Vino We Are Dinomite: Buenos Dias en Buenos Aires

I know I haven't been to all that many cities around the world, but I now know that Buenos Aires could eat Denver as a snack! With ~11 million (very stylish) people throughout the city, you can feel the hustle and bustle no matter where you are. It is filled with contrast - buildings that look to be several hundred years old stand adjacent to 20 floor glass skyscrapers; the wide avenues versus the long green parks; our Colorado fashion sense versus everyone else. Many buildings are either painted bright colors or are decorated with huge murals. If they are tan, like many of the apartment buildings, they are colored by the drying clothes hanging from balconies. Our apartment is directly across the street from a park, with trees so large you can't see the ground below. We are here in the midst of fall, so the green leaves are turning and some fall off the trees with each gust of wind. One thing that I really can't get over are the roads. I'm not sure if the drivers are excellent or terrible, but I've never seen such confidence while surrounded by cars close enough to touch on every side. Lanes are definitly just a suggestion, and they don't even bother putting up stop signs or speed limits. It feels like a big river, or at least that's how I see it. Stick with me - the buses are like the whale sharks (apparently a salt water river), that only stop when they really feel like it. Then there are the regular fish (I don't know a lot about marine life, sorry) who travel in big seemingly disorganized schools but they all seem to know where they are going. Then there are the guppies (now it's a fresh salt water river, be cool) who are the crazy fast motorcycles and mopeds that FLY through the cars and congregate in packs at the front of every stoplight until they speed off again. No matter the hour, there is a constant buzz coming from the street, with the not-so-occasional series of honks. Despite the insane number of cars, the air was weirdly clean due to the constant slight breeze from the water. Now I understand the name Buenos Aires!

When travelling with Vic, it's always a good time for Dutch Blitz.

Apparently we don't have enough Wi-Fi to upload pictures to the internet at the moment, so I will try to add some later! (Update - "later" is over a year and a half (and a quarantine) later. I suck!) The first few hours off the plane consisted of the most important things - food and sleep. In case you were wondering, our love for siestas has not declined one bit since Spain. Once we woke up feeling like humans again, we began what would be a 3-day exploration of the city, thanks to our incredible tour guide and Argentinian Mama Mariana. We began in Palermo and walked through a beautiful modern art museum there called the Malba. Then we made a huge loop passed the university, which had a HUGE flower art piece thing in the garden, followed by Recoleta, which had even more neat architecture and beautiful artwork. There was an exhibit of murals and graffiti there, which was really neat. After that we took a break at an ice cream shop, as we do best, where we had our first of many ice cream cups (my lactose-free self included!). We ended our first day by having dinner with Cecilia, the nice lady who let us stay in her apartment. What we didn't tell her is that I broke one of the beds in our apartment by shifting my weight towards Victoria while she was sitting on the end. Don't worry, we are engineers now, we fixed it - I just never touched that end again. However, this created an additional challenge for my short little buddy, Addy, as she had to stretch her stubby legs over the bed to get to hers (Addy's use of the word stubby) :)

Thank goodness for both Mariana and ice cream :)

The scene of Lauren's crime

The next day was a big one! We started out by taking the Knight bus to Boca, home of the Boca Junior futbol team (Vic's team, not Mariana's. Don't bring it up.). The entire area was incredibly colorful, and we got to go inside some of the buildings. It was decided that our home needs a spiral staircase somewhere, preferably connected to the slide, which is our next purchase once we actually have money (so in like 5 years, 50 for Addy). We then toured the soccer museum and stadium, and learned about the crazy passionate fans that have required a barb wire fence to be put up around the field. Wowza. After the tour Mariana bought us churripan (a chorizo sausage sandwich) for good behavior and we all proceeded to burn our mouths on it because we are wildly impatient and it was incredibly delicious. Afterwards we headed to Puerto Madero for a long walk by the water and to see a bridge that belonged in the Incredibles. Near there we walked back through the center of the city, where we saw their White House (it was pink, and appropriately called Casa Rosada) and the main plaza. Mariana gave us a nice, short summary of the history of Buenos Aires as we stared in awe of the beautiful monuments surrounding us. We then walked some more to Mariana's best friend's apartment, where we met Olgita and her daughters, Louisa and Clara, for dinner. The girls' English was even better than ours, and we were all able to laugh at Addy and I. However, I do think we are improving much faster than we did in Spain, mostly because we have no choice but to try and understand what Vic and Mariana and their friends are saying. Everything we've eaten has been sooo yummy, we better keep walking if we have any prayer of coming home without 10 extra pounds!

"No, our feet are fine"

You saw it here folks. Miracles can happen!

The creation location of churripan!

Name a more romantic couple.

The next 2 days were filled with more exploring, family, and food. The highlight for me was the Rose Garden we found in one of the city parks - so beautiful. At one point Addy and I were hanging out in a little strip of shops for an hour while Mariana and Victoria went to get Victoria's Argentinian passport, and by the time they came back we had found churripan and more ice cream :) It's a sixth sense! That night we had dinner with Victoria's uncle, Jorge, and his family, which was also very nice. Afterwards, we met one of Victoria's cousins at a local bar and met some of her friends, who were also very nice and hilarious. Unfortunately, our sense of fashion once again let us down at this point, as the people surrounding us looked like they all belonged on the set of Gossip Girl, rocking platform boots and leather jackets. To top it off, one of her friends was even a fashion designer, who was probably not impressed by the jeans, vans and hoodies we were all trying to hide. Despite the awkward Americans, they were all hilarious. At one point they were imitating accents from all over the place, and they were so good. Now we can say we've heard an Argentenian speaking English in a Russian accent because that's just cool! They had also traveled all over the world, and had some really funny stories and weird questions for us about the United States. It was really fun! Considering dinner was at 10:30PM, it made it seem less bad that we were out until about 4AM. Well, that was until we had to get up the next morning.

Here it comes...Vic, not just lookin' like a snack, but a whole meal! :)

Our final day has been a bit of a whirlwind. We obviously overslept a bit, so we hurried out to go to an artisan market, where we were able to find bracelets with which to renew our true love vows. We ate lunch with Olgita (don't worry, she'll be back) before running back for our stuff and being late to the airport (late is an opinion) and staying awake just long enough to sit on the plane to Mendoza before all of us were out like lights (still feeling 4AM). We had a great time in Buenos Aires and feel like we saw a lot, but I think we are all even more excited for some quiet mountains and vineyards. Talk to you again soon, con vino!