Buenos Aires, Part 1
After a sobering bus ride (Yes, pun intended) we arrived one of the favourite cities amongst backpackers, Buenos Aires. After a hop skip and a jump we checked into the party extradinaire hostel Milhouse. Hostel Inn, eat your heart out! There are almost 200 people there every night and another full hostel of people that go to each Monday and Thursday night party. We arrived for the Monday night party and man, that was one hell of a start.
We started off checking out the plaza close to the hostel. There is some very nice architecture around Buenos Aires. It has a very European feel. In fact, I thought I was back in Madrid when I stepped out of the subway. The people look like Spaniards, the buildings have an old European influence and everyone there tries to act European too.
The Tuesday was St.Patty´s day. You´re probably thinking, oh big deal, St.Patty´s day in South America? Well it´s a huge deal there. They block off over 10 blocks in the Irish area of the city for a huge street party. Feeling the Irish in ourselves we set out to get some sweet green costumes. So of course we got matching green shorts and white tshirts for people to write on pub crawl style. This was a great way to meet people. We arrived to the street party a bit late. People were Irish drunk by this point. Guys were climbing the light posts and sitting on the lights. Sometimes three at a time would do that. Before we knew it a cop tried to grab a guy climbing the pole and all shit broke loose. His friends through heavy beer bottles at the cops and everybody panicked and ran throwing more beer bottles at the masses. It was full-out mayhem. Beer bottles were flying everywhere, people were getting mashed over the head, guys were falling off the poles and surprise surprise, we all lost eachother. But we did survive the riot. After trying to get into a bar I found my Australian friend Matt who got slapped in the face by a bum for walking over his carpet. Haha, don´t worry he was OK.
The next day we did a little more sightseeing and I helped Julio find a camera. We decided to take her easy that night in light of a big party coming up the next day at Milhouse.
The next day we did the Boca tour hosted by the hostel. This the poorer community that is home to the famous Boca Junior team the Maradona played for. The Boca fans are said to be the craziest fans in Argentina. All the houses in the area have the Bohemian look with the houses painted all sorts of colours. This because the residents couldn´t afford paint out of the stores so they used the leftover paint from the rich. Gotta do what you gotta do. We checked out the Boca Junior Museum and went inside the stadium.
That night was another huge hostel party. After our prohibition party in the room we checked it out and went to a big club called Club 69. This one was a little different than the other clubs. It had a huge stage in the front with transvestite dancers and breakdancers to crazy flips and spins. Can´t say I saw that one coming but it was pretty entertaining...the break dancers that is!
On Friday we checked out Ricoletta. According to the lady there it is the third most important cemetary in the world. It is a cemetary for all the famous and important people of Argentina´s history. The biggest name being Evita (Remember that Madonna movie way back then?). She was one of the most famous Argenitnian presidents. She was a huge influence on women´s rights and did a lot of great things for Argentina. There was even a line up to take picture´s of her grave. You go girl!
That night we decided to check out a pub crawl around Buenos Aires. We heard a lot of good things about this pub crawl but tonight was not the night to go. I´ve seen more girls in a men´s locker room. So we decided to take advantage of the hour open bar and make the best of the night. The drinking didn´t slow down after the open bar thanks to our Irish friend. The memory was a little sparse after that...
The next day we met up with Cole´s local friend to check out El Tigre. El Tigre is a city outside Buenos Aires´s huge river. They claim it´s the widest river in the world. River or ocean? Who knows. We rented a row boat to hit up the island in the middle of the river. There people can swim, play volleyball, soccer or just soak up the rays. We did all of the above. The locals say the water is clean. The water might be brown because it´s shallow but that doesn´t explain the floating pieces in the water. Ok, I guess I´m spoiled because I´m Canadian.
That night we went to a famous club called Pascha. Pascha is a famous chain of clubs that is situated in party cities around the world. It was a pretty amazing place with an incredible DJ. But I think I was the only one not on E. Everybody had shades on and were out of it. And all the Argentinians did the exact same dance. They call it the ¨Handing out the cards¨. I call it wiping your ass with a towel. Ask me to demonstrate if you´re interested in knowing. All in all, a wicked club that definitely deserved another trip.
The next day Peter and Craig arrived from Iguazu Falls. As soon as I saw them we all headed to the local championship between Riverplate and San Martin. The stadium was huge with over 65,000 fans. It was really cool to feel the atmosphere of the game. It isn´t the same watching it on TV. The first half started slow with a week goal by the away team, San Martin. The second half had a lot more action. Halfway through the second half the Riverplate player scored a nice goal to tie it up. At the last minute in injury time the was a foul in the box that lead to a penalty shot. You could´ve cut the tension with a knife. Alas, the Riverplate player scored and everyone just went crazy. I could literally feel the stadium shake. You have to see the video´s we took. Wow! Goosebump moment for sure. After the cheers finally settled down and we tried to leave, we had to wait 40 minutes because they couldn´t get the San Martin fans to leave. They were rioting and ripping out seats. Huh? Guess I´m glad we didn´t go for the cheap seats on the San Martin side, haha...
