Dynargh dhe'n Blogofrob

Sunday 30th January 2011

Everyone loves Palermo. Its quiet cobbled streets, the pavements marked every few yards by large leafy trees that bend over the road (I should know the species, but no), are packed with gently trendy restaurants, bars, shops. When George and I risked dissolving into puddles of salty water as we ventured out into other nearby barrios in the baking heat, it was always a pleasure returning. For me, the art, sanctioned or otherwise, that creeps up the walls of the buildings is a particular attraction. I found a couple of amazing shops with the same kind of feel, being, as they are, exercises in pointless graphic design. I resisted the impulse to buy useless books of pictures and random bric-a-brac at a particularly good one (the unfortunately named "Trippin´") and limited myself to a sketchbook, with a whimsical cartoon monster on the cover.

I wish I could say the George exercised similar retail restraint in Buenos Aires. But I can´t. What should have been a 30 minute walk along the shopping street Santa Fe, turned into a 2 hour expedition, and we bounced in and out of malls and shops. This was supposedly in the name of finding me some flip-flops and a hat, but the number of dresses tried on (not by me) led me to suspect otherwise. However, it was good to have an air-conditioned break every now again again. It really is unbelievably hot.

The trip down Santa Fe was part of a longer walk to BA´s VIP corpse-city, the walled Recoleta Cemetary. It´s not exactly "labyrinthine" (as the guidebooks would have you believe) but its crammed full of tombs, each one in a different style, all laid along streets and around plazas, and I loved it (although, philistine that I am, the only name I recognised in there was Eva Peron´s).

128 - posted at 20:36:27
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Comments

Umm, you forgot to mention your shirt and "hoody" that you also bought, so my dress shopping wasn´t so bad. That along with my lovely earrings, makes us even steven. Plus the dress will be perfect for this tango you have signed us up to do later...eeek!

1: shopaholic (hot hot hot) - 21:52:30 on Sunday 30th January 2011 (permalink)

Oh. If you guys are still there, check out the NoBrand shop. I love that place... (Although it makes more sense when you've spent more time in Argentina and understand what all those little cultural icons mean.

Gorriti 5876. Palermo. Buenos Aires. Argentina, just down the road from Olsen.

2: Matt - 22:13:42 on Sunday 30th January 2011 (permalink)

They seem to go giddy for the little girl statue thing in San Telmo (Mafalda) - t-shirts, ornaments and postcards etc of her everywhere!

3: gg - 21:01:58 on Monday 31st January 2011 (permalink)

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