A man´s tale of Steak and Football

Having arrived in Buenos Aires a week early, we decided to put the extra time to good use and learn some Spanish. We´ve been quite shocked with the lack of English spoken here. Obviously Spanish is their first language, but then they learn Portugees as their second language, and very few have a third so making conversation has been a bit of a problem. On top of that, the locals in general aren´t very helpful either. If you don´t understand something, they just repeat it, equally as fast, rather than slowing down or using hand signals. So we enrolled in "BA plus" school who first sat us down for a test to see exactly how much Spanish we knew. No point really - we were all off to Beginners 1. Anyway, it got us up to speed and helped us with the various tourist things at least, like ordering food, booking busses and hostels, and asking directions.

That week was kinda quiet and school left us with only a little time to do some tourist things. There were quite a few things to see in Buenos Aires. In fairness it´s a gorgeous city, my favourite of the trip so far. The cental area around Avenieda do Mayo and Avenida 9 do Julio are sensational, and there´s a lot to be seen, inlcuiding the Obliesk, government buildings, the cathedral (where I ended up in mass by accident one day), and Casa Roja (pink house) which is the one Evita sang the songs out her balcony.

The surounding areas are equally nice. To the north are the posh areas of Palerma and Recoleta, which has the creepy Recoleta Cemetary. Basically it´s a graveyard for the Argentinain upper class, where they try to out do each other with elaborate tombs. It´s pretty much a who´s who of Argentinian history, from past presidents to pop starts, and of course Evita. There were quite a few creepy cats lurking around too.

To the south of the city is the working class area around the docs called ¨La Boca¨. We ventured down there one day to have a look around. Lovely colorful area where all the buildings are painted different colours, all the cafes are outside, Tango shows are plentiful, and all are in the shadow of the Bombanera, the home of Boca Juniors football club, made famous by Diego Maradona. Myself and Micheal did the stadium tour and it´s quite an intimidating place. The away dressing rooms are under the main stand, the away dugout is within touching distance of the fans, and the stadium itself is so steep, it looks structurially unsound. We pretty much got chased out of the place tho, when Micheal asked for a River Plate jersey at the Boca Juniors club shop!

The nightlife in Buenos Aires is one of the craziest experience I´ve ever had. The nightclubs have a cheaper entry fee before 2.30am, in the hope of getting people out early. Usually nights involved having dinner about 9, a few drinks about 11, then going to a club about 3, and getting home about 8am. There were a few days when we used to arrive home in the daylight, and wake up when it was dark again. I´ve no idea why they do it, it doesn´t make sense really. I suppose the locals are used to their midday siesta. We tried to adapt!

The two most famous things in Buenos Aires are Steak and Football, both of which we really enjoyed while we were there. The meat was sensational. Somebody explained it was because the cows are raised on the central plains of Argentina, which is very flat, resulting in the cows not having to use their muscles much. There were 2 options, Bife de Lomo (Tenderloin) or Bife do Choriso (Stirloin), both which cost about €6 for the nicest (and biggest) steak you will ever taste. I cannot describe quite how good these were. We had 2 favourite restaurnats which merit a mention. Firstly DesNivel was a rough and ready place where they basiaclly gave you meat and potatoes. Both cooked to perfection, but with absolutely nothing fancy. Think we went there about 7 nights out of the fortnight we spent in BA. The other, called La Cabrera was the more upmarket version. We had a very posh meal here. 3 courses, with wine. All came in at less that €20. Conor ordered a Rib-eye steak, which was about the size of his head. I would estimate it was about 25oz. We were warned to order a half portion. The waiter laughed when Micheal ordered a full. Think Anne-Marie counted 52 sides on our table at one stage, everything you could possibly imagine.

The other love of the Argentinians is football. It´s religious. While we were there, Argentina played Uruguay for the right to go to the next World Cup. The whole city shut down for the 2 hours. Our waiter couldn´t set our table without looking at the television. We signed up for a 5-a-side competition ourselve one day to see how we measured up against the local talent. After taking about 5 minutes to remember how to play football, we went on to top our group. In the semi final we coasted to a 2-0 vistory, and in the final were again 2-0 up and coasting before our lack of fitness finally kicked in, and they drew level. Somehow we found the energy to pull away and seal a 4-2 victory. We got medals and everything! A nice touch. Click here for a video of us in action.

The real reason we had stayed 2 weeks in Buenos Aires was to see ¨El Superclassico¨ (The Super Derby) between local rivals Boca Juniors and River Plate. This is without a doubt the biggest rivalry in world sport, I have never seen anything like it. This season, both teams are struggling, so all they want to do now is beat each other. We headed to the group about 3 hours early to avoid truoble and the atmosphere was already growing. By kickoff, there were streamers everywhere, we were all waving red and white flags, we´d ripped up about 3 newspapers each to make confetti, till rolls were flying all over the place, and the whole stadium was filled with red and white smoke while everyone chanted in unison. It was a very surreal experience.

The game itself was a typical local derby. River missed a penalty, then took the lead, both teams then had a player sent off, before Boca equalised. Either team could have won it in the end as both hit the post in the last 20 minutes. It finished level which seemed a fair result. After the game, the Boca fans tried to recreate Landsdowne 95, as they decided to throw all the seats from the top tier down onto the River fans below them. A few people were hit, and a few scruffles started around the stadium. We escaped unharmed.

All in all, a fantastic city, that I would definately recommend for a weeks holiday.