Lines..BA Musings - part deux

• I don't think I've seen as many lines in any one country as I have in Argentina. I don't know if the country is seriously underbanked or what, but there always appears to be lines at bank ATMs (add to that bus stations, airport, taxi stations, tax offices, supermarkets (15 minutes in the express line)).
• Men standing in front of apartment buildings seemed to be a big thing. Just - hanging out - not really doing anything.
  
• Argentinian women look slightly angry..all the time. Maybe that's the definition of smoldering - it certainly makes the heart palpate. Maybe men are all children at heart who need a bit of stern discipline :-).
• Steak - order it rare - because anything you order will be well done or near well done.

That's it - whinerish guy out.

La Bombonera!

La Boca, the gritty, poor and blue collar neighborhood lies to the south of Buenos Aires and is home to the Bombonera ("the Chocolate Box'), the home stadium of the Boca Juniors, one the most popular sporting clubs in the country.

I was interested in touring the stadium as well as the museum in the stadium for several reasons. First off, CABJ has the same colors as the team I support in Turkey (although I am not sure what the origin story is for Fenerbahce's choice of colors - the myth around CABJ's color selection tells the story of the founders choosing the colors based on the colors of the flag of the next ship entering the port - which just happened to be flying a Swedish flag). Secondly, it seemed like a good jumping off point for checking out El Caminito, the, admittedly heavily touristy, area with pastel colored houses and tango performances galore.

All of my guide books contained strong warnings about walking to La Boca as well as walking off the beaten path when in La Boca. Despite the multiple warnings, after getting some instructions from my hostel I ended up walking down Defensa (known for La Feria - the all day Sunday antiques market) and rapidly hoofing it through a park and Avenida Almirante A. Brown. If you must walk to La Boca, I would advise doing it during the day - the streets off the stadium and tourist sections are actually fairly deserted and even the Argentinians I spoke to said they would be wary of travel to La Boca during the night.

The museum was pretty neat - worth a visit if you're a "futbol" fan. There was a section with tens of televisions showing highlights from prior national and international championships by the club - although for me the highlight was the stadium itself. I don't think they build stadiums like this one anymore. Completed in the 1950s, the seating is extremely close to the field, with barbed wired fences separating the fans from the players. Unfortunately they had just finished the season so I was unable to watch a game, but I can definitely imagine it being a real crackerbox of a stadium to play or watch a football match in.

The other interesting observation is the merchandising aspect of it. I'm so used to seeing heavy amounts of merchandising in the US for pro teams (and Fenerbahce is actually exceedingly good at this for a football club). CABJ had surprisingly little for sale at the stadium and a number of seemingly knock-off stores around the stadium.

Buenos Aires Pizza Roundup

Someone in the hostel from London said "the only problem with Buenos Aires is that there are only 2 choices for food: pizza and steak". I punched him in the face and he didn't say much after that.

Argentina's largely (although not solely) a country of immigrants and large portion of those were of Italian origin so as you can imagine there's a lot of very good Italian food here, including my chewy crust obsession. Here's a brief overview of the pizza I had the chance to try (and there were countless places I did not have a chance to try - most notably La Mezetta and El Cuartito - which are on the list for the next trip).

Romario Pizza

I was not expecting to eat at a chain in my stay in BA, but Romario Pizza is not your grandfather's chain. First off, the woodburning brick oven pizzeria only has locations in BA. Secondly, it was heavily recommended by a number of locals as their place to pick up a pie. And last, well, I was quasi-lost (and although it was on my list for a later visit) and ended up making a pit-stop for a couple of delicious slices.

Highs: best fugazza I had in BA (thicker, pan style pizza with onions), excellent thin chewy crust on the plain pizza, cheap (2 slices and 2 beers for $5).

Senor Telmo

Situated in San Telmo, off the very busy Defensa street, this rustic cafe serves up some good pie. I got seated in here after wandering Defensa for several hours. Service was spotty but the pie was good and the beer cold.

Highs: good crust and robust sauce, cheap

Lows: too much cheese and not a huge cubed ham fan - just something about the texture doesn't work for me.


Pizza Guerin

When a pizzeria has been around since 1932, you figure it has to be pretty darn good. And in the case of Pizza Guerin, "pretty good" is an understatement. I ended up coming back to this pizza institution twice in one day.

Highs: delicate red sauce, "especial" with marinated red bell peppers a work of art, great faina (chickpea based crust) and supremely cheap (80 cents for a slice - are you kidding me?)

Lows: verduras (veggie pizza) good, not great. Crust is very good but on the thicker side (a cross between pan and thin)

The Verdict - I would visit Romario or Guerin any day of the week but I would have to give the edge to (gasp!) the chain. The crust was thinnner which was more to my liking. I also like the fact that they made the individual slices when I ordered them as opposed to it being part of a larger pizza that was simply reheated.

Buenos Aires knows its wireless

Even in the subway. This city rocks.

MALBA

I spent an afternoon at the MALBA - the last of my Palermo afternoons I should add - from here on out, I am going to be based out of San Telmo, which is a lot more central as far as access to multiple subway lines and general proximity of interesting sights/restaurants.

Back to the MALBA (Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires) though - this may have been my best art museum experience in a very long time. Solely focused on Latin American art and artists, the place is a wonder. You get the feeling that you're in for something special when you enter the museum and are greeted with a blindingly white, visually expansive and elegant 3 floor space (who I wish UT had looked at before designing the Blanton (or maybe it should be called the Blandton from an architectural standpoint)).

