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CONGRATULATIONS ELISE AND DAVID!!!
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I am so excited to announce that my beautiful Elise and her gorgeous partner David are having a baby in August...
Greg and I are going to be GRANDPARENTS!!!!
We are SO excited! :-)
Awwwwwwwwww
What a beautiful way to bring in 2008!!!
Love from grandma jenn and grandpa greg xx
hehe
xxxxx
Friday, 18 January 2008
LAST NIGHT IN BUENOS AIRES!!!
Milenesa COMPLETO sandwich!!!
Day 321
San Telmo, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Of course, the other thing San Telmo has..is FOOD!!!
FOOD! Wonderful, beautiful, Argentine FOOD!
Today we walked 15 kilometres around all the towns surrounding San Telmo. It wasn´t actually planned though! We were looking for the Post Office!
We started off walking from San Telmo to Plaza de Amas where the central Post Office is. We then found out this is not the International Post Office..so we walked 6km´s to where we were told that was!
On the way..we stopped off for lunch at Madeline´s and had Tortilla´s, ensalada´s and more agua minerale com gas....
This is the restaurant..in the new area of BA which is near the Port..(Puerto Madero) We prefer old San Telmo for the character tho!
Then continued our walk! We finally found the place..and posted our last box home (won´t you be happy Mum!! haha!) so we don´t have to pay excess baggage when we go through Airport Customs.
And then...walked back to Florida Street.watched all the activities going on there....stayed for quite a while and watched the tango..which we could never get sick of!
Then..we had dinner at a great restaurant in San Telmo. Pity we found it on our last night! IT´s called El Federal and it has such character..and great milenesa completo´s!!! 12.50 pesos for a massive sandwich ... including queso, tomatoe, lechuga, nuevo duro, cebolla and papas Fritas!
Great little restaurant tho! It´s only 2 houses up from where the apartment is, where we stayed for Christmas and New Year!
You`ll be glad to know..we don´t eat all the frita´s every time they appear on our plate! We´re still watching blood pressure...cholesterol and our diet etc so we TRY to leave THOSE on the side! Hard as it is! The Argentine frita´s are really the best however...! This sandwich will last us till tomorrow níght i´m sure!
Well.....I think after our foody, cultural, bohemian time here in Argentina..we´re going to miss the place!
Off to Chile tomorrow!!
PS This is at the internet place we´ve been going to in BA! More than 100 computers in the room!
xxxxx
SPECIAL SAN TELMO (updated pics)
Day 320
San Telmo, BA Argentina
Arriving in San Telmo, the antique hub of the world..with it´s cobblestone streets, houses with iron ballustrade balconies and wrought iron street lamps was just magical.
I love this place!!!
Going back to our old, once grand hotel, with it´s peeling walls and high ceilings, bathroom with bidet and open shower was bliss.
San Telmo has so much history. Since we first arrived here for Christmas we´re come to know the restaurants, the little street cafe´s, grocery shops and vegetable stores.
The history actually is quite colourful. It was once a neighbourhood that the wealthy inhabited. But...in 1871´Yellow Fever hit San Telmo and all the wealthy took off to the North of BA! It ravaged the area...
Later, it became home to foreign immigrants and artists opened their studios here. We took so many pics of the colourful art studios! There´s definitely a bohemian spirit here (which is why i love it so much) and so much going on...lots of antique shops and stalls..music, cafe´s and bars.
Just up from where we ´live´is a park called Parque Lezama which is where Greg and I spent our anniversary. It´s about 4 hectares of park and trees..and it has a Nacional Historical museum...but it´s was closed when we went there. Sculptor patio is another place in the park....
So peaceful and tranquil. For lunch we had bread rolls and agua minerale com gas! So decadent! But..we were waiting for our delicious dinner..at our FAV...Des Nivel.
More about San Telmo. The buses here are like no other in the world! They hiss...it´s weird. Greg says they´ve got some sort of hissing, squeaking release valve on their brake compresser that whistles....we notice it over and over again..since there are SO many buses hissing up Bolivar Street where we´re staying!
Dinner was sooooo yummy........chorizo for entree, bife de lomo (yes, we love it!) assortment of ensalada and abundance of vino...and Dom Pedro for dessert! This dessert is icecream..soaked in whiskey..and dosed with walnuts..ohlala.
We had a beautiful anniversary.....We re confirmed our love and commitment and decided if each of us can truly love being together for 24/7 for a year...we must be soulmates!! I could go on forever about this beautiful relationship..but i´ll keep that for the sanctity of our own lives :-) But...i will say, we said verbal poems to each other, over dinner, and we were both reduced to snivelling romantics!
Greg also gave me a very special Inca Rose heart necklace..and it´s so beautiful. Inca Rose is the stone that is only found here in Argentina..and that made it extremely special because we´ve found a true magic in this part of the earth.
We also bought each other patagonian polar fleeces. Ready for NZ! (no wonder we needed to post back our old stuff!)
But as for my gift to Greg...I gave him a big kiss...and and the promise of great things to come! :-)
OK enuff of that!
San Telmo also has Dorrego PLaza..and that is a place we frequent a lot...it´s close, it´s cultural..and therés always something going on..whether it´s flamenco, tango..music..or just kids and people milling around...
Such a great place - San Telmo!
