7 Vegan Restaurants and Some Other Things

Hello and welcome back :)

This past weekend, I had Friday off because of a holiday, so I decided to spend the long weekend in Buenos Aires. Back in March when I was in Buenos Aires, we really weren't given any time to do much sightseeing or much of anything really, so I wanted to have a weekend where I did touristy things.

I woke up around 6am Friday morning to await the airport transfer people to bring me to the airport between 6:30-7. It is pretty common practice here to get to the airport ~2 hours before you flight leaves. As the last minute person I am and as someone who grew up with the small Richmond airport, these feels very early to me, but we make do. We got to the airport around 8 for the flight at 9:50. After I went through security, I immediately freaked out, thinking I was at the wrong gate (it was labelled gate 2) because I hadn't actually checked to see which gate I needed to be at. I had simply gone through security. However, after my moment of panic I realized that there was only one flight leaving there airport until noon, so, of course, everyone at the airport was going to the same place.

While I waited, I watched the sunrise. The sun rises super duper late here right now (at like 8:45-50) because it's winter. This makes it a little more convenient to go watch on the beach...which I actually did the other day!

Here's the sunrise from the airport featuring my morning hair in the reflection.

At the airport, I bought some coffee and did a little reading with my surplus of downtime.

We are all waiting :)

Hi, plane!

After landing, I took a taxi to my hostel. Like I've mentioned before, some days, I feel like my Spanish just rolls off the tongue and is super easy to understand. On other days, I have to ask the taxi driver what he said three times every time he asks me a question.

My hostel was called Reina Madre Hostel and was located in an area of Buenos Aires called Recoleta...or at least in that general vicinity. Of the hostels on hostelworld.com, I chose this one because of the reviews and because of the number of beds in the dorms. I prefer when there are less people in each of the rooms because that means less miscellaneous noise when you're trying to sleep. I reserved a mixed dorm and ended up with three guys but was lucky enough to not get the bunkbed.

Did I feel safe in a hostel in a big city like Buenos Aires? Yes! The hostel was actually like heavy duty safe. You had to ring the doorbell to enter no matter the time of day, and the person at the front desk asked you your name before buzzing you in. This ended up being a little awkward, though, when I first arrived because I had no idea if it was the right place and then had equally no idea what the man said through the intercom. The worker, Alberto, ended up being very nice and impressed with my Spanish once I redeemed myself.

There's my bed on the left!

The bathrooms in this hostel were really nice, as well, because they were all separate, which afforded a nice bit of privacy. Instead of communal bathrooms, there were 7 separate bathrooms each with their own sink, toilet, and shower.

After checking in, I headed out on my first day's adventures. I'm going to preface all of my adventures with: one of my big priorities while in Buenos Aires was to take advantage of all of the vegan options available. I have quite a few options here in Puerto Madryn, but I wanted to try as many places as I could in BsAs. My first stop was lunch at Futuro Veggie. I had actually tried to eat here in March but for the life of me could not find it. This time, I was determined to find it. It ended up being in here:

There may have been a map of the location, but I couldn't find it, so I ended up wandering around, almost giving up about 3 times because there were a lot of intense looking piercing and tattoo parlors that were not quite my vibe until I realized all the stores were numbered. I found Futuro Veggie's number online and found it!

Now I'm sure all of these people were really very nice and would've helped me if I had asked, but little Leslie was a little intimidated. There was graffiti all over the walls, and the halls were kind of dark and cramped. Once I found where I was looking for, though, I started actually enjoying the vibes.

I ordered a sandwich de miga with ham and cheese, an alfajor, and a coffee. I was really excited for this sandwich because although it may not look all too exciting, sandwiches de miga are really popular here, but I hadn't been able to try one yet because they usually have real meat, cheese, etc. These sandwiches are essentially single, double, or multi-layered sandwiches made from white bread with the crust cut off. I know it sounds kind of silly to be excited about a sandwich like this because, I'm sure you're thinking, "Leslie, that's literally just a sandwich," but it was exciting to be able to try something that is so popular here. As a vegan, sometimes I am unable to try traditional foods, which is disappointing, so it was cool to have this opportunity.

