Saturday, when I arrived we had breakfast at a health food restaurant--french toast with frutas rojas and cafe con leche. Moved into our super cute little apartment (where we got a very thorough reading of the lease from the landlord and were warned to not pull up the outdoor metal shutters all the way). We decided to have dessert every day while I'm here (this could be dangerous after two weeks), so we had our first serving of gelato from Freddo, my favorite place--I had dark chocolate sorbet and dulce de leche with brownies. Walked through the art market, met Tiff's friend Ignacio for coffee. We then went to dinner with Cannon, an 18 year old guy who's taking a year off before college and met Tiffany at the ruins a couple of weeks ago. He's really fun, and was able to convince us to go across the street for "a drink" after dinner even though Tiffany is sick and I had only slept three hours on the plane the night before. The bar was in this really old building with elaborate molding, huge ceilings made of brick, ornate furniture... and an Ultimate Fighting Championship match on the big screen. Talk about a strange juxtaposition! In true Buenos Aires (and 18 year old American) fashion, we ended up staying out til 3:00am instead of sticking around for 30 minutes!
Needless to say, the next morning was spent sleeping in! Remember how I said the landlord warned us about opening the metal shutters all the way? Well, of course the second day I was here I broke them. We went to San Telmo to the art market where I bought two original pieces of art (super excited)!
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Astrid, Tiffany's friend from church came over in the evening for dessert from our neighborhood patisserie--a mini lemon maringue tart, apple streusel, and tiramissiu. Then, dinner at an awesome organic vegetarian restaurant called Bio. Super cute place, quinoa with goat cheese and veggies! We're going to all the "non-traditional" Argentine restaurants this week since next week in Mendoza will be chock full of milanesa, steaks, pizza, and pasta.
Monday morning we went for cafe con leche and medialunas (mini croissants with honey). Tiffany went to meet up with her new research assistant and I wondered around Palermo--first venture out alone since I've been here. Palermo is definitely my favorite neighborhood--young, artsy, tons of ethnic restaurants and chill bars. It's grown so much since I was here last, so it was fun exploring the new shops. Tiffany joined me, and we went to our favorite paper store, Papeleria Palermo. It's a hip little shop where they make their own paper products and screen print big sheets of paper. The first time I came, I bought a piece of tissue paper with a screen printed man and woman in old fashion swimsuits standing on a beach. After a few years hanging on my window and being subjected to condensation, it began to deteriorate. So, I was super excited to buy something new.
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Wandered around the neighborhood some more, and saw a really peaceful looking collection of shops set back from the street. You walked through a gravel-filled courtyard with succulents (my favorite) and into a European-style home store, so fun to check out. In the same area was a tea shop called Tealosophy with the most delicious fragrance! Big bowls of gorgeous loose tea leaves.
They were rated the World's Second Best Tea Shop last year, and the Queen of England and the Dalai Lama are their customers. We purchased these tea cups for loose tea and the Frida Khalo chocolate almond variety.
Then, we went for our afternoon coffee and dessert of the day--a brownie layered with cream cheese and berries! Hung out there for a while reading magazines, and I learned a new word. Heals on high healed shoes are called tacos or taquitos depending on the height. This will come in handy! Tiffany found a yoga class taught by Americans a while back, so we hit that up. Totally needed it! Then, went for Moroccan lamb with pesto and an awesome fruit salad of grapefruit and mangoes with cinnamon syrup and orange mint ice. Ended the evening on a rooftop lounge with good conversation and frozen drinks called 007 Arriba en Un Elephante (007 up on an elephant)... we got some good laughs out of that one!
I am sooo lucky to be spending my vacation with my best friend in a place I love so much! Yay for Argentina!
Sounds like so much fun. I want a taste of your desserts and meals. Yum!
ReplyDeletesound UHMAZING!!!!!! :D
ReplyDeleteThe city is inspiring and cosmopolitan. Tere are so many things to do that sometimes you can feel overwhelmed by variety. There is this great place, Confiteria Ideal. A sense of nostalgia pervades this aging but elegant club where the tango brings locals and tourists together. Afternoon lessons are a prelude to evening dance parties. The buenos aires apartments I stayed in were near these coffee house and I spent nice moments hanging out there. I recommend it!
ReplyDeletenday