• Home
  • categories
    • Argentina (home)
    • Belgium
    • New York
    • General
    • do & go
  • website
  • Why on earth

Global Citizens

~ a blog for Tourists, Expats and Locals

Global Citizens

Category Archives: Argentina (home)

Interesting and odd things about Argentina, as well as to do’s and places to go.

She’s finally off

09 Wednesday Dec 2015

Posted by katti in Argentina (home)

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Casa rosada, Cristina is gone, democracy is back, elections, Evita, mauricio Macri

An era has ended. Cristina Fernandez de Kirschner is off. It is not at all to her liking, like a little mad kid she has been behaving really badly these last 2 weeks, angry because she no longer will be the de facto Queen of Argentina. Yes, she does suffer from severe megalomania.

_KTI4245As she has even refused to take part in the hand over ceremony tomorrow, -she does not want to be on the same photo as her successor-. she had her last speech from the Casa Rosada today. And who would I be if I wouldn’t want to be present on that occasion. Hoping for an epic Evita kind of scene where the president would stand on the balcony speaking to the people, singing ‘don’t cry for me Argentina’, I was off, direction Plaza de Mayo.

_KTI4234What seemed to be a normal middle of the week rush hour, only changed when crossing the Av de 9 de Julio into the Av de Mayo. With a lot of elbow work and even a lot more patience, I tried to approach the square, camera at hand. People applauding at the necessary times to what the president was saying, although from where I was standing I couldn’t hear a thing. Sweat pearling down our faces and the rest of our body, as the heat of the day was only going up with all those sweaty people unwillingly touching each other, all with the same goal : to get to the square.

_KTI4252

It was all rather calm, the usual drums that I love so much, were absent. No one was crying. There was little singing. I am used to more emotions.

_KTI4241

I was only about 10 meters from the corner where the square starts, when people started to really push to get forward. The speech had ended and I guess they all wanted to have a last glimpse of her before she was gone for good. A girl next to me said that we all try to convince ourselves that right at that corner, there where the square starts, things will get better and we will have place to stand at ease, but don’t we all know, it will only get worse.

_KTI4243

I am not exactly a K fan, and she had left anyway, so I gave up my hope of a good shot and tried to make my way back.

_KTI4256

While pushing my way out, I realized that there were still more people going towards the square then back. Soon I was able to breathe again. Soaked, I couldn’t get home quick enough to wash the other peoples sweat off, but not before I got myself a nice light-blue-and-white flag, with a beautiful glitter-gold sun in the middle. I will need that tomorrow.

 

Exit Cristina, Welcome Democracy, Long live Mauricio, may the new era begin.

_KTI4249

Too Little Time

06 Wednesday May 2015

Posted by katti in Argentina (home)

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Buenos Aires, insatiable love, Mi Buenos Aires Querida, too little time

KTIM4833

Does it ever happen to you that you have so much to do but you feel like there is so little time? That you are working on your ‘to do list’ until it is way too late in the evening and you can’t keep your eyes open anymore? That you are dead tired and the only thing you wish for is to go bed and sleep in, but then the next morning you wake up way too early again, but all excited and full of energy to get started again?

It has been happening to me for the last 2 weeks, and as a consequence, at certain times of the day, all I want to do is sleep. Sleep. I am totally exhausted.

Not that I have this inhumanly, impossible to ever accomplish, long list of to do’s. Nothing like that. But next to this ‘list’, I have the inhumane desire to go out everyday, to walk around town for hours and hours, to just breathe in this beautiful city that Buenos Aires is. Mi Buenos Aires Querida. I have this probably insane feeling that if I breathe it in enough, I will do fine being separated from it for the longest time ever. Well at least, since I moved here 6 years ago. How will I ever manage?

My son tells me that your home is where your family (read : himself) is, which is probably true, but I have this unsound addiction to this town, a desire to emerge with it that seems insatiable. It is so lively, energetic, beautiful, loud, busy and so Latino, that the contrast with our -also beautiful- historic Belgian cities, the cold, the ‘northern’ people, the over organized society, is indescribable.

