Soooo, where were we? Monday night! When we landed in my sweet, sweet city, a driver from the hotel met us and we piled into his fancy van, admiring lit-up city of Buenos Aires and its monuments, old buildings and of course, the vast contrast between all that and the shanty towns that surround the big city.
Although I hadn't originally planned on staying with my parents, but when we entered the Palacio Duhau Hotel, it was clear that there would be enough room for little ol' me. A striking, chic, fire-haired woman greeted us and had a porter show us a few amenities, including the underground pool and spa, the gallery, the florist, and of course, the gorgeous, tiered outdoor terrace fit for any princess. Naturally, I was pleased. The porter led us to the other side of the hotel - there are two buildings with the terrace that connects them - and we rode the roomy elevator to the 21st floor, the tippy top. Our room was super modern and attractive. Walking in there was a little entry hall, then the living room, where I slept on the cushiest couch ever (the only con: bathrobes for blankets!) The whole wall next to my 'bed' was a big window with a view of all of Recoleta, BA's swank-town as my dad would say, and more specifically, the Vatican Embassy. Pretty neat! Down the little hall was the half bath, the master bath, and the bedroom. We quickly got ready and headed out for dinner.
I had made a reservation at Aramburu Bis, which is in San Telmo. I had never been, and this was my parents' first porteño meal, so the pressure was on. We took a cab to our destination, and when we arrived, I realized we were in the outskirts of San Telmo. It looked sketchy as hell, I admit. My dad breathily complained, "We have to eat here?" Hey, just you wait dad, I thought. Luckily, I was right. This place is the bomb.com. Seriously, everything we had was ridiculously on point. Aramburu is a restaurant group in BA that began with a super fancy-schmancy restaurant that serves 20 or so courses, many of which probably include a blow torch or dry ice. They have a great catering company from what I've read as well, but Aramburu Bis is their new baby. And it's fantastic. Bis, meaning bistro, sets the chill tone in this new restaurant. We sat at a table beside the window and in front of an antique wooden refrigerator. My dad ate that up. We each hungrily ordered an app and an entree, such as grilled provolone cheese, grilled shrimp and ginger-carrot soup with brie croutons. Dad got fish, mom got grilled octopus and I got roasted veggies/risotto. And of course we shared some great malbec and split a chocolate masterpiece at the end.
***commence mental victory dance for impressing my folks, but that wasn't all I had planned. I booked a tango show that night, mainly because my mom has been badgering me about learning/seeing tango since the week I got here! My pops was too tired to go on, so Mom and I flew solo. And MAN, was it freaking hilarious. The venue is called Bar Sur. According to all my travel books and several websites, it is supposed to be one of the most iconic, famous and authentic Tango experiences... well, I guess I don't have a valid opinion because we went at 11:00 on a Monday night. Our cab driver was convinced the place was closed, and so were we. However, we walked in, and Boom, just like that, we entered Buenos Aires in the 20s. Sort of. I would say we were the only ones there, but that would be excluding the French couple that left shortly after our arrival. An old man in a tux seated us and poured us tall glasses of malbec. Another very old gentleman was passionately playing the piano.. songs I have never heard before, but my mom seemed to know them all.
Honestly, I should just let the photos do it justice..
After a painfully awkward, yet hilarious, hour of these strange people entertaining us.. we decided to roll out. But not before we got a pic with the male tango dancer with our leg up in the air... I'll leave that to the imagination, for my sake and yours...
