Gourmet's dream come true

I've been really sick lately and it seems to start over every time I get better. I think I found the reason today; some bacteria have caused me an infection in intestines so I'm sick constantly. Well... You should be careful what you eat, but not scared. Bacteria are different in every country but I didn't saw this coming. Maybe I'll be wiser next time.. But this subject always cheers me up :)!

They say Argentina and Buenos Aires is gourmets paradise. Argentina is very well known for the meat; they say here you can eat the worlds best meat. I've tasted many kinds of beefs but nothing like here in Buenos Aires. It's just so good that there isn't words to describe it! If there would be one thing I could take with me to Finland, it would be Argentine meat! You don't even have to put a lot of spice there 'cause its natural taste is so good! And a top of it, it's ridiculously cheap! Other food I just love is fruits: fresh, juicy, tasty fruits. I doesn't matter what time of year you buy fruits, it's nothing, it's not even fruit compered what you can have here! Those small fruit shops in almost every corner (at least in Palermo Hollywood) where you can buy anything and again, it ridiculously cheap! And it's SO GOOD!

Mixed see food from Fish shop

Delicious sushi! Best ever!

Shellfishes from the supermarket

Huge Grill plate from really nice restaurant Las Cabras in Palermo Hollywood.
I really recommend this restaurant! But it's always full, 'cause everyone else likes it too.

I made some late night snack; mixed seafood breds

Chinese

Crayfish chips, colorful ones

I love these fruits in here! The problem is that it seems to be the number one reason why I have been so sick lately: because in really warm country fruits and salads has totally different bacteria than in cold countries. When I get better, I'll continue eating those, good idea or not :D!

Argentine risotto

"Family dinner" at our place

Argentine lunch time

Chinese New Year in Buenos Aires

In Finland we don't celebrate Chinese New Year. Actually, I didn't even know when it is! Lots of people was talking about it here in Buenos Aires, so I thought it must be worth of seeing. And it was! Huge stage and screen, lots of different kinds of performances going nonstop, dozens of food stands and many things for sale. I enjoyed mostly from the food and performances. 

Sushi in plastic box from the Japanese food stand.
 I've never tasted Sushi "From the street" and it was delicious! Best I've ever tasted (so far). 

Chinese deep-fried squid rings... It's hard to find anything better!
The best thing was that in this one you could taste the real squid really well, yum yum!

Last but not least smoothies! Real, fresh smoothies made from real, fresh fruits and berries.
I can still taste it in my mouth, it was that good!

Of course I had to get the fortune cookie with the prediction. Mine says "Open your heart. You can always close it again." I wonder how seriously I should take the prediction :D!

In Buenos Aires they celebrated the Chinese New Year whole two days. The atmosphere was incredible! Everyone was so happy and relaxed! I wish there will be the day when you can feel that in Finland too :D! I took some videos, so I could show what I experienced and saw, but it's impossible. On the top of it the videos quality turned out to be quite bad. If you think it's too bad, skip the first too and watch at least the last one and the small screen works the best.

Inflation in Argentina

This is the subject we learn in school at very early age. But here in Argentina.. It's totally different thing. Here we are living with it every day. So what you learn at school about this is nothing compered to living middle of it! I'm still a bit confused about this and I don't know much about it. It seems almost impossible that everything can be so messed up! In Finland we are really living so safe and stable life. Here you never know what's going to happen tomorrow! But I'm not saying it in negative way. It's extremely interesting!

When we came here, it was almost impossible to get Us Dollars from the country. If I wanted to change my money in USD, I had to pay extra 40%, so it was insane! Government tried to "change the way peoples mind works", and the main goal was (how I got it) that people wouldn't collect dollars anymore, and that Peso would become more stable. It didn't work. But now, this week everything changed again! People used to save dollars and buy everything bigger with dollars, like cars, houses and holidays. Everyone want's to have payment for renting apartment as USD. It's a bit hard 'cause there's no way we could get it in a way that isn't ridiculously expensive. But I get it. Of course they want the payment USD 'cause it doesn't change weekly or even daily like Peso does. It's the safe way to have and save money.

Put now, little over an week ago, government again changed everything. Completely out of the blue they decided that people can buy USD normally. WHAAT!? I mean in Finland this wouldn't be possible! Everything takes so much time, to decide something or put into practice. And here, they just did it! Put what does that mean. I'm not even sure :D! It seems so messy to me! But one Finnish boy said "now I know what it feels like having a bunch of money that looses it's value". So he had all his money as USD and when government released the "markets" his dollars wasn't that valuable anymore. And what about Peso? Is it really gonna be more stable because of this decision? The funny thing is that the government is telling to the rest of the world that the inflation level is much much less than the reality.

http://www.argentinaindependent.com/currentaffairs/analysis/inflation-when-a-picture-is-worth-1000-2210-3480-words/

For me this is so exiting and interesting! But I can only imagine how it feels for those who lives here! When the news came out last weekend, some shops were closed, because they didn't know anymore how much should they ask for the items they are selling. They didn't know how valuable those were anymore. And everything happened for the one night! What's going to happen? No one knows.


