Remember, remember...

It is the ´Week of Remembrance´ in Argentina, and this is what we remembered during the last couple of days:

- Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo:

The last week was all about remembering the Military Rule in Argentina (76 -83). Of course we participated and took an afternoon of history classes about this period, to learn and understand more about what actually happened. It was pretty horrific, especially the fate of the tens of thousands Desaparecidos, the people that disappeared without a trace (and were mostly killed). Since many of them were children that were taken from their families and given to others, many women went on the streets (especially the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires) to openly protest for the investigation of these crimes. These madres de plaza de mayo (and all the people that joined them in their cause since 1977) are still working on reuniting long lost family members. Many amazing, shocking, happy and sad stories can be told. The Cafe de las madres de plaza de mayo is a great place to drink a cheap coffee in a very lefty atmosphere, surrounded by pictures of all the red revolutionaries from around the world (yes, of course, Che was larger than live) with an adjacent little political bookshop and lots of opportunities for polarized discussions.

- Follow the cow if the locals do it too:

When not only other tourists but also all the porteños kept raving about the great food of Siga la Vaca (´Follow the cow¨) we had no choice but to actually go and test it. We met with a couple of friends for dinner - and stayed half the night, eating our way through a massive all you can eat asado, salad buffet and huge desserts a la carte. The fact that one bottle of wine per person was also included just added to the good mood...After all the overindulgence it was no wonder that half of the class in our Spanish School was unable to think one straight thought the next morning...

- The teacher is always right:

No. Teachers aren´t always right. But this one was when she told us about a great place to enjoy our first Submarino. While we always found it strange to find an alcoholic drink like that under the heading "Coffee and Co." in the menu, we learned that an Argentinian ´submarine´ has nothing to do with beer and shots whatsoever. Instead it is a stick of yummie dark chocolate that goes down in a great pot of hot milk. Of course we went to try it. After a quite long search for the right cafe (that included us and a friend crossing the cafe a couple of times without realizing it) we ended up in the right place with the right choice. The submarino was brilliant and we spent the whole afternoon enjoying it with good talks and lots of laughter. Thanks teacher!

- The dead in their castles:

We went on a tour around glitzy Recoleta, a very posh and glamorous part of Buenos Aires. The highlight of the tour was a visit to the famous cemetary. It boasts tons of magnificient (and slightly creepy) mausoleums of the rich and famous of Argentina. Evita lays here and gets all the crowds for obvious reasons. Other graves are much more imposing,though, and yet some others seem to be long forgotten and ooze of sadness. The whole cemetary looks like a city in itself, a grey and cold but very beautiful resting place. You can get lost in its alleyways and keep wandering around it for hours - but it also feels strangely relieving to leave this place again and step back into the loud and restless world of the living.

-To keep travelling:

We spent three weeks in Buenos Aires. We fell in love with the city, the atmosphere of San Telmo, being back to school and having a purposeful task and finally making friends for more than just 2 days. Then we realized that we spent three weeks in just one place. Same sights, same streets, same people, same routine, same everything for three weeks. And we remembered that it´s time for us to move on. So we quit language school, packed our bags and bought our tickets. We´re going to Cordoba.


 -To really keep travelling:
When the ceiling literally starts crushing down on you, you know it's really time to leave - now! (As happened to us during the last night in our homely appartment. We're out of there.)