One City, One Month
Destination: Buenos Aires
Travel Dates: January 5th – February 5th
Travel Journal: The Apartment
In which our heroine unpacks and takes a nap.
The apartment is glorious. It was built in the 1880’s and has thick wooden doors with art-deco carvings and marble stair-steps worn smooth by a century of residents and visitors. It has five downstairs rooms all of which open up to a hallway of black and white linoleum squares and windows rimmed with stain-glass panes of purple and aqua green. There is a living room with over-soft brown sofas and an empty bookshelf for the books we buy and bring, a bedroom with a four-poster bed and an air-conditioning unit, and a little office complete with an enormous wardrobe, wireless Internet access, and a narrow metal staircase that leads to a tiny loft upstairs. The loft has a single bed and a miniature chair and desk. My valiant beau will compose music up there and if I need to shout up at him to come down to dinner or quiet his piano playing my voice will drift upwards through round windows that overlook the hallway and the kitchen. The kitchen is very tiny, barely big enough to turn around in with a little glass table, two chairs and a cabinet full of wine glasses. Adjacent to the kitchen is the narrow bathroom. It has doors with aqua green glass panes and a big, white bathtub with bird feet. The toilet has a bidet feature that squirts violent streams of cold water and a flush button high up on the wall above it. Even the keys to the apartment are marvelous, heavy and brass with strange etchings and distinct, jagged shapes. They are like something out of a fantasy novel. They are keys to a magic place.
Additional photographs and information about our apartment can be found at this web-site: www.santelmo85.com.
After the initial enthusiasm regarding the beauty of our historic apartment wore off, my valiant beau and I struggled not to succumb to the overwhelming desire to take a nap on the four-poster bed. Spending an entire day on airport travel, and 12 hours or so wriggling around in airport seat is exhausting. Nevertheless, we were certain we were disciplined enough to follow the old traveling adage: never take a nap when arriving in a new time zone, just stay awake and go to bed when the locals do. Supposedly this shortens the time it takes to recover from jet lag. Both of us had every intention of following this ancient wisdom. I stayed awake for at least an hour, putting my clothing in the heavy, wooden wardrobe, surveying the kitchen utensils, filling up the bookshelves, looking for a closet to shove my shamefully unfinished knitting into…but then I lay down just for a little while. My valiant beau collapsed next to me on top of the covers and both of us were out flat for four hours.
Later on, when wandering around the streets of San Telmo in the evening, the light was just beginning to dim. My valiant beau and I assumed it was around six or seven o’ clock p.m., but to our surprise it was already nine-thirty. Both of us were wide awake until three a.m., and I suspect it will take several days before we adjust to Buenos Aires time.
Travel Tip: Finding an Apartment in Buenos Aires
If you’re spending at least a week in a foreign city, you may want to consider renting an apartment instead of booking a hotel. Having an apartment can provide a sense of place and belonging. While you might not have daily maid service and movies on demand, you will usually get a larger space, a set of keys, and a place to cook. Renting an apartment also tends to be cheaper than paying a daily rate of $50-$100 U.S. dollars a night.
Most apartment rentals in Buenos Aires are offered in one of four trendy, touristy cities: San Telmo, Palermo Soho (also known as Palermo Viejo), Palermo Hollywood, and Recoleta. San Telmo is the oldest section of the city with tango street performers, cobblestone streets, and breathtaking architecture with art nueavu details. The Palermos are the more posh, hip areas of the city. Known for clean, modern architecture, trendy shops, swanky night clubs and lush city parks, Palermo is the place where most Portenos want to live now. Recoleta is a more up-scale area of Buenos Aires, a collision of cool modern buildings, high-end shoppings, and historic architectural wonders. If you’re looking for a luxury experience, this is the place to go.
Apartment prices can range from $400 to $3000 a month. The one bedroom apartment I rented with my valiant beau cost us $900 U.S. dollars.
There are many web-sites you can use to assist you in your search for finding an apartment in Buenos Aires. The best ones have search engines that allow you to limit your search by area, price, and availability. I found these web-sites to be particularly helpful.
For apartments specifically in San Telmo these web-sites offer better and more diverse choices.
Certain websites will require that you book your reservation on-line. Other web-sites allow you to e-mail a realtor or apartment owner directly. If you are making your apartment reservation through an on-line service, there is no price negotiation. However, if the site allows you to contact an owner, you may be able to negotiate a reduced rate. The San Telmo apartment where we are staying was originally offered at $1200.
Hey city girl! Nice blog. Wish I was there; Argentina is one of my 'must sees.'
ReplyDeleteHey Ruth! Thanks for reading. I definitely recommend a visit to Buenos Aires sometime soon.
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