Friday, July 15, 2011
Part 2: What I came for
School has quickly come to an end and it’s now time to try a little exploring,--although easier said than done--as most of us foreigners have discovered--Buenos Aires is at best, difficult to navigate, and at worst, an incomprehensible tangle of complicated, convoluted streets that run on the diagonal, or inexplicably change names from block to block. Street signs, when present, are small and never in a consistent place. City maps are either outdated or miniscule. Many of the city’s attractions are not served by either the Subte (Subway) or the Colectivos (Buses), so one must factor in the price of a taxi into the price of a ticket—if lucky enough to be able to flag one down.
Faced with these challenges, one quickly learns to rely on landmarks to get anywhere: for example, from my temporary home to get to the Subte, cross the street at the pizza place, walk five blocks and descend the stairs just past the third magazine kiosk, ride the Subte for four stops, (there’s no maps) turn left at the shrine to the Virgin Mary, ascend the stairs, walk seven blocks until the Burger King, and turn left at the white wooden pillars.
All this while dodging uneven and or missing sidewalk tiles, dog poo, homeless people, beggars, pickpockets and little old ladies with canes. And that’s just on the sidewalk. Crossing the broad boulevards of Buenos Aires one learns to attach to a group of locals and offer up a prayer to the patron saint of Safety in Numbers.
Still I must confess a bit of reluctant respect for the place. Born from nitty-gritty beginnings, Buenos Aires has become one of the most important cities in South America; its Italian heritage is still evident in its cuisine, its neighborhoods and its people. Spanish has a musical lilt here I’ve never heard anywhere else--like tango, it dances over the rubbish and rubble and alights upon the ears ever so gently-- like a lover’s kiss. And that’s what I came for.