Exploring Buenos Aires: Our Two-Month Spanish Learning Adventure (1)

For our six months around the world trip we had decided to focus on Buenos Aires for learning Spanish. It always was Christian’s goal to become fluent in that language. But in everyday life after work it was generally difficult to find the energy and dedication. Thus we decided to spend a significant time in the capital of Argentina. We had read that it was the safest city in South America.

On Monday, February 8th, 2010 we finally arrived to Buenos Aires. We had spent a great time celebrating carnival in Brasil. Read more about that adventure in this blog post: Around The World Trip: Celebrating Carnaval de Vitória.

A driver brought us directly from the airport to our apartment in the quarter of Palermo. which was luckily as described on the internet and according to the photos we saw. We immediately liked the surrounding area – a nice street with a pedestrian area and lots of cafes and restaurants.

Our first task was to go to the supermarket to fill our fridge and orient ourselves. We checked the closest metro station (Bulnes). In Buenos Aires the metro is called “subte”. Most of the city’s layout is organised in blocks. Thus, it was good to remember the crossroad where we were located at: Charcas con Guise.

On Tuesday we met Michaels ex-colleague Bibiana and her daughter for lunch in the fancy new docklands of Buenos Aires. It was very hot while we strolled through Puerto Madero.

The remainder of the week we were kind of lazy after the exciting time that we had in Brazil. We were just looking forward to cook, dine and relax in the new apartment. Basically we made it immediately our new home. Though, we did manage to check for gyms and language schools in the neighbourhood. After test lessons at two schools we decided to go with Vamos Spanish. It was just one block walking away. Just perfect!

On Wednesday and Friday we went clubbing. Eating out, bars and club start as late as in Spain. So before 22.00 h the restaurants are empty. The bars only get busy after 0.30 h and the clubs after 2.30 h. The next day usually you are just knackered.

La Recoleta Cemetery – a necropolis in the middle of the city

On Sunday we finally started discovering the city. We went to one of the major city attraction: the cemetery of La Recoleta. Not only the majority of Argentinian presidents are buried here but also Evita Perón. Evita is probably the worldwide most famous Argentinian. She got personified in the musical with the same name by pop star Madonna.

Evita’s maiden name was Duarte. Her husband Juan Perón was the 29th Argentinian president (from 1946 – 1955). Both founded an ideology that is still important in Argentina today: “Peronism as an ideology is described as a social form of nationalism, as it pushes for a sense of national pride among Argentines.” (Source: Encyclopedia Britannica).

You can peak into the densely built tombs and see all the coffins that have been placed for eternal peace. We found it actually quite spooky as we haven‘t seen anything similar before: It is a real necropolis!