Halloween?

Halloween is one of my favorite days of the year but sadly they do not celebrate it in South America. It has apparently been growing in popularity over the past 10 years so you see a small candy section for it in the grocery stores and the bars are definitely advertising it for the tourists, but no one is carving pumpkins or trick or treating. I decided to let this holiday go (this was very hard for me to do, I'm all about tradition) and to just act like it was any other day.
It was supposed to rain during the afternoon so we had rescheduled the polo day we were excited for to Saturday. Instead, we decided to go to La Recoleta cemetery, which is famous for being the place where Evita is buried. We took the metro down to Palermo and walked the rest of the way to the cemetery. I really like cemeteries as it is, but this one was particularly beautiful. All of the wealthy families had built their own mausoleums and the different architecture and art that came with the different heritages and time periods was amazing. We wandered around for a while, locating Evita's family mausoleum and taking in the enormity of the cemetery before the rain finally drove us out. All in all it was a perfect Halloween activity.

It was raining so much that we couldn't do anything else in the city and needed to make our way back to our hostel. We had taken the metro there but since it was an 8 block walk back to the station, we decided to take a bus back. Once on the bus, the sky really unleashed the rain and we were happy to not be caught in the downpour. We stopped at the grocery store on our way home to grab some cheese, apples and croissants and then opened one of the bottles of wine we had purchased in Mendoza to have a little rainy day picnic inside the hostel.
We had chosen to eat the small lunch because we were going to an early dinner at "La Cabrera". It is a parrilla which is basically a restaurant that serves grilled meat and it is all the rage in Argentina. It's restaurant has a special, un-publicized happy hour from 7:00-8:00pm where they offer a 40% discount as long as you have paid your check by 8:00pm. I couldn't pass up this opportunity for the city's most delicious steak at half price! We took the bus in the rain back down to Palermo and hurried the few blocks to get to the restaurant by 6:45. There was already a long line and we were worried that we wouldn't get the full our to finish our meal but the German girls in front of us in line invited us to sit with them, so the four of us sat down together.

The girls were really nice and great company. I ordered the steak with Roquefort cheese which was to die for! You didn't need to order any sides because they bring you tons of little tastes. The whole meal was delicious and we finished with barely a minute to spare!

At dinner, we ran into an American couple that was staying at our hostel. We had originally met them in Mendoza when we were wine tasting and had randomly stayed at the same place. We all decided to head into Palermo Hollywood (that's what one of the party districts is called) to get a drink. In the spirit of Halloween, we ended up at a bar called "Brujas" which means witch in Spanish. It was a lot of fun chatting with everyone and the German girls even invited me to stay with them when I come to Germany.
The girls had an early morning so we all said goodbye after a drink at that bar. Alyssa and I were going to walk around and check out the rest of the neighborhood when a girl came up to us because she heard us speaking English. Her name was Emily and she was from San Francisco, studying Spanish in Buenos Aires for a month. We invited her to come with us for another drink and all sat down in an open air patio between all the major hotspots. I had seen someone order the Stella Artois Noire at the last bar and had to try it. It is soooooo good, I have to find it in the states!
While we sitting and talking, a young boy in a mask from the movie "Saw" came up behind her and yelled. She totally screamed when she turned around and it was hilarious! I'm glad someone was taking Halloween seriously, lol. After one drink, we realized that we were out of cash so we had to call it a night and head back to the hostel. Unfortunately, there is no bus schedule and no way of knowing which exact bus you need and where it will drop you, but after some trial and error, we got a bus to take us back to the right district and luckily the GPS on Alyssa's iPhone always makes sure we know when to get off. Not the most eventful Halloween but a great night nonetheless!

Posted with Blogsy