San Telmo market
It was a bit of a slow start to the day, today being Sunday, and last night having been such a big one. But eventually, Oly and I managed to haul ourselves out of our hostel, and off for some afternoon lunch and some exploration of the city. We ended up in San Telmo: the quaint and quirky artists' area of BA, and home of a sprawling Sunday market. San Telmo's my favourite neighbourhood, out of everywhere I've seen so far in BA: both the buildings and the people are filled with character; there are great places to eat and to shop; and it almost feels like being in, say, Montmarte in Paris. Was also a good, not-too-demanding place to hang out and to wear off the effects of last night.
Main square of San Telmo.
Oly and I stumbled out of The Clan at about 2:30pm this afternoon, hangover finally giving way to hunger. Since it was Sunday, there wasn't very much open in our neck of the woods — the downtown city centre pretty much packs up and dies on Sundays. But Oly (who's been in BA before) knew that San Telmo would probably be our best bet for finding a good selection of cafés and such, so we made our way down there. It isn't too far from downtown to San Telmo: just a few blocks, can be done on foot pretty easily.
We found a little joint called "Señor San Telmo", and grabbed some pasta there. Can't say I was that impressed with the pasta (or with the service), but hey, I wasn't feeling terribly fussy. Oly headed off back to the hostel after lunch — he was planning to endeavour at getting some work done (not sure how successful he was in this noble enterprise). But I hung around San Telmo, to check out the market.
It's a great market down here on a Sunday: not as cheap or as crazy as the ones up in PEB, of course; but they have a lot of unique and interesting stuff here. The old gramophones really caught my eye: lovely big antique things, with polished wooden bases, and with brass horns as big in diameter as a family-size pizza. They also have lots of nice crockery, jewellery, leather, and paintings, among other eclectic things — as well as, of course, countless little souvenir shmonses. Lots of tango-related stuff: they're very proud of their Tango tradition here in BA (the city is the home of the Tango dance); even though most porteños barely know how to do it, and have seldom been to a live show (this is because it's a very high-brow thing, like going to the Opera).