BACK TO ARGENTINA in FIRST CLASS STYLE!
Day 319
Montevideo, Uruguay to Buenos Aires Argentina
We caught our taxi to the Aeropuerto for our 1.40pm flight for 480 pesos (got it right this time!) and once we were there we found our flight had changed to a departure time of 12.40pm! (Thank goodness we were early!)
We scratched our heads about this..and came up with one answer! The time change in Argentina was changed after we´d booked all our latest flights...it seems to us the time change is to allow Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay to all be on the same time zone.
Even when we went through customs we firstly went through the Uruguayan customs...then through the Argentine customs. They seemed to have somehow joined forces. We don´t know what´s happened politically..but at least we now know all our flights will be an hour earlier than planned!
It was interesting checking into the Montevideo Airport check in. The guy was super friendly. We said gracias, and si and all the spanish terms we could muster up...(it helps us get good seats! And together!) We noticed he had a ´priority ticket´on our luggage which we wondered about...and as we were leaving he presented us with a slip...it was a ticket to use the VIP lounge at the Montevideo lounge!!!!
We checked our tickets..and they said D and F. We thought..should we see if we can get our seats together, or should we leave it hoping he´d put us on the isle and the window with no one in the middle! We left it.
The VIP lounge, to be honest, looked a bit daunting. We were in our travel pants, had our small front backs on us, and were not dressed up like we saw some of the other´s were...and also we could not see the boarding times and as we couldn´t speak spanish we thought we´d better not go into the lounge and opted to stay out observing the board.
It was a nice gesture tho! We felt special!
THEN! When the boarding time came up..we went to line up..and showed our tickets. The man at the gate ushered us to move aside.............in Spanish.
We did as we were motioned..and wondered what was up...
Then another guy came and interpreted for us.
He told us first class passengers had to line up there (where we were) to wait for our private vehicle to pick us up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FIRST CLASS!!!
US???
(We´ve never been first class, ever!)
SO....we waited for our bus...and hopped in with the other first class couple..and watched everyone else be loaded up into a crowded bus with no seats...to be driven to the plane!
LUXURY!
We couldn´t wipe the blimen smiles off our faces as we walked up the steps to the door of the plane!!!
Our seats....did not have a middle seat. There were ony two in our isle! We were Number 2 D and 2 F!
We got served orange juice in a glass...and a lunch, that no one else was served.
The flight was only half an hour long..but for that time..we were treated like the king and queen...and it did feel rather wonderful! hehe
When we hopped off our flight and went to the baggage pick up area...our luggage came out FIRST!!! That´s what the ´Priority´ sticker attached to our backpacks was for!!!!
What on earth did we do to deserve that????
Whoa.
Montevideo, Uruguay to Buenos Aires Argentina
We caught our taxi to the Aeropuerto for our 1.40pm flight for 480 pesos (got it right this time!) and once we were there we found our flight had changed to a departure time of 12.40pm! (Thank goodness we were early!)
We scratched our heads about this..and came up with one answer! The time change in Argentina was changed after we´d booked all our latest flights...it seems to us the time change is to allow Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay to all be on the same time zone.
Even when we went through customs we firstly went through the Uruguayan customs...then through the Argentine customs. They seemed to have somehow joined forces. We don´t know what´s happened politically..but at least we now know all our flights will be an hour earlier than planned!
It was interesting checking into the Montevideo Airport check in. The guy was super friendly. We said gracias, and si and all the spanish terms we could muster up...(it helps us get good seats! And together!) We noticed he had a ´priority ticket´on our luggage which we wondered about...and as we were leaving he presented us with a slip...it was a ticket to use the VIP lounge at the Montevideo lounge!!!!
We checked our tickets..and they said D and F. We thought..should we see if we can get our seats together, or should we leave it hoping he´d put us on the isle and the window with no one in the middle! We left it.
The VIP lounge, to be honest, looked a bit daunting. We were in our travel pants, had our small front backs on us, and were not dressed up like we saw some of the other´s were...and also we could not see the boarding times and as we couldn´t speak spanish we thought we´d better not go into the lounge and opted to stay out observing the board.
It was a nice gesture tho! We felt special!
THEN! When the boarding time came up..we went to line up..and showed our tickets. The man at the gate ushered us to move aside.............in Spanish.
We did as we were motioned..and wondered what was up...
Then another guy came and interpreted for us.
He told us first class passengers had to line up there (where we were) to wait for our private vehicle to pick us up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FIRST CLASS!!!
US???
(We´ve never been first class, ever!)
SO....we waited for our bus...and hopped in with the other first class couple..and watched everyone else be loaded up into a crowded bus with no seats...to be driven to the plane!
LUXURY!
We couldn´t wipe the blimen smiles off our faces as we walked up the steps to the door of the plane!!!
Our seats....did not have a middle seat. There were ony two in our isle! We were Number 2 D and 2 F!
We got served orange juice in a glass...and a lunch, that no one else was served.
The flight was only half an hour long..but for that time..we were treated like the king and queen...and it did feel rather wonderful! hehe
When we hopped off our flight and went to the baggage pick up area...our luggage came out FIRST!!! That´s what the ´Priority´ sticker attached to our backpacks was for!!!!
What on earth did we do to deserve that????
Whoa.
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