Buenos Aires
It has been difficult to write about Buenos Aires. Before leaving I just thought I would like the city and that it would be easy to write about it after coming back home. We always have to consider that just one week is not enough, of course, to get to know the spirit of a city. Nevertheless I thought I was going to find what I have always thought about it: an European City in South America.
Buenos Aires is much more. I knew I was going to see a French heritage in Recoleta neighbourhood and the Italian heritage in La Boca. But I was surprised also (and should not had been) with the Spanish heritage in buildings like the Cabildo and the Manzanas de Las Luces, both close to the Magnificent Plaza de Mayo, and the Church Nuestra Senhora de Pilar at Recoleta.
I have been to much farther places, to distant latitudes and longitudes, but had not been before to Buenos Aires, which is only a three hours fly from home, and that we can reach even by ground. The truth is that it took too long for me to come to this city.
Maybe because I thought (erroneously) I knew already before hand what I was going to see. Maybe because I thought it was just a copy of Paris in a smaller scale (also a mistake), or it was just a lack of opportunity of coming to the city with the right person, at the right time, when the economic aspect was appropriate.
Since I was a child, I always dreamed to visit two major cities in Brazil. Salvador and Porto Alegre. The reason, I believe, is that these two cities are the capital cities of States of very peculiar cultures that differs a lot from the rest of the country. The “baiano” and the “gaúcho”, the natives of Bahia and Rio Grande do Sul are characters very much distinguished in Brazil. I have been to Salvador, but not yet, at the age of 44, to Porto Alegre. I prefer then to think that I need a time to mature, to get prepared to be ready to Porto Alegre.
I tend to believe the same was happening to Buenos Aires. I was just getting prepared to it. Unlikely Porto Alegre though, that most of my friends say I will not find a very interesting city (but I believe I will), Buenos Aires has always been told to me as a magnificent city.
And it revealed more.
It has been difficult to write about Buenos Aires. Before leaving I just thought I would like the city and that it would be easy to write about it after coming back home. We always have to consider that just one week is not enough, of course, to get to know the spirit of a city. Nevertheless I thought I was going to find what I have always thought about it: an European City in South America.
Buenos Aires is much more. I knew I was going to see a French heritage in Recoleta neighbourhood and the Italian heritage in La Boca. But I was surprised also (and should not had been) with the Spanish heritage in buildings like the Cabildo and the Manzanas de Las Luces, both close to the Magnificent Plaza de Mayo, and the Church Nuestra Senhora de Pilar at Recoleta.
I have been to much farther places, to distant latitudes and longitudes, but had not been before to Buenos Aires, which is only a three hours fly from home, and that we can reach even by ground. The truth is that it took too long for me to come to this city.
Maybe because I thought (erroneously) I knew already before hand what I was going to see. Maybe because I thought it was just a copy of Paris in a smaller scale (also a mistake), or it was just a lack of opportunity of coming to the city with the right person, at the right time, when the economic aspect was appropriate.
Since I was a child, I always dreamed to visit two major cities in Brazil. Salvador and Porto Alegre. The reason, I believe, is that these two cities are the capital cities of States of very peculiar cultures that differs a lot from the rest of the country. The “baiano” and the “gaúcho”, the natives of Bahia and Rio Grande do Sul are characters very much distinguished in Brazil. I have been to Salvador, but not yet, at the age of 44, to Porto Alegre. I prefer then to think that I need a time to mature, to get prepared to be ready to Porto Alegre.
I tend to believe the same was happening to Buenos Aires. I was just getting prepared to it. Unlikely Porto Alegre though, that most of my friends say I will not find a very interesting city (but I believe I will), Buenos Aires has always been told to me as a magnificent city.
And it revealed more.
From the politeness of taxi drivers, trains, subways and buses personal to the kindness of people on the streets and stores, always ready to give you an information. After you say “Gracias!" (thank you), they answer “No, por favor!" (no, please! - as if saying that it is the contrary, that they had the pleasure to help you. By the way, the Spanish spoken is so peculiar. And the human factor made a difference. There´s something that unite us, and though there´s no many oriental faces in Buenos Aires, I felt completely at home. Never felt as a foreigner.
In the endless walks you´ll take in the city you will find something very interesting. In every corner in downtown or close to Plaza Miserere or Recoleta or in the distant Barrio of Villa Crespo, you will see either an impressive neoclassical building, or a great sculpture or a romantic coffee shop or a bistro, and tables on the sidewalks, inviting you for a drink. You can have then a sidra (while Juliana preferred the Quilmes beer); the French fries (papas fritas) that I would compare to those one that are sold in the streets of Amsterdam and that were the best I had ever tasted; the dishes from Patagonia; the habit of sitting for a long time while drinking a coffee and appreciating the coming and going of people in the streets; the habit of going out for dinner late at night, usually after a show around 11 pm and walking back home through crowded streets.
The variety and amount of bookstores that still opened until 11 pm, some to midnight, with sales, in the downtown area are so nice. An invitation to reading. I am finally reading Adolfo Bioy Casares and loves it.
The city was a wonderful experience.
