Another busy week in Buenos Aires! I took full advantage of the sunny morning on Tuesday and took a few subways and a bus to San Telmo, one of the cities oldest neighborhoods. Its very interesting because it used to be the neighborhood of the city's rich and famous. When yellow fever hit at the turn of the century, the wealthy fled north and their gorgeous homes were abandoned. These mansions were quickly filled with squatters and immigrants and the neighborhood now has more character than most other areas. It was a great walk before class and an antique lover's dream.
I stopped for a quick cafe in a famous coffee shop on the Plaza Dorrego - straight out of a novel. Dark, dingy, only the sounds of glasses clinking and faint tango music playing in the background. It was delightful and my cafe came with little cookies.
From there I was off to class. Class was long. I am not gifted with innate ability to use the subjuntive conditional tenses in Spanish. I do get an A for effort.
After class I was off to another cafe - this time I picked another 'destination cafe' from my guidebook. It is called "El Gato Negro" - the black cat. The building is a tiny storefront on the busy street of Corrientes but walking in was like time traveling. Its a huge old refectory and smells like every tea and spice you can imagine. It was a great cafe con leche and alfajor break.
From drinking coffee we turned to drinking wine at my 3rd wine tasting class. It was delightful as Augustin taught us how to compare wines, taste for different levels of oak and pair with different styles of meat and cheeses. Another success!
I RAN home from the tasting to change for Carrie's birthday dinner. Cristina was so kind and ironed my dress as I threw on makeup and got ready. I was out the door in 15 minutes to meet the girls in Las Canitas, a cute neighborhood 'down the hill' from Belgrano. We found a restaurant and 10 of us dined well on steak, cheese and red wine. I had squash stuffed ravioli, as I can never turn down "calabaza" (squash). It was delightful. From dinner we walked through the neighborhood to a fun 'theme bar' called Soul Cafe. We were the only people (it was a Tuesday) but it was great and I enjoyed the company and the drinks. The ceiling lights of giant die were my favorite part -
I was exhausted!! Another great, busy day in Buenos Aires.
I love it here.
Tess
Is that a new scarf I see?!
ReplyDelete