At Last, I got off my ass and started a website

At last I’ve finally started my travel website.   It’s a very slow work in progress, but keep checking back.  It’s http://meganontheloose.selgate.com/

Comeing Soon — Santa Fe Thailand and beyond!

Ok, so Nancy and I loved the blogging.  Loved it so much that I a non-computer owning scared of a cellphone person have my “Websites for Dummies” on order at the Library and I’ll be starting up a travel website.  I’m off to Santa Fa and Taos in April then the three chicas are hitting up Thailand in November.  Plus I’ve finally joined Flicker so maybe I can get the photos up at long last.  Anyways, I’m giving myself six months to get the site together so stay tuned…

Lots of Love, Megan

Case of the cursed Birthday

Megan’s birthday is the 26th of Sept. She has been claiming all along that her birthdays are cursed, yah right.

Nancy shopping in San Telmo. Alas she did not buy the hat.

Well it seems to be true.

Yesterday was our last day in BA. Don’t cry for me…… We spent the day trying to finish up all the last minute shopping ect. All I needed to make me happy were some signs done in the ‘filete’ style. It is a very ornate design style that originated in the Boca district, very popular in BA. We all kinds of the signs that first sunday at the San Talmo market, but did we get any? NO! Then were unable to find them anywhere, it was getting so bad that we had threatened to swipe the door signs from the hostel. http://www.fileteado.com.ar/english/history.html

We were victorious at last. One of the vendors at the Plaza Dorrego had some.  Then we found the Walrus Book store which had copies of the local artist Alfredo Genovese’s Filete paintings and one on how to paint it! Shopping was done and time to say good bye to the Hostel. Luisa, the local woman, who cleans the rooms and gets the breakfast ready, had stayed late to say good bye to us. She started crying then Heather started, then me, the Meagn. Luisa was always smiling, happy to see us, laughing at our painful attempts to speak spanish. There  is some on goning joke about all of our shoes, we weren’t sure it was the number, size, or smell, but the first day we were in BA, we came back to the room to find ALL of our shoes lined up against the wall.  Luisa, we will miss you.

After drying our eyes it was off to the airport, where we spent 3 hours trying to get our tickets straightened out. Expedia Sucks.  They had originally booked us on Lan Chile, then changed it and didn’t bother to get Lan to release the booking. When that was finally taken care of we had 20 minutes to pay the exit tax, clear security and get to the gate before boarding. By this time we had a wheelchair with a porter for Heather, he got us through the Diplomate security and on to the gate. Heather and I were the first on the plane.

Miami looked to be just a fun, but we were ticketed in seconds. Demitri was a star.

I know Megan is going to write more also, and clean up the blog, and links ect.  This has been a fun way to share our vacation with everyone. I hoped you enjoyed it. If you are ever in Argentina, try the ice cream, check out Evita grave, visit the San Telmo neighborhood, go to the Sunday market. Go Boca Jrs.

Chio for now,  Nancy

Clean the cat puke up, I´m coming home.

Nancy looking fabulous in Plaza Dorrego, planning the trip to Thailand.

 

I simply REFUSE to even entertain the idea of hooking up with some KID, young enough for me to be his MOTHER.  I am NO MANS mama substitute. Deal with it.

If we don´t die in Boca today we should be on the plane heading home by 9:00 pm Argentine time.  its been fun, but time to start planning the next trip. Thialand here we come! 5 days sitting on a beach, while Megan flys through the air over head on a zip line, and Heather naps on the porch.  Sounds like heaven? We will blog about that also.

See you all next week. –N

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorrego_Square

Nancy caught a live one, and I almost died at a tango show. (suicide)

Hiding in the bathroom. Self portrait.

 So tonight we saw  the world´s worst tango show.  It was called www.saboratango.com.ar.  I could not recommend it less.  It was $90 pesos and included pickup and drop off at the hostel. Since the hostel was funky/cool and they booked it I assumed the show would be also.  

