Argentina - Buenos Aires

Our first night in Buenos Aires was in a horrible twenty bed dorm in a digusting hostel with really rude staff.  It was late and we were desperate after a stressful journey, and it was relatively cheap - our accommodation has been steadily getting more expensive while the standard has been dropping.  After resolving to ignore the snoring old man in the corner and get up first thing to look for somewhere else, I woke up with a trail of bed bug bites up my leg. Yuk. Bad accommodation and rude staff can make you immediately dislike a place, but luckily we soon found a lovely place and were ready to give Buenos Aires a second chance.

Buenos Aires is a massive city and we spent a few days just walking about. It was late spring so the weather was perfect and the flowers were out.  We ended up spending six nights there even though we hadn't intended to, this was partly because we'd arranged to go out with an American girl we'd met earlier in Bolivia - she was teaching English in Buenos Aires...but also because there seems to be loads going on and it's just so big it sucked us in.  I think you'd have to live there a while to fully appreciate all the galleries and gigs and clubs and stuff...and the millions of great cafes and restaurants.

This sculpture was outside the MALMA.  The lights changed according to the level of noise from the traffic going by...

Retrospective of Argentine artist Marta Minujin...

Argentina became the first country in Latin America to allow same-sex marriage nationwide in July 2010, some people obviously weren't very happy about it...

 Parakeets live in the parks in the city...

One of the many great old style cafes around the city...

A lot of the city was really dirty, there were piles of rubbish everywhere that people root through looking for cardboard and plastic, everything ends up all over the place.

 We were staying in San Telmo, where there was a brilliant market selling antique knick knacks, old dolls, jewellery, matchboxes, posters, gramaphones etc.

Even though people generally think of steak when they think of Buenos Aires, the 'Portenos' also pride themselves on their pizza since there are a lot of Italian immigrants in the city.  So we had to try some in a nice place in La Boca, with old style (and age) waiters dressed in suits (this is normal for even cheap cafes).

 Santiago Calatrava bridge just like our one in the Dublin docklands...

 Solar powered flower scultpure that opens and closes with the sunlight...

Brian was starting to fit in...

A revelation of an Argentine bbq experience at 'Des Nivel' - barbequed Provelone cheese - yum.

We had finally come to our senses and realised it was just a waste of belly space and money ordering salad and vegetables.

The local beer of choice...

Fileteado - a type of design typically used in Buenos Aires...

Deep pan pizza is the most popular type here...

One for the road before we head to Uruguay...