I am sure I will have a great time up north, nothing quite compares to a family reunion, especially if you only have one every 6 months, but still. I will miss this.

I am addicted to this place. I am so addicted.

photo Microcentro ©katti borré 2015

-34.603723 -58.381593

Horrid Place

03 Sunday May 2015

Posted by katti in Argentina (home), do & go

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Boca, Boca Juniors, Buenos aires top tourist attraction, Fuerte del Buen Ayre, tango dancers

KTIM4705

If you know just something about soccer, you know Boca. Probably the most known, maybe even the most famous team. I cannot say I am a fan, nor that I am not, without getting being scolded at, as it is not the only team here. And here, soccer matters. You are a team : Boca, River, Racing,… Me, I am lucky enough to be excused for not supporting one team or another, only because my foreign accent.

Soccer often makes me smile, like this afternoon. You don’t have to watch the news or have the TV on to know there is a game on. Nor to keep up with the scores. Neighbors all around, mostly men I am afraid, come outside on their terrace, or just open their window, to shout their lungs out ‘goooooooaaaalll!!!!!’. Depending on the importance of the game they repeat it once or twice, or they keep on shouting for a minute or longer, cars start honking their horns, and I start to doubt if that counts for one goal or if there has been another one : today ‘they’ (my neighbors) won with 2 goals, and the game was pretty important.

But apart from the soccer team, the name also refers to the neighborhood where the stadium is. Or rather, the team has got its name from the neighborhood. It is said that the first Buenos Aires settlement (Fuerte de sante Maria de Buen Ayre, 16th C), was in la Boca. But this settlement was abandoned shortly after. It was only in the 19th C, between 1830 and 1852 that the huge influx of Italian immigrants shaped La Boca in how we know it today : little houses made of wood and corrugated iron, divided into even smaller places in order to house more families mainly coming from Genova, Italy. All painted with boat paint, in different colors as they didn’t have enough of one color to do a whole wall. A colorful shanty town is what it was. It used to flood with every heavy storm, living conditions were not exactly good.

Nowadays it is a still horrid place, but for different reasons. It is only 3 streets big, although nowadays you can wonder off a bit, providing that you are careful. Today the 3 streets are full of terraces and people trying to force you to open your wallet. Bringing your camera close to your eye is enough. Each bar and restaurant has their own tango dancers, and a team of aggressive waiters is set about to make sure you don’t take a picture without sitting down and buying something to drink, and after paying the check, not forgetting the 10% tip, the dancers come round with their hat and ask for more. Or the dancers follow you trying to win you over for a dance, or just to take a picture, not telling you they ask $100 for a 1 minute show. On the house’s walls are now horrid colored statues imitating fat short people hanging out of the windows and waiving at you. There have always been Maradona look-a-likes, now, of course there are several Pope Francisco’s.

KTIM4701

But it is and will probably be tourist place number 1. It is, unfortunately, how Buenos Aires is shown to the world and sold by travel agencies, the colorful houses with tango dancers, although to me, it is not what Buenos Aires is. It is a neighborhood I go to, over and over again, when I have visits from overseas. Or this one time, very early, before the waiters start working, before the shops open their doors. Peaceful, it seems, but to me it seemed even more desolate, sadder still.

-34.634496 -58.363134

Change of Season

29 Wednesday Apr 2015

Posted by katti in Argentina (home)

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

1st of May celebration, Frost on 1st of MAy, is the season changing?, rain on 1st of May

KTIM7190

I love walking through the city. I love love walking a lot through the city. Easy, Buenos Aires is a very big city. Partly because walking is actually the best way to see and get to know the city, and at the same time it is a good physical exercise. And maybe it is also a bit about saving money. Taxis have become quite expensive these days; Or let us say, the days when you could take a ride for less then 10$, and the driver would refuse a $100 bill, are long gone. And with that, so have my interesting talks with the drivers. Strangely, the main subject has always been politics. Strangely, most taxi drivers hate the current president (whoever that is), and usually they blame politics for Argentina being a ‘bad country’, all this in contrary to Europe, where everything is all perfect in their eyes. But as I always say, ‘cada pais tiene sus cosas’, every country has his problems.

