Bitchin' Buenos Aires

Hola.

I have now left BA and am in Rosario (the birthplace of Che Guevara) but I managed to jam pack my last few days with muchas stuff and yes I still heart Buenos Aires.

The short version:

• I watched La Boca Juniors play River Plate and win 2-0 at their home stadium.
• I had the best steak of my 28 years.
• And I went and watched a large group of sweaty Argentines banging on drums.

The long version:

The whole La Boca experience was mostly awesome with some periods of me being more than somewhat annoyed. I don't wish to complain but if I did wish to complain it would go a little something like this:
We were told when we parted with our benjamins that we would be receiving unlimited pizza and beer before the game, followed by unlimited beer afterwards, transport to and from the game and a SEAT at the actual game. We were picked up at our hostel so they get a tick in the box for that. But it soon became apparent that we weren't getting pizza and beer - at least not for some hours. We got to the stadium, queued for several blocks, were patted down for any concealed weapons (which included lipstick) and were ushered to the stands by our guides. Ironically we were in the el cheapo general admission section - ironic because we probably paid the most for our tickets out of everyone in the stadium. Anyway after about 10 minutes of jostling in the crowd we realised that no we didn't actually have a seat and yes we were expected to stand for the next 2 hours with the sun beating down on our fair gringa/o skin before the game even started. Some of you will know what a grumpy guts I can be and I admit I dropped lip and may or may not have actually stomped my foot a few times. But then I had a teaspoon of cement and hardened the (insert Irish cuss word here) up. Well that, or I just got high off the fumes from the dude chain-smoking the green stuff (or waccy baccy as my dad calls it) in front of me and I chilled out sufficiently.

The atmosphere in the crowd was insane and La Boca fans are freaking hardcore! Standing right next to me at the game (well actually on my actual feet) were a mom and dad and their 3 daughters all under the age of 10 who knew all the words to all the songs, including the ones which called the other team 'sons of whores' or something to that effect. I am almost certain I didn't know what a whore was when I was 10. I am glad that La Boca won or someone would have got their asses well stabbed (probably by a 10 year old girl).

Speaking to guys who actually know stuff about football (and who kindly showed me the offside rule with the aid of jenga pieces) the quality of play wasn't on the same level as some of the European teams but at a game like that it's more about the atmosphere and the crowd and shouting obscenities at the ref.

So after the game, I won't lie, I was rather excited at the thought of getting out of the grounds and/or sitting down for a reasonable amount of time. However we first had to wait an hour (or 60 minutes) until the River fans first left the stadium (to avoid unnecessary violence) and then the La Boca fans in the better seats left as well. Once again I almost lost my shit. The guides really should have followed through on their promise on beer before the game because drunk Tracy is WAY more fun and accommodating than sober Tracy who can sometimes be a bit of a big girl's blouse. I think everyone found this out after the game, when we finally received the pizza and beer (that I have bleated on about for 45 paragraphs). Because after 23 beers I couldn't even remember what I had been pissed off about and made friends with everyone IN THE WORLD.

Now I know I could have probably found a cheaper ticket somehow and not gone with the over-priced tour group option (and thus cut out some of my whinging and moaning) but I had heard stories about River fans throwing wee etc on the Boca fans and the possibility of fighting in the crowd and I preferred my first soccer match to remain a urine and violence free experience. So I just went with the safer option. (And just so you don't think I am a complete brat, 97% of the other people were peeved as well and 2 girls on the same tour actually tried to leave because they were so freaked out in the crowd.)

And now to the steak.

Oh the steak.

The day after the soccer and my last full day in BA I went to a restaurant called 'La Cabrera' in Palermo for lunch. And there I experienced 400 grams of utter dopeness - with blue cheese sauce on top of it. Now I know if a steak is really good it doesn't need anything to go with it but I confess I was slightly hung over after the beer-soccer madness from the night before and blue cheese sounded like a plan. I also had an amazing avocado, tomato and heart of palm (similar to artichokes?) salad and afterwards a chocolate volcano pudding with ice cream which was so amazing I almost wept. The whole meal cost me my budget for about 1.54 days in Argentina but it was worth it.

After the meal (that I will probably tell my grandchildren bedtime stories about) I waddled back to my hostel, had a quick wardrobe change and headed out with some people from the hostel to 'La Bomba del Tiempo'. Every Monday night at this cultural centre in Once a group of about 15 or so guys play percussion instruments for a few hours, with several guys taking turns doing the "conducting". I say conducting but it was more like random hand signals, with a whole lot of ass shaking and revving up the crowd. It was probably one of the best things I did while in BA and I know it sounds a bit hippyish but at one point - in the middle of the crowd, while attempting to shake it like a Latin person, listening to the amazing music, I felt so blessed. It was just one of those moments where you think - 'well shit this thing called life is actually rather excellent thank you very much'.

And no nothing happened with the hot Spanish teacher. He kind of avoided me after I asked him if he could translate "I want to run my fingers through your hair" into Spanish. :)