Here's what it looked like:

This was my view while I was eating:

After my lunch, I made my way to el Teatro Colon, which is the Christopher Columbus Theater. I had scheduled a tour of the theater, and thankfully I did it online because all the tours were sold out when I got there. Although I think I would've preferred the tour in Spanish, I signed up for the English tour because it ended up being a more convenient time for my schedule.

It's a very grandiose building!

Super fancy dancy. I felt underdressed just for the tour heehee.

The seats and stage:

The tour was fun, and it was fun being a bit of a tourist! Afterwards, I did a little bit of wandering.

Got a closer look at the Obelisk:

And a further away view:

I, then, decided to have dessert and my third coffee of the day (remember I woke up early) at a vegan cafe I had found online called OM.

I ordered a coffee and piece of cake and chose the chocolate cake because, of course. And look how big it was. Absolutely wild and ridiculous and I ate it all on my little table outside in the green light.

Then, I started walking back to the hostel but decided to stop at El Ateneo which I heard was a pretty bookstore.

If I'm honest, I thought it was pretty and worth a quick stop to peek in. However, it was pretty much an overcrowded Barnes and Noble with a pretty view. Worth a stop, and maybe I was just cranky but I was not impressed. Or maybe hold on probably because I'd already seen el Teatro Colon. I take it back. Do this and then go to the theater. It'll probably be much easier to appreciate the view!

After this quick little stop, I made my way back to my hostel to chill before dinner. I was pretty confident in where I was going until I checked my phone map real quick, and it told me I had passed my hostel. I thought it was a little weird because I was still recognizing everything, but I sighed and turned around. But walking back several blocks just didn't seem right, so I checked again and realized that my phone was really struggling to locate me, so I turned around again to walk the rest of the way to my hostel.

For dinner, I made plans to hangout with another Fulbrighter, Jorge, who also happened to be visiting Buenos Aires. He was there to pick his mom up from the airport Saturday morning. Jorge's was actually staying just a few blocks from my hostel, so he met me there and we went to the restaurant I had chosen (yet another vegan restaurant) together. I chose a restaurant called Lado V, which is in an area called Palermo in BsAs. It was a super fun restaurant, and I was immediately grateful that Jorge joined me because it was definitely a place I would want to share with someone.

The vibes were super fun

We split nachos and pizza, and it was amazing. The food was sososososo good. I love vegan food.

Then, for some reason, I got a fortune cookie with this drink? It says that hard times are starting to go away and happiness will take its place.

I really enjoyed getting to know Jorge over dinner. Although we had crossed paths in March during the blur of the many "Where are you from? Where are you going?" types of questions and had chatted a few times on Instagram, we hadn't ever really sat down and got to know each other. It was fun to share my experiences and struggles, and I was grateful that he shared his stories and experiences with me.

Friday night, I went to bed feeling very tired but content until one of my roommates started snoring the loud, awful type of snoring. Thankfully, I had brought my earplugs, but omg snoring really is the worst sound ever.

Saturday, I woke up and had a little breakfast with the bread and peanut butter I brought with me (you always have to be prepared as a vegan). Then, I set out on a little adventure to a cemetery in Recoleta. This is a very large cemetery with huge graves of famous, notable people in Argentina's history, like Eva Perón.

I was kind of silly and did not take one of the maps, so I ended up wandering aimlessly until I got frustrated because I couldn't find Eva's grave. The cemetery was filled with rows and rows of graves (tombs? mausoleums?) like these.

Eva's:

Once I finally found Eva (after finding a line of people), I made my way back to my hostel to rest my feet before meeting Amanda for lunch. On my way to the hostel, I decided to try the subte alone for the first time. The subte is the metro/subway system of BsAs. When we first got here, Fulbright scared the living crap out of me and had me convinced that by even considering using the subte, I would be pickpocketed. Update, definitely not true. Of course, since it is a metro/subway system in a big city, you should be aware of your surroundings, but I felt like I was in DC again taking the metro. No different than that. This is your friendly reminder that just because something exists in a country you aren't familiar with does not make it inherently more dangerous.

For lunch, Amanda and I went to another vegan place I found online called Casa Nueza and let me tell you. It did not disappoint. This cafe had soooo many options to choose from. I think being a vegan for almost 5 years now has made snacks and fun treats like this seem like an absolute privilege. I do not always have super fun food choices, so when I do, I am really grateful and try my best to savor every single moment of it.

