We didn’t get up to too much today. It seemed what was in our hearts wasn’t to find or do anything new but to revisit the old. We made our way down to breakfast just in time to not miss it. Getting up at 9:30am is like getting up at 5:30am at home, on top of barely sleeping the night previous.
We started our day with a good wander along Florida Street as Brooke was on a mission to get herself some new runners. In her mind they had to be grey, kind of hiking like, but also light and nice looking. I was about to give up on her vision when, of course, we found exactly the pair, and they fit!! Florida st isn’t fun but it is energetic, bustling and alive. The street is full of just about everything – shoppers, business people, people trying to exchange money (because of the currency issues here), buskers of all types, and of course people trying to get you to eat at their restaurant or buy some leather jacket. It’s just a busy version of a shopping street, like what you would find in Europe or North America. That said, I have never seen a shopping area so busy. In over 7 years of having seen this place it is the same every time – brimming with people.
It wasn’t as busy as we’ve seen it in the past.
Outside of the shopping core – one of the military compounds in the center of Buenos Aires.
After getting shoes and visiting a few shops we were fond of in the past, we made our way back to our hotel, dropped off our stuff and headed out along Avenida Santa Fe where we intended to find a special store that our friend Dean had begged us to visit after seeing it on a top 5 list or something. We stopped and had an ice cream first.
Brooke had Casis and Frutilla
The bookstore is called El Ateneo and deserves the credit it is given. It is located inside of an historic theater and is truly splendid. Blessed with this stunning architecture, the bookshelves are dispersed throughout the theater. Only the pictures do it justice. Frescoed ceilings and a café on the stage as well as a wonderful assemblage of books, music and films make it a worthwhile visit. I actually bought a book there, a children’s book so that I can practice my Spanish on something appropriate to my skills. I still have so far to go but I can only improve if I spend time doing activities in Spanish.
The famous Bookstore – El Ateneo
After we left the bookstore, we headed onwards to our intended final destination of the day. Any trip to Argentina is going to have wine in the story but I decided to spend some time switching things up with making sure we had some artisanal beer options added here and there. We walked along the very nice Avenida Santa Fe and enjoyed our window shopping and the pleasure of getting out of the bustling micro centro (downtown) and made our way slowly over through the affluent Recoleta neighbourhood to the area where the famous cemetery is which houses Evita’s remains. We hadn’t been to the cemetery since our visit in 2005 and we wanted to take a look again, but alas, the cemetery was closed. We wandered through the nice little mall they have next to it that is cute and set into the hillside. The mall has a lot of home stuff – cabinet designers, furniture stores, kitchen gadget stores and a few restaurants. It is always fun to see all the cool appliances they have in foreign countries. They are, almost always, more interesting and prettier than ours. I’m not sure why ours always look so business like and everyone else in Europe and here in South America have appliances in fun colours with cool looking designs.
Brooke outside the cemetery we couldn’t get into
The churchbells rang while we were there. Oh, and there’s a bird! I didn’t notice that!
This is the church beside the cemetary.
The real destination of this outing though was the restaurant/brewery I had read about. Brooke and I found it just as the sun was setting and we sat in the warmth and enjoyed a nice pint while realizing it was the exact place we had sat with Dean and Denise 5 years earlier enjoying a pint with them very close to the hotel they stayed at. Somehow, I think the gods intended it.
A beauty of a black pint.
It’s like art.
Funny, I think we saw these two guys last time we were here…..
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