First they  make you walk through the gift shop.  The minute we sat down the waitress was giving us a ton of pressure to buy wine that was four times the price it was anywhere else.  Nancy agreed to a glass just to get her off our backs. Speaking of backs she was doing a full body press against mine. She would rub her body on me every time she refilled the water or see if we needed anything.  I thought she was going to put her tongue in my ear at one point. Before this starts to sound like a girl on girl porno she was not hot.   Probably late 40’s, bad bleach job, and hard core smoker; who tried to cover up the smell with mints.  She failed and it was like having an altoid flavored ashtray grind on me.

  The was a Las Vegas wannabe.  Besides tango it had folk dances, Gauchos doing drumming and even a balcony with a singer doing “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina”.  At one point I just hide in the bathroom.  Plus as it turns out I don’t like tango music so it was a long night.

Afterword I and Nancy needed a drink.  Heather needed her bed so we dropped her off and headed to our now local bar Gibraltar, for one drink. 

  Two hours and a couple of drinks later we had enjoyed a nice chat with Diego, a very cute civics lawyer. yummy.  Nancy and I were just standing around since there no seats.  And this couple asked us to join them. They were cousins and her name was Marianna.  She was visiting home from Germany where she teaches Spanish at a University.  Digeo was a civics lawyer, which he said involved only paper work and that in Argentina there were no civil trials.  

  We had a great conversation ranging from countries visited to the election.  Unfortunately Digeo had to work the next morning and left around 1:30 am.  It’s a shame because he was a cutie.  Plus Marianna was so interesting talking about the difference between Germany and Argentina.

After they left I went up to the bar to get the next round.  While waiting to order I felt a hand on my lower back.  A little pocket man was snuggling up to me and unleashed a torrent of Spanish.  Alas, it wasn’t sweet nothings but he wanted me to buy him a beer since he only had two pesos.   After much groping and me saying no help arrived in the form of Beaver!  He asked what was going on.  I explained this guy was working me for a beer and didn’t understand since he was the guy I was supposed to be working him for a drink.  I guess they do it differently down there. 

All I know is by the time I got back to the table with the drinks, the bouncer was throwing him out. 

Let me take a time out to describe the bouncer.  The other night while Beaver was licking my hand I was looking over his shoulder at the bouncer.  Around 6′2″,  black hair slicked back, hard body and tribal tattoos peeking out from his tight black teeshirt… 

I digress, this dude did not want to leave.  He kept trying to get back in the bar and now his friend was involved.  At one point the bouncer wrapped his entire hand around his neck and pinned him against the wall.  It was a very Rock like move.  I fell in love, there is nothing like a large tattooed man in a bar fight to make my night. 

By this time we had been joined by a regular.  He was from South Africa and was about 6′6″.  He was also macking on Nancy like you woudn’t believe.   The bouncer locked the bar door and came over to Nancy’s man and had him get his friends from the back of the bar.  A group of very large men went out to deal with the problem.  I was bummed because they disappered from view so I never knew if the drunk got a beat down.  I suspect so.Nancy and her fiancee Issacc.  This South American is currently earning his Masters in Mechnical Engineering.  He divides his time between his family in San Francisco and school in BA.  He also speaks four languages and cannot wait to have Nancy’s babies.

Meanwhile, Nancy was busy flirting with Issacc.  He was trying to be suave by asking her personal questions leading up to getting her to come home with him.  But Nancy is a woman of the world and also had about 20 years more exprience then him, so he got now where.  I guess that one condom she brought wasn’t going to get a workout after all. 

We left a little before three and people were still streaming in. Those Portenos can party like noone else.  Plus I think Beaver was upset I’d been talking to other men all night as he just kept glareing at me.  Can I help it Nancy and I draw them like bees to honey.  No, no we cannot.  –M

Let the Shopping begin

The last 2 days have been very relaxing.

Heather watching tango in the plaza

Monday, since the museums were closed, and lets face it, we had been in country for over 10 days going ALL the time, we just couldn´t get moving. We thought we would try to find the oldest cafe in BA, Cafe Tortoni, it was just a short walk down Peru from our hostel.  It was full of old world charm and freindly staff. The customers were a mix of old BA men and tourists. We fit right in. http://www.cafetortoni.com.ar/index_ingles.html

Heather, who is getting real sick of the breakfasts here, order a hamburger.  It was a hot ham sandwich.  Megan  and I shared a deli plate with salami, cheese, olives, pickles and nuts.  Lucky me, Megan is a vegatarian.  For afters we all tried the ice cream, we keep hearing about the Argentine ice cream and how great it is. Got to say, its pretty darn good.

After killing about 2 hours doing this, we wandered back down the street, only to realize we were about 2 blocks from Florida Street. This is a totally pedestrian SHOPPING street. Oh the torture.  We wore ourselves out, so that night we got take our Chinese.  HMMMMM. What can I say about Argentinian Chinese food? They had no idea what chop sticks are. it didn´t smell like Chinese food. We lived to tell about it.

Yesterday, being Tuesday, Megan and Heather were going to the Museum. Myself, being the uncultured boat rat that I am, was going to spend the day wander around our neighborhood of San Talmo.

I spent and hour walking up Defensia Street, going in to Antique stores, until I hit a cute little square where local artist were setting up, I was just thinking Megan and Heather should see this, shopping oppertunities are a shame to waste, when I looked up and there they were, already sitting at a table for a cafe?  The museum was closed for renovations so they were re thinking the plan.

Waitress at the Cafe in Plaza Durrego

Once again, after tea, popas fretas, watching tango dancers and all the people, it was 2 hours later. I like this life style.  Heather was worn out so she went back to the hostel, while Megan I shopped. We have been all over this neighborhood and every time we turned around a new shop appeared, antiques, knick-knacks, artist co-ops, hardware, boutiques. Oh the rapture.

While wandering around we found a lovely French restarant, http://www.brasseriepetanque.com/, which we got all tarted up and went back to.  Fabulous! Then it was a drink at the pub and back to the hostel.Must go shopping again today, Ta for now.

N

I got licked by a Beaver

Yes, Heather is a happy drunk.  And it wasn´t photos, but video footage of her on her bed saying “I´m so fuuuuucked up” then laughing and laughing before toppling over.  Again, footage goes to the highest bidder.  

I have to admit drinking on completely empty stomachs was not the brightest idea around.  Luckily our new friend Beaver got called away to the bar, because 3 and a half pints in I though I was going to start losing my stomach any moment.  I love the cider, but I need a good carb base before I start drinking any. 

At the pasta place Heather was starting to fall asleep and at one point I thought she would face plant in her plate, but alas not.  However she really needed to pee, (we have finally found the magic liquid she can´t hold) but the bathroom was down steep stairs.  Nancy had to hold her up to get her there, she took one look and decided she could hold it.   She might try to claim it was her gimp ankle, but I think it was her lightweight drunk status.  

As for Beaver, I think I might have a new boyfriend, as he seemed to like licking me.   Dirty minds, my hand perverts!  Whenever I said anything sassy, he licked my hand.  I´m not sure if it was punishment, or a come on.  Or a little of both.  And this wasn´t a little flick, full on fingers to mid arm.  I can hear the collective ewwwwwws now.   We thought he was Scottish, due to the thick Scottish accent.  He got really offended since he was English.  It turns out he was from the far NorthEast of England, or as I put it…Scotland.  Time for another lick. 

Beaver is off work tonight so my arm is safe.  We´re probably going to a tango show, although Heather is refusing to because she doesn´t want to dress up.   In this case it  means to literally put on a dress, what can I say she has issues.  But we´ll work them out over some more cider.  Next step is getting her to dance on the bar a la Coyote Ugly.

WE GOT HEATHER DRUNK!

So, back in BA, at our original Hostel, in our original room. We really missed the scary guy painting on the wall.

