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Puerto Madero por la noche

Thursday, July 28th, 2005

Yesterday evening, I sat with my roommate, Moran, in the common area. Moran is a 20 year old Israeli girl who is at the end of her 5 month trip in South America. Before she departed on her trip, she had just finished her 2 year obligatory service with the Israeli army. We talked forever at the hostel, and I learned so much from someone so much younger than me.

Her friend, Sonja, met us up at our hostel. It was Sonja´s last night on her 3 month trip…returning to Paris. So we decided to head out for a night on the town. We took a cab to Puerto Madero, the area of the city that faces the waterfront. There was a cute bar/grill that we found and hung out at. Sonja had her last Bife the Chorizo. I had a grilled chicken sandwich and a caipirinha. The 3 of us talked all night until we looked at the time and it said 2am…then called it a night.

Posted in Buenos Aires, Travel | 2 Comments »

Teatro Colón

Thursday, July 28th, 2005

Yesterday, I went to the Teatro Colòn to do a guided tour. I ended up doing the guided tour in English because the line was shorter. There were a couple of gringos in line. I also met a girl from Patagonia (I forget which city, but it´s a smaller one) who studied to be an English teacher and was doing the tour in English to practice her English.

The Teatro was very impressive. It´s one of the world´s largest opera houses, compared to one in Milan and in New York. We entered in the opera house at street level into an area with displays, a grand marble staircase leading up to the halls that go to the box seats. In that main area, you could look up about 4 floors to see thedomed stained glass window depicting scenes from Greek mythology. The stained glass had come from France. The floor of the area consisted of small white mosaic tiles in the repeating shapes of a fan. There was various colors of marble, imported from various parts of the world that made the columns, the base of the columns, the stairs, and the sides of the stairs.

We went upstairs, past a few free standing sculptures and sculptures of the busts of various composers chiseled into the building itself. We went through two hallways with gold leaf accented walls and murals on the ceiling. The chandeliers in these hallways were huge, holding about 200 light bulbs.

We then entered another hallway to one that leads to doors for the second floor box seats (I think), next to the presidential box suite. In the box seats is room for 6 people on antique velvet covered chairs. We saw that actors were rehersing for the Barber of Seville to start in early August.

The theater is in a horseshoe shape, with about 4 or 5 floors. At the top two floors is the standing room only area. At the bottom of the theater are many chairs. I think Natalia said that the theater is able to hold about 3,000 people. There was a fresco on the ceiling, depicting various scenes with a man in white, who is said to be a muse. And in the middle of the fresco is a huge chandelier, holding 700 light bulbs. Part of it comes down all the way, and the part that does not come down is used for actors to emulate the voice of god or noises from above (they stand in an area on top of the chandelier.

We exited the lush box seats, entered into the room where the President gets welcomed if he attends a show. A lady in vintage Renaissance style costume played the Stradavarius? for us.

The rest of the tour showed us the workings that go into the theater. We went to the basement, where all of the work is done. We saw the storage room, where 88,000 costumes are stored, some borowed from other International theaters as well as the sewing room, where the costumes are made. Dress forms were a plenty, and the tailors were working hard.

We looked into the area where shoes are made. They have about 22,000 pairs of shoes at the opera house. Some of them have about 10 inches of platform heel. Maybe I could use them 😉 We also passed by the carpentry area, a huge area where they build props for the scenes; and by the painting area, where they paint the backdrops for the scenes. Picture it as a huge school gymnasium, floor coverd with canvas. There are stairs to a platform so that the painters can view the backdrops from afar.

We saw rehersal rooms as well. The rehersal room for the children had black paint on the window so the children won´t get disrupted. We also passed by a few rehersal rooms where actors and actresses were rehersing dancing parts.

It was a great and worthwhile tour for 7 pesos (student price – a little over $2). It makes you realize that there is so much that goes into a production, and a production of a mass scale takes a large sized crew to keep it going.

Posted in Buenos Aires, Travel | 1 Comment »

Pictures from Plaza San Martìn

Thursday, July 28th, 2005
Monument at Plaza San Martìn Sculptural relief below the monument Armed guards in front of the Falklands/Malvinas war memorial Torre de los Ingleses

Posted in Buenos Aires, Travel | 2 Comments »

Pictures from the Sunday San Telmo markets

Thursday, July 28th, 2005
Street performer < Forms for making shoes? The eyes of San Telmo -- eyes for dolls A guy selling feather dusters Tango in San Telmo with a thong hanging ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in Buenos Aires, Travel | No Comments »

Yesterday…

Thursday, July 28th, 2005
I think I was just in a mood yesterday. I had been walking around the center in the middle of rush hour, people bumping into me, dodging cars, I was a bit annoyed...luckily, it only lasted for a few ... [Continue reading this entry]

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City life blahs…(just a few thoughts of the moment)

Wednesday, July 27th, 2005
Being in the city was really getting to me today. The hoards of people, the car dodging, the constant squeeking of bus breaks... I know I´m not much of a city person when I travel. That´s why I never ... [Continue reading this entry]

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It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…

Wednesday, July 27th, 2005
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...that would pretty much sum up the day I had yesterday. I´ll start out with the morning...and you´ll see the odd kind of luck that I have...misfortunate yet fortunate... So yesterday ... [Continue reading this entry]

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These boots are made for walking…/Estas botas son hechos por caminando…

Tuesday, July 26th, 2005
Julio 25, 2005 - Lunes I had typed out quite a bit, then it mysteriously disappeared (mystery keystrokes that make your entire post delete..ugh)...so here´s a shorter version of what I did yesterday... ...I went to the tourist office on Santa Fe ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in Buenos Aires, Travel | No Comments »

fuck

Tuesday, July 26th, 2005
fuck, i just pressed some series of keys and erased my whole entry..have to start over..shit shit shit...i remember this happening to me last year, too..doh!

Posted in Buenos Aires, Travel | 3 Comments »

¡Llegué´! / I arrived!

Monday, July 25th, 2005
Note...since most of the readers are English readers, I have decided to change the format and put the English first and the Spanish (shorter version) below...
I made it!!! It has been a busy day! The flight from DFW ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in Buenos Aires, Travel | 2 Comments »

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