Yes, no sooner had we arrived at our hostel when we were sitting down to an Argentinian beef BBQ next to a guy from Dumfries. They get everywhere these Scots! We were also joined by three young guys from London and an elderly American man who soon pointed out that one of the Londoners (who said his name was Freddie) was the double of
Freddie Highmore of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "August Rush" fame. Freddie mumbled and looked a bit concerned when this was brought to everyone's attention so we just left the subject there. We're pretty sure it was though. Anyhow, the beef and the sausages were fantastic and after our epic journey having food that wasn't out of a plastic carton was very much appreciated. Needless to say, after that we collapsed unconcious.
The next morning we ditched our luggage in the basement of the hostel and went out to see where we'd landed. Buenos Aires is a city of contrasts with some stunning architechture mixed in with some real crap. It's a great place to wander around and we managed to find the Congress Building and the "Casa Rosada" or "Pink House" where the EYG bag had it's first airing. There are loads of squares or "Plaza" to wander in so we had a supermarket adventure (always a highlight) and had a picnic in one of them. Later in the day we headed to our first Couchsurfers, Marina and Andres who live West of the centre of BA in a beautiful house with 5 cats (three queens and one tom) and a crazy dog. I made friends with one of the queens and commented on how outgoing and freindly she was to be told that was because she was in heat. Oh well, I'm sure we'll always be friends. Marina and Andres were quite extraordinarily welcoming and very helpful in answering all our questions about BA and Argentina including "how do you cross the road without dying?" to which the answer was, "good question". We made them a spaghetti bolognese as a thanks for having us.
Yet another Scottish connection was discovered wandering Buenos Aires when we heard the sound of the bagpipes somewhere in the distance. Being so used to hearing it we didn't really notice until we had a "huh!?" moment and followed the sound. We discovered an Argentinian Piper so we made him the subject of our first video. When he discovered Charlotte dabbled in piping he let her have a shot of his Argentinian bagpipes, a really nice chap. He turned up later when we were watching a clown show and asked if he could have my Folksoc hoodie but unfortunately, it's the only one I have with me and I don't want to part with it.
We had heard about this fantastic cemetary in BA so after Breakfast we decided to pay it a visit. Cemetaries have always been places I've enjoyed visiting as they tell you so much about how people lived and what their atitudes to death were. Suffice to say, I've ever visited one like this. Glynis and Sooz would have been in their element. It is in effect, a city of dead people. There are streets and streets of cryps, many of which are like small churches with an alter at the top (chairs, tables etc.) and the coffins downstairs. Some of them have the coffins on the top level in which case you cn look through the doors (mostly glass) and peer in at the. A most bizarre experience!
That evening Marina and Andres took us to a BBQ restaurant with two of their friends. We were brought sausages, black pudding, various forms of offal (including small intestine and brain) and plenty Argentinian red wine before the main course of steak and a rack of beef arrived (Charlotte's face was a picture when she realised that we'd only had the starter). It was the best steak I have ever tasted and was so much cheaper than anything you
'd get in the UK. Marina and Andres' friends were less confident about speaking English than they were and were there partly to practice. As the evening went on confidence grew, more wine was taken and by the end of it no-one was really speaking any recognisable language. Back at the house ice cream was eaten, we played some tunes and Charlotte dnaced the Gay Gordon's with Andres around the living room. An amazing evening and a HUGE, HUGE thanks to Marina and Andres, their cats and their dog for having us. Incidently, this is a city of cats. Just about every square and park has a colony of them and the cemetary was full of cats, each of which was dubbed "Greyfriar's Pussy".
We left after brunch the next morning to meet our next Couchsurfer Celina, who is a bundle of fun and energy living in the centre of BA. She took us on a wander round the Sunday market in San Telmo, one of the oldest parts of the city and we took in the sites, smells and ate some of the sugared nuts that are prepared on just about every street corner. It was giant and went on for streets and streets.
Celina is a teacher at the primary school Fundacion Nuestra Señora De La Merced in the centre of BA and bizarely enough, her kids have been learning some Scottish dancing. We'd agreed to go in and play for them, talk about Scotland and sing a couple of songs. When we arrived, it was a wee girl's 9th birthday so happy birthday was sung (the kids in Spanish and us in English) before the barrage of questions in a mixture of Spanish and Enlish; "What is your favourite colour?", "how old are you?" (asked beautifully in English by one young chap and "do you have horses and carts in Scotland?". I sang them a song about Elephants before we headed down to their hall where we taught them a simplified strip the willow and they showed us how they'd learnt the Flying Scotsman. I played and they stayed exactly to time with no instructions, remarkable. They also showed us some Argentinian dancing including a waltz which had them bowing to each other. I couldn't imagine Scottish kids doing it with such grace. We left after a rendition of the Jeely Piece Song which the kids thought was highly amusing when they found out that it was all about sandwiches.
That afternoon we took a tour (albeit in Spanish!) around the congess building which has a gorgeous debating chamber and a very impressive library. It was interesting to hear all the questions the others on the tour were asking. It was clearly their congressso they were keen to find out about what they were paying for.
Our meal for Celina that evening was a Scottish classic, scampi with chips and peas followed by shortbread. As I don't speak Spanish, I mistakenly bought self raising flour so the shortbread was a little more like cake than I'd planned but still very edible.
That epic brings us to this morning. We now have a
Flickr account where we'll be putting all our photos. There's loads there of the cemetary and various view around BA so be sure to check it out. Love to all.
Apparently Curitiba is the coldest city in Brazil, which we can believe, but it's very beautiful. We met up with our next lovely couchsurfing hosts - Leticia, a lingerie entrepreneur, and her boyfriend Guilherme, a doctor. Today they took us out to lunch with Guilherme's family to a place Paul is particularly fond of - an all you can eat buffet with Lots Of Meat. Waiters come to the table with cuts of meat on sticks and you just take what you want. And there's a whole load of other delights too. Paul was in 7th heaven. We also had pasta in sweet sauces which was a new one. Like chocolate and banana, and coconut and milk. And of course various things with Dulce de Leche. Like the Argentinians they're a big fan of that. Made a nice change from the dreaded rice and beans which we had on our first night. I believe tonight we are going to experience some Brazilian music so more on that to come I'm sure.
That's about all for now - my head is filled with porridge so I'm sure Paul will come up with something I've missed. Mmmm porridge. That would be good right now. And some whisky, for the medicinal properties of course.
