Walking tour of Buenos Aires

Walking tour of Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires, Argentina, South America

I had a pretty good night’s sleep again last night, and then had a chilled morning at the hostel. I chatted with Karin and Tristan a bit and then headed off for the day. I walked from Palermo down to the Congress building, which was a good three hour walk. Granted, I stopped quite often to check out some shops and to get my haircut on the way, so it probably wasn’t all that far, but it was nice to get out and walk for a bit after sitting in the hostel for two days straight.

I got my haircut in this little mall by the craziest hairdresser ever. He was a guy in his early 50’s I’d guess, and he had crazy hair like Alfred Einstein. That probably should have been a sign for me to turn away and go somewhere else for a haircut, but I’d been looking for a barber all day and this was the first place I could find. I decided to take my chances anyway.

I told him what I wanted (in Spanglish) and he said he understood. He then asked if I liked blues music and I said sure. He went on his computer, found a youtube clip that was over an hour long, and put it on a screen that was right in front of my chair. This was the best idea I’d ever heard of. I’ve gotten so many haircuts in places where I don’t speak their language, and it is sometimes a really awkward 20 minutes of just sitting there with no one talking and I’m just staring at myself in the mirror. This time I was watching a blues concert that had taken place in Chicago, the hairdresser was singing along while cutting my hair, and there was no awkward silence the whole time. It was perfect! It was also the best haircut I’ve gotten since I left Edinburgh, so I was very happy with the result. I promised to leave him a good comment on Facebook, because he definitely earned it.

I got down to Congreso and had a free walking tour that started at 3:15pm. It was a big group of people, around 30, and we only had one guide, so it was a little difficult for him. We walked down the main Avenida de Mayo from Congress to the Presidential Palace, and were given a lot of information about some of the buildings and squares in between. It was an interesting tour that lasted about three hours, and I feel like now I’ve seen some nicer parts of the city. It was good to get this tour in today because I hadn’t thought about the fact that tomorrow is Christmas Eve, so none of the tours will be running. I made it just in time!

I got a taxi back from the Presidential Palace to the hostel and it was ridiculous how much traffic I had to sit in to get back. It was painful. Even the driver was getting really annoyed. I finally got back around 7pm and caught up with Karin and Tristan. We had wanted to go out for a nice steak dinner, since it was my last night in Argentina, but we hadn’t made a booking anywhere. We decided to take a chance and walk over to the number one steakhouse in Buenos Aires to see if we could get in.

We got to Don Julio at about 7:30pm and we were immediately given a perfect table outside on the sidewalk. It couldn’t have worked out any better. We had an amazing steak dinner with fries and some slices potatoes, and then grabbed some of that awesome ice cream on the way back to the hostel. We chilled here at the hostel for a while just chatting, and it might be the last time I get to hang out with them. They’re moving on to a different hostel tomorrow morning, and then I have to go to the airport tomorrow night to fly out to Colombia, so I’m not sure if I’ll get the chance to see them again. Either way, this was a great way to spend my last night in Argentina. And it was really nice to see Karin again before she heads off. It was really nice to have a friend like her to meet up with in all these different countries along the way.

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