Magical New Year’s Eve in Buenos Aires

Happy New Year from beautiful Buenos Aires! I spent the most amazing New Year’s Eve, welcoming 2017 with a picnic with four friends, in 30 degree temperatures, under a sky filled with fireworks and the sound of laughter!

My Argentine friend Cecilia had previously looked into going to one of the restaurants in the post Puerto Madero area, but the prices were prohibitive. But that’s where the best fireworks display is, so we decided to do it our way — and Cecilia outdid herself!

She brought a fold-out picnic table and chairs, her Christmas table cover and a ton of food. She even brought battery-driven lights we could drape around our picnic spot! We brought wine and champagne.

We set up right beside the river and had the best view possible. We took turns walking around the area, soaking up the atmosphere. Linda and I danced along the row of restaurants, taking advantage of their music without paying their prices.

The fireworks started just before midnight, and at the witching hour we cracked open the bubbly. What a fantastic way to bring in the New Year. I think I’ll do this every year!

Here’s a compilation of the photos and a couple of videos of the fireworks.

 

All the best for a wonderful, happy, healthy, success, prosperous 2017!

Helen

Went to a Wonderful Concert!

On Tuesday night I went with a friend and two of her friends to a wonderful concert, starring a famous and amazing young Argentine pianist called Horacio Lavandera.

It was held in a beautiful old building that used to be the city’s main post office, but is now called the Kirchner Cultural Centre. There are lots of things to see in it, and I want to go down there one day just to sketch some of the lovely old interior features.

The concert was held in the main concert hall, very modern and in stark contrast to the old style architecture of the building itself. Here are some photos of the outside of the building (when we came out around 11.30 pm and it was all lit up) as well as the concert hall and Horacio himself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The concert lasted two hours, and then he did five — count ’em, five — encores! It was totally fabulous. It was his 32nd birthday, so he is still very young to be so wonderful. If you’d like to hear him play, just go to YouTube where he has a whole bunch of videos. Amazing.

And do you know what made it even more amazing? It was totally FREE! I think I said this in my post about the food fair, but there are so many great free things going on in Buenos Aires, and my friend Venetia seems to be tapped into them all — great for me as I get to experience them too!

This next photo is just a cute shot I took on my morning walk yesterday. They’re a bit far away as they were a challenge for my iPhone, but I hope you can see they are two lovely green parakeets. I love seeing them in their natural habitat!

 

 

 

 

 

 

This will be my last post until after Christmas, when I will update you on how I spent my first Argentine Christmas! In the meantime, I wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas — or whatever December holiday you celebrate. (As I saw in a FaceBook post today, Happy Everything to Everybody!)

By the way, if you’d like to read my annual post, Gifts of the Heart for the Season, you can find it here. It’s my gift to you!