Thursday Dec 16
Tonight we are going to the Basement. It's a club in a Irish bar called The Shamrock. Kya's friend, Flavia works there and she is going to try to get me a gig DJing there while I am in town. I really hope that works out. It would make a perfect trip even more so. If that's even possible.
We went out to the Shamrock. It was not my scene at all. Very commercial. The total opposite of what I do. I did speak to the boss about playing and when he asked what I played I said, "Exactly what you have here." I wanted to get the gig and then play a hard techno set to an unsuspecting crowd. It would have been funny. I can make any crowd dance and I have put together one of my best sets ever if I do get to play here, so it wouldn't have been an issue. It just would have caught them completely off guard. In the end the boss said all of the slots for the time I am here are already booked, as would be expected.
The boss was from Ireland. He said he had been in Argentina for 17 years. He had come here on a vacation and ended up staying. I can totally understand that. What was really strange though was hearing a guy from Ireland speak in English with both an Irish and Spanish accent at the same time. Really weird.
Buenos Aires - Week Two Dec 17 - 24
Friday Dec 17
We were invited to Raul's friends house for dinner on Thursday night, but they rescheduled it for tonight. So, for lunch, which was at 6pmish, we met up with his friend Mariana, who is a chef at a restaurant that features exotic foods. Stuff like crocodile, ostrich, and some other animal I never heard of that looks like a beaver. I had a prosciutto, sun dried tomato, and basil sandwich. I like trying new things, but I'm not that brave. Although she did trick me into trying the ostrich pate. Take my word for it it was awful.
After lunch we went to her house and met her boyfriend and daughter. We were going to have a river fish called, Dorado. It's supposed to be similar to salmon. What ended up happening was we talked so long about all sorts of things that we simply forgot to eat and by the time we realized it was time for Raul and I to head out to Cocoliche.
I was, however, introduced to the wonders of Fernet and Coke. And for this I will be eternally grateful. It is simply amazing. I won't even try to describe it. You just have to try it. Actually you have to have three glasses of it. Because the first one you aren't sure if you like it. The second one make you think, "Yeah, this isn't so bad." and the third one you fall in love.
Cocoliche was... I don't know how to put it. Dark, hot, spooky, the music was minimal techno. And by that I mean really minimal, completely stripped down to the rawest elements. Now to be honest I like minimal techno, but this was just too raw for me. It probably didn't help that I was on LSD in a country where I barely speak the language and completely out of my head.
We left there around 6 am and decided to walk back to the apartment since we still had a lot of time to kill before the acid wore off. I said to Raul, "Do you know the way back?" "Nope, we just walk and see what happens."
That may have been the best idea I never would have thought of. We ended up in the Plaza de Mayo. This is where the Pink House is. Argentina's version of the White House. It's where President Cristina Kirchner lives. It's amazing the amount of political graffiti here. And there seems to be about 50% in favor and 50% against, although that's slightly hard for me to say with complete accuracy, since I can only read a little Spanish.
We also ended up walking by Puerto Modero which is gorgeous. The architecture in Buenos Aires is beyond description. If you were dropped here blindfolded and someone told you you were in Paris, France you would believe it. I didn't take any photos, but if I have a chance I will get back there and take some. Later this week I'm going to be shooting the three main train stations here dating from the late 1800s and early 1900s.
The long walk home was filled with so much laughter and fun. Neither of us speak each others language very well, but it hardly mattered. We we able to express exactly what we meant in the fewest amount of words we know. I have hardly ever laughed so much in my life.
Saturday Dec 18
I finally got caught up on the sleep I needed. Since the beginning of this trip I've had about 4-6 hours a night at most. I slept about 12 hours. Waking up just in time for a night out. Raul had gotten up earlier and headed over to another friend, Max's house. I cabbed it over there and we had a great conversation. His friend has traveled the world pretty extensively and had all sorts of great stories.
We took another long walk back to the apartment and simply just enjoyed the city at night. For a Saturday night it was pretty dead. Most of the college students have headed back to their hometowns already for the holidays and the streets were quiet and very relaxed. A much needed change of pace.
Dinner got rescheduled for Sunday night. Haha.
Sunday Dec 19
Raul's friend Mariana, her boyfriend Oscar and their daughter Lua came over to our apartment to cook dinner. Since Mariana and I are both chefs, although I haven't cooked professionally in 14 years, we prepared the dinner together. She had seasoned and marinated the Dorado and I made bacon, cheddar, and onion mashed potatoes. She also made a hot pepper sauce that was out of this world. Incredibly hot, but with so much flavor.
The Dorado was really nice. it was lighter than salmon and not at all fishy. This was the kind of fish that people who absolutely hate fish would even love. It's not a rare fish as far as I know, but apparently it's been over fished and there are some serious restrictions on how big they need to be to be caught. 50 kilos is supposed to be the minimum. Ours was about 5 kilos, so you can see how well the law is followed. It really would be a shame for this fish to die off because of it.
Monday Dec 20
We met up with Raul's friends Carlos and Mariana again. The plan was to go to "La Bomba de Tiempo", but we ended up just going to a bar instead. I'm not sure what La Bomba de Tiempo is, but I was told it was kind of like Stomp. After checking out some youtube videos on it I don't think it is like Stomp at all. But I'm sure I would have enjoyed it all the same.
The bar we ended up at was pretty cool. It was called Oasis. The owner was Argentine, but spoke English really well. He has family from England and his cousin was sitting beside us. We had some really good conversation. He told me that he loves Buenos Aires as much as I was beginning to fall in love with it and that he comes to visit at least once a year.
I had a moment in this bar where I was simply sitting there, looking out the window and I just felt like I belonged where I was. That for the first time in my life I could live somewhere else and not miss NYC. Not get homesick. I seriously started considering a move. I even asked the owner of the bar for a job. If he had said yes I might not have returned to the States.
Tuesday Dec 21
Got invited to dinner at Prussia's house. She has a really, really nice place. It's near Estacion Constitucion, so I rode the Subte over to her house. It was my first time on their subway system and it's crowded, hot, and has no air conditioning. Plus, quite a few of the trains have graffiti on them. It a lot like the subway system was in NYC in the late 70s and early 80s.
Prussia made some incredible potatoes and luckily for Kya and their friend Lia they showed up early enough to have some before I finished them all. She also made a really nice pizza. A relaxing night with great people I love spending time with. Perfect.
Wednesday Dec 22
I woke up to an email from my favorite dj, Jorge Savoretti. He's from Rosario, Argentina, but currently lives in Buenos Aires. He and I have written to each other a number of times over the last few years and he's a super nice guy. Since I've been down here we have been trying to make plans to meet up. Today i got invited to watch him dj live on air on an internet radio station. I knew it was going to be something special. Far more intimate then going to see him play in some huge club, plus the chance to chat before and after. And I had a lot of questions I wanted to ask him.
I stopped of at the liquor store near my apartment and grabbed a bottle of Jack Daniel's. What better way to make friends with strangers then to give them alcohol, right?
Took the Subte over to the radio station, which was more or less an apartment with a good internet connection and some turntables. But it turned out to be super cool. Almost everyone there spoke English really well, making my life a hell of a lot easier. Within minutes of arriving they asked me to play some of my tracks for them and once I did they offered me a slot on air for the following week. That was overwhelming of course, but the problem was I was leaving in a few days. I made a promise to return and when I do they'll be putting me on.
Jorge's set was long. Over three hours and it started later than it was scheduled to start. I hung out for as long as I could and once he finished had a quick chat with him and said good bye. I had to meet Kya for dinner. Well, that was the plan at least. By the time I got back to my apartment I was
an hour late and she had made other plans. Understandable, although very disappointing.
Thursday Dec 23
This was the big train day. Okay, so I work for the railroad as most of you already know. One thing I hate dealing with while I'm working is rail buffs coming and taking pictures of me at work. It happens all the time and is rather annoying. But, today I was going to be a buff for a day. I was going to visit a rail station and take pictures.
You have to understand though that Buenos Aires has three major stations and they were built in the 1910s. They are all amazing looking and the equipment that they use here is mostly formerly from the Untied States. Vintage engines we haven't seen since the 50s. This wasn't just a Sunday morning I could be spending with the wife and kids instead of taking pictures of big loud, smelly trains like most rail buffs do. This was really unique.
I took the Subte over to Estacion Retiro and had a look around. There was a checkpoint that you couldn't get past without having a ticket and had I known how cheap the tickets were I would have probably just bought one. Instead, I showed my Conrail work Id to the guys at the gate and told them I'd just like to take photos. They were super cool. They knew of Conrail and of course all railroaders are like brothers no matter what company you work for, so immediately I was treated like one of them. Membership has it's rewards.
I got some good shots.
That night I headed over to the Palermo Club to see a band called Damas Gratis. I met up with Kya just after I got there and she introduced me to some of her friends. She also asked me if i had heard cumbia before. I had assumed it was going to be a punk band for some reason so i said, "No, what's cumbia?"
"This is cumbia." She said. Meaning the music that was playing on the speakers. At first I thought it was interesting and kind of slightly resembled salsa and meringue, but not really. It is definitely it's own thing. And by the time the venue filled up and the bands had played I was sold. I had so much fun dancing to it.
At one point in the night I was just dancing, having a drink and minding my own business. From out of nowhere 6 girls surrounded me, poked at me and asked if I was an American. Like I was a strange creature or something. I found this to be rather amusing at first and did my best to talk to them in my broken Spanish. They were giggling and poking me and trying to get me to tell them which girl I was attracted to, but none of them were all that cute. After a few minutes I was like this is a bit freaky and so I went and grabbed Kya.
"I need a girlfriend for the next ten minutes."
"Why?"
"Some girls are after me because I am an American."
"Which ones?"
"Those 6 over there."
"You tell them fat girls you don't want anything to do with them. You don't have to be nice to them."
I started cracking up.
I ended up hanging out with them for part of the night anyway since they were pretty cool once they calmed down a bit. Then I asked one of them, "How did you know I was an American? Because I danced so badly?"
"No, because of your beautiful face, your skin is so white, and I love your hair."
Well, no girl has ever said that to me before. I have to admit that it felt very nice.
Friday Dec 24
While in the states Christmas day is the big holiday in Argentina Christmas Eve is a huge party night. I had no idea what I was in for.
Early in the day I went shopping for gifts for my friends and co-workers back home. After that I stopped off for dinner at a local parilla I chose to sit outside and that's when the fun began. For Christmas Eve the big tradition is to set off fireworks. I'm not talking firecrackers, bottle rockets, and jumping jacks. I'm talking about M-80s, blockbusters and all sorts of really, really fucking loud explosives. I wrapped up dinner pretty quick since I had no idea this was going to happen and the entire neighborhood sounded like a war zone. I only had a block to walk back to my apartment and even that far was very unnerving. This went on for about 4 hours from 10pm-2am, so falling asleep early that night was not an option.
Saturday Dec 25
This was my last night in Buenos Aires and I was not yet anywhere near ready to leave. If I had another three weeks I still would have wanted to stay longer, I'm sure.
Liu and I got together and went to dinner at El Desnivel in San Telmo. It's a parilla that is famous, but was also inexpensive. I like those two things. On the way we stopped at an outdoor park and had a few drinks. There was tango music playing at one end of the park that we could hear and it was really nice. We had a fantastic conversation. She is such a wonderful girl and has an amazing face. I could sit and watch her expressions for hours and not get bored.
Dinner was very good. I have to admit though I didn't plan my day out well enough and had a big meal for lunch. Liu ordered some really interesting things to eat and while I did try everything I wasn't fully able to really enjoy all that we ordered.
After dinner we were going to head back to the park or find a bar to drink in. Out of the blue we ran into a few of her friends who were heading to a club. Of course we tagged along and it was an interesting scene. I kind of enjoyed the djs between the bands more than the bands, but it was still good.
Just being able to spend the evening with such an amazing girl really made my last night incredibly memorable and special. I can't wait to get back and see her and all the friends I made during this trip again.
Sunday Dec 26
I slept in late and at 10am the door bell to my apartment rang. It was the woman coming to get the keys to the apartment and check it for damage. Well, I went to the door in my pajamas and asked her for an extra half an hour to get ready.
I packed my bags super fast and grabbed a quick shower and then checked out. Since my flight wasn't until 10:30pm I had a lot of time to kill. I decided that paying for a cab all the way back to the airport wasn't really worth it when the train line ran out there for much cheaper.
I took the Subte to a connection and switched trains to another line. Pay attention now because there will be a test at the end. The second subway train got me to Estacion Constitucion where I switched to a local train to Ezeiza, where the airport is located, about 40 minutes outside of Buenos Aires.
After riding the Linea Gral Roca train to Ezeiza I needed a cab the last mile to the airport. I saw one right away across the street. Walked over to it and it was empty. I saw a sign that said taxis and had an arrow. I followed that sign to the taxi stand, but there were no taxis. I waited for about 25 minutes and not one showed up. Each one that passed had a passenger already. I wasn't in a super big rush, but I really wasn't having any luck. After about an hour I decided it might be best to head back to Bs As and catch a cab from there. I hopped back on the local train which cost another .35 cents and rode back to Constitucion.
Let's see so far; four trains. Keep track now. Things are about to get fun.
Got a cab outside of the station and headed back to the airport. So the lesson here is you can catch a cab from the airport to the station upon arrival to Argentina, you just can't get one back to the airport at the end of your trip.
At this point I still had about 7 hours to kill. I spent the entire time debating whether or not to go home. I was not ready to leave Buenos Aires. If I had anything resembling a job and a place to live lined up I would not have gotten on the plane.
Monday Dec 27
The flight was uneventful. Slept most of the way and arrived in Miami first thing in the morning. Going through customs the agent saw my passport and that I was from NJ. He mentioned that he was too and that there was no chance I was getting home today because of the weather. NJ had gotten 30 inches of snow the night before. I smirked inside and said to myself, "If you think I'm not going to make it back to NJ today you don't know me."
Upon looking at the departures board I saw all flights to the NY/NJ area had been canceled. Listening to the airport televisions they said over 2000 flights had been canceled and it was causing havoc all over the system. I was hardly deterred.
I checked in on a stand by to Philadelphia. That got me nowhere. Checked in on a stand by to Baltimore. Nothing. Another to Baltimore. Same thing. So I tried for Washington DC. Got it.
Flew a quick short flight to DC and from there I got a cab to Union Station to catch an Amtrak train home. Things were moving along quite well until I got to the train station and all of Amtrak's trains were delayed. MARC had trains running so I grabbed one of theirs to BWI. Pretty much as far as they run. I figured that worst case scenario I might be able to crash with my friend Jamielee there. The bad news when I called her was she was visiting Mississippi and wouldn't be back for another day. I sat tight and waited for the next Amtrak train to come. It actually wasn't all that late and within an hour I was on the move north again.
I got back to NJ about 2 and half hours later and then after a 20 minute cab ride I was home. 39 hours after I left my apartment in Buenos Aires.
So, if you have been paying attention now's the part where you you figure out that it took 6 trains, 2 planes, and 3 cabs to get home. But I made it. Against all odds.
