Tag Archives: around the world travel

Hasta la Vista, BA! Part Two…Belatedly

Wow, I’m a bit behind in the writing department. Sorry! Must be all that wine tasting in Mendoza…just kidding, really it’s that I’ve taken too many pictures to upload in a reasonable amount of time. But who said anything about reasonable anyway?

So, back to my final post, final part about my stay in BA (final at least till I return in a few weeks). I was trying hard to see the things I thought I’d really regret having left without seeing. This included the Bicentennial Museum, Puerto Madero, and a quick photo op with Mafalda. (Who’s Mafalda, you ask? All will be revealed in due time, never fear!)

First, the Bicentennial Museum. Built underground in a complex that incorporates the remains of the old customs house, it chronicles Argentine history from settlement and independence to the current government. And opened by the current Peronist government, it’s fair to say it has a decided bias. I had been warned about the bias, but even my limited Spanish gets language that associates the economic policies of the pre- Kirchner governments with the preceding military dictatorship! But overall I still learned a lot about the sequence of events that molded the country. I do have to admit, however, that one of the highlights (other than seeing a beautiful old desk that I love, its having belonged to Sarmiento being somewhat incidental to its sheer beauty), were a set of political dolls in the gift shop. I had heard that there was one of Kirchner as well as one of her husband, and the latter had angel wings to show that he is no longer living…

Bicentennial Museum on the remains of the old customs house
Sarmiento’s Desk
The Perons
Madres de Plaza de Mayo
Dolls of Argentine political figures – some with angels’ wings!

I walked to the canal from the museum, entering the barrio of Puerto Madero. It was a short-lived port a long time ago, having been outgrown pretty much as soon as it was developed, so for a time it was full of abandoned old warehouses. Then someone had the bright idea to covert the old warehouses into apartments and restaurants, build some new high rises, and make sure that the yacht club was located there – instant gentrification! Now it’s quite a ritzy (and touristy) area, though the ecological reserve there is apparently enjoyed by many porteños. I didn’t go there since I wasn’t in the mood for a park so soon after the Jardín Japonés. Instead, I enjoyed walking around the water, checking out an old Argentine naval sailing ship turned into a museum.
View up to Plaza de Mayo from the side of the Casa Rosada
A first view of Puerto Madero and the Women’s Bridge
Fountain in Puerto Madero
Training ship turned museum
Bridge and boat, Puerto Madero
A view through some rigging
An officer’s cabin
The training boat viewed from the bridge
One of the remaining old warehouses
Looking back at Puerto Madero
Spaceship or flower? You decide!

I wrapped up the day with a quick stop in San Telmo.
A lovely church in San Telmo

A lovely church in San Telmo

I wanted a picture of me with Mafalda, a little cartoon girl by a celebrated Argentine cartoonist. The picture someone kindly took of me turned out terribly and is consigned to digital deletion, but I snuck in another shot of Mafalda herself so not all was lost!
Mafalda

Mafalda

Street Art!

On Saturday, I took a local non-profit named Graffitimundo’s Hidden Walls tour of Buenos Aires to discover the grafitti – more specifically the street art – in four different barrios. We went to the dodgy neighborhoods, La Boca and Barracas. We also stopped in Congreso and Palermo. I have to say, I didn’t realize how good street art could be. I like much of what we saw more than much contemporary art I’ve seen. (Of course, that’s kind of damning with faint praise.) I was impressed, both with the tour and with what we saw. I learned about stenciling versus free-hand and even saw a street decorated with mosaics in an attempt to make it brighter and more cheerful. Real graffiti is a relatively new phenomenon in Argentina, given that there was a military dictatorship during the time most other countries were developing it. I don’t remember every artist’s name, but several are supported by Graffitimundo and will be on their website.

Anyway, enough history! Judge for yourselves whether you like it or not:

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The Many Colors of La Boca

Last Thursday, we had a Spanish class field trip to La Boca, the gritty, colorful, formerly bustling port barrio that welcomed waves of Italian (mainly Genoese) immigrants in the 19th century. Those pictures of brightly painted yellow and blue and red wooden and metal houses that you see in brochures advertising Buenos Aires? That’s La Boca – and more specifically, that’s the area around El Caminito, a cool-looking tourist trap that is meant to be a living museum of what La Boca once was. Those poor Genoese dockworkers used leftover paint from the ships to brighten their abodes – thus the rainbow of El Caminito. Most actual houses in La Boca have lost these bright colors as the area became poorer. There are a lot of squatters and a lot of multi-family apartments in La Boca now, part of why guidebooks warn tourists from straying from the area right around El Caminito and the Bombonera soccer stadium.