We started off checking out the plaza close to the hostel. There is some very nice architecture around Buenos Aires. It has a very European feel. In fact, I thought I was back in Madrid when I stepped out of the subway. The people look like Spaniards, the buildings have an old European influence and everyone there tries to act European too.
The Tuesday was St.Patty´s day. You´re probably thinking, oh big deal, St.Patty´s day in South America? Well it´s a huge deal there. They block off over 10 blocks in the Irish area of the city for a huge street party. Feeling the Irish in ourselves we set out to get some sweet green costumes. So of course we got matching green shorts and white tshirts for people to write on pub crawl style. This was a great way to meet people. We arrived to the street party a bit late. People were Irish drunk by this point. Guys were climbing the light posts and sitting on the lights. Sometimes three at a time would do that. Before we knew it a cop tried to grab a guy climbing the pole and all shit broke loose. His friends through heavy beer bottles at the cops and everybody panicked and ran throwing more beer bottles at the masses. It was full-out mayhem. Beer bottles were flying everywhere, people were getting mashed over the head, guys were falling off the poles and surprise surprise, we all lost eachother. But we did survive the riot. After trying to get into a bar I found my Australian friend Matt who got slapped in the face by a bum for walking over his carpet. Haha, don´t worry he was OK.
The next day we did a little more sightseeing and I helped Julio find a camera. We decided to take her easy that night in light of a big party coming up the next day at Milhouse.
The next day we did the Boca tour hosted by the hostel. This the poorer community that is home to the famous Boca Junior team the Maradona played for. The Boca fans are said to be the craziest fans in Argentina. All the houses in the area have the Bohemian look with the houses painted all sorts of colours. This because the residents couldn´t afford paint out of the stores so they used the leftover paint from the rich. Gotta do what you gotta do. We checked out the Boca Junior Museum and went inside the stadium.
That night was another huge hostel party. After our prohibition party in the room we checked it out and went to a big club called Club 69. This one was a little different than the other clubs. It had a huge stage in the front with transvestite dancers and breakdancers to crazy flips and spins. Can´t say I saw that one coming but it was pretty entertaining...the break dancers that is!
On Friday we checked out Ricoletta. According to the lady there it is the third most important cemetary in the world. It is a cemetary for all the famous and important people of Argentina´s history. The biggest name being Evita (Remember that Madonna movie way back then?). She was one of the most famous Argenitnian presidents. She was a huge influence on women´s rights and did a lot of great things for Argentina. There was even a line up to take picture´s of her grave. You go girl!
That night we decided to check out a pub crawl around Buenos Aires. We heard a lot of good things about this pub crawl but tonight was not the night to go. I´ve seen more girls in a men´s locker room. So we decided to take advantage of the hour open bar and make the best of the night. The drinking didn´t slow down after the open bar thanks to our Irish friend. The memory was a little sparse after that...
The next day we met up with Cole´s local friend to check out El Tigre. El Tigre is a city outside Buenos Aires´s huge river. They claim it´s the widest river in the world. River or ocean? Who knows. We rented a row boat to hit up the island in the middle of the river. There people can swim, play volleyball, soccer or just soak up the rays. We did all of the above. The locals say the water is clean. The water might be brown because it´s shallow but that doesn´t explain the floating pieces in the water. Ok, I guess I´m spoiled because I´m Canadian.
That night we went to a famous club called Pascha. Pascha is a famous chain of clubs that is situated in party cities around the world. It was a pretty amazing place with an incredible DJ. But I think I was the only one not on E. Everybody had shades on and were out of it. And all the Argentinians did the exact same dance. They call it the ¨Handing out the cards¨. I call it wiping your ass with a towel. Ask me to demonstrate if you´re interested in knowing. All in all, a wicked club that definitely deserved another trip.
The next day Peter and Craig arrived from Iguazu Falls. As soon as I saw them we all headed to the local championship between Riverplate and San Martin. The stadium was huge with over 65,000 fans. It was really cool to feel the atmosphere of the game. It isn´t the same watching it on TV. The first half started slow with a week goal by the away team, San Martin. The second half had a lot more action. Halfway through the second half the Riverplate player scored a nice goal to tie it up. At the last minute in injury time the was a foul in the box that lead to a penalty shot. You could´ve cut the tension with a knife. Alas, the Riverplate player scored and everyone just went crazy. I could literally feel the stadium shake. You have to see the video´s we took. Wow! Goosebump moment for sure. After the cheers finally settled down and we tried to leave, we had to wait 40 minutes because they couldn´t get the San Martin fans to leave. They were rioting and ripping out seats. Huh? Guess I´m glad we didn´t go for the cheap seats on the San Martin side, haha...
posted by Kean @ 9:19 AM
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