Rosario - "The best city to live". Sin argumentos aca. Rosario = Heaven on Earth (HoE) to some (myself). I went to Rosario three separate times. These are the stories and pictures of my time spent at HoE.
Chapter 1 - Con mis primos Mark y Brian
After hearing all that hype about the best city in the best country most inhabited by beauties, we finally went for the move we've all been waiting for. Trinamic 2.0 took off from BsAs on a Monday after delaying the trip another day due to laziness. We checked into Hostel La Lechuza, the OWL, which put us cerca de Cordoba Street (Archie's favorite), the pedestrian street/mall. Highlights of this leg of the trip:
- Discovered the best "L" you'll ever find: Orono and Cordoba Streets to the River
- Parque Espana and other parks along the River
- Out of control bursts; flavor and otherwise...
- Watching Avengers in 3D and American Reunion
- Watching the Lakers win 1 game in the playoffs (and lose 2 others)
- So many beauties you simply can't help but miss seeing some - "namic" fest
- Walking along the beach to the bridge
- Hanging out at Yanki's (Mark's friend from previous visits, born in Rosario but lived most of his life in SoCal) hostels to watch movies and sports
- Starving due to too many distractions taking over the hunger power
- Being treated like celebrities for being English speaking tourists
- Walking around inside the law school
- "Reverse Fart" race
- Skate Park observation session
- Monument viewing
- 98% rating for those exiting the club
- 2 peso ($0.50 USD) haircut comedy
- Free entrance (with a confident stroll) into Rosario Central Futbol Match 2nd half
- "Cruzing" in the back of Yanki's dad's pick-up at sunset
- Modern Art Museum (Colorful silos) - worst art in the world. En serio, todo el mundo.
Natural Mystic - One of the beach bars/clubs - unfortunately closed for the winter
La Playa del Rio
"We are the bridge"
Volleyball Courts at the Beach Club
Most kayaks i've ever seen
Rosario bridge - out to the islands
make em say ungh
Mid-burst - "vinegar strokes" outside the Law School. One example of a typical conversation outside this building: "Sitter lover." "Hey, you guys gave me all sitters". "Gross. The sitter's a guy." Got him.
Holler
La Lechuza Cartoons - How To's and FYI's
La Lechuza Breakfast/Bar area
Che Guevara Park
Calle Cordo-BAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Super Pancho Villa
"Trinamic"
Flyer-hand-outer corner on Cordoba street. Thursday afternoon hotspot.
Barf bag filth
"Un idea buena" continued
AWOO while dreaming of dudes. Sucker.
"To be a bastard (Rosario Central fan) is to be crazy in a happy asylum"
CARC - Club Athletico Rosario Central - Free entrance to games after 2nd half if you're confident walking straight through 25 cops
These guys are standing on about 6 inch thick beams and going crazy with flags/shirts.
The fellow fans gave us flags to wave after CARC scored their 2nd goal. Life haters!
Pick-up truck cruising
24 Delivery Menu at Yanki's hostel
The Flag Monument
Chapter 2 - The Solo Mission
After Bri and Mark left, I spent another day in BsAs to hang out with some friends, then headed straight back to Rosario for a few days before going to a camp for work. This time, I came by myself and didn't account for the major crowd that was coming into town - 3 day holiday weekend and an important futbol match between CARC and River Plate (a fallen super power from BsAs) for first place in the B League. Full capacity buses, and bus terminals. That's why when I got to my hostel, which was advertised and booked for $12/night, they could jack the price up to $20 (because it's special rate for the holiday weekend and their "emails for price updates never got returned from the hostel website") and I would have to stay there because the whole town was full. Which I ended up doing. Three major lies from the website: 1. price, 2. English-Speaking staff (they stressed this like crazy on the website, but no one there spoke any English), and 3. WiFi (it didn't work, ever.) Anyway, it sucked. But here's a look at what I did this time around:
I did a lot of walking around the same exact stuff I had done last week, but more focused on taking pictures. This is Calle Orono.
Parque de la Independencia - El Calendario - Landscape changes everyday to show the current date
Mini-horse rides and pictures are big at Independencia.
There's a huge man-made lake in the parque, and the biggest attractions are big (BIG) koi, a duck island in the middle, and about 500 paddleboats.
The Rosario Reflecting Pool
One of the few places in Argentina who will actually ask its residents to do anything about their dog poo.
Modern Art (Cultural Center) of Rosario. Gross.
FanMen - Paragliders with big huge fans on their backs flew around Parque Espana.
Mate Fans
Saturday Afternoon - Attempted to go with Yanki to the Central/River
match, only to see that the security for this event was WAY way up. He
said that if you came into Rosario wearing a River shirt without any
tickets, they wouldn't let you into the city. We ended up trying to
watch from a kiosko through the cage and half-screen. Major downgrade
from just walking into the stadium the week before.