Tourist trap or not, it was cold and a Thursday, so it wasn’t too crowded. We started off with a quick visit to the museum dedicated to Benito Quinquela Martín, a man who painted the ships of the port of La Boca and was instrumental in creating (recreating?) El Caminito as an homage to La Boca.

Then we froze more and walked along El Caminito and a street parallel. On the weekends, there are tango shows in the restaurants, which have tiny dance platforms so the dancers can attract customers. (I’m sneaking in a photo or two from Saturday, when I went back to La Boca to take a graffiti tour and there were actual dancers out there.)

People have told me that La Boca (by which they mean El Caminito) is over-rated. I’d honestly just say that you need to set appropriate expectations for yourself. There are only three or four blocks to see, but those blocks, especially when there aren’t too many tourists walking around, are bright and vibrant and lovely.

A knight near La Boca
Caminito corner building close-up
La Boca tango!
View of the bridge to the province
More colors within the conventillo
Within the conventillo
Conventillo view
Wall decorations in the conventillo
Wall painting in the conventillo
Entrance to a conventillo (multi-family dwelling)
More crazy La Boca figures
By the Boca market
Tree in the city…
Color contrasts
Maradona, Evita and Carlos Gardel wave to La Boca
Life-sized figures showing what La Boca might have been like…
Italy, Spain, Argentina – La Boca had lots of immigrants
Looking back down El Caminito
Caminito relief
Another colorful view
Ah, the colors!
Back of a conventillo (multi-family building)
Caminito
Caminito
Caminito colors
Caminito colors
Looking down El Caminito
First view of the colors of La Boca
First view of the colors of La Boca
El Caminito
El Caminito – a far view
Boca restaurants and shops
Argentina’s flag
Gaucho in a souvenir shop
Colorful trim on a store
Heading towards El Caminito
La Bombonera soccer stadium backlit
La Boca view
Even the warehouses are colorful!
La Boca warehouses
View of El Caminito
View of Fundacion Proa
View of La Boca warehouses
Tango in La Boca! Wall painting

Dancing through Congreso

One of the women in the level two Spanish class has some connections here and was invited on a guided tour of the Congreso building while she was here. She graciously arranged for a group of us in the first three levels of Spanish class to go, so I got to explore in depth the imposing Congreso last Wednesday!

It started with a little bit of initial confusion, with nobody there to greet us as amazingly our group was closer to American time than Argentine time (aka a group of ten people actually arrived within just a few minutes of when they said they would). Eventually a guide and our fellow student’s contact arrived, and we found out that the guide only spoke Spanish. So anything after this paragraph, take with a grain of salt. I’m only at level one of Spanish, after all!

The guide handed out mini copies of the Argentine constitution to everyone, we went through security, and we were in! First stop, the official ceremonious doors and entryway, almost all of which was made from imported materials. In fact, that holds true for pretty much the entire building.

Next came the room with all the flags of the different provinces, with its stained glass roof under repair. Apparently it’s been under repair for a while, as every time bad weather arrives, the glass gets moved around by the wind. Sounds challenging, and like maybe they need a different way to fix the panels down.

Then came a super imposing room, the center of the building, the Blue Room. The Blue Room is located directly under the dome and houses the constitution (one of multiple original signed copies, if I understood correctly). There is a magnificent chandelier dripping in baccarat crystal and showcasing plaques on the metal part that represent eight or nine important moments in Argentine history. (I didn’t quite get the details on what those events were, however.)

We visited a room used by the senators to relax. It’s full of leather and the scent and atmosphere of old men, which may not be fair as I have no idea of the average senatorial age here – and there was only one senator in the building anyway as it’s between sessions right now. Another room was decorated in pink and was the equivalent room for women. Quite pretty and a nice thought for back in the day, though now, appropriately, both rooms are for both sexes. We disturbed a staffer of some sort having coffee in the pink room, but at some point he stepped out so we could then visit.

Next came one of the most amazing moments: we got to enter the Senate, sit in the senators’ seats, and even go up in the front of the room and sit in the Vice President’s seat. Everyone had been taking a ton of pictures of themselves posing in places during the tour – this was where I stopped taking pictures of just the building and posed myself!

Our foray into the Chamber of Deputies’s side of the building was shorter: we entered the (very large) Chamber and the waiting room in front of it. By now I think people were getting tired, as we had been there for quite some time what with the tour guide’s lectures and all the photo-taking. But we got to wrap up in my favorite room, the library! It was absolutely beautiful.

