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October 16, 2007
Day 1: Buenos Aires
As we made our way to Buenos Aires from the airport, I was disappointed by what I saw--wasn't Buenos Aires supposed to be the Paris of South America? Instead, what I saw were nondescript buildings and several slums. My disappointment deepened as we entered the central city and I saw lots of graffiti and broken sidewalks. We arrived in the afternoon and decided to grab lunch at a Basque restaurant in the neighborhood we were staying in. This was my first experience struggling with a Spanish menu--I took Spanish in high school and retained some knowledge but time and lack of practice had eroded my vocabulary and, unfortunately, the Spanish-English dictionary provided only a limited amount of assistance. But the food we ordered was pretty good and, with our bellies full, we decided to explore Recoleta.
I had done my research and knew that Recoleta was home to the famed Un Altra Volta. I was too full to order my own ice cream but I enjoyed some of Adam's. My first agenda was to hit the Feria Artesanal de la Recoleta, a large weekend crafts market. On our way to the market, I got distracted by Buenos Aires Design, a mall devoted entirely to housewares and furniture. I was pretty enthralled--it was exactly the kind of place I would use to furnish my house if we didn't live in a small, NYC apartment. The crafts fair was quite large and I didn't want to subject Adam to my crafts obsession for the whole afternoon so I tried to go through it quickly. I wanted to see Floralis Generica but this part of Recoleta is a maze of parks, plazas, and wide streets and we must've spent about an hour trying to find it (incidentally, after we gave up and started focusing on finding the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes we actually stumbled upon the Floralis Generica). It took us a while to find the museum but it was definitely a worthwhile effort--the museum was definitely the best one we went to and it was free which is always a bonus.
Basilica de Nuestra Senora del Pilar, a church near Recoleta Cemetery
Posted by Jennifer at October 16, 2007 11:47 AM