Travel notes & humour -- bits and pieces.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Here are some of the more peculiar and out of the ordinary things that have happened to us so far in Argentina...
- Stopping on the zebra crossing in the middle of Avenida Corrientes to take a photo of the Obelisk. I had to shoot and scoot as the intersection was for 5 different roads and drivers here don't pay much attention to the pedestrians here.
- Speaking of the roads and drivers, 9 de Julio as I posted about earlier is indeed a monster! It's a bit daunting crossing it in peak hour with taxi drivers, biker hoons and delivery drivers all revving their engines waiting to get the jump on the lights.
- Kellie and I have both come down with a cold which is unfortunate. It hasn't affected us too much but I slept for 14 hours the first night I became sick to help me recover (I guess going out the night before did me in too --- about 4am at La Viruta again).
- Visiting Recoleta cemetary with its avenues of mausoleum after mausoleum of old dignataries, doctors, politicians and celebrities. There were quite a few really spectacular structures that are higher than most people's houses. A few things though: there are cats everywhere here and they are very well looked after with water dishes placed out for them; an equally large population of mosquitoes so we were continually slapping each other's backs and waving arms everywhere; there are quite a few workers here doing restorations or generally cleaning the structures... one enterprising workman had turned one of the mausoleums into a storage shed for his ladders, buckets and cleaning tools; a rather disturbing site was the leaking mausoleum -- I am not kidding -- and the smell was horrible. Also managed to bump into Peter and Lisa who were just out for a stroll which seemed a bit peculiar in a city of over 12 million people.
- We've moved to our other accommodation in Palermo already (happened last weekend) and we had been searching for an internet cafe in the area. The closest we could find was about 2 blocks away... fair enough. A few days later, on servicing a chocolate craving Kellie discovered a Kiosk with an excellent suite of new computers with great internet connection hidden out the back. This place is right next door to where we are staying. Oh well. Live and learn.
- When we go out for a meal, Kellie has usually been going for water or soft drink while I've been working my way through the beer selection. Every time she orders a cola or lemonade (e.g. Coke or Sprite, Pepsi or 7up), she is always corrected by the waiter as they only stock the other brand. Without fail... happens almost every time.
- While out shoe shopping we ended up being held up a little at Tango Brujo by a busy store, but ended up trying on a lot of shoes. Ended up walking away with 3 pairs (1 for me, 2 for Kellie) of cool shoes and then walking the short distance to the next group of stores. I received a very warm reception at Flabella shoes by one of the owners/shoemakers who walked me through their selection and copied my attempts at Spanish which I'm not sure were affirmations of what I was saying, an attempt to hurry me up or just his wry sense of humour. Probably all of the above, but he spoke a bit of English anyway. Visited the store next door called Darcos Shoes where Kellie wanted to try on some clothes. I was stuck with all of the shopping which included our 3 pairs of shoes from Tango Brujo, with nice gold ¨Tango Brujo¨ lettering all over them and my much more conservative Fabio Shoes bag. The owner walked past me and asked if I danced and before I could answer he pointed to all of the bags and agreed that Yes, I could probably do a few moves. Anyway he continued studying the bags and noticed where they were from. He remarked with a casual ¨Eh, their shoes are okay... but mine are better! I know where my materials come from and make all of my shoes.¨ I guess he doesn't like them very much. Anyway... I don't think we bought anything there. Hehe.
Posted byAndrew at 4:10 am
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