Argentina day 10 - Buenos Aires

Day 10: Sunday January 14 2007

I got up early to go to the airport and catch my flight back to Buenos Aires. After being a bit ripped off by the taxi driver – long story -, I got to the airport early. The agent wasn;t even at the counter yet, even though there were people waiting to check in. Once she finally arrived, I checked in at the counter, and proceeded to security. There was no one there either, so I waited another 30 minutes for them to open. When I did finally walk through security, I went straight through the line, and onto my flight. The flight actually left early, which has never happened to me in the states, and I arrived back at the apartment in BA at the time the plane was supposed to land. Nice. Dad and I decided we wanted to take the tour of the Casa Rosada that we missed last week, and it was at 3:00. So we left the apartment around 1:00 and walked around before picking a restaurant to eat at. ** We ordered a calzone to share. When it came out of the oven, the waiter brought it to the table, and it was the biggest calzone I’d seen in my life. He served us each a piece, and this picture is what remained. I wish we could’ve taken it home! It was delicious. After lunch, we headed to the Casa Rosada, but once we arrived, we found out (yet again) that they’re not offering tours right now because of some construction on the building. So we gave ourselves the tour of the one open room, and 6 minutes later, were done.

Where to next? Café Tortonni has Tango Shows every night, and they’re supposed to be really good, so we stopped by there to make a reservation for next Saturday night. I am looking forward to it. And well, it happened. Just as we were outside Café Tortonni, I ran into a friend of mine, Bernardo. He was down here visiting with his girlfriend’s family. Anyway, after that, we went back to our side of town, and I did a little shopping for myself, and afterwards, we had “High tea” at a famous restaurant called Biela. I got a “Submarino”, which literally is a chocolate bar placed in a glass of hot milk. Once I put some sugar in it to counteract the bitterness, it was pretty good! Dad got some café con leche and “medias lunas” (half moons = small croissants) which were warm and delicious. We met and talked to everyone at all the tables around us. Every single person we talk to in spanish has complimented how well we're speaking...we're so proud!

After tea, we met up with Jaime and Marta who dad at met at shul the day before, and we were going to see a play. It was set in the Recoleta cultural center, and so we had the opportunity to walk through there before the play, and there were a ton of art exhibits – some good, some bad. The play was a one woman show, and was supposed to be a comedy, but I didn’t understand a fair amount of it, and Jaime said it was in really poor taste. Oh well, it was an experience. Jaime is an Argentinian, and has lived here his whole life, and overall is a cynicall type person, but we all had fun arguing over everything all night. After the show, we went and had some pizza for dinner at 11:00. We got home around 12:15, and I updated all my pictures on my webpage.