New Year's Venue

Well, we've finally found where we are going for New Year's Eve - a restaurant / bar in Palermo Viejo called Limbo. You can check it out here! Looking forward to that! Tomorrow we have a really long drive to Buenos Aires ahead of us about 400 kilometres across the most uninspiring scenery; however it should be worth it for the party in the evening!

Good night out and Argentine customer service

Last night was great - having been left to my own devices for most of this week, I finally got to be part of the gang as they cooked at home last night. In fact I celebrated by letting my fur down big style, as you can probably see - I don't even remember this photo being taken... A nice pasta meal, and Jack cooked a really nice Dulce de Leche mousse. Shame I have such a headache this morning...

I stayed at home when the others when out; they said that I was so drunk that I wouldn't have got into the club that they were going to. However, when they came home a little later on and said that Pinamar's hottest night spot wasn't so hot - I kind of felt vindicated...

This morning however, as I had got up early - and I am a bear with a sore head today - to go horse riding I was really looking forward to riding on the beach, getting the wind in my fur and heading out on a horse... When we got there are 8am, there was nobody to be seen which was really annoying and so we had to come all the way home again. This is not our first brush with interesting customer service. Paul had some wine spilt on his trousers in a restaurant in Buenos Aires, and the waiter rushed forward with a napkin - not to wipe down his trousers, but to mop up the floor!!! The people here are really, really nice and friendly but I think that they have a different idea of customer service ;-)

Right, I need to go back to bed as I feel quite ropey... More soon!

Dulce de Leche

One thing that we have discovered in Argentina which is delicious is Dulce de Leche, which is the sweet stuff that is left over from reduction of milk. It sounds gross, but it is delicious and I have had it for breakfast on toast and also in ice cream for lunch. Very tasty...

It might make its way into the suitcase for the way home...

Oh and because I don't have a photo of the dulce de leche - here's a nice one of the sunrise...

Portion control

I think that we have realised that food in Argentina is big and that portions are not small. Paul had a starter of breaded prawns, which consisted of 14 prawns on a bed of lettuce (two lettuces...) I think that this is worth bearing in mind when trying to maintain the beach body. However, there are surfing courses so it might be worth pushing Sidekick into one of those...

Sunbathing

Loving Pinamar - the weather, following yesterday's storm has been much better, and we spent most the morning on the beach. Nothing like a bit of Jan Guillou, corn on the cob and some strong currents to make a beach holiday. Sidekick did quite a bit of swimming in the sea this morning, saying that it reminded him of his childhood in Bude... Strange that we came all this way across the Atlantic for that! However, the beach is beautiful, the sea is refreshing and the people are really nice, so it made for a really nice day.

Pinamar's history is really interesting - it was founded by a man called Jorge Bunge, who planted loads of pine trees (the Pina bit of Pinamar) to bind the sand together so that it became a seaside resort (the Mar bit). It is a really nice seaside town, and so we did some exploring - mainly of the supermercado in the town - and ate a nice meal by the beach.

The cooking in Argentina is great, although they do tend to leave things to cook a while longer than they do in other parts of the world, so if you like your food a little more rare, it is worth saying so ahead of time. Paul had a bit of fish yesterday that was delicious, but that was possibly a little more cooked than he was used to in Sweden... However, the Quilmes is wonderful and goes down a treat. We found a German variety - Quilmes Bock, which is a darker version. Very tasty.

Tomorrow, who knows what is going to happen - Sidekick was talking about the horses so it might be riding on the beach tomorrow.

Vehicular fun...

I had my paws in front of my eyes for most the journey down to Pinamar - the Argentines drive like madmen. As Lorna said - road markings are mostly there for decoration rather than for guiding the traffic. The taxi driver who took Gary, Paul and myself to the car rental place literally squeezed himself through the gaps between two cars and told us we were mad for attempting to drive in Argentina...

Anyway, it took a lot of time, patience and some small miracles to get the hire car (although not the one that we ordered), all in all about 50 minutes (!) and then to make sure that we had adequate insurance to cover the dings and scratches that I think that we are going to get over the next couple of days! We were however solemly informed that we would incur a charge of 12,000 pesos (27,000 SEK / 2,300 GBP) if we rolled the car.... Not planning on doing that.

We picked up Kiran at the airport and then headed down to the beach resort that I talked about earlier. You get an impression of just how huge the country is when you drive just a small distance on the map and it takes over four hours. Still we had some cheesy music to sing along to whilst on the road, so it made the time pass...

