TANGO ANYONE?
The city of clean air crept into a place in our hearts once we arrived. The architecture looked eerily similar to buildings in Europe, as if we were back home in Serbia, except everything was in Spanish. Honestly, it’s not surprising considering the Spaniards conquered most of South America. Never have I been in a country where its culture tells a story about its history. Argentina is an agricultural country, where cows are one of the most popular livestock. So of course the steak was phenomenal. We stayed in Sheraton Libertador Hotel Buenos Aires in the heart of the city.
On the first day in Buenos Aires, after a magnificent dinner, we decided to walk on this bridge called the Women's Bridge (puente de la mujer ). My mom ironically didn’t think the bridge was for women because her heels kept getting stuck in the boards of the bridge. Santiago Calatrava, an architect who designed the bridge, was actually inspired by a couple dancing the tango, so if you look from afar, the bridge should look like a dancing couple. I tried to see the similarity, but I just couldn’t find it. The nights were warm. Once, while walking around Buenos Aires through its tiny little streets, with cute family owned boutiques, we passed a jewelry store, and everything was handmade, and a turquoise jewelry set happened to catch my mom’s eye, and of course we bought it.
Somehow there was a Japanese garden in Buenos Aires, for reasons still unknown to me, or anyone else for that matter. We decided to go paddle boating on the lake, and as we used our strength to move the boat, the blue sky, the crisp green trees, and the colorful flowers, all reflected of the lake. Swans swam next to us. The garden was just as beautiful as the rose garden, but this time, Japanese plants and animals surrounded it. We saw these orange and white catfish swim around in ponds and lakes, and kittens run around and tackle each other. There was a place to eat, in little Japanese style building.
It was so peaceful…until the duck. Now, being my childish self, I started provoking a duck, by quaking and screaming at it. Now, my parents had enough, and we walked across this bridge, and may I say quickly, but as I looked behind me, the duck started to follow, and then attacked a man’s foot. The duck and I were having a war, and sadly this man was caught in the crossfire. Then out of frustration, the duck simply had, what I called diarrhea.
In most Spanish Speaking countries, there are plazas in the city, a place where there are food vendors, parks, and basically a place where everyone goes to have fun or chill. Now of course, Buenos Aires had a big plaza, with some government building surrounding the plaza. Being the tourist that we are, we visited the plaza- and were accompanied by pigeons! The vendors sold pigeon food, and the pigeons gathered around, and yes, I fed the pigeons, because YOLO. My dad thought they might have been the reason for my 39.8 degrees (in Celsius) temperature on this trip, but it was just strep throat. But I wouldn’t have taken back that feeling of feeding those birds even if they were the cause of my fever. They greeted me with open arms, or beaks in this situation, and kept landing on my arms, shoulders, and whatnot. It was so much fun, and the thrill was amazing.
After a walk of what felt like forever, we stumbled upon a Kid’s Science Museum. They had illusions, wave diagrams, mirrors, hurricane diagrams, sound explanations, tornado diagrams, voice explanations, and basically any natural destruction diagram. Now, considering my lack of writing, and memory, and my lack of motivation to write, I can’t really remember anything else in Argentina, except these really good inside out pizzas. So of course my fat ass remembers this, but its basically from the outside its baked dough, but when you bite into it, it was heaven in your mouth, filled with cheese that melted in you mouth, and warm tomatoes sauce, and some meat. Oh and I can’t say I missed that sausage made out of blood, because no matter how good it was, it freaked the hell out of me.
