Repeat Twice Daily: Steak, Wine, Ice Cream

We have spent the last 3 days in Buenos Aires and enjoyed every minute of it. So many people have asked me how I decided on coming to Argentina. In early 2009, my friend Jaclyn took a trip to Argentina and raved about it. I always trust Jaclyn´s traveling advice because she has been everywhere and she also knows me well enough to understand what type of cities and places I would like. So Jaclyn planted the seed, then Keith took a trip here in late 2009 and told me it was one of the best places he´s been to (just like Jaclyn, Keith has traveled a lot too). Thanks guys for painting a great picture of Argentina --- you both were totally right!

Steve and I love the energy behind this city. We love the hustle/bustle of any large city but Buenos Aires isn´t just a big city. It´s a big city with a charming Eurpoean/NYC/Chicago/DC twist plus more! It´s a city that everyone can fall in love with because it offers something unique for anybody.

Buenos Aires is known as the Paris of South America. When you walk down the streets of Recoleta, you will find buildings and architecture that remind you of the streets of Paris. Then you walk through the outerparts of Recoleta and you will see tree lined streets of high rises and brownstones that remind you of the Upper East side of NYC. After going through this neighborhood, you can walk into Plaza Serrano - an area with lots of outdoor bars and cafes. This reminded me so much of the summers in Chicago!

Then you can walk to the Palmero Soho neighborhood and find blocks and blocks of boutiques. There are hundreds of boutiques - imagine Soho in NYC but 10 times bigger and this is Palmero Soho. I could definitely see myself living in this neighborhood. It´s picture perfect: tree lined streets, boutiques with character, lots of cafes, great people watching. With all the great shopping on this street, even Steve was inspired to shop! Steve hardly goes shopping back home. I´m the shopper so typically I buy things he might like and bring it home. Then he can decide if he likes it or not. When we were in Palermo Soho, he was jumping into stores and excited about shopping. It was great! Good thing we wear the same size, I´ll just borrow whatever he bought :)

Aside from walking around the city, shopping, and checking out different parks and national monuments, Steve and I have been eating. EATING A LOT. EVERYDAY. I don´t need to get into much detail about the food because it´s straightforward. We eat steaks. We drink wine. We have ice cream. We repeat this routine 2x a day. Seriously, the steaks here are that good and it is basically the "national" food. There are 10 parrillas on EVERY block so it's hard to resist. Each morning we wake up and we say, "Hmmm, maybe we should give our bodies a break and try some fish today." Then we get to the restaurant and we order a Filet or Rib Eye.

Another thing we do everyday is drink. Steve and I are not big drinkers back home but we have been drinking everyday since we got here. I love the wine here. I'm not even drinking anything fancy but it's sooo good. My Chicago friends would be proud.

After our steak and wine dinner, we walk over to an ice cream parlor. Again, ice cream parlors EVERYWHERE. I usually go with the 1/4 kilo of ice cream which is a mini bucket of any flavor you want. I typically go with dulce de leche and a lemon sherbert. So delicious. Sometimes I feel like a dog when I'm eating ice cream because it's gone in 2 minutes as if I slurped it down in one gulp. By the time I´m done, Steve is only scratching the surface.

In between our meals, I stop into the many bakeries located everywhere. This has been my M.O. since I studied in Spain in 1998 --- Buy a baguette and eat it while I´m walking around doing my sight seeing. I can do this everyday for the rest of my life. On that note, we need to grab breakfast and head out for our day trip to Tigre. We'll write more soon!