But that is not what this post is about. It is about change of season. After 3 weeks of totally perfect and stabile autumn weather, the type of summer weather every Belgian would sign for without thinking( sunny, 25°C during the day and 15°C at night), we have had a cold, rainy day. Yes, temperature dropped to 16°C, it rained, and it was cold. While at the same time my family in Belgium was happy and boasting about the sunny spring weather of yes, (hope you are sitting down when reading this) : 12°C. Which immediately got me worrying : how will I survive Belgian summer, wearing summer clothes in these wintery temperatures?

Of course that was the discussion I had with the taxi driver who has just brought me home. He told me is was in such a pissed off mood because of the rain and the cold (OMG, you too?!!), he said he is an old man and remembers the good old times, when he was just a kid, when they had their typical Argentine 1st of May celebrations. He told me that a good 1st of May celebration begins with going to a soccer game. In the rain. After that comes the typical family ‘asado’ (BBQ), ‘under the roof’, as it was always freezing cold. The puddles used to be frozen in the morning of May 1st and ice would come back in the evening. Yes, on the 1st of May. I found it really hard to believe, considering the past weeks’ weather, and even today : we are still a long way off to freezing temperatures. I could probably count the days under 0°C that I have experienced over the last few years on one, maybe 2 hands. And it immediately made me think about my parents and grandparents, weren’t’ they always boasting about how cold winters used to be and how there used to be lots of snow each winter? Are seasons really changing? Or do we only remember the exceptions and take them for reality? I wonder. In the meantime I am hoping that this nice man is wrong, and that we will have a nice, warm, and sunny 1st of May. I wish you all a great 1st of may day!

photo : ©Katti Borre 2014

-34.603723 -58.381593

Hungry?

27 Monday Apr 2015

Posted by katti in Argentina (home), do & go

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

BASA bar, restaurant retiro, trendy place retiro

BASA basement bar and restaurant 

In the somewhat unusual neighborhood of Retiro we found a ‘new’ bar-restaurant . It is trendy, has international appearance, is beautifully decorated, has good music, and has absolutely delicious food. If you are in search of the ‘place to be’ or/and see the Argentine ‘Beau Monde’, this is your place.

It seems to be the bar that is most popular, although the restaurant was fully booked and had several shifts. Prices were somewhat shocking as they were real European, in other words : very expensive! (count $500pp at least)

They have valet parking $60, automatically put on your check. How un-Argentine!

If you don’t care for the prices, this is the place to go!

 

BASA basement bar and restaurant, Basavilbaso 1328 (between Juncal and Liberator), http://www.basabar.com.ar

review in La Nacion

review in TripAdvisor

 

Experiencia Infinita

26 Sunday Apr 2015

Posted by katti in Argentina (home), do & go

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

allora y calzadilla, Diego Bianchi, Dora Garcia, elmgreen en dragset, Experiencia infinita, judi werthein, live performing art, malba, Pierre Huyghe, Rroman Ondak

KTIM4691

Live Performance Art. Only Yesterday my daughter told me it will be one of her courses next year, and I had to ask her what that is exactly. ‘It’s all in the name’, she told me. But now I know, Infinite Experience in Malba is Live Performance Art. The artist being present, and part of the art, doing things, being art. It is quite interesting actually.

I can not describe the exhibition without spoiling the surprise, so I will just say that it shouldn’t be missed. Those who really want to know, check out the link below.