In fact it was all beautiful. It seemed very European, very 19th century, even though it dates from later than that.

We headed out as it grew dark, and I went off for dinner and then my first venture out to a milonga. La Viruta offers tango classes most nights of the week and is very welcoming to beginners (at least during the class – I got asked to dance several times by individuals who ran away when I told them I was a rank beginner. Not that I blame them. Too much.) I enjoyed it despite the fact that it was extremely crowded in the beginners class. After the classes, the floor opened for dancing (aka the milonga part of the evening) and I enjoyed watching some very good dancers tango. I even managed to not scare someone by my newness and danced!

Loves the architecture on our walk from class to the congress!
We’re definitely in the right building:)
The floor in the entryway – I believe the tiles were imported from the US
Ceiling in the room where all the provincial flags are flown
Provincial flags
A detail of the dome of the Argentine Congress, modeled after the US Capitol
Details of the chandelier in the Blue Room
Argentine Constitution
Salon Azul
Salon Azul details
Room for Senators to hang out in
Who is in the house? One senator
Beautiful ceiling of the Senate chamber
Sitting in a Senado seat…hmm, pretty comfy
Senado chamber
In the VP’s seat!
Pink room – originally for women in the Congreso
Another beautiful ceiling in the Congreso building
Waiting room outside the Chamber of Deputies
Yep, outside the Chamber of Deputies!
Chamber of Deputies
My favorite room – the Congreso library!
Books!!!
For serious legislative research
Lovely library decor
Gobelins decorates the library
Check out the 4!
Some interesting angles going on…
Congreso at night

Doors of Recoleta Cemetery

Tuesday morning saw me back at Recoleta Cemetery, enjoying the view (and getting scammed for a few pesos by the guy saying he was collecting for charity just outside the gates *mental head slap*). This time I got to see Evita’s family tomb as well (the Duarte family).

We got some good views in the bright sunshine:

Another lovely old tomb
Recoleta cemetery view
A family’s monument

And having seen posters everywhere showing doors of a city, here’s my attempt at doors of Recoleta Cemetery:

Out and About in Buenos Aires: Feria de Mataderos and Tango!

Sunday and Monday were busy, interesting days! I’ve realized that I don’t have a long time left in Buenos Aires (how time flies!), and I want to take advantage of it.

I had been intrigued by a description of a feria (fair or market) that takes place in the very southerly barrio of Mataderos. It’s known for its singing, dancing, and gaucho-related activities, along with artisanal food, drinks and crafts. The other advantage is that it’s off the beaten path, taking an hour by bus to get there. It was definitely worth it, though! I bought the best dulce de leche ever and had my first choripan (chorizo on bread). We heard live music and even saw people dancing a handkerchief dance to it. As seems to be common at ferias (at least, I also saw this in San Telmo), there was a table loaded with goodies baked by local women. Of course we had to try a piece of cake! We wrapped up the day with a little more shopping, at Ateneo, the prettiest bookstore ever.

Feria de Mataderos sign
Charming old car at the Feria de Mataderos
Statue of a gaucho at the Mataderos Feria
Bus stops can be pretty much anywhere…
Folks having fun dancing to live music at Feria de Mataderos
Yummy array of desserts in Mataderos
Display of matés
Best.Dulce de Leche.Ever
Ceiling at the Ateneo
Me at Ateneo
View at the side of Ateneo
View from the top floor of Ateneo

On Monday, a group of us finally went to Cafe Tortoni to see a tango show. (We’d only been trying for a week!) We got a great view of the Congreso building while heading to buy tickets. Before the show we went to a parrilla in San Telmo. It was pricey but tasty. Unfortunately, dinner took a little longer than expected (oh so common with a group of people) and apparently my Spanish was not up to par, so we missed part of the show. (I could have sworn they said doors opened at 10, show at 10:30.) Oh well, everyone had fun at least, and what we saw of the show was fantastic.
A view of the side of the Congreso
Cafe Tortoni
Interior of Cafe Tortoni
Evita! Seen heading back from Cafe Tortoni

Exploring Abasto and Congreso

On Saturday, I took a free tour of Buenos Aires that taught me how to use the bus system in BA. Apparently there is a bus guide that divides the city into a series of smaller maps, each map being divided into a grid. To figure out what bus you need to take you somewhere, you find what grid cell you’re leaving from, look up the list of buses for that box, then do the same for your destination. If any of those bus numbers overlap, you’ve found a bus you can take to the general area. Then you look up the bus route number in the back of the book to see what streets the bus will go down.