When we got to Pinamar, a massive rain storm had just passed through, as you can see from the photo - the road is in a shocking state. But I think that the place has potential for some tanning - nothing quite as attractive as a bear with a sun tan ;-) Room is nice, and has a sea view, and so hopefully tomorrow we will be able to do some lazing on the beach!

First impressions of Buenos Aires

Of course, I wasn't there but Sidekick was so full of it when he came back that I think I got most of it. Buenos Aires is a MASSIVE city - there are more people living here than in Sweden and Norway put together, I think - I might be wrong. Anyway, a lot of people... Paul and Gary wandered around for a bit in the Claro district of the city and drank a lot of Quilmes apparently (which is probably the reason why I got such a good description when they got back). Apparently, the city has a good US grid system (not sure which came first, Argentina or US), and then it has touches of Paris - which I think is why Paul's friend Sabrina likes Paris so much...

Some of the buildings are amazing - here is a Quilmes fuelled shot of the Congress, the Argentine parliament building... but the sheer vastness of the place is unbelievable. I am sure we are going to have to take a guide next time just to get round all the stuff that we have to see.

Everybody else went out for a really nice meal last night and to catch up - which was nice, and today we leave our boutique hotel and head to Pinamar to just lie on the beach and have some fun. I think that there will be horse riding and some sampling of wines! So far so good, guys!

Oh and just to prove that I am here! here is a shot of me with Sidekick, just before they go out to dinner...

Left at home...

So, I was totally cheesed off to be left back at the hotel - nice though it was by Gary and Paul who headed off into the City explore a little bit. Personally, I did a little bit of exploring myself of the Rooney's Boutique Hotel: www.rooneysboutiquehotel.com to find some particularly interesting Argentine quirks - there weren't that many... These taps were about the size of it.... Don't know what you think, but I was confused by the whole thing...

Apparently, to take a shower, you need to turn on the two shower taps and then the cold water after that... Burnt my fur, I can tell you...

A long and eventful journey

So we are finally here - as you can see British Airways economy seats are OK for bears of a certain stature, but less for strapping Englishmen weighing 100 kilos.

Having finally digested the last of the Christmas pudding, Sidekick chauffeured me from Cornwall around midday to central London to pick up Gary and then head to the airport to catch the flight. Of course, there was a lounge involved and so whereas I was busy trying to work out what to do on the first day in South America, the other two were talking about Lanson Pink and how bad the Piper Heidseck was... All Chinese to me...

Finally got on the plane and took off and sat next to a Belgian woman who was delighted to hear that Paul spoke Dutch. I think that Paul expected to exchange a few pleasantries, but in the end had to help her shift her handbag around the plane amonst other random tasks. Even the listening to the iPod and reading the Jan Guillou book didn't seem to help as she kept on talking to him. Eventually, he had to resort to Ambien to put him to sleep (I still think that she kept talking to him anyway, tee hee hee)

She was quite interesting (but I admire Paul, given that 15 hours is a little beyond the call of duty) and talked about moving to Argentina with her son, and how she had had 13 operations (medical, not plastic) on various parts of her body... I think that he had had more than his fair share of Belgian tittle-tattle when she offered him wine at 9:30am...

In the end, we made a mad dash for it and now we have made it to the hotel - getting ready to go out for a beer and some lunch; yes I know it's 4pm, but we have to get into the swing of the Latin life... Sounds like a recipe for indigestion to me....

More soon, but I am rather tired following a 25 hour journey - so from me, Paul and Gary - Feliz Navidad from Buenos Aires

Christmas pudding!!!

This is one for the Swedes and the international guys, because I am guessing that this is run of the mill for the UK guys. So, I tried the Christmas pudding - which was made by Paul's Dad, and to be fair it was delicious. You can't eat too much because it is really rich and on top of that they pour brandy on it and set fire to it. In the picture, you can probably see that it's in flames.

In the other photo, you can see my slice with the local Cornish delicacy of clotted cream which is like 80% fat or something like that. It is thicker than ice cream, but that was pretty good too! Anyway, always good to try something new!!!

Just printed out the boarding card for Argentina as I type - I am getting REALLY excited about the horses, the tango and the wine as well as meeting up with Gary, Kiran, John, Lorna and Jack who are Paul's friends. Paul's friend Sabrina sent me some tips on what to do, so I can't wait to try them out as well - so I think that it's going to be a good trip!

Will write more soon, maybe from Heathrow, maybe from BA!!!

Swedish Christmas in England

So this is a bit weird - whereas everything at home as stopped, here the post is still being delivered and the shops are still open; no sign of the famous Christmas pudding though - we'll have to see. I understand that it has so many calories that I might have to swim to Argentina just to get rid of them... Anyway, more on that this evening when I drunkblog!!!

