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Looking back - trip to Mendoza in November 2007
Back in late November 2007, I went to Mendoza with Gina. Gina is fellow traveller that I met while in Argentina.
I have been wanting for some time to go to Mendoza to see the bodegas (vin-yards) and also get closer to the Andes. This was going to be a bit of a special trip to go around and spend a few days with the main intention eating good food and especially drinking wine. Some years ago, I went to the Torres Bodega just outside Barcelona. It was a very enjoyable and memorable day trip and going to Mendoza was a chance to do the same thing but on a bigger scale.
The city of Mendoza is about 1000 kilometres from Buenos Aires; it is located in the province of the same name. You could either fly or take the bus. It is quite a long bus journey about 14 some hours. That is an awfully long time to be sitting on a bus. But in Argentina, you can take buses overnight which have special seats that flatten out like beds; they are called "camas" in Spanish. It is the same idea of flying first class but much cheaper. There is an attendant on the bus who serves food and drink to the passengers just like on airplane. The journey from Buenos Aires to Mendoza was Ok; in fact we did not book the correct seats and got what was a semi-cama; seats that partially recline; we did ask the agent at the booking counter that it was full cama; strike that one up to limited Spanish.
A brief trip to Brazil - part 2
Here I am in London as I type this and it is now the 2nd month in February. Time for some more words about my trip abroad which ended with a a few days in Sao Paulo.
I was in Sao Paulo for almost 5 days; I went about things fairly leisurely; I did not have any burning desire to be running around and trying to cram everything in. It would have been good to go the beach; Sao Paulo is not by the sea but it is only a few hours from the sea. And people are always talking about going to beach. Must be part of the lifestyle there.
On Sunday January 13th, I went with Rodrigo to a club that was literally just around the corner from his apartment. But before that, I was asking Rodrigo if he could recommend any good pizza places in the area. And of course, there is a really good Italian restaurant just near the apartment. Check out the photos. I ordered a pizza that was half and half; one half was a medley of vegetables like eggplant and the other half was with zucchini and a type of salty cheese; I think is it called Polenguinho. Sao Paulo, like Buenos Aires, has lots of Italian food. The name of the place is "I Vitelloni Pizzeria". The pizza I had there was hands down better than some of the pizzas that i had in Buenos Aires. I heard people in Argentina remark that the Italian food there could be better than how it is in Italy and I heard some people in Brazil remark the same thing and they were apparently quoting Italian visitors to each place. I am not so certain but I have had so so Italian food in Italy on my travels; when I was in Rome once, I just keeping picking restaurants that were just borderline ok to so so. I should have paid more attention and made use of guidebooks; they do take the mystery and randomness out of things after all.