We both ordered salads which turned out being probably one of the best salads I've had in a long time. I also ordered a chai and a pain au chocolat.

Both salads came with focaccia. The salads had couscous, sweet potato, nuts, avocado, potato, tomato, cashew cheese, and a yummy dressing.

Look how flaky!!

This is your friendly reminder that vegan food is just food that happened to be made without the suffering of animals. That's it. Full stop. Vegan food can and does taste the same. Vegan food is food that everyone eats. Vegan food is normal food. I use "vegan food" to describe the food that I, personally, can eat. I do not use it, and it should not be used to create a separation between food that happens to be vegan and food that isn't.

I definitely plan on going back to this cafe! After lunch, Amanda and I walked to the MALBA, which is the Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires. The exhibits were super cool!

This reminded me of Stranger Things for some reason.

From the museum, we took the subte to meet up with another Fulbrighter who lives in Buenos Aires, Sam. Sam is a Fulbright researcher whose research is related to mental health. At this point in their research, they were finishing up some semi-structured interviews and were getting ready to analyze them. I enjoyed geeking out a little with them by asking lots questions both out of curiosity and as a fellow researcher. We bonded over the tediousness of interviews and analysis and over how mind-numbingly boring and exciting it can be to analyze data.

My hands were moving so you know I was into the convo.

Then, the three of us made our way to dinner. After waiting for a while for a never-to-arrive bus, we took a taxi to Mudra, yet another vegan restaurant I found online. This one is a fancier vegan restaurant. The fanciness made it a fun experience, but it reminded me that there's a reason I prefer not-as-fancy restaurants: you get more food. The food at Mudra was super good, and our server ended up being super friendly and ended up chatting with us quite a bit. Remember, tipping culture isn't as big here, so chatting your tables up isn't done just for the sake of getting a larger tip.

Mudra has a super cool design inside, but we ended up sitting outside!

I ordered sushi with lots of mushrooms. These were really yummy, but I probably could've gone for like 4 or 5 more pieces.

Amanda and I shared the chocolate cake for dessert. It was more so like a mousse than a cake but was amaaaazing...if you can't tell, my weakness is chocolate cake.

This time, I went to bed with my earplugs already in and slept muuuuch better. One of my roommates, though, was way too nice and literally went to bed Saturday night with the light on even though it was probably close to midnight at that point. Very nice guy, but I turned it off when I went to bed. We both deserved darkness to sleep.

Sunday was a pretty chill day. I met up with Amanda to get brunch at another vegan restaurant (note that all of these restaurants were 100% vegan, which is really exciting). We passed this place on the way to Sam's the night before, and I recognized it from the list I had made, so I decided it was a must that we went. This place was called Gordo Vegano, and it did not disappoint. Again, I struggled to decide what to get, especially because all of the pastries just looked soooo darn good.

Those were magnificent looking cinnamon rolls!

And this cake...come on!!!!

This cake was incredible.

The meal came with the white stuff that was cashew cheese, and let me tell you...amazing, life-changing cheese.

After brunch, Amanda and I wandered around a little and went to the Ecoparque to waste some time before the afternoon when we decided to head to La Plata, where Amanda lives.

The ecoparque was kind of like a zoo with animals running around and a lot of just green space in the big city. It was the perfect temperature out, so it was really nice to just relax and walk around.

These little guys were hanging out all over - maras in Spanish, an interesting mix between a bunny and kangaroo.

To get to La Plata, we had to take a bus from the center of town near the Obelisk, so we went back to my hostel to gather my things and head back to the subte. On the bus, we were lucky enough to snag two seats next to each other.

Here's the bus!

Here are some views!

The bus took about an hour and dropped us at a bus stop about a mile away from Amanda's apartment in La Plata. We had wanted to try and find a taxi to bring us to her place, since I was lugging all of my stuff, but we ended up walking. I'd argue that this was actually better because the temperature was perfect, I got to see some of La Plata, and I got my first starbies in months!

I just got a cold brew, but there really is something magical about the coporateness of starbs. Walking into a Starbucks really feels like you're walking into any Starbucks, which I know they do on purpose, but at times like these, sometimes it's kind of nice.

