Monday, July 03, 2006
Our favorites in Buenos Aires:
The weekend brunch at Janio Restaurant
- with a huge buffet of fruit, yogurt, cereals, fresh juices, jams, hams, cheeses, eggs, cookies, and pastries... mmmmmMmmm
The selection included the BEST creamy chocolate mousse brownie thingy either of us have ever tasted
Conveniently located about 10 blocks from our apartment
La Flor
on a pretty day - it's a giant solar powered cyber flower.... cool!
If you go at dawn or dusk you can see the flower in motion - but we were equally impressed with the mid-day view
Ricoleta Cemetery (Map in Spanish & Info in English)
With tons of interesting architecture - it's a city within the city of B.A.
It's where many of Argentina's rich, famous, and infamous are laid to rest - not buried, mind you - the coffins are clearly visible in many of the tombs
Shopping at the Feria de Mataderos
where you can buy TONS of cool artisanal goods (foods, crafts, clothes, etc) for great prices from cool people & watch local gauchos participate in traditional competitions
Teatro Colón
- 2nd in the world in sound quality (after Milan's opera house)
We never got to see a show, but the tour was really impressive - although we were only permitted to take photos in the entry hall, the theater itself was fabulous and we even got to listen to the Symphony practicing on stage from the presidential box!
Botanical Gardens
a great free spot to relax in the city & only 4 blocks from our apartment!
The garden is home to many of Buenos Aires's feral cats
Japanese Garden
a lovely spot to sit and relax or to participate in any of the many programs offered - from bonsai to tea ceremonies - not that we went to any of their programs, but we did go to visit the garden and it was quite nice
MALBA
(El Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires) - really good new museum with mostly modern pieces and an excellent permanent collection (artists include Freda Kahlo, Diego Revera, Fernando Botero, and many others including Cuban/French artist Wifredo Lam who painted the work to the left)
Kepfram didn't go with me to visit the museum, but he really missed out!
The museum is new since my last visit to B.A., I was really impressed, and I'll most definitely return
El Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes
- great mostly free museum including plenty of European (mostly French and Spanish) art from the 19th and 20th centuries
Kepfram was really digging the Impressionist exhibits, and I really went for the more modern stuff, but we were also both taken by the use of light in the work of 19th century Realist William-Adolphe Bouguereau
El Once in Barrio Balvanera
is the Buenos Aires garment district - we really enjoyed the super cheap shopping and the totally un-sophisticated flavor of this Jewish neighborhood
Amongst the multiple shoe stores, and casual to trendy clothing stores, you can find a men's suit and (even get it custom fitted) for U$S 30-50 (although it was difficult to fit Kepfram's body type in these suits cut originally for the stores' main clinentel of Orthodox Ashkenazi Jews....)
The commercial theater district
along Corrientes
I went with Monica's (my Spanish teacher from Costa Rica) Mom, Araceli (what a great, energetic person, if you ever need tourism advice for Argentina contact her at exploreargentina.com, she can surely help you out) to see the Argentine release of Visiting Mr. Green with the incredible talented Pepe Soriano who WAS Sr. Green for 2 hours...
What an amazing experience to see a beautifully acted play (tickets purchased night of show, 30 minutes before curtain for a nearly full house, but we got FRONT ROW seats!!) in Spanish and understand all but a few words!
Kepfram didn't join us (afraid his Spanish wasn't up to par), again, he really missed out...
Riding the Subte
- although we never got used to the trains going the WRONG way (at least compared to normal - which IS the New York Subway system) we loved the art
The weekend brunch at Janio Restaurant
- with a huge buffet of fruit, yogurt, cereals, fresh juices, jams, hams, cheeses, eggs, cookies, and pastries... mmmmmMmmm The selection included the BEST creamy chocolate mousse brownie thingy either of us have ever tasted
Conveniently located about 10 blocks from our apartment
La Flor
on a pretty day - it's a giant solar powered cyber flower.... cool!If you go at dawn or dusk you can see the flower in motion - but we were equally impressed with the mid-day view
Ricoleta Cemetery (Map in Spanish & Info in English)
With tons of interesting architecture - it's a city within the city of B.A. It's where many of Argentina's rich, famous, and infamous are laid to rest - not buried, mind you - the coffins are clearly visible in many of the tombs
Shopping at the Feria de Mataderos
where you can buy TONS of cool artisanal goods (foods, crafts, clothes, etc) for great prices from cool people & watch local gauchos participate in traditional competitionsTeatro Colón
- 2nd in the world in sound quality (after Milan's opera house) We never got to see a show, but the tour was really impressive - although we were only permitted to take photos in the entry hall, the theater itself was fabulous and we even got to listen to the Symphony practicing on stage from the presidential box!
Botanical Gardens
a great free spot to relax in the city & only 4 blocks from our apartment! The garden is home to many of Buenos Aires's feral cats
Japanese Garden
a lovely spot to sit and relax or to participate in any of the many programs offered - from bonsai to tea ceremonies - not that we went to any of their programs, but we did go to visit the garden and it was quite niceMALBA
Kepfram didn't go with me to visit the museum, but he really missed out!
The museum is new since my last visit to B.A., I was really impressed, and I'll most definitely return
El Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes
- great mostly free museum including plenty of European (mostly French and Spanish) art from the 19th and 20th centuriesKepfram was really digging the Impressionist exhibits, and I really went for the more modern stuff, but we were also both taken by the use of light in the work of 19th century Realist William-Adolphe Bouguereau
El Once in Barrio Balvanera
is the Buenos Aires garment district - we really enjoyed the super cheap shopping and the totally un-sophisticated flavor of this Jewish neighborhoodAmongst the multiple shoe stores, and casual to trendy clothing stores, you can find a men's suit and (even get it custom fitted) for U$S 30-50 (although it was difficult to fit Kepfram's body type in these suits cut originally for the stores' main clinentel of Orthodox Ashkenazi Jews....)
The commercial theater district
along CorrientesI went with Monica's (my Spanish teacher from Costa Rica) Mom, Araceli (what a great, energetic person, if you ever need tourism advice for Argentina contact her at exploreargentina.com, she can surely help you out) to see the Argentine release of Visiting Mr. Green with the incredible talented Pepe Soriano who WAS Sr. Green for 2 hours...
What an amazing experience to see a beautifully acted play (tickets purchased night of show, 30 minutes before curtain for a nearly full house, but we got FRONT ROW seats!!) in Spanish and understand all but a few words!
Kepfram didn't join us (afraid his Spanish wasn't up to par), again, he really missed out...
Riding the Subte
- although we never got used to the trains going the WRONG way (at least compared to normal - which IS the New York Subway system) we loved the art
Kepfram & Ellie, 2:46 PM
