I love to drink coffee here

This cafe is on Avenida de Mayo, one of my favourite avenues in Buenos Aires, and near the building of Congress.  This is a really old and traditional area of the city, where there are such gems as Cafe Tortoni, lovely old buildings, odd-characters in the street, the hotel Castelar (which looks super old-world cool) and many other old bars and pizza places.  In this particular cafe I love the wall texture and colour, the painting, the big mirror near the door and the smartly dressed old waiters (always men.  Actually, these placese are usually full of old men too, not sure where the women are...)

I love to drink coffee here too

This coffee shop is on Avenida Corrientes, amoung the theatres, trash, noise and chaos of this area of the city.  The neon sign is at the back of the store, and highlights their house specialities: churros (fried spanish doghnuts) and submarinos (hot chocolates!).  Full of characters from oldies, to theatre goers and everyone in between, it´s a great place to people watch.

I love to drink coffee here

Las Violetas is probably my favourite coffee shop.  It is traditional, swanky, beautiful and one of the busiest places to be at 4pm on a saturday or sunday when there is a line up of old ladies to get in.  Several years ago it was restored to it´s original glory, and the building-fit out, lights and windows are amazing.  The indulgence of choice is a gob-smacking platter of cakes and sandwiches (which comes with champagne!) far too grande and sweet to get through but definitely worth the experience.  It´s open pretty much 24 hours, and I love stopping by late at night on my way home (circa 2am) and finding it full of people.

Cool shops #2

Shoe store Natacha is very nice indeed.  Yesterday I bought some converse-inspired leather shoes; the quality is great and the colour is quite unique.  They have a plethora of leather boots and lovely flats, as well as heels I would never wear but are equally enjoyable just to look at.  Oh la la.

Cool shops #1

I love Papalera Palermo, a huge paper shop in Palermo Soho that sell well, paper (obviously), hand-bound books with scren printed covers, quirky origami animals and objects, beautiful albums, art prints, I could go on...
It is the perfect place to pick up a quick gift for a friend, and they even have printing and origami workshops that you can take which look like a lot of fun and you can pick up some new gift-making techniques in the process! I went there today to buy a small gift for a friend who recently looked after my lovely cats for a weekend, and now I want to buy this Eva Peron limited-edition print...

Sabado lluvioso

Saturday it rained all day, which meant that the streets were practically empty (a rare treat!).  I went shopping, eating and coffee-drinking in Palermo Soho and took some snaps as I went.

 

Cine Lorca

I love old cinemas, and the quirkier, the better.  This is the cinema Lorca located in avenue Corrientes, in the centre of Buenos Aires.  The picture above is taken from my seat, which is almost in the middle of the longest and narrowest cinema I have ever seen!  I doubt you could even see the screen if you were sitting in the back row, and from about where I am sitting, the cinema begins to slope upwards so if you are sitting any further forward you have to look up, and you can´t rest your head on the seat because they are too low.  The walls are wood panelling from the 70s, the seats cream vinyl, the majority of people that go there are old ladies and odd characters.  Fittingly, I saw the new Polanski film Ghostwriter, very Hitchcock-esque and the perfect setting for this film.

Windows

A few weeks ago I went to Santa Fe to visit the family of my boyfriend and also had time to catch up with friends.  Some friends that used to live in Buenos Aires have moved back to the place that they grew up, very close to Santa Fe in a pueblo called Rincon, which in English means corner.  It´s small, basic, very green and quiet, with dirt roads and a very calm vibe.  These friends are about to have their first baby and are in the process of building a lovely house, next to the family home of one of them.  I fell in love with the windows, the light, the glass and the garden (and the family pets which include four cats and four dogs!)

This cat is called Kiwi and has the biggest head I have ever seen!