A few Saturdays ago, we boarded an overnight bus from Mendoza to Buenos Aires. At fifteen hours, this was our longest bus ride yet. We arrived at our Airbnb in the Palermo neighborhood of Buenos Aires around 11 on Sunday morning and went straight to the grocery store for coffee and laundry detergent to start off our week clean and caffeinated.
We spent the rest of our Sunday walking around the Recoleta neighborhood and wandering through its weekly craft fair. Before our walk home we stopped at a brewery for our first beer in the city. We had a similarly relaxing day on Monday since basically anything touristy is closed then in Buenos Aires, so we did more adult tasks and made an awesome stir fry dinner. We did luck out that evening and found a beer bar close by called Bodega Cervecera. They had several great beers on tap, plus we met our new friend Daniel! Turns out he is also a fellow beer lover, and we were able to compare the list of beer bars the internet recommended against the recommendations of a local. It was a good thing we did too - he told us about our two favorite beer bars in town that week!
After a relaxing start to the week, most of our time could be divided between eating, walking for hours and hours around town, or enjoying a pint at one of the countless cervecerias (beer bar or brewery).
The Sites
We did lots of walking in Buenos Aires in order to explore many different neighborhoods. On sunny days, we explored the countless parks, which is one of the things we found really appealing about the city’s layout. The buildings aren’t very tall, so despite its size, it doesn’t have the canyon-feel that cities get when dominated by skyscrapers. You can see the sun! This also allows you to appreciate the European-style architecture, where almost all buildings have wrought iron railings and everyone seems to have patios filled with plants. In our explorations, we visited Bellas Artes, the (free!) fine arts museum; El Ateneo Grand Splendid, a beautiful bookstore located in an old theater; and the Obelisk, which is located on 9 de Julio, the widest avenue in the world. We also went to the Recoleta Cemetary, where anyone who’s anyone from Argentinine history is buried - like Evita, who might be the only person we know from our complete lack of Argentine history and politics. The cemetery was also super interesting after having recently seen the one in Sucre, Bolivia; the two were like apples and oranges. The plots in Buenos Aires were obviously meant to display power and wealth, whereas the plots in Sucre seemed designed for family members to visit frequently, pay their respects, and celebrate the lives of their loved ones.
The Food
Although we cooked a lot at our Airbnb, we also had some awesome foodie experiences during our week. To celebrate Vesper’s birthday (a few days early), we went to The Argentine Experience where we learned how to make different wine cocktails, competed for best empanada design, ate delicious steak, and drank a lot of wine with other travelers from around the world. It was a little cheesy and overpriced, but we had a ton of fun with our fellow diners and discovered a delicious new red wine (Brazos de los Andes Red Blend). We also met our friend Hyelee who’s in culinary school here at Pizzería Güerrin, an AMAZING pizza place. To wrap up our food experience in Buenos Aires, our last night we went to a parilla (Argentine grillhouse). Argentina is known for its quality meat, and these restaurants seem to be on every corner.
The Beer
Aka the best part! We were overwhelmed with the number of places recommended to us online, so we prioritized Daniel’s insider tips and headed to Bierlife and On Tap. Bierlife was awesome: it had over 40 beers on tap and happy hour was 2-for-1! (For those of you back in Madison, this makes it cheaper than Side Door’s happy hour.) We only had time to try a few beers there, with the standout being an Imperial Stout and Dubbel from Die Eisenbrücke. If we make it back to Buenos Aires, we plan to go back to check out the ever-rotating tap list. On Tap, which was in the Palermo neighborhood by our Airbnb, also had over 20 beers on tap, including the delicious Sir Hopper’s American IPA. The other two standout bars were Nola with four local beers and some good ol’ Cajun cooking, and Jerome with some fairly big beers on tap, our favorite being their Imperial Stout. Besides having excellent beer, we also met our new friend Kaan while touring these bars. Kaan was still feeling out the city after recently moving here from San Francisco so we had a blast exploring with him.
Our last night in Buenos Aires we were able to grab a few more of our favorite rounds with Kaan and Daniel, plus our friend Jaclyn who had flown in from Madison to spend the upcoming week with us in Patagonia. It was a lovely way to wrap up our week! We’re hoping we’ll make it back this way in June after we’re done at the brewery and on our way to Brazil!