Buenos Aires - Sunday

D and I slept lots and slept in on Sunday morning. The others, who apparently did not sleep in (I don't understand!) met up with N and P to walk around La Boca while D and I started walking after we'd prepared ourselves for the day.

We ended up in Plaza de Mayo, which was apparently the original center of Buenos Aires:





We had a nice view of the Ubiquitous Obelisk (I kept orienting myself in the city based on where the obelisk was):





There was another monument that most likely has historical significance but I don't know what the significance is:





I loved this woman and desperately wanted her to start singing "Feed the birds... tuppence a bag...:"



We then headed towards San Telmo to meet the others for lunch. Some windows:



I like the contrast between the classic European architecture and the new and shiny buildings:



There were many art vendors on the streets of Buenos Aires. I really wanted to buy something, but couldn't decide on anything so, of course, ended up with nothing:



We ate lunch at a French restaurant, where I had one of my many Coca Colas in Buenos Aires:



Afterwards, we headed towards San Telmo to do some shopping.



We took a short detour to take a tour of an apartment that had been excavated and is apparently one of the oldest residences in Buenos Aires. It once housed slaves, once served as a tenement, and was apparently inhabited by some really rich family. A company bought it and started digging and now tours are given to illustrate the history of Buenos Aires. Our tour guide sort of sucked, but the building was interesting anyway:



We then walked towards an extremely crowded street/vendor fair in San Telmo where, again, we did not buy anything because there was too much going on: (but I really really really wanted a puppet!)















The roasted nuts in Buenos Aires are far superior to those found in New York City. They are candied and marvelous, and, according to M and A, actually taste as good as they smell:



After the fair we headed to Cafe Tortoni, a famous cafe where political figures from Buenos Aires and the rest of the world once (and still?) frequented:



I ate churros. Mmmm. I also ordered what I thought would be hot chocolate. It was called Chocolate. It was hot chocolate, but seriously - it was CHOCOLATE. It was just hot, melted, delicious, overwhelming chocolate. It is unfortunate that the currency is Argentina is so devalued. But, selfishly, it was nice for me because I got to eat all sorts of desserts I'd usually avoid due to cheapness. I'd never have stopped at a cafe in the middle of the afternoon for churros and hot chocolate in the US.

We then walked down the pedestrian walkway which, again, was sort of chaotic:





We ended up at Fancy Mall where I bought a pair of perfect shoes for the wedding. I have to admit that I was experiencing much distress regarding the sandals I'd brought, so I was relieved to find the exact shoes I'd fantasized about. M and A bought a copy of Harry Potter in English, and D bought a new suit for the wedding. He looked so handsome trying it on. I was very excited. Luckily he did not buy one of these hideous ties (note: teddy bears on the ties:



After Fancy Mall we headed back to the Bel Air Hotel and ended up eating dinner at a restaurant two doors down from our hotel. How we missed this the first night we will never know! M and I ordered crepes that turned out not to be very crepe-like, but we did not care, because we were starving and they were tasty anyway. We drank wine and chatted, and then went to bed early to prepare for our busy day on Monday.