Buenos Aires – the capital of Argentina – was the only destination on the Atlantic shore (and not the Pacific shore) that we visited on our journey and it was our final destination. Big expectations were set, especially also, as we visited the city over Christmas. When we arrived, beautiful and warm weather welcomed us. We were back in summer! It was fantastic to stroll along the docks at Puerto Madero during the evening and watch the "Porteños" (= inhabitants of Buenos Aires) enjoy their pre-Christmas drinks with colleagues and friends. Nowadays, the docks are a hip neighborhood and are solely used as promenade. The industrial port – located slightly further north – is still one of South America's most important and yearly handles over 11 million tons of freight. Buenos Aires is often also referred to as "the Paris of South America". At the quarters of San Telmo and Recoleta, we could see why: beautiful façades in art-nouveau style let the streets look very pretty. Additionally, the city has many parks and big trees. It was very pleasant to simply walk through the streets. Of course, we did this with the necessary precaution and in the end also decided to skip the entire quarter of "La Boca" (where the famous football stadium of Diego Maradona is located), as it was predicted to be too dangerous there as tourists during the festivities. Of course, also in terms of culture, art and literature, Buenos Aires has a lot to offer. San Telmo is well known for its "milongas" (= tango dance halls) and its antiquities market on Sundays. In Recoleta, we visited the famous museum of Latin-American art MALBA, the cemetery and afterwards strolled through the artisan market. A bookstore, installed at a former theatre, was a special attraction. On Christmas we treated ourselves to a delicious "bife de lomo", joined a mass at the Catedral Metropolitana (very different to protestant services we are used to) and enjoyed experiencing festive traditions here. Porteños celebrate Christmas Eve at midnight on the streets to firework, eating "pan dulce", similar to "panettone" in Italy, and drinking "sidra", fresh apple wine. On the 25th, though, the streets are empty and the majority of restaurants are closed: everyone is celebrating with family at home. Overall, we spent a good time during our last days in Buenos Aires, but the city could not quite live up to our high expectations. Maybe this was due to the fact, that we were already thinking of going home or because during the Christmas days (which additionally fell on a weekend this year), the city seemed without much life.
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