Malba, until the 6th of June Experiencia Infinita

-34.577301 -58.403742

“The Belgian are the bravest”

22 Wednesday Apr 2015

Posted by katti in Argentina (home), Belgium, do & go

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Albert Uderzo, Alicia Muñiz, Asterix and obelix, Belgen, galliers, Gauls, Horum omnium fortesimi sunt Belgae, René Goscinny

or : “Horum omnium fortissimi sunt Belgae”

That is how we (Belgians) know, and grown to love and admire Ceasar. He is the first one who mentioned the ‘Belgians’ in writing, in 57 BC, and spoke well of our ancestors. Of course, we Belgians take all the credit. We were the bravest, weren’t we? Even though the Romans conquered us anyway. Even though after the Gauls, different tribes have conquered our environs and we probably don’t have much Gaul blood running through our veins anymore. We like to pretend we are still them.

So of course we like to identify ourselves with the great French-Belgian comic heroes, the Gauls Asterix and Obelix. When we were little, we got their stories from our parents with a spoon, and we gave the comics to our kids as being true history.

IMG_1644

Asterix, an exhibition in Centro Cultural de Recoleta. Don’t miss it, and find out how we Belgians used to live, and how we (used to be or still?) are.

-34.603723 -58.381593

Terrified

21 Tuesday Apr 2015

Posted by katti in Argentina (home)

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

biking, fear of thunderstorms, thunderstorm

KTIM2124

Thunderstorms. How I have missed them!

Says the girl who has always been terrified of them.

It was but when I was expelled from both my mothers’ and my brothers’ bed as a safe place during thunderstorms that, around the age of 12, I decided I had to do something about it.

My parents strongly believed they should not ‘spoil’ their kids. Me biking to school was part of that. Rain or shine (oh and actually, a lot more rain then shine), winter or summer, I was off on my bike. Although I love to blame my parents for being too harsh on me : I totally loved it. I left the house at the same time by bike, as one of my teachers, who lived around the block, did by car and we arrived around the same time. I was home much faster then anyone else. I had probably become the fastest kid-biker of the neighborhood and I enjoyed that reputation.

But there was but one occasion that my mom brought me to school, one exception to the rule. Maybe because they pitied me for being so afraid, but more likely because they thought it wasn’t safe : that was during a thunderstorm. That wasn’t exactly often. There are hardly any thunderstorms in Belgium. There are years that no thunderstorm passes your neighborhood. They last maybe an hour of so, if you’re lucky.
And I decided that biking to school during that rare occasion would help me off my fears. I did it once or twice, only because it hardly ever happened to me. And even when it did, I biked so fast that I arrived in school in 2 thunderclaps.

But it did help. A bit.

It was but moving to Argentina that completely cured me, and which, strangely enough, made me even love thunderstorms. Here a thunderstorm is, well, a thunderstorm. It takes hours, or a whole day and maybe even a night, or longer. It rains so hard you need boots to go through the puddles as they are too big and too deep to jump over. Events biggest umbrellas can’t help you from getting soaked. The thunderclaps are so loud it makes the buildings shake, the windows and doors rattle for a minute or longer. The noise seems to echo on and between the buildings, and seems to last forever, until the next thunderclap takes over. Very often it goes together with a serious light-play. A flickering light almost. It is extra ordinary.

Nowadays I tend to go out with, or even without my camera during a daytime storm, and at night, well, I just make sure the window is open so I can hear even the farthest thunderclap, see the lighting, count the time between both, calculate the distance, wait for the next. All this while enjoying the loud noise of a serious downpour, which sounds like music.

Although, I must admit, one does get used to it, to all the noise, the violence : its like living next to the railroad : mostly I just fall asleep, as fast as on any other night, waking up in the morning, hoping the day might bring another storm to come.

 

-34.603723 -58.381593

The Perfect Housewife

15 Wednesday Apr 2015

Posted by katti in Argentina (home), General

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

daylight saving time, jet lag, perfect housewife, time zones

It’s not even 10 am and I have already cleaned the entire house, done the laundry, emptied and stored the suitcases, and I even have had time to drink various coffees. It must be that I have finally become the perfect housewife?

Maybe the fact that we had just arrived home the day before, a day I had spend sneezing every 5 seconds and emptied a complete Kleenex box in no time, probably had something to do with my sudden eager to clean. Two months and a half of dust had gathered, well, about everywhere.

But I guess I should truly blame it on the jet lag I say I never suffer from. Traveling through time zones has always been easier on me then the daylight saving time, which stays in my body for days if not weeks. But then a time difference of merely 5 or 6 hours isn’t exactly the end of the world.

Traveling east is easy as long as you don’t have to wake up at ungodly hours, traveling west is even easier if you don’t mind making some early mornings. And if all goes well, in less then 5 days your back in your normal rhythm.

But here are some tips to get over a jet lag :

1. The flight : Change your clock to the time of destination as soon as you get on        the plane

2. NEVER EVER THINK ABOUT THE TIME IN YOUR PREVIOUS DESTINATION.

3. The first day : When traveling east : do not have a nap on your first day. Try not to book anything for the first night, and go to bed when you ‘feel it’s time’, even if your watch says only 9 pm. If you miss this moment, you’re up for a long night and a couple of difficult days. When traveling west, it is ok to have a nap, and try to go to bed as late as possible. Make sure the room is blacked out, or use an eyemask.

4. NEVER EVER THINK ABOUT THE TIME IN YOUR PREVIOUS DESTINATION.

5. In both cases, take melatonin half an hour before you go to bed during 5 Days. It brings your sleeping rhythm back on track.

6. But the golden rule is NEVER EVER THINK ABOUT THE TIME IN YOUR PREVIOUS DESTINATION.

But although I do feel the jet lag, it doesn’t really bother me. And it certainly won’t stop me from traveling through time zones. It is only when it comes to communicating that time zones bother me. And, with kids on each side of the atlantic, that is about all the time.

Super glad to be back in BA, super happy to be home again. Now close in time to my daughter, and far from son. But no worries, times are changing soon.

-34.603723 -58.381593

Loosing the North

08 Wednesday Apr 2015

Posted by katti in Argentina (home), Belgium

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

autumn, spring, summer, terrasjesweer, Winter

IMG_1556I am -literally- counting the days to go home. I have been away for so long, that I have lost count of the weeks, and that I can’t figure out wether it is either spring or autumn, wether we are going towards summer or winter. It is a strange feeling. I have lost the North. I do remember vaguely that I couldn’t get away from the BA heat soon enough, that the heat was killing me, too much sweat for doing nothing. I longed to put on a coat. Various coats if necessary. Warm sweaters. Hats. Gloves. The dark and gloomy days. It all appealed to me like never before. I hadn’t had winter in over 6 years. What is winter, anyway?

I came to the right place. The northern hemisphere has been quite chilly this year. Finally wearing my more then 6 year old winter coats that are of no use in Buenos Aires, and all the other things I had longed for. How I enjoyed that! Various friends had pleasure in asking me ‘Cold enough for you?’. I couldn’t have been more excited! And as my mom always says ‘one can always dress to the cold’. But really, can one?

While walking in NYC with 2 sweaters and 2 coats, gloves and hat borrowed from my daughter, walking slowly, because my muscles were all sore of the cold, when at the same time my daughter who -in my eyes- hardly had any clothes on, said to me : ‘Mom! It is not cold AT ALL’, I realized I’ve had enough of winter and need to pack up my things and go southwards again. I have stayed up north for too long. I need to go home.

It really is time for spring. I see it in the people’s eyes. Especially when it is a spring-like day. With every ray of sun people go out and sit on terraces, out of the (still) cold wind, with heatings to stop them from freezing to death. They call it ‘terrasjesweer’ (terrace weather). The first rays of sun are coming, the first easter flowers are out, but to me, it is still a long way to nice warm weather.

Just as much as the summer in BA is too hot and too long, the winter in Belgium is too dark, too gloomy and too long. As a tourist escaping from the heat, I seem to be the only one enjoying it, knowing it is only temporary and my choice.

So I go south, to spring. Oh no, right, to autumn. But well, Argentine autumn is my favorite season.

(photo : Belgian spring day, people on the beach, 8°C)

← Older posts
Newer posts →

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Global Citizens
    • Join 135 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Global Citizens
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...