yet again, we thought he would be disinterested after I finished my meat, however, he followed us up close. Another one of his dog friends joined him and we tried to ditch them many many times, however, were extremely unsuccessful. Our tactics included: running across a busy street, hiding behind cars, and even running into a store. We thought we lost them after a few minutes of "browsing" around the store, until Valentina looked outside and he was WAITING for us. That's right, waiting for us to leave. He could smell us....after waiting a few more minutes, he finally went across the street. The rest of the day we were on doggy look out and watching our back at every corner.

We spent the rest of the day wandering around the town and of course....shopping. We definitely helped the Argentine economy by buying up the stores and making some solid purchases. The only question is how will we manage to fit all our purchases in our tiny backpacks throughout this trip. I guess only time will tell.

A local shop owner was nice enough to share her homemade matè with us. Let's just say that that stuff cleared all our sinuses. Vale didn't care for it, but I kinda enjoyed it. You could tell that stuff carries a lot of nutrients and cures any pain you're in. Awesome.

After a long day of shopping, nothing beats a nice pot of fondue to complete the day. We had some cheese fondue and had a big steak to dip in and french fries. Heavenly. We sure aren't messing with any bad food yet on this trip...

Speaking of food, the chocolate in Bariloche is quite famous apparently. As you probably know, I'm not a big chocolate fan at all. Yet, there is something in this chocolate that makes it melt in your mouth. My favorite is a mini sandwich looking one with Dulce di Leche in it - white or milk chocolate with little waffer slices and then layers of dulce di leche. It truly is awesome. I want to bring about 10 pounds home with me, but a. I don't know how that will last and b. I def don't want to carry the 10 pounds, only eat them.

Tomorrow we're on a 20 hour bus ride to BUENOS AIRES....pray for me.

Hasta.

Llao Llao Hotel, Me, Valentina, Elizabeth: