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Christmas in Buenos Aires

This was my fourth Christmas in Buenos Aires, and I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it being in summer — oh don’t get me wrong, I like it but I’m still not used to it. My tango teacher worked in Japan for several years and he had the opposite feeling — he couldn’t get used to Christmas in winter! Anyway, Christmas is fun wherever you are, and this year was no exception.

The main celebration here is on Christmas Eve, as it is in many South American and European countries, while I’m used to celebrating Christmas Day in Canada and also in Scotland. This year I had the best of both worlds.

Venetia and I were invited to Cecilia’s for the family gathering. I had recently met a new friend, Lina, who didn’t have any plans. I had no hesitation in inviting her because Cecilia is famous for her hospitality, but it was even nicer when she invited Lina to stay overnight as well as Venetia and me. We arrived around 7 pm and were put to work making canapes, which we said we would do on condition we could drink wine while we worked!

The rest of the family arrived around 9 pm and we started eating half an hour or so later. It was all very informal, as it usually is — no ceremonial carrying in of turkey or anything like that. Oh, except for Venetia pouring whisky on the Christmas pudding and setting it alight, which was surprising to our hosts but we all enjoyed the delicious pudding. So all in all, we just simply ate, drank and chatted until midnight when we exchanged gifts in the usual chaos that involves.

Cecilia and I took the three dogs out for a walk around 2.30 am before going to bed, which was a lovely way to round out the day. Here are a couple of photos of the day. Below those is a video of the kind of thing that is typical on the train that takes me to Cecilia’s place. There are musicians of all kinds, carrying instruments and sometimes even sound systems! They are always much appreciated and everyone is very generous to them. Very Buenos Aires!

I took the selfie of the three of us, and the other photo and the video are courtesy of Venetia, our “official” photographer for all events! (Thanks Venetia.)

On Christmas Day all three of us came home on the train together, and then I had a lazy afternoon before getting ready to go to Venetia’s place for her traditional English Christmas pudding (again!) with ice cream and champagne — lots of champagne! We were a small but varied group of people and the conversation was fascinating. All in all I’ve thoroughly enjoyed Christmas. I hope you did too, wherever you are and whatever you did.

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Can’t Keep Track!

This week has been full of social fun — as I’m sure it has been for you wherever you are in the world! I’ve been remiss in not posting to keep you up to date, so this post kind of has a bit of everything.

San Telmo Market

San Telmo is one of the oldest barrios in the city and there are so many things to do there. Every Sunday there is an artisan street fair and also the market. This past Sunday I went with my friend Viviana, who lives in San Telmo. Here we are enjoying lunch in the market.

 

 

 

 

Wine Tasting

Venetia and I went to a wine tasting sponsored by InterNations and met two lovely new lady friends. The place was called La Malbequeria (guess what the specialty wine is!), but we weren’t really impressed by the event. The place is cool and the waiter was cute, but we all agreed we’ve been at better tastings. But it’s always fun to meet new people and we enjoyed that aspect. Photos below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

La Poesia

Last night Venetia and I went to another concert at the Kircher Center, and ran into Lola there. It was the National Orchestra of Argentine Music, and as always it was a lovely performance. It was 10.30 pm when we came out, and as we hadn’t eaten we decided to take the bus over to San Telmo and have dinner. We went to a favourite old cafe called La Poesia (poetry). I think it’s about a hundred years old, full of atmosphere and the food is great. The lady in the photo is a fabulous tango singer who just walks in and starts singing! Came home on the bus about 12.30 am, and up this morning at the usual time to start work — that’s life in Buenos Aires!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s all for now. Going to two events tomorrow night, so I will post about that before I do my weekly summary on Sunday morning. I wonder if things will calm down after the Holidays — probably not!

Abrazos! (hugs)

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Another Great Concert at the CCK

On Sunday night, Venetia and I went once again to the Centro Cultural Kirchner (popularly known as the CCK) this time to see a concert by the Damian Boletin Quintet. We had no idea what to expect, but what we got was fabulous.

The program was an eclectic mix of non-traditional tango, modern jazz and material written by Damian himself that isn’t readily categorized. But it was one of the best I’ve seen there. I really can’t believe these excellent concerts are totally free.

Here are some photos and, if you are curious about the music, a short video shot by Venetia — who is thrilled with the quality produced by her new iPhone!

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Now THIS Is How to Celebrate The Holidays!

Some Israeli friends I met last year sent this video via Whatsapp, and I hope I can get it uploaded here — I can’t do it through YouTube as I usually do because of copyright.

The words and the sub-titles are in Spanish, but even if you don’t understand the language I think you’ll get the message. It’s wonderful! Felices Fiestas!

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Great Women, Great Conversation!

Last night I went to a meeting of a book club run by my friend Lola — she is American and her real name is Dee, but Lola is her tango name so that’s what I call her!

Anyway, there were some really interesting women there and the conversation was fast flowing and varied. People read poetry, including one by the iconic Argentine writer Jose Luis Borges, which was challenging even in English!

Here’s a photo of us all except Venetia, who took the photo, and the next photo has her smiling face in it too. On the left is Jeanette, who is from Australia. When she divorced and her children left home, she took out a bank loan, sold her house and embarked on half a year of travel around the world! And now, six months later, she’s at it again and that’s how she found herself in Buenos Aires. Now that’s badassery!

I expect to attend a lot of events with this lovely group in 2019.

 

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The Best Steaks Are at This Place!

Of course we all know that Argentina is famous for steaks, and Buenos Aires is chock full of great parillas where you can enjoy them. When I first came here, I heard that La Gran Parilla del Plata — popularly known just as La Gran Parilla — was one of the best. I wouldn’t doubt it, even though there are many I haven’t tried yet.

La Gran Parilla is in the lovely old barrio of San Telmo, which still retains its character despite little pockets of gentrification, and is a typical Argentine steak house. People don’t go here to eat other types of food — it’s all about the steak. They have a variety of cuts and we all have our favourites. Mine is the bife de chorizo, which is sirloin. Many prefer the lomo, or filet mignon, and there are several great ones.

Although I grew up eating my steak well cooked (some might say burnt), here I’m learning to eat it rarer. I now order it a punto, which is medium leaning to the rare side.

As you can see from the photo, they don’t skimp on the servings! We were four women. Lola and Venetia both like theirs bleeding all over the plate, so they shared the smaller one furthest from the camera, which was lomo — actually it’s just the angle of the camera that makes it look smaller but it definitely wasn’t. Lucy used to be one of the group here, but last year her company transferred her to Boston, and she was back for a visit. She hadn’t had a Buenos Aires steak for a year and she didn’t want to share! So she and I each had one of the monster ones at the front — but I brought home what I didn’t eat and it was sliced up in my salad at lunch today and finished off with a plate of homemade chips for dinner!

Truly, if you’re a steak lover, this is the place to be!

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Tour of the Congreso

Today I went with some friends on a tour of the Congreso, which is the legislature building containing the Chambers of the Deputies and the Senators. Lovely old building, with just the kind of grandeur you usually see in buildings of this type. I did remember to take pictures, which I often don’t!

The Senate Chamber

The Senate Chamber, lower levels

The President’s Seat

Ceiling of the Chamber of Deputies

Three types of marble: the beige is Argentine, the whitish Italian and the red Spanish

Monument to Eva Peron

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The Big Game!

I don’t know how widespread news of this went, especially if you are not into football (soccer), but a couple of weeks ago there was supposed to be the final of the Copa de Libertadores, between eternal Buenos Aires rivals Boca Juniors and River Plate. But the rowdies among the fans made so much trouble they had to postpone the game. After much deliberation it was decided that it was just too hot a ticket to be played locally, so the championship would be played in Madrid! Today was the big day.

I was at Cecilia’s house for lunch when she got a phone call from her nephew, who had flown to Spain for the game! He told her to switch on the TV, and we found him hovering in the background behind a television crew waving to us on camera! (That’s him on the phone.)

A little while later he sent this video, taken before the game started. You can get a feel for the atmosphere, and the red colours around show that he is firmly in the River camp. He must have been very happy, because they won the game 3-1 — worth the trip to Spain!

I can hear a lot of celebrating going on outside. I hope they run out of breath before bedtime as that singing isn’t the kind that helps you sleep!