So, that was our Monday. On Tuesday, we woke up expecting rain, like the not-so-loyal forecast had not-so-loyally promised us. Menos mal that the sun was shining so brilliantly, though! In preparation for the rain, we had already moved our bike tour reservations to thursday, so we decided to instead take a walking tour! (post-starbucks, obviously.. the only time they really needed me to speak spanish for them since everyone at our hotel speaks english.. womp).. Our walking tour met in front of the Congress building. Our guide was absolutely bonkers in the sense that she had probably drunk 6 cafe con leches before she gave the tour, but she was super informative and quite funny. My dad got a real kick out of it when she would ask us to keep "secrets" about the city's infrastructure. Good times. We walked all around that area, down avenida de mayo which connects congress to plaza de mayo, down to see some public art, such as one of Rodin's "The Thinker," etc. Even I, who studied Argie history, learned quite a bit about the government and even the history of Buenos Aires. The tour lasted two or three hours and ended close to the obelisk, BA's biggest and most famous monument about which they love to boast.
At that point, we hailed a cab for some lunch.
We had lunch at the Evita Peron museum cafe before we toured the museum itself. Rebecca told me to get the spinach pappardelle with mozzarella, basil and roasted tomatoes. I ordered it. I was not disappointed. Yum. My Dad continued to struggle with the concept of Argentine service.. aka zero service until you yell to them from across the room for a menu, or a condiment, and then a long distance "pencil in hand" hand motion to wordlessly ask for the check, la cuenta. It has ceased to faze me. Besides, we only have to tip 10%.
~history lesson~ So the Evita Perón museum is pretty self explanatory if you're familiar with Argentine history. Or perhaps you've seen Madonna's rendition of her while she sang "Don't Cry for Me" on the balcony of the Casa Rosada. But most of you reading this probably are not, so I'll give the tiniest summary ever. Eva (Evita) Perón was the wife of Juan Perón, a military big shot and eventually (post-coup) became president of Arg, reppin' the working class. Evita was his secret weapon in popularity - she took a huge part in women's suffrage in Arg, and also had her own political party that she ran herself. Evita did quite a bit to help poor women with children get back on their feet. She quickly became the country's most important political icon, and even still her memory remains relevant to everyone here. Perón's presidency became quite repressive around the same time the economy was declining greatly, and after Evita died of cancer in 1952, Juan was pretty much screwed, eventually being overthrown by a coup in 1955. Argentines either LOVE her or HATE Evita, but there are no sentiments in between. Elena told me that she and her family hated her growing up. Upon learning about the Peróns for the first time, my dad went through the museum scoffing at 'the publicity stunts they pulled.' Coming from a local politician's point of view, the man has a point.. Either way, it's all extremely fascinating. At that point, my dad was more than ready to get back to the hotel. We had a little bit of time to relax and get ready (aka have some wine) for our night.
We FINALLY made it to Don Julio, one of BA's most famous/iconic/tourist friendly parillas. That steak doe. I invited Cass, Jordan and the guest of honor, Elena, to join us for our delicious meal. It was a stormy Tuesday night. We were seated upstairs, weirdly enough at the exact same table where Rebecca and her friends sat last year! Literally living her life... I was so excited about my steak I forgot to take pictures! Mom and I split the 1/2 portion of the Ribeye, aka ojo de bife. It was enough for 3 or 4 to share. We also ordered grilled veggies and french fries to share. Elena got sweetbreads.. weirdo! And of course, we had tons and tons of wine. It was great having Cass and Jord there to help me translate my parent's words to Elena and vice versa. The conversations actually flowed quite nicely, though! My favorite Elena-ism of the night was when she got "mad" at me for staying with my parents, telling me I would have to move into the empty house next door where the Paraguayan squatters live, saying "I miss she!" Lol. Love her so much. After stuffing our faces with bread and chimichurri, steak and potatoes, wine, and tons of desserts, we rolled ourselves outside and back to the hotel, where of course I slept like a rock to the sound of the tremendous downpour.