Statue of Garibaldi, Plaza Italia

Statue of Garibaldi, Plaza Italia


We hopped on a bus from our starting point of Plaza Italia to head towards the barrio of Abasto. First stop, Carlos Gardel’s house. (Carlos Gardel was the famous tango singer who made tango respectable – previously it was danced by pairs of male dockworkers in La Boca and in brothels.) While the house doesn’t really look like anything out of the ordinary, the street it is on has a number of houses decorated with the local painting style of filete. Filete is the filigree and flowers painted onto brightly colored houses (which tend to be red or pink or yellow).
Abasto painted house near Gardel’s house
Abasto building detail
Carlos Gardel’s street, with Buenos Aires painted houses nearby
Next door to the Gardel’s house
A street in Abasto near the Gardel house

We walked around a few blocks of Gardel’s neighborhood, soaking in the houses covered in tango music and the pavement blocks that held the lyrics to famous tango songs. One street had a little, red shrine to a gaucho not-quite-saint that was dedicated to someone who had died in an accident there. Our guide Jonathan pointed out the ribbons tied to the bumper of the taxi next to the shrine – red ribbons to the gaucho, red ribbons with words on them to a saint, and finally the Argentine flag. Down the block was a car with a pail of water on the roof – that is a sign that the car is for sale.
Shrine places where someone was in an accident - not dedicated to a saint, but rather to a gaucho legend

Shrine places where someone was in an accident – not dedicated to a saint, but rather to a gaucho legend


We then headed to Asbasto shopping mall, home to the only kosher McDonalds outside of Israel. Since it was Saturday, of course it was closed. (You may have guessed from this that Abasto has a big Jewish population, and you’d be right. And in fact BA is home to the fourth largest Jewish community outside of Israel, numbering around a tenth of the city.) Abasto shopping center used to be the central market for the city, and you can still see that from its architectural style.
Me and Carlos Gardel
Tango shoes
Sign on a building
More Carlos Gardel signs!
Abasto souvenir shop
Gardel’s statue by the Abasto mall
The old Abasto central market, now a mall
The only kosher McDonalds outside of Israel

We stopped in the food court for a snack (baked potato with ham and cheese, an unfortunate choice) and then headed down to the Subte. On our way out, we passed some tables with people applauding. Apparently Argentine director for 2010’s Oscar winning foreign film, Juan José Campanella, was there.
Confiteria del Molino
Congreso
A touch of the old world
Broader view of the Argentine Parliament building
Congreso
Looking down the Avenida de Mayo
Heading towards Av de Mayo
Le Penseur by Rodin, version given to Buenos Aires
Av de Mayo, Palacio Barolo and neighbor
Faded splendor on the Av de Mayo
An old insurance company building on Avenida de Mayo
Palacio Barolo

Next we headed to Congreso, the building which houses both chambers of the Argentine parliament. Apparently the building was modeled on the US one. It’s in a square full of Belle Époque buildings, opening onto the Avenida de Mayo and, in the far distance, the Casa Rosada. Avenida de Mayo has a bit of faded elegance about it, buildings in the Parisian style sometimes boarded up or graffitied. Jonathan pointed out to us one incredibly interesting building called the Palacio Barolo, built in the early twentieth century to house the remains of Dante when Europe faded into its inevitable and imminent decline (according to the Italian immigrant to Argentina who had it built). And in homage to Dante, the building is rife with symbolism, from how high it is to numbers of columns to the murals depicting Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. I think I may need to go on a tour and check out the inside for myself!

Our final stop was the Plaza de Mayo, after which I headed to see the inside of the cathedral. It’s lovely.

I wrapped up the day with dinner at a parilla and a housewarming party where I got to meet more international students. Hurrah for all these opportunities to meet new people!

