It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new.
But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful.
There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.
Alan Cohen
"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend.
Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."
Groucho Marx
The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Which One ?

Buenos Aires , the City, is broken up into many neighborhoods and each has its own character.
When we arrived for our visit, we stayed    in Recoleta.
It had been recommended by several people , the apart- hotel that we decided on was located there and it seemed to have quite a lot of its own attractions ... museums, parks etc.

It was an excellent choice.
Every day we had our little breakfast brought up to our room .. not that we were being spoiled, that is the way they do it .. and then we were out the door and off on our days adventure.
And every day that we were there, we were more charmed by the people and the place .
It is a very easy city to fall in love with.

It was very European, but not.
It was very charming,   beautiful, ugly, interesting.
It was noisy, dirty in places, and full of beauty, charm and lovely people.

Nothing dull about it, there was something happening somewhere, all over the city, every day and every night.
It was not quiet, although that adjustment was easy to make.
It was a fabulous mix of city buildings and streets and traffic and people hurrying here and there.
There were  huge parks, small hidden parks, quiet mews where each house was  a different color , cobblestone streets and beautiful street lamps and high walls with gardens behind them.

Birds everywhere, tiny tiny birds, pigeons everywhere, large, small , noisy, busy city birds.

It seemed that everyone had a dog. Or two.
Regardless of the size of the apartment or  the size of the dog.
If you had a job and could not be home to walk your dog, then the dog-walkers  ( paseadores de perros )  would do it.

They would fill the sidewalk , walking to the park with anywhere from 3 to a dozen dogs and seldom were those dogs little "city" dogs.
Sometimes, although rarely, they would pick up after the dogs when they did their business.
This is an area that they need to work on.. Pick up after your dog !

Our daily routine was quickly set ... wonderful strong Brazilian coffee in the morning followed by a walk to the park, 2 blocks away.
Passing the buildings, the door men grew to know us, recognize us and they would say hello, tip a hat, smile and pet the dog.

We rented an apartment upon arrival in Buenos Aires, figuring it would take at least a month or two of daily searching to find an apartment to buy.
We were worried that we would not find anything that we loved, that we could afford, we had certain ideas about our new home  that we really wanted to have ..
I had daydreams of certain styles of apartments, it was all waiting for us .. where/ which one  would be the place we would call Home ?

There were super modern high rise buildings. There were 18th - 19th century homes that had been converted into apartment buildings, there were actual houses and there were ordinary, older Argentina apartment buildings.

We looked at them all.
We could not find one that appealed to us in any way.

We were getting worried, what if we had to settle for something we didn't really want ?
Would we still be happy there ?







1 comment:

  1. Hello Candice,

    Well, we are certainly looking forward to discovering this magical city of Buenos Aires when we go to Uruguay in December. Buenos Aires is just a short ferry trip from Montevideo so we shall enjoy a sort stay there. From all you write, we think that we shall fall in love with the same things that you did.

    How beautifully you describe here that sense of excitement and also concern that one has when considering a move to a foreign country. We can retain lay empathise with this. And, one always is a foreigner no matter how long one stays but that is something that we secretly enjoy.

    The dog handling sounds very much like what takes place here in Budapest. This is definitely an area for all dog owners here to work on.

    We look forward to reading more....

    ReplyDelete

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