Today Kiki and I found a beautiful café/bookstore in Sur Palermo, one of my new favorite neighborhoods. A lot of restaurants have newspapers and magazines you can borrow, which is an awesome idea. The area here is older, with cobblestone roads, and is full of huge parks. We went with the group on a bike tour for a few hours. On Friday, I went to an estancia (a farm) out in the country. They had bikes for us there, too. The bikes had wide curving handlebars and simple construction (backpedal to break, none of this fancy 21speed nonsense). The simplicity of the bikes and the sunny countryside was so whimsical, it was like being in a movie. I felt like I should be bringing a baguette to a picnic or having a charming adventure.
Sometimes Argentina feels like it has the advertisements and energy of New York, but with much more greenery, space, and calmer people. No one is ever on time.
Later today, I tried the famed Argentinean pizza. It’s quite tasty and not greasy. One type I tried had a thick corn-based crust, which was interesting. After the tour, I went with a friend to see the Centro Cultural Recoleta, an art museum. One awesome thing about Argentineans’ nightlife is that museums are still open at 9pm. In front was a crafts fair in the Recoleta neighborhood, where we bought mate (gourds for drinking yerba mate, a immensely popular drink here). I’ve heard even gas stations advertise hot water for refilling your mate; everyone seems to drink it (museum guards, our staff, etc.) but no cafes or restaurants seem to serve it. I tried it at the estancia. It tastes like strong green tea.
Yesterday I went on a city bus tour, and tried a tango class. They broke the steps down immensely for us, so while what we’re doing looks nothing like tango, we’re also not crying at how hard it is. Not yet.
One interesting thing here is pub/club culture. I was again at the Irish Pub on Friday, and I begin to get the feeling people go to bars mainly to flirt. Clubs certainly are ridiculous that way. I’ve heard about men at clubs trying to make out with girls after one dance or using rather blatant pick up lines like, “What’s your favorite sex position?” Men here certainly push more and more obviously, because women dismiss them much more easily, and I think it’s just a more sexual culture. PDA is big here. People make out in parks, on the street, on the bus, and are generally more touchy. There were two Americans near me at the bar, and the Argentinean I was talking to told that the man must be gay, because it had been a whole hour and he hadn’t kissed the girl. I tried to explain it was a cultural difference . . ..
No comments:
Post a Comment