Wednesday was a chill day. Sadly, the rain persisted. We ended up sleeping pretty late and not leaving the hotel til almost noon!! We were on a mission to tour the Casa Rosada though, so we braved the precipitation. Walking allll the way down av. de mayo and to the casa, we were told that tours only occur on the weekends. Oops. At that point we were just tired and hungry and quite damp, so we took refuge on Florida street (pedestrian street full of peddlers and shops). Because we had plans for afternoon tea anddd a nice dinner, we decided to grab a quick bite to go. Dad got a medialuna con jamon y queso and mom & i split a tarta aka quiche. We ate our ~gourmet~ meal with some cafes con leche in Havanna, the mainstream coffee shop of Argentina. After that, it was almost time to mosy on over to the Teatro Colon, where we had a 3:00 tour. The rain just wouldn't quit though. - - - Think fast, Sammonses. You don't want these big raindrops to continue smacking you in the face. You don't want to buy an unfashionable rain poncho. You certainly don't want to buy an umbrella that doubles as an eye-poking weapon of mass destruction. We quickly narrowed down all possibilities when we saw these babies in the nearest toy store...
So with our sassy rain gear we sauntered over to Teatro Colon. I'd already been on the tour, but enjoyed it even more the second time because we got to sit and listen to an opera singer warm up and perform part of a song. It was majestic. I'm still so bitter that I'm not destined for musical greatness.. whatever. The tour ended an hour later - just the right time to make it on time to tea (looking like hell, but YOGTTWYPOARDIBAO! -you only go to tea with your parents on a rainy day in buenos aires once, for those of you who were really going to take a valiant stab at finding the logic there..) So of course, the tea was splendid. There were finger sandwiches, mousses, cakes and tarts alike. We even got a glass of champagne and an EXTRA dessert at the end. But that was the problem... it was demasiado, just too damn much. That turned out to be a real shame because our reservation that night was for a Puerta Cerrada restaurant - a really good one!! But it wouldn't have been very good starting out with full stomachs. I'll have to go without them. Either way, we really enjoyed the fancy tea and the mirror-walled ballroom where we sat. My parents, especially my dad (tough crowd I assure you), continued to rave about how great my friends here are. S/o to y'all boludas básicas. Good times good timez. We spent the night watching the world series game, then some modern family. Can't beat quality tv with a quality set of parents.
Thursday was the bike tour! I'd been wanting to do one forever, and now was my chance. We began the morning having a lovely breakfast in the hotel, the same breakfast that Elena had raved about for the past couple months! It really was delicious, though. Our bike tour began in San Telmo. It was just the three of us with our guide, this scrawny, awkward British dude who clearly hadn't washed or brushed his hair in what seemed like a month. Ohhh, how he talked and talked. I didn't think he would ever stop talking. At one stop, he talked so extensively about the economy that I had to tune him out. More in depth info than any of my history classes. But yes, learning is fun. Knowledge is power. Just would have been nicer if he used his power in moderation! We started at san telmo, saw the Boca Juniors stadium (soccer- super dangerous), La Boca (colorful houses, tourist trap), Puerto madero, the eco reserve, where we had sandwiches from a food truck, and then to Plaza de Mayo to see the mothers of the disappeared's weekly protest.
*BRIEF history lesson* -Do your parents remember what they did during the years of 1976-1983? If you were alive at that point, do you? Have you ever heard of the Dirty War? During these years, military forces in Argentina conducted guerrilla warfare/violence against fellow Argentines who any sort of association with socialism/Marxism/Peronism etc. So what happened? Well, what would you say if I told you that 30,000 people were disappeared? THIRTY THOUSAND PEOPLE LIKE YOU AND ME. "To be disappeared" is a verb distinct to the Spanish language. Between 1976 and 1983, 30,000 people suddenly disappeared in thin air. College students and workers would leave for class or work and never make it home. Many of these people were put into concentration camps. Many were tranquilized, then thrown out of a plane into the Rio de la Plata (river) to drown. Women would be impregnated, kept in a camp for 9 months, then the militants would take their babies and put them up for adoption. Elena's friend who volunteers with her at the hospital experienced every woman's worst nightmare: one dreary morning, she went to wake up her children in vain. Her children were gone forever. It's insane. Insane to me that this happened, and even more outrageous that this enormously horrifying part of our world's history is not properly spoken of. I never learned about it in high school, and I'm sure that this is the first that some of you are hearing about this, if you haven't read any of my previous blog posts where I have briefly mentioned it. So, anyway, the mothers and grandmothers of the disappeared children have created a huge organization to spread awareness and money to help find their family members. They wear scarfs tied around their heads and march around the circular center of the plaza. It's extremely moving. Recently, while I was here, the president of the organization was reunited with her grandson. They do this by telling the people, "If you were born between 76 and 83, and you have doubts about your ancestry, please get a DNA test." Of course, some people probably don't want to completely shake their whole worlds, which is understandable. There have been 200 or so children, now in their 30s and 40s, who have been found. May we remember the lives of so many others who went through hell more than any of us will ever know..
