Well today we were supposed to go to Cordoba for Oktoberfest. Didn't happen. As I mentioned in day 15 we had gone to Retiro to get our bus tickets. Well Zack didn't know his passport number so we couldn't buy them, but the guy told us if we came today 3-4 hours before the bus we would be fine. So after school, Zack came over and we got ready to roll down to the the station. However he forgot his freshly made passport copies so we had to take the Subte (Subway) back across town to his house to get it, then back across town past my place to the station. We arrived about an hour before our bus and all the tickets were naturally sold out. The next bus wasn't until 8am putting us in about 3-4 which probably wasn't going to be worth it. Hakuna Matata, keep reading we still had an unreal weekend.
Retiro the bus/train station is in a really poor part of town and while we were there I caught two separate guys trying to steal from my backpack as I was walking. It was crazy one guy got a zipper entirely open but luckily there wasn't anything valuable in it and I felt him right as he got it open. I looked at my backpack, saw it open and looked back up and the man had vanished. Absolutely creepy how he just vanished. Zack wanted to go on the warpath, I think part of it was the frustration of having to cancel the trip and needing an outlet, but we couldn't find the guys even if we wanted to be dramatic.
The good news about poor parts of town is you can usually find great food for very cheap and thats precisely what we did. Went to down on some chorizo sandwiches and a few liters of Kilmes (Argentina Budweiser) and that helped lighten the mood.
From there we decided it was time to go out. After a quick change we headed out to Palermo district where we met up with 5 of Zacks friends from UCLA. We all headed to Sugar bar which is this great two story all stone, very old bar that is known as the international bar. It was great spending a night speaking just English and hanging out with Americans as it can be very fatiguing always trying to figure out how to express every thought. From there we headed into Kika, one of BA's premier boliche's. Zack and I picked up some playboy cuban cigars on the way and the bouncers saw them and let us skip the whole line which was fantastic. However Zack and I weren't in the club for long... In BA if the bouncers shine a green lazar on you it means you are doing something wrong:
As you can probably tell from the green lazar Zack is swallowing and the dancer pushing us off the stage, we got bounced out of the club about 15 seconds after this was taken. Not a problem, we'll be back again I'm sure. Also check out the bling we got on our wrists as a little birthday present. Love it.
Headed home pretty soon after that chalking up another very fun night in Palermo.
Saturday Day 16
Rolled out of bed late and kind of had a lazy day. Didn't really turn amazing until the evening. Zack came over and we headed out to grab an early dinner. We were just going to grab something within a couple blocks from my house but I said I hadn't been to a Parrilla yet so we asked some locals who said there was one about 6 blocks away. We walked to it and turns out... It's one of the nicest/most famouse parrillas in the city. Parrilla=Grill and the parrillas are famous in BA and Argentina for cooking amazing meets of all varieties. I bought a street map later this weekend that had major monuments marked on it, and this parrilla was marked as well! Since Zack and I were early we had the entire restaurant to ourselves which was an experience I won't ever forget. What turned into a casual stroll for food turned into a four course meal with a very nice bottle of wine. I have pictures of us and our food, but pic of the day is the view from our table:
After dinner we watched Pumping Iron and then walked over by Teatro Colon and people watched/discussed the impacts this study abroad will have as well as what we are making of it so far. It was a very mellow night but one of those nights that everyone needs from time to time and helped put the world into focus. A good thing to do before the start of a new year.
Sunday Day 17
Today was my birthday! Headed over to Belgrano, we bought a cake from a local bakery ate a little of it, and then went and got breakfast at about 4pm. This cake was amazing. Chocolate mousse base layer with dulce de leche which is a liquid caramel of sorts, then meringue, then whipped cream. Incredible but I felt sick after more than 7 bites since it was so rich. Had breakfast at my favorite cafe in BA. It's in Belgrano and its called Manhatten Cafe. Beautiful two story cafe, right on the corner so it overlooks this intersection that is always bustling, and the servers there are the nicest I've come across in this city. Had cafe con leche, a few ham and cheese croissants, and then "complete" burgers. Giant patty, eggs, ham covered in melted cheese, as well as the rest of the usually fixings. Was like a 3 course meal between buns.
Headed from there to the movie theatre where we saw Taken 2, which was ok, followed by Ted which was hysterical. The movies here are the same english films we see but with spanish subtitles. Ted was funny because over half the time Zack and I would be roaring with laughter but the rest of the theatre would be quiet. I think some of the humor didn't translate haha, it would be very interesting to hear what the portenos thought of that movie.
After the double feature headed out again. Intended to go to sugar bar just to grab a beer but met two locals chicks and ended up staying till 4 talking with them. It was a great time since they spoke almost fluent English we would try and say everything in espanol and they would correct and help us. I don't know how they had the patience to do this for so many hours but it was a fantastic experience for Zack and I and we both felt significantly better at Spanish as we walked back to his house.
Pic of the day goes to this guy who made this weekend a fantastic one:
Monday Day 18
Today was one of the 27 Argentinean holidays celebrated here so I spent the night at Zacks which scared my host family to death apparently since when they woke up I wasn't in my room. Luis made sure to give me an earshot about it when I got home that night. We went to this cafe/restaurant called Forrest Gump which is an old cafe filled with black and whites of famous Hollywood Movie Stars. Amazing place. Decided we hadn't seen enough movies this weekend so we headed towards the theatre. Found my favorites shop on Earth on the way there. I know my description won't do it justice but lets just say if I were to design and run any shop on Earth, this would be it. Zack and I spent like an hour in it, and will definitely be back for more, I'm guessing within the week.
We had seen every movie now except for this one with Meryl Streep and Resident Evil 5 so we headed into Resident Evil 5 haha. Neither of us had seen any of the other 4 but it was okay. I don't think we were wild about it, but it had some interesting angles to it.
Afterwards stopped back by Manhatten Cafe. It was a long weekend, we managed to hang out a lot and do calm activities like see 3 movies, but we also did a ton of other stuff and it definitely felt jammed packed. Sometimes after such draining days a little comfort food is needed and thats exactly how I finished the weekend at Manhatten Cafe:
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