A Leeds Uni Reunion in the vibrant city of Buenos Aires!!
 
Bleary eyed we got to Hils apartment at 6 .30am feeling very guilty about waking her up so early!! It was so good to see her after all this time and even though we had met up at Andy's wedding last year, we had not properly seen each other since Uni, 13 years ago!! It didn't feel that long at all though when she opened the door, amazing how time passes but when you see people you just slip right back into how things used to be which was cool. Hils has a great apartment in Palermo, it was like a converted warehouse, kinda arty and cool and it was great to spend the week with her exploring the city and chilling in the apartment, she has such a great life here. We hadn't been in one place for so long so this was a real chance to recharge and Hils has a really healthy lifestyle too so we ate lots of fruit and started to feel a lot fresher so to speak, no more junk food, I even attempted to cook butternut squash risotto from a cook book one night and didn't poison us surprisingly!
 
Hils has such a great lifestyle though, her new business 'Brand Bean' is doing fab and as she had just won a huge account, so we went out to celebrate the first night and had some decent fodder and good ole Argentinean Beef in a local restaurant (thanks again Hils!) . Palermo is cool, lots of nightlife, restaurants and bars where people just sit outside on the streets, talking lots and living life to the full. You can spend hours in the many café/bars too with just a coffee for the entire day reading books etc.. and no one bats an eyelid; it's the norm in BA, if only home was more like that! We could definitely have lived here for a while for sure...
 
On the Saturday night Hils had sorted for us to go and relive our Uni days(well more Adams!!) at 'Creamfields' so attempting to feel all of 18 again, we went out at 11pm to the festival. It was wicked, about 7 different stages of DJ's and dance music, Ads knew a lot of them and typically I didn't as Bros and Five Star didn't turn up unfortunately (!!) but we managed to dance it 'large' till 6am with Ads managing to fall off the dance platform a few times shouting 'are you ready!' to everyone, The Faversham pub in Leeds eat your heart out!! Hils managed till 7am but wearily us oldies only lasted till 6, at which point most locals had only just really arrived, then went home and crashed!
 
That day we did actually all make it out later in the afternoon, not too hung-over surprisingly . Hils took us to the historic centre, Plaza de Mayo with the Cathedral, Palace, Santa Domingo etc.. and then we wandered through the streets and markets of San Telmo which was cool, drums and music in the streets, artists in abundance, antique shop after antique shop and tango in the squares, it was just wicked! We then went to this old style café, one of the many in Buenos Aires which really do take you back in time with all the old cars outside, ancient juice makers, old soda bottles etc...all set perfectly in old colonial buildings, it was if we had gone back in time to the ole 'Bugsy Malone' days, I could see why so many foreigners come to BA and never go home again.....
 
The rest of the week, (after unfortunately having to spend a lot of time sorting flat issues with our tenants at home and 8hours trying to change flights...aaah!) we chilled lots, spent time drinking coffee in Bar 6 with many locals/expats, walked and rested in many of the beautiful parks in the city watching many joggers and roller skaters doing laps and laps of the ponds whilst stray cats sat in the sun all day long . It was absolutely boiling so it was hard to do much but we definitely needed the R&R and despite it being a huge city it was a great place to relax. So much goes on here too, in the local park near Hils place, punch and judy was happening in one area, whilst there was a live band going on in the other area, there was definitely something here to entertain you whatever age!
 
We also visited the restored docklands area, warehouses converted into restaurants along the river with some random modern weird shaped bridge across it. We then went to see the grave of Evita Peron, set in the most bizarre of cemeteries in an area called Recoleta, basically it was huge and you could easily get lost in the many narrow alleys of tombs, some were like mini chapels! Evita's was surprisingly very small and full of tourists but despite it being a graveyard it was a very calming place to go. We then sat in the park eating ice cream like many locals then headed to yet another park with a huge steel flower statue in the middle of it. I thought it was kinda funky and despite the many aeroplanes that flew overhead it was a good place to do our usual and relax in the sun!
 
Unfortunately we didn't get to see a Boca game but did look round the random town of La Boca with all its brightly coloured tin and wooden houses and narrow shaped buildings/streets. We found a cheap café where unfortunately we experienced the worst food in a long time, basically my omelette was black and made of egg and stale chips and Ads chips were like concrete but the couple doing tango in the street by the side of us made up for it and it was cool to drive past the stadium too .
 
On our last day we went to see the Polo which was yet another fab experience (thanks Hils for sorting and to Rich and Kath for the b'day pressie)! When we arrived no bugger was there so we sat like idiots thinking that perhaps we had indeed missed our game but thankfully an hour later people started to turn up and for the next 2 hours we watched horses stampeding past us and sticks flying, it was a wicked game despite neither of us having a bl**dy clue what was going on!! I think my horse won ha ha!! That eve was our last night so we went for a meal with Hils and some of her many good friends she has made in her 9 months here, the restaurant was heaving and the food was fantastic, Ads even left some for a change and that's saying something!! I had a meat hot pot type dish which was just like the homemade comfort food of home, then after a few drinks the heavens truly opened and we ran back home jumping all the puddles. The weather had turned and was surprisingly cool the next day which was quite nice after 36 degrees all week!
 
It was a fantastic week and felt very strange to say goodbye to Hils after spending so much time with her. Thanks again Hils, you are a star, hope to see you again soon and have a fab time at home!! BA, we will be back!