Phew. On a lighter note, we ended the tour and bade our tour guide farewell. Mom and I bought some malbec and some gardenias, because guess what y'all, it was EMPANADA PARTY TIME!!!!! YEAH!!!! I wore my neon pink romper and my hair in a sock bun. When Elena saw me she flipped a shit. "NEW CLOTHES FINALLY!" hahaha. My mom presented our gifts to her, including a beautiful red scarf she'd bought for her in Memphis. Elena was overwhelmed by my mom's kindness and my dad's humor. Cass and Jordan joined in on the fun, too! And Mimí.. achoo! Elena made her famous paté, a beet salad (bc everyone knows beets are my favorite food), and of course, empanadas de carne y choclo!! They never falter. Even the leftovers 3 days later were delicious. We all enjoyed each other's company, as usual. And somehow, we managed to make it through 4 bottles of wine. I say 'somehow' because poor Elena was simply horrified by the amount that we Americans drink at dinner. Argie culture is eat with a bit of wine, dessert, coffee, thennn the drankin'. But no no! There was no time to spare, and good times to celebrate. I didn't realize I had been slightly over-served until I tried to pick up my coffee cup by the tiny handle, and watched as it dropped back onto the saucer, spilling hot café con leche all over the linen table cloth and my lap. oops! Elena was big time SMH. We couldn't help but laugh. 4, 5 or 6 (who's counting?) empanadas deep, it was time to cut myself off. Zero self control at these things.. you'd think I'd get better after having like 6 empanada nights.. oh no. Sadly, I think there's only one more empanada party EVER in my future. EVER. Can I start crying yet??? Ugh!!! Either way, we all had a great time and left with super happy bellies and hearts. Unfortunately, we forgot something very important.... my suitcase full of winter clothes!!!! So now I have THREE incredibly large suitcases to take home with me.... I'll be accepting prayers come December 7th. Lord give me strength to leave this place..
Anywho, Friday rolled in and we hit the leather district, Villa Crespo. Mom was looking for the perfect leather jacket, but we had no such luck. The reality of it is that while the leather is mostly of great quality for an awesome price, the designs and the hardware are nowhere near fashion forward. Not trendy enough for J-Sam. But it was cool to look around, especially at 666 where I found a dreamy leather chair. (lol).
When we gave up on the leather, the rain finally held up (yep, it was still raining). The concierge told us to try Malvón for lunch, which was several blocks away. I enjoyed walking through the outskirts of Palermo with my parents - it was a surreal feeling having them there for such a short period of time. Malvón is a shabby-chic, super adorable brunch spot. Mom and I shared a salad and a cheeseburger and dad got a hot pastrami sandwich. Very American of us, but Argentine cuisine is like toast and queso crema, so whatevah. We lingered quite a while in the restaurant because we all knew that after that, our time together would draw to an end. Just like that, after a lovely glass of bubbly at the hotel and a toast to our wonderful family, my beloved parents left for the USA. It was a bittersweet goodbye. It never gets any easier saying 'see ya later' to my mom/best friend in the world. However, I had another mom waiting on me back at Aguilar 2190. Understanding the sting of goodbyes very well, Elena was great company. Almost as good as her empanada party leftovers were.