Moto city - like 500 motorcycles being guarded by a family during any CARC game.
After leaving the stadium area, we headed back to Yanki's baller
penthouse along the river. One side of the apartment had a panoramic
view of the river...
On my last day of this leg, I crewed up with some Portenas (girls from BsAs - who travel to Lake Tahoe sometimes to work for the ski season, holler at me, Heavenly!) and some dudes from Santa Cruz, Argentina for a mate session on the roof. Sipping Mate, playing my campfire songs (Oasis) on guitar for them, mad chill.
After they all left, I headed out. Another walk to the Spanish Steps
This private high school that sits underneath the walkway along the river has some dope views. Their amphitheater is open air and facing the water.
Crowd gathering for the clown show
A newly built skate park/breakdance rehearsal space sits directly under the steps. This place is crackin on Sundays right around sunset.
Mate lovers
Chapter 3 - Couchsurfing and Cruzing with the Colonias Crew
After a few days away working at a camp, I returned to Rosario with a vengeance. Not really a vengeance, but I came back. This time, I stayed with a couchsurfing host who lived near the Parque de la Independencia. Her name was Nadia, I was her first couchsurfer, and she was all about "do what you wanna do". I got there, we talked for a bit, then went straight to the lavanderia (laundromat) and grocery to grab some empanadas and ingredients for Chicken Adobo. She invited her friend over, who taught me how to dance to Cumbia while the chicken simmered, and then we ate and talked and chilled at the house. Nadia gave me her room (she forced me to take it) since she knew I was on Argentina sleep schedule and she had to wake up at 6am every morning for work. Don't worry, I forced her to take it back when the weekend came. One interesting thing - I had to make my bed everyday (which I never ever do) because I noticed that she was big on keeping things in order as she would even straighten up my bed if I just laid on top of it. She was very cool though, gave me the keys the first day and I just kinda did my thing since my co-workers were in town. We hung out when we were home together, but she was on a work schedule and I was out a lot. One time I even got home after she had already left for work. Whoops. I did the equivalent of someone coming to my home and sporting a Paul Pierce Celtics jersey; I only had a CARC sweater to wear and she was a fan of Newell's Old Boys (NOB), the A league crosstown rival. Whoops 2.0.
Sarah, Chris and Lance chillin by the river. Chris and Lance's first time to Rosario. I think they liked what they saw.
Yanki's dad apparently used to jump off that tower (on the right) into the river when he was younger.
El Rio
Spanish steps with students
Mah bad, JB.
Later that night, those from Colonias met up again to hit da clubz. Sarah, Lance, Mike and Chris.
Also present: Mike's supermodel roommate, Ninon (France), and Sr. Bueno Liso himself.
After a first stop at a pub, we went to a club - The Loft - and we basically cut the line because we told them we were from los Estados Unidos. They were warning us that this might not be our night, that we might be "too old" and should come back tomorrow. We said "whatever" and walked in, only to realize that there was a building full of 15-19 year olds. Like 5000 of them. One of them even called us out on being too old. Wheeps.
Back to Parque de la Independencia with Nadia. This is the only picture I have of her, she wouldn't let me take too many of her.
The date and also colors of the font change for Dia de la Bandera.
Man-made lake, almost Cerritos-like, right after eating Choripan from the Parilla Carrito
On our last night, the Colonias folks and I crewed up with some locals (Yanki) to go to a Social Club along the river, equipped with parillas and tables and places to rent plates or go fishing. I was a fan of this place, and if it weren't freezing cold, might've been one of the cooler hangouts in town.
We brought some vacio (flank) and choripan for the grill and feasted with the Argentinian classic, Budweiser. Good times. Despues, fuimos a una club se llama "La Luna". It was an older crowd this time, people in their 30's or so, so we just drank, played pool and enjoyed the night. Glad we did, cuz afterwards it took me 40 minutes in the freezing wind to find un Taxi Libre! I was feeling miserable and cold beyond belief since I only had a button-up and everyone was getting out of the clubs at 6:30am. Brrrrrrrrrr. Covers felt good that morning.
The next day, I thanked my host and headed out to my coworker's hostel to catch up with them and drop off my luggage. Unfortunately I missed them, but the staff knew I was a friend and let me leave my stuff and told me to look for them by the river. Sho nuff, I found Lance and Chris and joined them in a quick pull-up session before we went on a food run that ultimately ended at McDonald's in the mall. HOW HORRIBLE. Estoy bromeando, it was good. We then met up with the rest of the camp crew to hop on the bus to Camp.
And I cried myself to sleep that night thinking about how that was the last time (for a while) I'd be able to cruise down the Cordoba and the river. Te amo Rosario! Te quiero y Me Encanta.
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