Buenos Aires Day 2

Our second day in Buenos Aires was also spent exploring more of the historic center. We started our day with coffee and dulce de leche churros at Buenos Aires' oldest cafe, Cafe Tortoni. It definitely has an old timey feel and was much bigger on the inside than I expected. The main dining area had wooden tables and some different chairs at each table. There was also a lot of dark wood panelling on the walls and at the large bar area. After we ordered, the waitress brought our coffee and churros accompanied with Cafe Tortoni napkins and little coffee cookies. The back of the cafe had some separate rooms. One of them was more tables with different antique tango show posters. A second one had velvet curtains that revealed a small room. Inside was a stage and some chairs. They must have intimate tango shows there.

After we left Cafe Tortoni we continued walking down the tree-lined street towards Casa Rosada and Plaza de Mayo. The Congress is at one end and Casa Rosada at the other. The plaza was bright and very white with all the stone. There were some palm trees and a variety of interesting buildings around the edges. Most notably, was Casa Rosada, the President's house. It was an old fortress now turned residency. It was very pink and had statues at the very top in the middle. The one on the back side of the house was pretty big too!

Next door to Casa Rosada is Banco Nacional de Argentina. This was an absolutely huge building that extended all the way down the block. We popped our heads in and saw the huge domed center and marble flooring. Much like other buildings in Buenos Aires, there was a heavy European influence on the design. Across the street behind the bank and Casa Rosada we saw the Centro Cultural Kichner. This was a former post office turned cultural center. It is also a large, impressive building with huge columns. It also has a balcony that looks towards Casa Rosada because apparently the person in charge of the post office was just as important as the president (interesting theory). Unfortunately it was closed so we couldn't go inside. But we did go close enough to see a massive black stone sculpture to a woman out front.

We walked back across the plaza, past the bank and Casa Rosada towards the Catedral Metropolitana. The church is white and tan with marble columns. Marble also features heavily in altar decorations. The ceiling was lit up with warm yellow and pink lights, which I felt didn't show the ceiling nicely. The altars around the sides of the cathedral were very impressive as well as the dome in the center of the church.

After the cathedral, we walked out of the historic center towards Retiro. We stopped at Plaza San Martin. It is a long, rectangular plaza. It seems more like a park than plaza though, especially compared to the other two plazas we've seen thus far in Buenos Aires. Along the outsides of the plaza are many old mansions predominantly inspired by French architecture. We had a quick look at Palacio San Martin, but I think there was an event on so we couldn't go inside. We caught a glimpse of the tall inner courtyard and lovely stone details like crown molding.

We made our way back to the historic center to get some dinner before our night bus. Milanesas seem to be a popular Argentinian food, so we decided to share one. It was much bigger than we thought when it arrived, and it came with fries. It was pretty good, and like their version of schnitzel with a variety of topping choices. We then had to make our way to the bus station to catch the bus to Montevideo. We got an Uber and when we arrived at the bus station, we were a bit surprised by the size of it. There were hundreds of ticket offices. It took us a little while to find our bus company's office, but luckily we'd given ourselves enough time. Once on the bus, we were given blue trays and some hot ravioli for dinner. I was so confused! The bus waiter guy also came around with coke and water. It was like being on a plane! We'd eaten dinner right before we got the bus, so we weren't hungry though which was unfortunate. We did our best to eat it and then once it was cleared away we tried to get some sleep. It's not a long bus to Montevideo and border control is smack in the middle of the journey.Leia mais