Truly Julie in front of Floralis Genérica in Buenos Aires. The flower closes shut at night!

It’s important to stop and smell the flowers…especially if it’s a gargantuan metal one that moves:) I’m in the business of words/communicating…and yet…I’m having a hard time accurately describing the magic of Buenos Aires. Yes…as you’ve heard…it’s the perfect blend of Europe meets Latin America. But…it’s so much more! To me…BA is eating steak so tender that the server cuts it in half with a spoon (seriously!)…drinking buckets of velvety Malbec…tangoing till 3AM…hitting a beach rave till 6AM (only to have my new Argentinian friends boo me for leaving so early)…admiring the ridiculously good looking people everywhere (holy gene pool jackpot!)…and having men be so generous with their compliments that for a split second I thought I was _____ (insert celebrity crush of choice). I mean…the only downside to the constant praising and fawning is that once you return to the States…you feel like chopped liver. Every inch of BA is brimming with color. The plethora of graffitied walls are electric and beautiful in that pop art, urban way…you feel the
vibrance of people REALLY enjoying their life as you see the whole family including grandparents and toddlers enjoying 3-hour dinners that linger past midnight (it’s so bizarre seeing 2 year olds with pacifiers hanging out that late!). And the fashion among the younger crowd is a resurgence of the 80′s/early 90′s (think Depeche Mode/Cure/Erasure)…so lots of home haircuts (never seen so many crooked bangs…and asymmetric cuts since middle school!). And really…even if BA wasn’t 5-stars, I still would’ve had a good time because as the saying goes: it’s not where you go…but who you’re with. I got to experience this charming, passionate, gritty city with my sister Grace...who is just as ambitious as I am about vacationing right. We woke up each day with one goal in mind: how are we going to have the best time ever! And for 8 days…we did just that! I’ll always look back on my 4 days in BA and 4 days in Punta del Este, Uruguay in the fondest light. I’ll fill you in on Punta in a little bit but in the meantime…please enjoy the picture gallery of BA and my list of recommendations. You only live once…but if you do it right…you only need once. –Mae West

1) Stay in the Palermo neighborhood. It’s the “Soho” of BA with lots of cute cafes (my fav, Cafe Oui Oui, is in the pic gallery), boutiques, yummy eats, and a nice mix of bars/lounges/clubs. I stayed at the Palermo Place Hotel and loved it! The girls that work the desk…Florentina and Leticia are awesome.

2) Visit the La Recoleta cemetery and you’ll wish you were dead:) Yes, this is where Evita along with the who’s who of Argentina are buried. You’ll be amazed by the stunning grave stones that are more like mini-mansions. I charmed a grave keeper to let me take a peak
inside one of them and it was three stories…with a marble spiral staircase. I’m ALIVE and dreaming of a space like that! The Recoleta is a stone’s throw from the Floralis Generica sculpture (the petals close shut at night…and re-blossoms in the AM…so cool!) and it’s also walking distance from my new favorite shoe store, Comme il Faut. They have a terrible website, but an amazing BA store. You walk into a beautiful empty room…the women take one look at your feet and know your size and shape..then they just start rolling out 30 or so pairs. Proof of serious credit card damage in pic gallery. You should try to bang out these three together to be efficient.

3) Stroll along Casa Rosada/Puerto Madero. This pink house is the Argentinian White
House. You’ll see the famous ledge where Evita (AKA Eva Peron) graced her people. I highly recommend you see it at night when it’s lit in pink lights. Much more dramatic. Right after…you can take a short cab ride to Puerto Madero. Gorgeous pier area with a cool needle sculpture and an old ship.

4) Feast at Parrilla La Cabrera. Best. Steak. Ever.

5) And I save the best for last….La Viruta tango club. The cafeteria-like space was an eyesore at first…but once they dimmed the lights…fired up the tango music…I was swept away. Literally and figuratively. This place was packed with local gentlemen who had enough tango swagger to make any rag doll seem like she knew what she was doing (i.e. me!). The early portion of the evening is a free tango lesson…fyi. I will cherish this night for as long as I live.

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