I like it here in Buenos Aires

Tuesday, February 28th, 2006

It is both vibrant and calm at the same time, and I can see why people come here and understand why some even stay. We spent enough time here to say, in all honesty, that if you come here, you’ll never regret it. Be it for the people who dance tango in the park in their sneakers on Sunday, or put on a colorful carnival with drums and flags on a Tuesday night, or the architecture and the nightlife.

O yeah. Also in BA, new and original way for children to ask people for money. $1 will get you a dashing portrait and the fuzzy warm feeling of helping an aspiring artist.

( Shurik’s portrait )

Tags: dancing, kids, people
Posted in Places»South America»Argentina | No Comments »

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A parakeet named La Boca

Saturday, February 25th, 2006

Colorful, tiny, and noisy barrio of La Boca is a tight cluster of cafes, shops, and papier-mâché life size figurines. The day we chose to visit it was already packed with activities like moving to a different hostel, as we were not enjoying the company of our new uninvited roommates the Cucarachas, and we also had a dance class later that day, but nevertheless we decided to walk.
We are staying in San Telmo, a neighboring barrio, so it wasn’t exactly far away, but still, the less then scenic walk to La Boca was a waste of time. Since we did not care much for the football stadium we went straight to the main street where we got simply bombarded with flyers from pretty much every cafe on the block. Quiet but pushy, the vendors were persistent, but not very convincing. To us, their determination was more off-putting than anything else and we stayed away until one sign, with a very familiar name for us, caught our eye – El Samovar De Rasputin. With a name like that, how were we not to go in! Inside, as was to be expected, was absolutely nothing Russian whatsoever and my attempt to joke about it with the waitress went completely over her head. Nevertheless, we were hungry, and they had the exact same food as any other joint in sight, so we stayed. At first, I was a bit disappointed we would not get to see the Tango show that other places were offering, but that worry quickly went away as pretty much every where you’d look in La Boca you’d see somebody dancing Tango for spare change. After lunch we walked around for a bit among the colorful artisan vendors and the even more colorful houses that La Boca is so famous for. They are actually quite remarkable with some walls colored in four different colors and vibrant signs in their fronts. La Boca was cute, but very loud and a bit repetitive so after we made sure we saw all there was to see, we took a cab back to San Telmo.

Tags: architecture
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More Tango

Friday, February 24th, 2006

I think I jinxed us. I really, really didn’t mean it but I think I did because for the past three days it didn’t stop raining. Of course, Buenos Aires does not lack in indoor activities, but the rain has made the atmosphere around here sort off depressing. For the next few days all we did is mellow out in the TV/Internet room with some Israelis who were also staying in the same hostel, and slithered out into the wet streets only to find a dry place to grab a bite or sneak in a Tango lesson.
( more… )

Tags: dancing
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Love to love Buenos Aires

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2006

It has the hustle and bustle of a large city, but at the same time also the charm of a quiet little town. In parts it reminds me of NYC. It’s just that in NYC you most of the time feel some meanness in the air together with its great energy and power, but here you feel calm and vigor, just like anything can happen.

It hasn’t been two days now and just by walking around we have managed to discover a handful of interesting little places like this tiny book-shop where literature of all sort and kind is held down with antics and strange papier-mâché figures emerge from under tables and shelves and hang from the ceiling. In the shop, apart from dusty books and surreal art, we found three men who were interested in anything but selling books. I asked if it was alright to take some pictures of the store, and the next thing we knew we were invited to try the local Mate, a sort of thick tea drunk from a wooden cup through a metal straw with a strainer on the bottom end. Ingenious.

Tags: dancing, food
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Chebur-out-of-here

Wednesday, February 15th, 2006

Here’s some exciting news! On the 20th of February we will continue our journey, going back to South America. Also, we have a new companion that’s going to join us in our travels. He’s an immigrant just like us and is used to traveling in small dark containers. ( more… )

Posted in Places»North America»USA | No Comments »

Sugar sweet defeat

Saturday, February 11th, 2006

I have to admit, we really didn’t plan to stay in the US as long as we did, but one thing led to another and between taxes, website, blog writing and family events (two birthdays and a double bat mitzvah), we sort of got a bit stuck. Nevertheless, this didn’t stop us from having fun! Boris, Shurik’s brother in law, invited us to go skiing with him and his friends to North Carolina, and if anyone knows Shurik, it’s like asking a bear if he would like some honey, so of course we went. Sugar Mountain in North Carolina was pretty nice. The weather was just right — cold enough to ski, but not too cold to arrive at the end of the lift as a popsicle. We were supposed to ski for four days, but of course our newly acquired adventurous spirit could not let it end at that. Anna, our fourteen year old niece, got bored of skiing by the end of the second day and spent the third one snowboarding her butt off (literally) which looked like a lot of fun. And even though the next day she was saying every bone in her body was sore, and she could not move her neck, me and Shurik were determined to try it out.

Well, what can I say, it didn’t end well. Two runs down the bunny slope and Shurik was ready to try a green hill. “We don’t even know how to turn or stop without breaking the fall with our own bones,” I pleaded. “Neah,” Shurik replied, “the green slope is the same as the bunny hill, just a bit longer, and it has a lift”. Well, what could I say to that? We took the lift to the green hill, and to my surprise I didn’t break my neck getting off it! With new found confidence, we began sliding down taking turns to watch each other fall on the knees or butt. We almost went half way through the slope and Shurik was watching me go down a not particularly steep hill, when a beginner skier who I though would get out of my way by the time I reach her, stopped dead in her treks. Before I could think of anything to do, my board wrapped around the front of her legs, and I slammed my knees into the backs of her boots. Actually, this could have been not as bad as it turned out to be, if only consequently the woman skier would not have fallen on me throwing her skies up in the air and then landing their edges once again on my knee. Man, did that hurt. In broad day light I saw stars all around me. And just like that, my snowboarding experience for that day was over. No worries though, my knees didn’t break; however, walking using my left leg was not an option either. The rest of the slope I did on my butt, sitting on the board and braking with my hands. From there, Shurik gave me a piggyback ride to the cafeteria where I was spotted by a ski patrol dude who insisted I go to their First Aid cabin to dress the gash in my knee and fill out a report. Such is life. Although it is pretty pathetic of me to travel through South America for the past two month, climbing mountains, riding bikes, and sliding dunes, only to hurt myself on the easiest mountain I ever skied on.

Tags: health, skiing, us
Posted in Places»North America»USA | No Comments »