If you are interested, here's some links that tells more about facts:
http://www.economist.com/node/21548229
http://www.geocurrents.info/news-map/economics-news/argentinas-mounting-economic-troubles

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-01-27/argentine-prices-soar-following-peso-devaluation-which-only-benefits-20-population

http://blogs.trb.com/news/opinion/chanlowe/blog/2009/04/

It's HOT HOT HOT weather! Solution - water play :)

When I left from Finland the weather was dark, raining and maeby just -2 Celcius. Now I know that in Finland theres -25 degrees (horrible cold). But still I'm used to maximum +28 degrees, 'cause there's never warmer than that in Finland. So can you believe what happens when you put Finnish people in +30 to + 45 degrees :D!? It's so so so hot! I have burned my skin 4 times during two weeks, unbelievable! I wen to gym during hotel stay and got dehydration! I'm so happy we have the pool and air conditioner 'cause otherwise we would be in big troubles! It's a weird thing how fast human body can get used to the hot weather. First two weeks we were suffering and sweating quite hardly all the time. Now, when the weather is warm (about +28 to +33 C) it feels quite normal. One day it was raining and there was only +20C, we were actually a bit cold! So the body can get used to different circumstances. It's hard to believe that back home there's snow!

Our house in Buenos Aires

It was quite exciting to try to find an accommodation for us. I had heard stories about people who had booked a flat and paid for it but there wasn't apartment or anyone when they got there. I didn't know who I can trust and what's the best place to find one. I found two girl more who searched place to stay and I contacted them. It was quite hard to find place to stay because everyone had different wishes. I contacted about 20 persons and I found one very good one. I booked the flat for us but after I did it the price went 500€ up. It was a bit shocking. I canceled the booking and we were at the starting point again. Four days before flights I got apartment for us, but still there were first two nights without roof above our heads. I tried to find some kind of hostel or hotel. Two days before leaving I found very cheap hotel, some kind of special offer. The hotel costed 75€ for two person for two nights. So it was really cheap! I paid it right away through onehotels.com. The thing was that I really wasn't sure if there still is the hotel or the apartment. So I was a bit stressed out about it.

Here is some pictures from our hotel (BE hotel in San Telmo, Buenos Aires)

Outside pool and solarium

There was two pools in hotel, one outside and the other inside with gym. This is inside pool. The bottom of the pool is glass so you can see the reception and everything else all the way down (5 floors)

This is from 3rd flood. You can see the bottom of the inside swimming pool up high.

I've never seen before a hotel room with glass shower! It was quite funny being in the shower
'cause the other person could see you all the time through the glass :D!

Everything went so well! We got the hotel room and the apartment for 5 weeks. I have to say that the booking and paying system here in Argentina is totally different than in Finland. The inflation is one really big reason! Argentine Peso isn't stable currency, the value of Peso is changing weekly, sometimes even daily. That's why everyone wants to have payment as US Dollars. The thing is that it's really hard to get Dollars! And if you go to the bank, they take 40% for changing money to Dollars! That's really too much! We had cash (US$) for the first apartment but I have no idea how to get the next one! Here's some pictures from the apartment

View from the roof

It has been so hot so the pool is a MUST! For Finnish people it's extremely hot (over 30 C degrees)!
I hope I'll get used to it :)! But I love it! 

We have to be creative for drying our laundry. The living area is our solution :D!

We have bathroom for both bedrooms

Walk in - closet

I love our patio! Everyday I lay down to  hammock and relax before going to bed.

We have private elevator lobby. I have no idea why :D!

View from the roof! I'll take a photo from the other side of the building because there's a barbecue area, really nice!

I can't believe that I am able to afford this kind of apartment, this kind of living! I mean I lived in shared apartment, not glorious at all, lived for very little amount of money, and now... This!! And I'm paying everything by my self. I'm really sad that we don't see how well our things are in Finland! Free education and financial aid for studies from government. Actually I sometimes feel a little bad; do I really deserve all these opportunities and freedom. I'm so lucky girl!!!

Finally to Argentina

Here I go! 5 months of  sun, Latin America, different culture and environment, no work, hopefully no worries. I hope I will find many new things in me and when I go back (if I go back) I will be a whole new woman again. I hope I will find out what I'm suppose to do with next couple years, some direction in my life.

I'm so happy to leave Finland. It was so dark, raining all the time. Normally this time of year it's extremely cold but this year it hasn't, so there weren't even snow. That darkness is depressing! I don't enjoy that Finnish darkness AT ALL! And it's so relieve to leave everything behind in Finland! This is take off from everything. But that's not the reason why I wanted to go :)!

I think we will have nice adventure! And I'm ready for everything. I'm pretty sure things won't go as expected, but that's part of this! Our flight was quite hard.. So much of turbulent! First we take the plain from Helsinki to Madrid (4,5 hours), then waited 3 hours and then to Buenos Aires for 13 hour. And the wind was so hard that the plain had to change the direction for a while. I didn't sleep at all! But to my friend it was the first time in a plain, so I'm pretty sure it was quite rough to her. But I held her hand one time. I have to say that Iberia impressed me, very nice flight company indeed! Nice and clean plain, comfortable, good service (but the food was quite interesting). I recommend Iberia to everyone!

I'm so happy to tell this; I'm in Argentina! I can't wait what comes to me! Open minded and ready for adventures! I'll write post at least once a week so keep reading :)!