SAjourney: Days 4-6: Buenos Aires; Days & nights in Palermo

This is the hotel that I'm staying at in Palermo:

My legs are so tired from walking so much! I've really covered a lot of geography in this city, both on foot and using public transport.

Since I am Buenos Aires, the home of the tango, I figured I should take a tango class. A work associate of my father's from Buenos Aires recommended a school, which oddly enough is housed in the Armenian Cultural building, but is a separate operation. The class was probably about half Porteño (people from Buenos Aires) so I figured I was in a good place. Tango is fun! It turned out that with the $6 entry I also got to take salsa classes for free, although after coming right out of a tango class I did have a little bit of tango in my salsa. Here are a couple pictures of the classes:

Here's an excellent meat dinner I had, and the place that served it:

I took a walk to the sub-neighborhood of Palermo Hollywood and had this excellent pumpkin and pork casserole-type dish, they call it a cake, no matter what you call it, it was amazing:

Since one word means both "squash" and "pumpkin" in Spanish, I assumed the sandwich I had on day 2 was squash, but this time I asked the waiter to clarify and he said it was pumpkin in this dish, so I'm thinking the sandwich I had on day 2 was actually a pumpkin sandwich and not a squash sandwich. It was pumpkin-colored.

There is some great nightlife in Palermo, it is very safe to walk around in and I never felt threatened in any way, no matter how late it is there are always other people around. It is a little tough to meet people because Buenos Aires is one of those cities where people don't usually stand at bars, they sit at tables. I have no shame though, so it was easy for me to approach people. Plaza Serrano is a popular place, filled with "yanquis" (Americans) as well as Porteños, so I looked for people who didn't look American. Plaza Serrano kind of is horrible, but there are a lot of people there so its a good place to start the night. There are people who go around the tables performing magic tricks asking for money. At one point a mute magician who had finished his shift sat down at our table, and had fallen in love with one of the girls. He intimated that he wanted to buy a liter of beer for the table (primarily for the girl), and after she coldly agreed to only let him buy her a beer if it was the most expensive possible option (a little complicated to explain), the manager saw what was going on and came out and wouldn't let him buy it because of a "previous incident", but he refused to elaborate any further.

When I was packing for my trip I found my old "wrist-compass" (like a watch, but a compass). I thought I wouldn't use it but packed it anyway, and within the first day I realized it would be very helpful and put it on. It also acts as a metaphor for my state of mind while backpacking, the location is more important than the time. Since I don't carry my iPhone on me at night (I did buy a clock today), I have no idea of what time it is when I'm out, and end up carrying on until 5 in the morning or so, and there are still bars open then.

These are some pictures from around the neighborhood of Palermo: