Screaming face in a shopping centre in Buenos Aires

 

 

 

Show 6

Great show last night--was nice to see friends and meet their friends, too. It was also nice to talk to and see the reaction of someone who saw the show for the first time! Angelica from Chile hadn't seen the show yet, even though her boyfriend from Argentina, Christian, was on his 5th show. (I think.) We met up with Elzira at the show, but Marcelo, Christian and Angelica wandered past us before the show as Kami and I were sat getting a bite to eat in a street cafe.

Pre show Angelica and Christian                      Marcelo, Elzira, Kami, Christian and Angelica

Waiting in anticipation                                      During the show

   

Will add a few more things later on about the show.

You can see in the pictures below how the wall “bricks” are constructed at the ends of the wall. It's just a facade with brick fronts fixed on. A few of the fronts had to be replaced after the rain warped them at the earlier show.
      
You can see the warping on the front brick panels on this picture taken by creative director Sean Evans:

Before the show Kami and I went to look around the “Wall Mania” museum next door to the venue. It was okay--nothing real special. It was full of artwork which were different artists' interpretations of elements from the show, the original artwork, and the movie. We watched a cool film in the exhibition that showed the making of all the murals around BA that people have been doing to celebrate the arrival of the wall shows, one of which we passed on our way to the show and can be seen below.

    
The show was, once again, fantastic. The band were tight, the weather was great, and the crowd stood a bit more than they had at previous shows.

Dave's Another Brick solo:

Disappearing bricks video below:

Full Album of pics below from show 6

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Day 10, Buenos Aires

When we went on the sightseeing bus tour last week we went through an area called la Boca. It looked nice if a bit touristy, but there were a street market, restaurants, and shops. We didn't get off the bus then, but we marked it on the map to come back to later. The owner of the apartment here and a couple of other friends had warned us not to stay in La Boca--get off the bus, have a look around, and then come back. They said it wasn't the safest area in Buenos Aires.

 

One thing I haven't mentioned on my blog is about safety here. I have to say that, so far, there hasn't been a single time when I've been worried, felt threatened, or thought there was going to be a problem! We were talking to Georg about this the other night before the show, and he said he thought London was worse, and I have to agree with him. We've not encountered a single problem so far using local buses and taxis or wandering around many neighbourhoods and local areas. We've always felt safe. The people have been great and very friendly, too.

We took the local bus to La Boca--it went the long way around, and it took about 50 minutes to get there. It's a great way to see the different areas of Buenos Aires, though. We went along one road that was obviously just for locals, and it had stalls all down the sides of the street selling everything from a plastic bucket to a man's 3 piece suit. It was fascinating to see.

 

Apart from the magazines in the news stands and a couple of posters near Roger's hotel, we haven't seen many posters or banners for the show at all. We passed a shopping centre on the bus that had about 12 banners all around the building. We think it's the shopping centre that has the large model of the screaming face inside it, so we might try to get back there before we leave.

 

Banners outside local shopping centre       No Roger magazines at the “locals” newsstand!

     

 

We arrived in La Boca just after midday. The bus didn't take us right to the tourist area, so we had a 10 minute walk through local streets with local people gawking at the tourists, but again, even doing this, not once did either of us feel threatened, and we received smiles and holas as we walked past! There were some great old buildings around as you can see from the pictures below:

 

   

 

We stopped in what looked like a huge cafeteria for some lunch--there were only locals in it, and I'm guessing as the football stadium is nearby to that area, it's a popular place when there's a game on. We had a bite to eat and carried on walking through La Boca to the “touristy” area.

 

Local fruit shop,                                

 

 

We could see the small street market 4 or 5 blocks in front of us and headed that way. We passed 3 young guys along the way, probably around 13 or 14 years old. One of them looked at us and said something like, “Ahhhh tourists,” but in Spanish.

 

The area was full of small street stalls selling crafts, drinks, leather goods, and other touristy stuff. There were small bars and restaurants in abundance, and most of the people were now tourists, not locals. One thing it definitely was is colourful!

 

 

There were several restaurants that had small stages in the front, and not only would you sit down to a meal but you would also get a tango show or a magic show or something similar.

 

Lunch and a show.

Kami has been looking around for some postcards for the last few days, but the ones we have seen have been pretty expensive. After a week of looking, we realised there was some kind of cartel (or CarDtel, as she put it!) going on with the prices of postcards, and Kami broke down and went and bought a few while we were here. While Kami went off to find some cards, I found a little bar and ordered an ice cold beer and sat and people watched until she came back 10 minutes later.

 

Dog just laying in the street                                        My bar!                 Kami writing postcards

 

Video of the area around the bar where we sat for half an hour:

We wandered around the small streets after leaving the bar, but by this time, it was going on 5 P.M.! We walked for 15 minutes through the local area to reach the bus to go pick up our tickets for the show, and then it was on to the venue. We seem to be continuously on bus number 93! It just happens to take us everywhere we want to go!

Full album of pictures from today:

 

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Day 9

We didn't do much today--we woke late and headed out for a wander around Palermo and called into the bakery and picked some things up for lunch. We sat in the main square in Palermo, Plaza Serrano, and had lunch.

 

View while having lunch,                     Lunch                                             Empanadas!

 

The weather for the last few days had been great. The storms the previous night when the show was on and the rain really got rid of the humidity, and it's so much nicer sat out and walking around in the sun when the air feels so much fresher!

 

We had a wander around and walked lunch off before heading for the Gelato store a couple of blocks away from our apartment.

 

Below are the flavours--the ones we’ve had are marked. It's kind of pot luck, as we have no idea what most of the flavours are. Some we like, and some we don't. There have only been a couple we haven't been keen on, though.

 

Gelato flavours we’ve tried!                          Love these old Ford Falcons that are all around

  

 

Couple of random pics:

 

Around 5 P.M. we headed out to get our tickets, and then bussed over to the venue.