So we're trying to learn Spanish. Turns out it's not that easy to learn a new language. Attending school is a good start, but we all know from experience that there is only one way to seriously get to know the good stuff: Getting out there and practice it all in real live. So that's what we've been doing after class. And why not combine the practical with the pleasant along the way...
We repeatedly went to see Palermo, a huge
barrio north of the
microcentro. It's where the glitzy shopping, dining and partying happens. It's where huge parks can be found to stroll through and picnic in on a bench in the sun. It's where buses are slower than pedestrians with all the trafic going through. It's where we found the greatest chocolate tarte in a little corner cafe. It's where we spent a whole afternoon enyoing lunch with a friend. It's where
portenos meet to play away there saturday afternoons with incredibly fast games of soccer. It might just be The Place in Buenos Aires.
We went on a great tour of the nontouristic
barrio of Barracas where we learnt more about the history of immigration to Argentina (did you know that Buenos Aires was British for a short time?!), the cultural importance of
plazas, the best places to get real Italian pizza, the identity of the new pope (it was a normal afternoon in Buenos Aires - until suddenly "
Somos Papa"), the history of the lovely art in Lanin Street , the lovestory that gave a church its name and the greatest
heladeria in Buenos Aires.
We fought our way through the unbelievably crowded Av. Florida to find an electronics store just to realize that we don't have enough cash to pay for the equally unbelievably expensive electronics we needed. Fought our way back through Av. Florida to get cash, then fought our way back down the street to buy what we needed, then fought our way back down...you get the point. Lots of fighting through the masses and protecting our belongings. Walking up and down Av. Florida for about 500m a couple of times to get our shopping done took the whole day.
We went to an
asado, an argentinian BBQ, at Federicos awesome house. He is one of the owners of the Academia Buenos Aires (our language school) and invited the students over for friday night. The meat was fantastic, the salads were plenty, the wine flew like a river and the hours grew long. It was a very memorable night with great company, plenty of laughter and perfect food. The hospitability of Federico and his beautiful wife won't be forgotten in a long long while.
 |
| Typical Uruguayan Chivito |
Last, but definitely not least, we became adventorous and tryed out our Spanish in a whole new country - Uruguay. We took a ferry to the beautiful old city of Colonia del Sacramento, the oldest city in Urugay. It was founded by the Portuguese that wanted to know more about what was going on in Spanish Buenos Aires and found a small peninsula with natural protection through the very shallow waters of the river only 40 km away from Buenos Aires a perfect place for their new city. Unfortunatelly, the Spanish took the city on their first attempt to capture it. Of course they improved the lines of defense afterwards but still the Portuguese, when they came back to recapture the city, were successful. The Spanish and Portugese kept playing this little game of capturing and recapturing the city for quite a while until it finally fell to the Spanish once and for all (and eventually became Urugayen with the rest of the little country). Today, the Old Town is a Unesco World Heritage Site.
With its colonial old cobbled streets, antique houses of Spanish and Portuguese (and often mixed) styles, the restored city wall, tons of museums, little cafes and a lighthouse that affords picturesque views over the city, the river and, in the far distance, Buenos Aires, it will surely make every tourist fall in love with it in an instant. The scenic site of the city on a small peninsula with tons of white city beaches and its absolute calmness (at least after the constant hassle of Buenos Aires) are the icing on the cake that is Colonia. We like.
 |
| Habemus papam |
We repeatedly went to see Palermo, a huge barrio north of the microcentro. It's where the glitzy shopping, dining and partying happens. It's where huge parks can be found to stroll through and picnic in on a bench in the sun. It's where buses are slower than pedestrians with all the trafic going through. It's where we found the greatest chocolate tarte in a little corner cafe. It's where we spent a whole afternoon enyoing lunch with a friend. It's where portenos meet to play away there saturday afternoons with incredibly fast games of soccer. It might just be The Place in Buenos Aires.
We went to an asado, an argentinian BBQ, at Federicos awesome house. He is one of the owners of the Academia Buenos Aires (our language school) and invited the students over for friday night. The meat was fantastic, the salads were plenty, the wine flew like a river and the hours grew long. It was a very memorable night with great company, plenty of laughter and perfect food. The hospitability of Federico and his beautiful wife won't be forgotten in a long long while.
With its colonial old cobbled streets, antique houses of Spanish and Portuguese (and often mixed) styles, the restored city wall, tons of museums, little cafes and a lighthouse that affords picturesque views over the city, the river and, in the far distance, Buenos Aires, it will surely make every tourist fall in love with it in an instant. The scenic site of the city on a small peninsula with tons of white city beaches and its absolute calmness (at least after the constant hassle of Buenos Aires) are the icing on the cake that is Colonia. We like.
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen