Primero Parilla y Vino

We had our first bottle of Argentine wine in Argentina! 

It was $74ARG which is about $7 CDN depending on the exchange rate. It was delish! We were served it while waiting for a table at our first Parilla. In Argentina a Parilla is like a BBQ restaurant that serves delicious cuts of grilled meat. We had the flank steak, pork sausage,  and an Argentinian blood sausage. We dug in before I took a picture, but you get the idea 

Brad had already scooped the blood sausage off the platter.... But it wasn't really the favourite of the meal. The flank steak was awesome! I can't imagine what a better cut of meat would have been like! 

We can't wait to try out some more Parillas in the near future!! Brad says "if it isn't steak or wine, then I'm not interested!!"

 (I'm going to have some pizza though... Who are we kidding!)

We are here - and we are back!!

Hola amigos y familias!

Brad and I are back at blogging and now in South America! We arrived in Argentina after a 24 hour journey! Our flight took off from YVR at 6am and landed at LAX at about 8:30am. Our next flight didn't leave LAX until 1:50pm so we had time to kill. They are renovating LAX so that it is less lame... And let me tell you - it is getting very nice! Our favourite terminal was #5. 

After about an hour and a half of puttering around the terminals, we realized that our next flight was in a different new international terminal that we had to go outside to get to! We high tailed it over there and had to go through security again but made it to our next gate with tons to time to spare!

Our next flight was supposed to be direct to Santiago, Chile, but we found out that it actually stopped in Lima!! We didn't have to get off the plane, which is apparently why it wasn't explicitly noted. Lame none the less!

The plane we were on though was great though!! Tons of free food and wine and movies! We left LAX at 1:50pm PST and arrived in Santiago at 4:00am PST ish. At that point we finally found our gate to our final destination!

 Finally!! The end seemed nearby!

We boarded our plane to Buenos Aires and had a nap while we got there.  I woke up at one point and was acutely aware of how bright it was in the plane. I quickly realized that we were flying over the Andes. It was AMAZING! The picture doesn't do it justice. 

We arrived in Buenos Aires at 10:20am local time - which would put it at about 27 hours since we had left our place in Vancouver. We had a driver scheduled to pick us up for simplicity's sake. After the drive from the airport to our hotel I have a new appreciation for how some people drive. Squeezing your small car between two semi trucks while ignoring the lines on the road is truly an art. 

Finally arriving (somewhat safely) at our hotel we were told it would be another 2-3 hours before our room would be ready! Sorry nap - you will have to wait. We went out to explore the San Telmo neighbourhood in the rain until our room was ready. Our first impression was great - even in the rain! We went to a covered antiques market where one store had 3 antique 3D cameras (this one is for you uncle Dan!). 

We were also so impressed by the extensive street art.(more to come later!)

We finally got into our room and were able to enjoy some much needed rest!! Welcome to Argentina!!! We are so excited!

NoLita and Little Italy

We spent our last afternoon shopping in NoLita and moseying around little Italy! 

Nolita is a little neighbourhood just north of little Italy. Great shops!! I got 3 new dresses and Brad got some new raw denim jeans! 

We stumbled across a little festival in Little Italy that reminded us of Pescina!

Brad pinned some money onto Saint Anthony

And we got gelato!! It was just like we were back in real Italy!! There was even a store that seemed to exclusively sell nativity scenes!! Time to get ready for Christmas!!

Now we are happily on our way to the airport after having lunch at Dig Inn on 55th between 5th and 6th. It was SO good!! If you have a chance stop by! Great food to go! 

See everyone soon!!

Pretzels at Tiffany's

"And I said what about... Pretzels at Tiffany's!!"

Panorama-tastic

I have been over using the panorama feature on my iPhone since we have been here. It's so great to use because everything here is so big!! Here are some choice panoramas!!

The cityscape at night from the top of the Empire State Building:

Huge dinosaur at the Natural History museum

Three panels of Monet's water Lilys

The view from our patio!

Yankee stadium by day

Yankee stadium by night!

Geez... I think I could have done with MORE panoramas!! Huge mistake... Hope you enjoyed!!

Yankees!!!

We went with Sherm and Michelle to the Yankees vs Mets game at Yankee stadium!

It was super packed on the subway out there and it is hot and humid!! Sweaty for sure :-/

By the time we got some drinks and an obligatory hot dog and got to our seats the Mets were already up by 5 runs in the top of the first inning! Good thing Michelle had her Mets T-shirt on! Looks like we wouldn't be beat up after all!!

Side note... There are only patriotic fries available at Yankee stadium...

We had great seats for the game and it was a great experience!! 

 

We got Yankees hats so we would fit in and cracker jacks too!! Brad didn't know what cracker jacks were! :-o

We met tons of people around us in our seats and had a really fun time... Although I'll admit it was hard to intensely follow the game... This is no playoff hockey that's for sure!! We headed out a little bit early to try and beat the crowds... And because the Yankees were losing pretty bad still. I was hoping for a come from behind win!! Alas...

After we got back to midtown Sherm and Michelle took us to the best street meat food cart in New York - The Halal Guys! It was delicious!! And super filling... Ugh. And it was only $6! What a deal! It was 11pm on a Wednesday and there were at least 20 people in line ahead of us! Worth the wait for sure!!

 

We had a super fun last night in New York with Sherm and Michelle! We will miss hanging out with you guys!! You will have to come and visit Vancouver soon!! :)

MoMA

Today we did the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Some parts of it are kinda weird... But most of it is amazing!! 

They had so many Picasso's and Matisse and Monet! It was great!! And this famous Van Gogh:

 

Here are some other pieces we really enjoyed:

The last one close up is actually really textured:

Super cool!

In the design area they had an installation on video games which was really cool! Everything from pacman to Portal! There were some crazy Japanese games as well. One that was based solely on music that brad and I couldn't really figure out how to work and another that was supposed to replicate real life. You could choose to have a life partner or not and you wander through this world trying to avoid obstacles and find rewards. At the end you die! And when your life partner dies you slow down with all of the grief. It's pretty crazy. 

We also wanted to go see the Rain Room installation. It looks AMAZING! But the line up was at capacity for the day when we got there... It's a pretty big ticket! You go into a geodesic dome and it is raining inside... But it never rains on you!! The rain will stop above you!! We really wanted to go check it out! Oh well... C'est la vie!

Overall MoMA was pretty cool... But I definitely don't get some of the more modern art stuff...:) I'll stick with Picasso, Degas, and Monet!!