La Boca & Puerto Madero

On my first weekend in Buenos Aires, one of my coworkers invited me to check out part of the city. So nice right?! He met me at my hotel and then we rode the bus to a really popular neighborhood called "La Boca".  La Boca is most known for its colorful streets and houses and the "La Bombonera Stadium" which is a football (soccer) stadium, which is home of the Boca Juniors, one of Argentina's top football clubs. It's a tourist area for sure, so there was lots of street vendors and markets to buy things from. There were also restaurants where you could order a meal and watch a tango dance. Tango is super popular here in Buenos Aires and it is one of the things they are most known for.

Colorful streets of La Boca

The Pope was everywhere!

I was taking a picture of this corner (see the Pope again!) and my coworker told me that this was the most popular photo opp

As we were walking through the markets, there were restaurants that had tango shows for the customers to watch while they ate their meals. As I have previously said, Tango is very popular here in Argentina and what the country is most known for. Check out the video of a couple doing the tango that I was able to get below!

Then we took a walk around the neighborhood. The area around La Boca is somewhat sketchy, so we had to be careful where we walked. There is also a lot of graffiti art that I think is actually pretty good. 

After we were done at La Boca, we went to Puerto Madero. It's another popular neighborhood in the city. It is probably most known for its waterfront. So being the tourist I am I definitely decided to get a few pics. 

As we were walking around, we ran into a guy that was performing the popular song "Despacito" by Luis Fonsi. I actually had not heard it until I heard him sing and I feel like I hear it all the time now! 

            We watched him perform for a little while and then we decided to keep walking. As we were walking past the crowd he yelled "Ayy chica!" to me as I was walking by....the whole crowd looked at me and laughed. My coworker told me it meant "hey baby!" and I was so embarrassed. I'm sure my face showed it too! It made for great laughs though.

Puerto Madero sign

Afterwards we went to McDonald's for dinner. My goal has been to try a McDonald's outside of the US, so I was finally able to try it! I got a quarter pounder with cheese and fries. I had to ask for ketchup (and also extra ketchup too!) The Argentines don't care about ketchup the way us Americans do. My burger tasted exactly how it does in the states! The fries did too, although I feel like they give a smaller portion of fries here. I also got a coke zero for drink (which I love). They serve what we consider to be "small" cups as a medium drink here. There is also an option to upsize as well. The whole meal was about $11-$12 USD, which is more expensive than it is in the states. That's one thing I've been most surprised about being here. Before I was told that things were cheap here, but so far I feel things seem to be more expensive than things in the states.

On Sunday, I wasn't feeling well, so I laid in bed and slept for most of the day. I was also starting to get homesick, which was only a few days after my arrival. I began to have second thoughts on why I decided it was a good idea to come to a non-English speaking country to live for two months. I'm so thankful for my little sister who let me call her to vent about it for a few minutes. After I got off the call with her, I finally decided to go and get some food and to a pharmacy to get some medicine (felt like my uterus was trying to kill me...lol). So I bared the painful walk to the pharmacy, which is about a 5-10 minute walk from my hotel/apartment. Thankfully the pharmacies are on every 2-3 blocks it seems and they are also open 24 hours, which is so nice. 

I was expecting to be able to talk to an English speaking person in the pharmacy, but they did not speak English. So I tried as best as I could with the Spanish knowledge I do have to let the lady know I needed Tylenol or something else for stomach pains. She came back with medicine for gas pain, which I did not need. So I ended up pulling out my handy dandy best friend "google translate" and typed what I needed. She and the guy who was standing by her both let out a loud sigh that they understood and she gave me the medicine that I needed. She told me they did not sell Tylenol. I purchased my medicine and then decided to go across the street to the Dandy restaurant to get some food since I had not eaten anything all day. I decided on a burger and fries. All I wanted was carbs to "help" me feel better lol. 

The fries were good, but this was probably the worst burger I have ever had in my entire life. The burger patty was extremely dry and tough. I don't even know how that is even possible. I managed to eat as much as I could to take with my medicine. I just can't believe they even call that a burger, it was so terrible. Then after I took my medicine, I went back home and began to feel like a human again, finally. I also began prepping for my first full work week in Buenos Aires.