Saturday was a lovely, lazy morning that quickly turned to afternoon. Elena's daughters came over and we had the cutest little tea party together! I was so happy they included me. We had tea, cookies, slices of ham and cheese, and toasts with pate and queso crema. Can't get more argentine than that, folks. We discussed Clo's situation with her late husband's family, who live in Germany, who are coming to visit...? I think? I had a hard time understanding them to be honest. I always love the time I get to spend with these incredible women! Right on time, the tea party ended and I got ready for dinner with Jordan and Sonia, who is actually Rebecca's big! She's here for several months studying wine, and hopes to get a job in the industry here. I know she'll kill it because she's truly a gem. Another rainy night ensued. The 3 of us met at Juana M, a parilla in el centro with great steak and an all you can eat salad bar. Beets 4 dayz. It's great to have Sonia around not just for the great company, but also for the fabulous wine selections! It just took me 3 tries to spell selections.. I've been here too long! After dinner, the three of us bar hopped all night. We went all over the place! First stop, La Florería Atlantico. It's a flower shop when you walk in. Walk through the fridge door and you'll be led down a staircase to the basement where BAM, a fabulous speakeasy with craft cocktails, gourmet food and the ambiance to match! It was packed when we went, but I didn't even mind standing up. My whisky drink was pink and came with a frozen little piece of cake on top?? We stayed for a drink and grooved to the 20s tunes, but headed on our merry way to the Gran Bar Danzón. Observe the bar below. We split a bottle of wine there and Sonia quickly befriended the bartender...I knew I liked this girl!! Afterwards, we kept the bar tour rolling and stopped at Milión, a classic, but this time, there was a non-human guest among us. Also observe our furry friend below, enjoying a cat martini. From there we went to Shamrock down the street, quite a step down from the classy places we had visited but still a great time! We met tons of Argentine boys with whom we practiced our Castellano. Never a bad idea. At that point, the sun was beginning to rise, so we called it a
Waking up on Sunday was a foggy mess. Cassidy, Jordan and I decided there was only one place we could go: BURGER JOINT. Even in the rain, we braced ourselves and made it to the cute little Palermo establishment. Jord and I got the classic burger, cass got the Jamaican. It's the real deal, not like the dinky little patties the Argentines try to get away with. I should have taken a pic.. I would say next time, but this was a one-time-only deal. #sexual. It only took a couple minutes to down it, including "copious amounts of cilantro mayo" as Jordan said in her weird voice. I've got a super pretty pic of cassidy with the mayo but I think she wants to conserve her natural beauty for now. Sry.
Pretty sure we were still drunk at this point. Sorry Granna if you're reading this. But I gotta say, it was worth the cals and certainly an enjoyable meal with my girls. And ¡suprise! it was raining cats and dogs! Jordan has this clutch app on her phone that calls a cab. The taxi that came for us was no ordinary cab, oh no no, no sir. This cab was 1. roomy 2. new 3. playing Michael Bublé 4. had a candy bowl in the back seat and 5. had WIFI! Impressive. Perfect way to get toted home in the rain, post-burger. I was super content with the way my day had gone - but my arteries probably weren't - so this week I've been trying out some new ways to get that heart rate up, namely the Kangoo Jumps class at megatlon (more in next post.. desperately trying to catch myself up on my own life!!
Aaaaand that's a wrap to one of the most memorable weeks I've had here so far! So, so thankful that my parents came to see me. As sad as I was that they couldn't come for my birthday (pelota de tenis en el ojo jaja pero no jaja.. jajaja), it really worked out for all of us! I love my family more than anything in the world, and I just wish my sweet brother could have joined in on the fun. Either way, it was a fantastic week, followed by a wonderful weekend! Couldn't be happier living my fun little life over here.
Lots of besos as usual with mucho cariño from your exhausted-from-blogging Nelly <3
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