Being There

After spending our days spent sightseeing, listening to the amazing music that you hear wherever you go in the city and  experiencing a million small kindnesses from the people..  the ready smiles, the willingness to not only help you if you ask for directions but so many times, the eagerness to try out their English on us .. to walk us to the corner and point out the way to go .
These were just  going that one bit farther in making us fall in love with the city and its people...
After all that and more, we would fall in to bed at night , exhausted, walked out, too wound up by all that we had seen and done and eaten and how overwhelmed we were .. or at least I was.

I was terrified at the idea of moving to Argentina, What about Pup ??
What about the kids , the family ? and What if ??
My husband just calmly told me that there was no deadline for any decision, just think about it or don't, relax and enjoy being there .

I would fall asleep with my mind finally settling on a perfect afternoon, sitting in a cafe garden, having coffee and people watching and seeing how appealing the life was .. and not to mention, I liked the idea that I could live in an apartment that looked like it was located in Paris on the Left Bank .

Speaking of Paris ... we shopped and shopped and I bought so many pairs of shoes, a few purses and a lot of presents. They weren't kidding when they said Buenos Aires was the Paris of South America.

We went to museums that I really   wanted to go back to,  again and again.
One has a lovely cafe on its grounds .. the Museum is the home of a famous man from the early days of Buenos Aires and it is magnificent. Their ballroom was the size of a house.
And the cafe is pretty darn nice too !

And then there is Evita's Museum .. her former home, before she went to live in the Big Pink House.
Old tiles, arched windows, arched doorways, wonderful music playing as you walk through the rooms, balconies looking out on a garden .. it is a really nice museum and they have a cafe that is fabulous. Lunch, Sunday brunch .. perfecto.

We ate in nice restaurants at night, we ate in pizzerias , we drank copious amounts of strong dark coffee and Malbec, we ate medialunas ( Argentine croissants) every morning and we walked.
We walked miles every day.
 It was the best way to see everything and to get a feel of being there .. really Being There.
We took taxis too and that was a delight.
The drivers were courteous, friendly and loved to try out their English, loved good music and drove like maniacs.
I learned right away, don't look.
Just sit back and listen to the music.
And if it feels right, practice your Castellano .. they love that .. if you get a good one.
 I always got good ones  ~
( in all the years we were there, all the taxis we took, we were never in one accident, not even a slight fender bender.... it just looks like they are going to crash all the time .. but they don't . )

We started looking at things in terms of Real Estate and Neighborhoods.
We decided that we would live in Recoleta, where we were staying.
We decided that we wanted an old apartment building, one of the French style with character and high ceilings and charm.

We also decided that if at any time, one of us changed our mind or decided that it was going to be too much ... money, stress, difficult in any way... we would forget about it and be happy anyway.

So the days zoomed by with shopping and eating and exploring, watching Tango, listening to concerts, shopping, sitting in parks and just Being There...

The day before we left .. our new friend and realtor called and said he would take us to see 4 apartments to give us an idea of what there was available.

Lesson One in looking at Real Estate in Argentina.. coming next.