So Buenos Aires has been treating me pretty well so far.

First impressions: I like it here. It’s a bit more crowded than I was expecting  but there are lots of parks and green spaces, which helps.

There are lots of people out running in the parks, or taking part in various sports and exercise.  This allows me to indulge my favourite fantasy that this time next month I will be super-fit from all the sport I’m going to be doing.  I haven’t started this week, but next week I will leap into action.  Or not. It’s very humid.

There are a lot of dogs in Buenos Aires.  It is not unusual to see someone walking 10 or 12 dogs through the park.  People rarely pick up after their pets though, which leaves any park-walk a minefield of hidden dog poo

My airbnb is in Palermo, a trendy area towards the North of the city (for anyone who knows London it’s like the Shoreditch of Buenos Aires). The area is chocobloc with bars, restaurants, galleries, and that kind of stuff. I like it, however I need to find somewhere cheaper for next month.

For the time being I am just deciding month by month; I’m certainly not ready to commit to a long-term relationship with the city at this point.

The Japanese gardens, which I stumbled upon just ten minutes from my flat when I was wandering about tired and jet lagged waiting for my room to be ready.

Politics

I needed to go into the centre to change money and came upon this throng of people (this was early; I read it became a much bigger throng later).  There have been elections in Argentina and the outgoing president was due to make a speech, before handing over to Mauricio Macri.

Nobody I have spoken to this past week was happy about him; one woman said she had been crying all day about it.  I never met anyone who said they had voted for him.  Maybe it is like George Bush, where nobody ever admits to having voted for him, although clearly somebody did.

Food

I took a food tour. Beef forms a big part of the Argentine diet.  Vegetables and salad is relatively expensive but beef is cheap.  There is a newly emerging trend of vegetarian/vegan restaurants, but they are expensive by comparison, and since you’re likely to be the only veggie in the group you’re unlikely to find others willing to go with you.

I’m not sure how I’m going to get on with the food here.  I’m not vegetarian but I really don’t want every meal I eat to be a giant meat-fest.

Supermarket prices are similar to UK, except with only around half the choice.

Empanadas, a kind of national snack.  The Argentines claim to have invented them, although so did the Spanish when I was there.  They come with different markings on the top so that you can identify what’s inside.