Yesterday we went to Exeter to do some shopping - nice town, apparently voted the nicest place in the UK to live a couple of years ago, although not really my cup of tea. Here is a picture of the cathedral :-) which I thought was quite nice... and you can read all about it here: http://www.exeter-cathedral.org.uk/. It's a really nice building and by far and away the best thing that I saw there.

However, Paul mentioned that things had changed quite a bit - and it struck me how messed up (I was going to use the f-word, but this is a family blog :-) ) the UK economy is. There are sales on with up to 60% discounts and one shop even had a 95% discount on everything, which makes me think that they are not going to be around for much longer. Finished off the Christmas shopping, as I am a guest in the household and made my way back to Cornwall for the evening.

I can imagine that you are intruiged by the Christmas pudding, I know that I am... and so I'll come back to you later on that.

For all of you in Sweden, GOD JUL!!!!

Exploring Cornwall

So today, we got a bit more action. It is still quite warm in England, about 9oC and so nice for walks on the beach. And it hasn't rained, which has to be a record for this part of the world...

Paul was working most of the day, but he decided to take a break from the translations and other stuff he was working on to go for a lunch time walk on the beach - so I got to be a beach bear today. Long may it continue, can I say.

Anyway, I found out that the rock formations are metamorphic in this part of the world, because of a massive granite injection (you think that I am making this up), in the centre of Devon and Cornwall (Exmoor, Dartmoor and Bodmin Moor) so all the sedimentary rock gets compacted and burnt, just like in a furnace. OK, all ready - I've been on my own for a couple of days, I turned to the research. Here - get it for yourselves... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metamorphic_Rock

Anyway, I thought that the countryside was beautiful - certainly nothing like what we have in Sweden, and it reminded me of those period dramas that the British do so well on TV... Well, check it out for yourself!

Otherwise, fixed some more stuff for Argentina - a gaucho bear needs a horse, dammit, so I fixed some riding stuff. Also, getting the wine stuff sorted for Mendoza so that I can go to some excellent vineyards whilst I am there. Still got Christmas to look forward to, already eating Maalox / Samarin for the Christmas pudding - still Sidekick seems like he is catching up on all the sleep he never got this year... Don't know if I signed up for this kind of holiday...

Build-up to Christmas

Hey there - sorry for the radio silence, but my trusty sidekick has been a bit difficult to get moving recently. I mean, what's a bear to do...

Still, at least we have come some way on our trip - yesterday, we made a made dash to buy some last minute Xmas presents and then headed to the airport - this is me, just before I was rudely stuffed into the suitcase...

From what I remember, the British countryside is beautiful - lovely green hills, and really great views of the coast. However, I wanted to go and see Stonehenge, but chauffeur to my left (they drive on the wrong side here) wanted to keep going. Something about a 9 hour journey from Stockholm to Bude... I don't know - you just can't get the staff can you.

Being a Swedish bear, I am a little bit nervous about English Christmas fare - plum pudding and the like... Anyway, we'll see how we get on... If you want to see where I am - check this out: http://www.visitbude.info/. The site's not great, but as my friend Andreas said - you can find out all about the Canal that was built in the 1830s... Wee hoo...

Will write more soon - Sidekick has promised me a walk on the beach to see the rugged coast line (his words not mine...) We'll see if that is more impressive than the inside of a suitcase for 10 hours. Not that I'm bitter...

Malmö - approaching the year's shortest day

Ok, so today is a bit of a slow day - chilled out on the sofa, worked out which wines I wanted to drink at the Fincas, checked out a few things... Maybe, you guys wanna know where I am dragging the boy when we go to Argentina - such a muppet for not having told you, so here goes:

25th - heading to Argentina on a jet plane
26th - one night in BA
27th - head down to the beach resort of Pinamar
31st - back to BA
7th - over to Santiago in Chile
8th - Mendoza for a whirlwind wine tour
9th - head to Miami

Bit of a trip - need to plan a bit, but really looking forward to it - will probably be glad of having chilled on the couch at home before heading off around the place...

Heading down South

Somewhat bored with the winter weather up here in Sweden, I, Franz Gaucho Bear, will be taking a trip through the UK and Argentina in December with my trusty sidekick, Paul. We will be taking in the sights of Cornwall, London and taking a long trip to South America to eat steak, drink Malbec, ride horses and dance tango. Can't wait.

Follow me on my adventures around the globe and let me know what you think!