Catedral
Buenos Aires’s Cathedral

First Few Days in Berlin: Photos

The Brandenburg Tor
A closer view of the famous gate
Different day, different lighting
The Reichstag
Closer to Parliament
The view of the Brandenburg Gate coming from Parliament
Close-up of Parliament
Ampelmann!
Ampelmann says go!
Looking down towards Charlottenburg
The Holocaust Memorial
The Holocaust Memorial
The Holocaust Memorial
Walking in the Holocaust Memorial
The US Embassy seen from the Holocaust Memorial
Potsdamer Platz: Berlin reborn
Potsdamer Platz
A part of the Berlin Wall covered in wads of gum and defiance
Berlin Wall segments in Potsdamer Platz
One of the many maps and displays about a divided Berlin
The Wall segment by the Topography of Terror
Wall close-up
The outdoor exhibit by the Topography of Terror
The exhibit at the Topography of Terror
Crumbling Wall
The Berlin Bear by the Wall
Walking from the Topography of Terror to Checkpoint Charlie
Look! It’s Charlie!
Checkpoint Charlie
Entering West Berlin
Berlin Bear Statue of Liberty in the US Embassy
Anhalter Banhof ruins
Leaving the US sector…
I’m still standing on the western side
Look down at the exhibit: a remnant of the Wall with intact guard tower
The Wall and the death strip
Remnants of the Wall as art

Moscow: Lots and Lots and Lots of Pictures of Red Square and the Kremlin

You’ve been warned by the title of this post!

My first view of the Bolshoi
Detail of the fence by a church
The Kremlin walls
Closer to the Kremlin
Outside the Kremlin
Outside the Kremlin
Heading to the Kremlin entrance
Kremlin tower
Another view of the Kremlin
Architechtural detail near the Armory
The Kremlin
Inside the Kremlin, not yet at the churches
Another peak in the Kremlin
The first of many Kremlin churches
A square filled with churches in the Kremlin
One of the lovely Kremlin churches
Looking out at the Kremlin walls from inside
Frescoes
The bell tower
I’m at the Kremlin!
Lots of domes…
More frescoes and domes
Frescoes!
In the square
View of me with Kremlin churches
Me by another church
Another view of me in the square
Tree and domes
The canon on the other side of the Bell Tower
Looking back into the square
The cracked bell
A better view of the engraving
Now you can see that it really is cracked
Past the churches to government buildings
One last glimpse of frescoes
Parliament building (not the Duma)
Looking at government buildings
The working part of the Kremlin
Towards Red Sqaure
A long view down a side street for government employees only
Kremlin tower
Heading into Red Square
A broad view – St Basil in the background
First glimpse of St Basil
Red Square – picture the 20th century history!
Looking at St Basil’s
St Basil’s and GUM (the department store)
Doesn’t look real, does it?
Snow globe church
The business side of the Kremlin
Looking toward Lenin’s mausoleum
Red Square
The weird procession of cars that closed of Red Square
The cars going around in circles
And again…
A closer view of St Basil’s
And closer yet
This view shows the statue of Minin and Pozharsky
Outside Red Square
Side road into the square
The Bolshoi
Memorial to victims of the secret police
Lubyanka, HQ of the KGB and an island in the “Gulag Archipelago”
The entrance to the Gulag Museum
Entrance to the Gulag Museum
The Gulag
A map of how many people were affected
Reconstruction of a Gulag prison camp room
More of the Gulag reconstruction
So many people in Red Square, and this is a good day!
Lenin’s tomb
GUM
Pushkin and his wife
One of Stalin’s Seven Sisters (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs with lots of satellite dishes
Another view of the wedding cake building
Kremlin at night
Red Square
Red Square
St Basil’s
Lenin’s Tomb
GUM
Red Square
Looking into the Kremlin at night
Shadows
The Kremlin
St Basil’s
View from St Basil’s – another of the Seven Sisters is visible
View from St Basil’s
View of Red Square from St Basil’s
Library
A glimpse of Moscow traffic
A view of Moscow that’s not Red Square or the Kremlin
Walking to the Pushkin Museum
The Pushkin Museum
Heading back to the hotel

More Fun in St Petersburg (Another Photo Gallery)

I got to spend the rest of the time in St. Petersburg with a good friend of mine from college. We walked all over the historic center city!

My friend in front of the Peter and Paul Fortress
Me in front of the Peter and Paul Fortress
Broader view of the Peter and Paul Fortress
Imperial detail on the bridge
Peter and Paul Fortress
Peter and Paul Fortress – the scaffolding on the tower looks as though it’s part of the building
Wax figure in the Fortress
My friend in front of the Peter and Paul Cathedral
The Neva and Hermitage from the Peter and Paul Fortress
Wish upon a rabbit…
My friend tossing coins to make a wish
The cruiser Aurora and the frozen river
The Aurora and me
Another view of the Aurora
Here we are again!
Before the ballet, Mariinskii Theater
Church
Submarine museum and the sailing ship the Mir
I’m going to get to go on board the Mir!
Ready to head onto the Mir
Walking back to the hotel