Tiempo para América del Sur (Time for South America)

My first (and so far the only) rendezvous with my sixth continent began when my 14 hour long flight from Paris landed at the Ministro Pistarini Airport in Buenos Aires. In hindsight, I am surprised they haven't named the airport after Eva Perón, but more on that later.

Argentina - a country obsessed with steaks, football and Evita. A country known for its Malbec and Tango. A country 85% of the size of India, yet with just 3% as many people. I visited the country in April 2012.

Unfortunately, in a short 2 week trip, there wasn't much I could pack in (specially because Brazil and India had to be done in that time frame as well). I saw Buenos Aires, and then went to see the mighty Iguazu Falls.

The city of Buenos Aires has a very European feel to it, which is not very surprising considering that almost all of the immigration that took place in the 19th and 20th centuries was from Europe. From the architecture to the wide boulevards, the cafés to the opera houses and palaces - the city is distinctly European. Due to the emphasis on arts, music and culture given in this city, it is also often called the Paris of South America.

In a MBA-type bullet-point style, I will try and recall what I did in the city.

• Roamed around on the city's main square - Plaza de Mayo. This area houses some of the important administrative buildings of the city : Casa Rosada (the office of the President of Argentina), the May Pyramid (which was built to commemorate the May Revolution, which marked the beginning of the Argentinian War of Independence), the City Hall, etc.

The May Pyramid at Plaza de Mayo

• Saw the grandest and the most beautiful book store I have ever seen. It is called El Ateneo. It was originally constructed in the early 1900s as a theatre, and was subsequently converted into a cinema, and is now a book store. The decorations, the carvings, the lights, the stage curtains - no wonder it was voted the second most beautiful bookshop in the entire world. 

• Watched Boca Juniors (one of the most famous football clubs of Buenos Aires) play on their home ground in the La Boca neighbourhood. A tip : do proper research before you buy tickets. If you go via agents, they would try their best to fleece you. Do not end up overpaying! Just google for the best way to procure tickets. Also, La Boca can be a bit of a rough neighbourhood. So don't stray away into the by-lanes all by yourself.

Diego Maradona, painted on a wall in the La Boca neighbourhood

• Visited the Caminito street in La Boca - a super colourful street, with asbestos houses painted in green and yellow and red and blue, and street performers doing tango, musicians playing instruments and artists selling their crafts. 

The colourful houses of Caminito

• Do not miss watching a Tango show. We went to Cafe Tortoni (one of the oldest ones around). The show was good, and the place looks splendid from the inside. Go there for a cup of coffee during the day to see the interiors properly.

Tango dancing in Caminito

• Visited the San Telmo neighbourhood to see the Sunday craft fair. This is the oldest neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, and this fact is quite visible from the cobblestone streets and old colonial buildings. You will see a lot of tango performers on Sundays here. There is an old couple who have been performing tango on Sundays in Plaza Dorrego for decades (!), and their performances are obviously quite popular. 

The old couple performing in San Telmo

• Saw the Floralis Generica - a huge sculpture made of steel and aluminium and in the shape of a flower in the middle of a park

• Went to Puerto Madero (the docklands of Buenos Aires) - the area best known for its upmarket bars, restaurants and nightclubs, luxurious hotels and modern buildings. 

Puerto Madero

• Visited the Recoleta cemetery to be amazed at how huge it is (you can easily lose your way) and more importantly, to see the grave of the most famous and beloved person of Argentina (after Maradona I guess) - Eva Peron or Evita - the First Lady of Argentina from 1946 till her death in 1952. Evita is everywhere in Buenos Aires - painted on building facades, in all the museums and administrative buildings and on the lips of every resident. Be ready to be inundated with the love and affection people in Buenos Aires show to Eva Peron. I will let you wiki her to know why people love her.

The 3 most important people of Argentina - Maradona, Evita and Juan Peron

• We also did a pub crawl on one of the evenings. This is organized by a company formed by students who have moved to Argentina to learn Spanish (oh how I love that language!). They kick the evening off with pizza and then take you to 3 or 4 bars - each of them offer a free drink and discounts on more (if you want them). Overall, it is good value for money.

• Last, but definitely not the least - Do not leave Buenos Aires without going to a steakhouse (called parrilla in Argentina) - and specially La Cabrera - for a steak meal. This is the best steakhouse I have ever been to. It was recommended to me by a colleague. The friend I went to Argentina with doesn't eat beef, so I decided to go to La Cabrera all by myself, and I was completely completely blown away! The beautiful cutlery, the size of the servings, the multitude of delicious free sides, the on-the-house glass of champagne while you are waiting, the willingness to give you a table for one even though there are many couples and groups (i.e. revenue) waiting in the queue - everything was just perfect. No wonder the place is so highly rated by reviewers. 

The cutlery

The food

The happy me, eating at La Cabrera :-)

All in all, Buenos Aires was a great introduction to Argentina. The country is huge, and the only other place I visited during my stay there were the Iguazu falls (will come in a separate post). There is so much more I want to see in Argentina - Mendoza (the wine growing region), Cordoba, Salta, Patagonia. One day, one day.

PS : Oh, don't forget giving Malbec a shot. It's awesome!

It's been a long time coming..

The dilemma to pick a destination for my first post was grinding, and I zeroed down on a country which (despite my reservations as to whether it will leave me impressed) left me yearning for more. That country is Israel, which I visited in December 2012. 