The exhibits themselves are housed mostly chronologically and run the gamut from modern art to video art to set pieces featuring complex mechanical systems. I think I enjoyed the "Wrinkle" series from Liliana Porter as well the pieces from Antonio Dias. MALBA also has featured films, so if you're in BA looking for an art fix, I can't think of a better venue to visit.

The WT's Top 2(?!) Travel Accessories - 2008 edition

Welcome to the second edition of the WT's Top X Travel Accessories. The inaugral edition can be found here.

Granted, this is only a week in Argentina but some of this gear deserves a mention (and there has been thus far no cluster of the type I experienced with my bag in 2006 - on the contrary..anyway you'll have to read on) - so here we go...


1. My netbook AKA the Samsung NC10 - I didn't realize how handy this thing would be when I got it. It weighs less than 3 pounds, has a usable keyboard, great battery life (I've hit close to 7 hours with the max battery settings), a large hard drive and built in wi-fi. I've got a number of movies on there as well as my music collection (and it also conveniently acts as a charger for my phone). There are a lot of great netbook options out there right now. The MSI Wind can be found for under $400 and the new generation of netbooks look to be somewhat cheaper and probably a lot more powerful (why really though - this thing, outside of hardcore dev and games, does everything one needs). Great value and definitely useful for the traveler on the go - most of the blog posts for this trip were made with this computer.



2.Osprey Meridian Wheeled Backpack - I was somewhat iffy on this when I first played around with it at REI - it seemed stiff to me and I was somewhat befuddled by the design decision to put the zipper to the daypack in the back of the daypack (with only a small access window up front). I ended up ordering it anyway and the more I've used, the more I truly appreciate it. The access from the back of the daypack is perfect for limiting access from pickpockets and the front parts of the daypack have zippers that are hidden and which need to be firmly pulled to open (i.e. you would definitely feel it if someone tried). The other cool thing is that the back of the dayback has a couple of layers, one of them being mesh. It's about as ventilated a day pack as I've comfortably worn. Other cool things include the ability to zip the dayback to the main bag, a perfectly apportioned mainbag with simply a superb back support system (unlike the Swiss Army Gear from my prior review) and tons of well placed nooks and crannies for organizing all your travel gear.

On the misuse of English overseas...

There's something inherently funny when one is traveling and observes English phrases that don't quite make sense. Having assiduously trotted about into a decent number of corners of the world, these malformed phrases give me an odd feeling of comfort about the trustworthiness of a culture. I feel like, if these guys are not going to check with a native speaker about a particular phrase, the likelihood of them mugging me and then beating me to a bloody pulp is considerably less (an untested and likely incorrect theory for certain - but an intriguing one).

In any case, these are just a couple of the images I've captured in Buenos Aires so far. For more amusing mis-phraseology, check out James Fallows' recent posts, including one on the Amazing Slop that he's encountered in China (oh and while you're at it - he does have a cool article on his trip to Istanbul here).

p.s. of course, this post does not in any way excuse my constant butchering of Spanish on my short visit thus far.

One more quick Hotel shot...

I live behind this....

Hotel 5 Cool Rooms

My room is small, ascetic but oddly cozy and very functional. Definitely a single this one. Great terrace and jacuzzi upstairs and free wi-fi (with better speeds than Road Runner - especially on upload - no wonder we're 15th in global broadband ratings - kudos Argentina) and in the heart of Palermo SoHo. It should be good for 3 days, after which I will downshift to a hostel (and try not to think about any weird movies with the same name).

Arrival in Buenos Aires...Musings...

It's been a little while since I've traveled internationally, not counting any recent trips to Turkey of course. I sometimes wonder if you looked at life expectancies, if those individuals with an enduring sense wanting to travel, discover, be curious, be active beat out the homebodies?

Any sense of superiority withstanding, I am stoked about what I've seen in Argentina and also how quickly I've been taken advantage of!

Some quick observations before we get the party in high gear...

• My snookering: after reading in guide after guide that I should only ride in radio-taxis/remises, what I do after extracing money from seemingly the only ATM within a half-mile? I hop on to a taxi (in my defense I did wait for a little while and no radio taxis came by....). The final bill - 120 pesos - roughly 10 more dollars than what I've seen quoted in most guides. I was going to Palermo though, which is further North - so...who knows...
• On the positive side, my cabby was jovial enough, even though he looked like a denizen of the 9th Ward. Also he did a Hail Mary every time we passed a church - 8 times within the 45 minute ride to the hotel. This was interesting to watch.
• Buenos Aires reminds me of...Istanbul of all places. If you compare the cities - they have similar populations, account for a large population of their country (although Buenos Aires accounts for over a third of Argentina), feature a significant underclass and have a lot of cheap, really good food.
• Even more so than just the numbers though, there's this odd sense of urban renewal amid a decaying, rotting old city in terms of architecture that makes me place the two together. Granted, Istanbul is the far older city - BA, simply cannot compete in the history department, but there's an intensity and energy about both which cannot be denied and especially the French influenced, older neighborhoods (like Beyoglu and Palermo) evoke one another for me. That and the mish mash style of it all....
• And finally - yes - the women are gorgeous. This is after all the country that gave us Gabi Sabatini - my high school fantasy :-).