Sunday, 31 August (2nd day!) - the center (Plaza de Mayo)

Hello Again!!

Today was my first proper day in Buenos Aires... I am trying to set my good self into holiday mode so today I "forced" myself to stay sleeping till late. I think I must have woken up at 10:30!!! And I went to bed early last night as was really tired...

After that I decided to go for brunch and get out into the city. Brunch didn't go very well. Streets look very small in the map but this place is quite big, and also, the places that seem very good in the Lonely Planet guide, tend to no longer exist!! So basically I ended up going up and down for an hour without getting any food in... I am being quite hungry in this trip for some reason... In the end I went into a "Dia" and bought some fruit and some biscuits and had some of that. I must say my knee is not doing too well so every hour or so I have to sit down and let it rest for a bit, oh god am going old...

Then proceeded to take the tube (Subte) to the center. Buenos Aires has a simple tube system with 5-6 lines. It seems to work ok so am quite happy. Yesterday I even bought myself the BA version of the Oyster card loaded with 50 pesos. Which at around 5 pesos per trip (50 cents) will get me around for the whole trip! The trains themselves are quite shabby and there is a lot of people going around selling bits and pieces or singing etc.
(pic of map)

I went to the center. The square of May/Plaza de Mayo. Around there I could see the Casa Rosada (Pink House), which is the main presidential building (where the lady president has her offices), the cathedral and the Cabildo.
(pic of plaza and cathedral)

I went into the Casa Rosada and they have this hour long free tours of the house, which was quite good. A very nice lady guide showed us the place and told us a little about it. See below some pictures of:
Salon Azul (Blue room, where they receive visits from outside)

Salon Blanco (White room)

Balcony from where the presidents used to speak to their people

Corridor of fame (grrr)
(pics)
Piece of on of the flags raised in the Faulklands (jijj)
(pics)
Some other bits and pieces

It is a pity that they wouldn't let us take pics of the presidential office itself, although they did allow us in briefly.
It is funny because there is (understandably) a lot of stuff about the independance still now. I feel a bit bad for being spanish... (not really)