After another 10 hrs on a bus, sitting next to the bathroom (YUCK!) our motivation level was at an all time low. Megan suggested going for a drink at the Gibralter down the street. The bartender, an Englishman named ´Beaver´ was just getting off shift and stayed to chat. 4 pints of cider later and Heather is pretty unsteady, which is saying much for someone in a boot and a cane.  We dragged her out of there, and got some pasta in her to soak up the cider.

Our Miss Heather is a happy drunk, she was laughing so hard she almost peed her pants. You should have seen how fast she got upstairs to the bathroom. Megan may have photos.

Because of age and tolerance, I was the sober one. It is almost 8:00 am and I am the one who is wide awake and writing the blog. I left those 2 snoring into their pillows an hour ago.  We had planned to go shopping in Palermo and maybe the Tango show tonite. We´ll see.

Just for the record, I only had 2 1/2 pints. And I´m never drinking again. Ever. – Heather

Catholics 1 – Heathens 0

We spent Saturday in Cordoba. It had stopped raining, the sun was out and the  thought of getting on a bus again was really not a popular idea.

Heather wasn´t feeling so hot so she stayed in her room at the Bates Motel and watched VH1 all day. I didn´t get VH1, I got a Spanish game show channel, Nickaloden in Spanish, I watched Sponge Bob SquarePants in spanish,  still don´t understand, a Religious channel always had some priest on it and Soccer, which they did interupt with tennis at one point because the Argentinians were against the Russians in the Davis Cup. Anyway.

Megan and I went exploring town, we found the main square where they were having a book fair. Poor Megan, it was ´Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink´.  All those books and they were in Spanish. I thought she was going to get the shakes.

Of course there was a church, so we thought we would pop in and have a look around, doesn´t everyone?  It was 11:45 on a Saturday morning and there was Mass going on. So we hung out in back, and listened to the music, it was communion so Mass wouldn´t last much longer.  I turned around to say something to Megan and there she was crying her eyes out. Apparently, in the Navy, church was the only place to show emotion and Mass had a trigger effect on her, she had to go outside to collect herself. I told her it was her Heathen soul repenting, I am always so sensitive. 

We figured out the Mass was a special mass for some procial school girls. After the church had cleared out we wandered around a bit and left just before they locked us in. That would have been bad.

One thing about Cordoba, not alot of restorants.  No pizza joints on the conner, no sandwich places. We finally found a Deli of all things, got some empenadas, olives, pickled beets and pasta and took it back to Heather so that she  wouldn´t die of starvation, just Yellow Fever.

After a bit of rest, it was back out again. This time to get bus tickets to BA and on the way back we hit a Craft Fair. Local artists have a regular Saturday evening market. It was fantastic!

What ever Megan says, my new ring is MALIKITE.

I´m pretty sure the guy at the market refered to the stone as hermaphrodite. — M

Redrum Redrum

Since I have Yellow Fever and Heather has a cold we splurged and each have our own room at the world´s worst hotel.  For me the bed is like a marshmallow once I lay down it takes 20 minutes to struggle out of it, it´s so soft and squishy.  Also the rooms have TV but none of us have the same channels.  Heather has CNN International, Nancy only has 3 channels all sports.  I have VH1 and a German news channel I find strangely comforting. 

The hotel has two elevators.  We are now refusing to take the guest one, because we can´t figure out what button to hit to get to the lobby and trying to get to our rooms it refused to open. Nancy had to force it open with brute strengh and even though we had felt it move we were back to the lobby.  Now we take the staff one and sometimes we still end up on the wrong floor.  At one point Nancy refused to get in and took the stairs.  We didn´t see her for another 20 minutes.  Apparently she found unused wings of the hotel.  Her and Heather both ended up sleeping with a light on because all they could think of were scenes from the shining. 

Not me I took some of Heather´s Benedrill and was knocked out in my pitch black room on my marshmallow bed.  Also if anyone needs prescription drugs I went into a pharmacy to get cough drops and was offered antibiotics.  But I did buy the 600mlg Ibuprofen.  I´m thinking I should take some Cipro or something to help with my Dengue fever, that should get me up again.