La Plata is full of young folx and has streets full of restaurants and bars! I loved the area and the vibes it had.

View from Amanda's apartment:

I loved La Plata even more when Amanda took me to a food hall to meet some of her friends.

The vibes here were really just so much fun. Places to order food and drinks lined the walls, and there was seating scattered all over. We went on a Sunday before a holiday, so it quickly became packed with people hanging out, chatting, eating, and drinking. There was a vegan restaurant, so I ordered falafel and french fries, and for dessert, I got chocolate gelato!

I can conclude, that as a vegan, I am thriving here in Argentina.

These are the two friends I met Sunday. They were very nice! It was fun to converse with them in Spanish. I have gotten pretty used to talking to Yani, Sol, and Sonia in Spanish, so it was nice to be able to use my abilities elsewhere to see if they actually do work. Turns out they do! Chatting with the two of them in Spanish definitely boosted my confidence because I was able to joke around with them and be sarcastic in Spanish. This is something that is tricky and takes a long time to learn how to do in another language. It can be frustrating learning another language because it can feel like you're not your real self because not only can you not express yourself fully, but you also, initially, can't be quite as witty or jokey or sarcastic...and we all know how sarcastic I am. I'm most definitely still working on it, but this was cool to experience!

On Monday, Amanda and I slipped and slid and was jostled around on a bus ride for 30 minutes that I probably should've taken some Dramamine for to get to la República de los Niños. Now I can't really tell you what I expected from this adventure, but it was definitely not this. It really was a lot more fun than I anticipated. This is considered the first theme park in America and was built on a scale of 10-yr old children with institutions corresponding to a democratic system, like government houses, a bank, a church, an airport, hotels, restaurants, etc.

I imagine that I would've gotten a kick out of this if I were a kid, but as a pseudo-adult, it was a little awkward and more fun just to walk around and observe and imagine.

This was the main street that looked a bit like Disney. There's a rumor that Disney was inspired by this park!

The airport! You could pay a small price and get a look in the airplane!

On our way back, Amanda and I stopped to get some vegan pizza at a very New York vibey restaurant. Although we were the only ones there, they still gave us the buzzers to let us know when the pizza was ready heehee.

Afterwards, we went up into the cathedral! The elevator guy tried speaking to us, but he was one of those people that was just really hard to understand for me. Amanda tried answering his questions, but we left with him thinking that we were from England lol.

The cathedral is the attraction in La Plata, like if you look up La Plata on Google, this is what you get. It's located in the centerish of town and overlooks a very large plaza.

The view from the steeples was really pretty and afforded a super nice view of the plaza from above!

Then, for the last bit of our adventures, I got to meet two of Amanda's other friends! We had snacks in a huge green space in the city called el Paseo del Bosque. The plan was to drink some mate, but her friends accidentally brought everything but the actual mate (the container you drink out of) and the straw, so we just ended up snacking and chatting! It was yet another beautiful day, so sitting outside in all of the greenery was really nice and peaceful (with the exception of some groups of people pregaming for the upcoming soccer match).

To finish off the day, Amanda and I made pasta and watched a silly romcom/Father's Day movie!

Tuesday morning, I woke up bright and early at 6am to start my journey home. I took a cabify (an uber, basically) to the bus terminal and waited in line for my turn to get on the bus.

I took the hour long bus back to CABA.

I grabbed a taxi to the airport and drank some coffee before going through security.

After the two hour plane ride to Trelew, I took the hour-long airport transfer home. Seven and a half hours later, I made it back to my apartment :)

This, as you can probably tell if you're still reading, was a very chill, easy going trip. Everything went as planned, and there were really no hiccups, which was really nice. Additionally, not only did I enjoy getting to try all the vegan food and exploring new cities, but I also enjoyed learning about the lives of other Fulbrighters. Although we are all here in the same country, our placements, our personalities, our referentes all make these experiences vastly different. I loved getting a sneak peak into Amanda's life and learning about Sam's research and hearing about Jorge's adventures. It's a lot of fun to learn about how different Fulbrighters are learning to cope and thrive in their own situations because, although we all make look like we're absolutely thriving on Instagram (for example), that may not always be the case. Sharing our challenges and success is really cathartic, and I'm looking forward to more of this sharing in July when we all meet up again!