It doesn't need mentioning that Israel is rich in history, and this is where my scepticism before the trip had set in. I thought I liked historical places, but never really loved them. The reason being I just don't seem to remember facts. Historical dates and events are to my brain what water is to plastic - they slip off easily. But Israel changed this. To be honest, I did a bit of reading up on the country, on Jerusalem, and on the nation's history before I went, and it helped a lot. I was able to truly appreciate the significance of The Dome of the Rock, the timeline of Jerusalem, the perceived importance of the Mount of Olives, etc. To put it in short, I completely loved Israel.

We (my friend and I) landed at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv (the arrivals area looks like the interior of a huge museum) and it being Friday evening (Shabbat), the train to the city wasn't running. We took a cab to our hotel and spent the evening in Tel Aviv (more about the city later). 

The next day we did a day trip to the Dead Sea (the lowest point on the surface of the earth, and the only water body of its size where you can float easily due to its high salinity) and Masada. 

Masada is famous fortification on the top of a hill built by Herod the Great and overlooking the Dead Sea. The Siege of Masada in the 1st century AD by Roman troops (you can still see Roman camp outlines in the sand around the hill) ended in a mass suicide of the zealots who had holed themselves up in the palace above.

The view of the Negev desert from Masada is stunning, to say the least. So is the view of the Jordanian mountains from the Israeli side of the Dead Sea.

Floating in the Dead Sea, with Jordanian mountains in the background

Masada

The outlines of camps set up by the Romans, who lay siege on Masada

The view from the hill of Masada was breathtaking

The next day we visited Golan Heights - a mountainous area on the north-eastern part of the country which was captured from Syria in the 6-day war in 1967. The tour guide drove us along the Syrian and Jordanian borders. We also visited a couple of kibbutz (collective community settlements) on the way, and also got to see the Sea of Galilee, on the waters of which Jesus walked. :)

In Golan Heights

The next two days were the highlight of the trip - Jerusalem. The old city is absolutely stunning. To make it simpler to read, I will list down what we did in Jerusalem in bullet points. 

• Walked around the four quarters which comprise the Old City - Armenian, Christian, Arab and Jewish
• Wore a kippah and prayed at the Western Wall (of the Second Temple) - the holiest site in the world for Jews
• Went on to the Temple Mount to see the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa mosque (both from the outside). The Dome of the Rock is from where Mohammed ascended to heaven, and the Al Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site in Islam (after Mecca and Medina). 
• Saw the Church of the Holy Sepulchre from the inside. This is the place where Jesus was crucified and then buried
• Walked the Via Dolorosa - the road on which Jesus (bearing the cross) was made to walk, and where he fell a number of times
• Saw the place (apparently) where the Last Supper was held
• Saw the Mount of Olives from a distance - the place where the Messiah will first land and resurrect all the dead buried there
• Went to the Shrine of the Book to see the Dead Sea scrolls
• Walked within the Old City and along the outside wall at night, the entire place brilliantly lit, specially the Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock

The atmosphere in the Old City was so absorbing, and so surreal. Jews, Arabs, Christians - all milling about in the place that is probably one of the most important to them and their religions. 

The Dome of the Rock

People praying at the Western Wall

There is just so much to see and experience in Jerusalem that a one or two day trip is just not enough.

The next day we crossed over into the West Bank to see Bethlehem - the place of birth of Jesus. We rented a cab for 3-4 hours, and the cab driver took us to a few important places in and around Bethlehem. We visited Church of the Nativity, the Herodian and the (infamous) West Bank wall, which divides Israel and the West Bank. 

The West Bank wall

A few tips about Israel. First - please tip! If you don't, the waiters and bartenders will make sure you do. We went to an expensive restaurant on one of the nights we stayed at Tel Aviv. The bill was expensive, and though we tipped decently well if you considered the absolute amount of the tip, it as a % of the total bill was less. The waiter returned with the bill and unashamedly said - 'But sir, this tip is not even 10%!'. Well, we had no choice but to increase it. Then another time, we did not tip at the bar, and the bartender added the tip himself to the bill when we ordered the next round of drinks. It's the Israeli style I guess. If they are denied their due, they sure know how to get it. :-) The first time around, at the restaurant, I was boiling with anger after we left the restaurant. But when the incident happened at the bar, we took it lightly. It's their way, and I get it. At no point was the service bad though. 

Second - please realize the importance of Shabbat. The airport trains do not run from Friday evening till Saturday evening. Do not go around driving in the orthodox neighbourhoods during that time. (We did not do the latter, but it's best if you don't as well).

Third - be ready to be grilled while boarding a flight from Ben Gurion airport. And keep enough buffer in terms of time for it.

Fourth - don't be surprised if you rarely see police/security. We were surprised to find no sign of any armed police/troops in Tel Aviv.

Fifth - Israelis are very upfront, and their jokes/humour can be very raunchy, crude and upfront. 

Sixth - Do not carry any religious book (other than the Quran) on to the Temple Mount

View of the Temple Mount from the Mount of Olives

Overall, there is a reason I chose Israel as my first travel post. It's best to summarise it with what my team-mates jokingly tell me often - 'Manish, you came back a changed man from Israel'. I don't know why they say it, but maybe I did. :-)