Sick day....refusing to stay in bed

I worked 12 days straight...getting up to the alarm every freaking cold morning...

I was glad to finally get away to Pilar, just outside of Buenos Aires, for a relaxing weekend. Think sleeping in until 10, running around a plush green neighborhood 2x a day, making home made fettuccini noodles, drinking wine at every meal and cozying up to a fire. It was nice...until the whole family woke up one day sick! Must have been all the passing around of the traditional mate.

My boss told me to take a day off work and rest, which was just as well because I woke up with a fever. But, being in another country I always have to “aprovecha el dia”, seize the day! I got a detailed city map and starting walking miles and miles and miles in the cold to see everything I could of beautiful Buenos Aires!

I started in my own neighborhood of Belgrano.... I must have walked every street...4 hours of walking is a long time when you’re sick. I walked down the main avenue for over an hour and was surprised to still see both sides of the street lined with café/ restaurants/ clothing/ shoe/ perfume stores. Does it ever end? A huge dome hiding behind some buildings caught my attention…turns out it is La Redonda church facing Plaza de General Manuel Belgrano. I think I must have been sweating out the fever because I was burning up in my tank top, where the rest of the city was bundled up in coats and scarves. I decided to take a 10 minute rest inside the church and admire all the art work and the inner dome view that looks like the Pantheon in Italy. Everything was marble on the interior and lined with tons of gold…an impressive church that had great atmosphere as they were playing the pipe organ too. I also walked around the park watching some street vendors mold silverware into jewelry and engraving it….the old Flintstones way.

It was then I decided on my mission for the day….to find a hidden panaderia to buy a picnic lunch and a park to enjoy people watching. Along my search, I got turned around in skyrise brick apartment buildings whose first floors were designer shops, spotted a restaurant that looks like the top of the Chrysler building, dead ended at a house where Albert Einstern lived while in Argentina and the various buildings spread around town of the Universidad de Belgrano. I did find a cute sandwich shop by the Cuban embassy. I ordered an Argentinean classic- ham, cheese and pineapple. It was a 3-layer, tea -style sandwhich the size of my hand and they even had the crust cut off. I also picked out some dulce de leche and “frutilla” mini cookies for dessert. I then walked an hour to Las Barrancas park- literally hills placed in the middle of the bustling city- and cozied up under a huge tree for my picnic lunch. The kids are on winter break and so they were all out running and screaming on the warmest day of the month….high of 58 degrees!

Of course I got turned around in all my zigzagging through the streets and following anything that caught my eye….I ended up running into China Town in Argentina! They have an official street entrance that reminded me of Beijing, painted gold and red and complete with the tiny dragons on the rooftop corners! (I decided to skip the rabbit pizza). I did, of course, check out the panaderia and was surprised to find brownies!....People keep asking me why Argentineans are not fat with all the cultural eating….I think there is something in the water because I eat twice as much here in Argentina and I weigh the same!

On sick day #2, Bianca insisted that I take another day off from work to rest…and that the perfect way to recover from a cold was to go the gardens and zoo in Palermo. So I did!

I took the subte down to Plaza Italia…it was bustling with people and honking car horns just like any other plaza in the city…and it had a huge statue in the center too. I did an initial walk around the plaza to get to know the streets… ultimately confusing myself as to where I was…and search for a sandwicheria. I decided to first check out the Jardin Botanico, which is free entrance this month, and I found many others eating their picnic lunch here too! My two favorite parts of this garden: (1) the Indicador Meterolocico statue that is a tribute to many scientists’ inventions and (2) statue of two naked women waving around a cloak called “El Despertar de la Naturaleza” (Awakening of Nature).

Argentina prides itself in its varied arquitecture from other countries….although not much here is original. Everything resembles a classic piece from another country. Something caught my eye across from Plaza Italia that reminded me of Paris’ Arc du Triumph…although on a smaller scale like the piece in front of the Louvre. Well, this was actually the Jardin Zoologico (Zoo) entrance….it was warming up and I decided it would be awesome to check out the zoo for US $5. It was a great vocabulary learning experience! I feel bad for those poor animals having to live in tiny, dirty conditions like that and be hit on the head all day by nasty food chunks thrown by screaming children. This park was worse than Disney in high season….parents were shouting the entire time, kids were whining because they were tired of walking, there was no traffic flow pattern and there were probably too many people there….i realized it was winter vacation for the kids! But I had a wonderful time…and good laugh at an oso homiguero- the most unfortunate animal I have ever seen in my life! Its nose looks like a tree branch protruding 8 inches away from its body with an equaling awkward tail draped in ragged spotted tassles.

I also made my way down to Plaza Holanda and the Rosedal Garden….which would have been a breathtaking view of thousands of roses if it wasn’t the middle of winter here in Buenos Aires! The park trails were still gorgeous and I was jealous of the friends canoeing and paddle boating in the lakes and others jogging the perimeter. I definitely want to come back here when I am better and do the same. Of course I got turned around following the huge dome sprouting out from behind the tress….it was actually the Planetario Municipal. I decided not to go in as the main attraction was watching a non-professional theatrical play using a backdrop of stars. Hmmm….I’ll Pass. Across the street was a Museo de Artes Plasticos….which sounded pretty cool! But the name is deceiving; there is nothing plastic about the art. I did like the main feature though– a provocative piece of the senoritas of the bicentennial who were dressed in shocking hooker clothes. Out front was yet another park, Parque de 3 de Febrero, where hundreds of people gathered to play soccer, rollerblading, 4 person bike riding, or you can train for the circus….i can’t believe there were people tight rope walking on belts tied between trees….the 15 foot fall looks aweful!

Then, all of a sudden the day turned cold and windy and a haze started moving in. I decided to start walking back to the subte station, which was about 30 minutes away. Trying to find a main street to cross I found Plaza Alemania….German Plaza! It was donated to Argentina in the 60s to commemorate 100 years together. I’m full German so I had to stay and admire the plaza for 5 minutes. That’s when I noticed a sign for the Jardin Japonese. A large garden donated by Japan in the 60s, where every single plant and flower comes from that country. I did the walk about admiring the bright pink, red and orange flowers and walking the bridges over the lakes. It was finally dark and time to get moving…my luck, in came the rains, which explain the cold. I didn’t bring a coat because being sick I was hot all day. I decided it was best to just get wet now instead of later and I walked 30 minutes to the subte (of course taking note of more beautiful Palermo shopping centers and apartments) and made it home just in time for tea and crackers with the family.