Buenos Aires Day 3

Decided we were going to spend our day meandering slowly towards San Telmo from the Center. First stop was a famous cafe, Cafe Tortoni. B'fast food wasn't great and ppl kept taking photos of the interior. It was one of those places to see... the flash really bothered me. So when we heard a throng of people yelling in unison to the beat of drums outside, Wins and I decided to go join in whatever it was.

Turns out, mechanics from the different auto companies were protesting something important (they were from toyota, GM, Ford, etc). We decided to join in and protest with the proletariats... really get under the skin of the Argentinean soul and learn what it means to be working class in Argentina. We followed the parade all the way from Avenida de Mayo to Plaza de Mayo. Along the way, we got many more appreciative looks and decided to reciprocate by waving and smiling. Felt like celebrities. Some of the protesters liked us so much that they got us to hold their flags and took pictures with us. hahaha.

After the excitement of the protest died down, we continued walking towards San Telmo. Along the way, we had lunch at this French restaurant called Brasserie Petanque. Great boeuf bourguignon and grilled white fish. Yum. Followed a walking tour from our Time Out guide and strolled till we got to Casa Minima, apparently one of the narrowest houses in the world. It was two meters in width.

We continued on to San Telmo where we walked through uber-touristy streets. Got ourselves some Freddo ice cream, which German claimed to be the best in the world. I disagree. Viva Stucchi! (it's an ice cream place in Ann Arbor.) Sorta saw tango along the street. Very touristy and trying too hard to be dramatic. It kinda killed whatever participatory feelings I had for the dance. We made a failed attempt to walk to Los Caminitos, a street with colorful houses and stores, more tourist tango and tacky souvenirs. The neighborhood wasn't great so we chickened out, instead opting to go back to our apartment.

Went crazy at a wine store where Winnie made a new bf. The wine store owner was REALLY liking Winnie but I think he was definitely bipolar. One moment he was super happy, making us recommendations and offering us a bottle of wine for free. The next, he got all sour puss (coz we told him we had to leave for dinner, hence gently indicating that he needed to hurry). Whatever the case, we managed to score 7 bottles for the price of 6.

Went over to German's house with a bottle of Champagne and a Tempus (2004 Malbec). Couldn't hold back and we had the Tempus right away. Pre-dinner drinks, of course. Naturally. But we're not alcoholic. The song of the trip is the dance remix of the Foo Fighters' song, The Best of You (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyJubFnWitc). Dinner happened later on at Las Canitas at a restaurant called Campo Bravo. We had a little flavor of what German's weekends look like. We had the same food, same wine, at the same place. Argentinean hospitality is great. :)

During the night, I scored myself a few boyfriends. Randomly went to a table to talk to these three older Argentinean dudes. There were two bottles of wine on the table for that. And then later on, Wins went over to another table to talk to the guys. Unfortunately, her line of conversation was, "My friend Karen likes you guys. Can she sit with you?" WEAK, Winnie, WEAK!

Anyway, after din, we went back to the apartment and opened a bottle of wine. It absolutely fell short of the Tempus. We danced around the apartment for a bit before I passed out with a pounding red wine headache. It's all very attractive, I know.