my lunch at granix

today we had another late start. twiddle thumbs and i walked over to have lunch at granix, a vegetarian buffet. at first we had a hell of a time finding it because i had forgotten to bring the address with me and forgot the address as well. i knew which street it was on, roughly which intersection, and the name of the building all from the internet but we just couldn't find the damn place. there were no buildings with that name so i was getting confused. just when twiddle thumbs went into a place to ask around, i stared hard at the shops around me to find any sign of the place. then i saw it up on the second floor, a sign for granix. we went inside the building we thought that might lead us there (the one with the piazzolla sign) and once inside this shopping mall i saw that it splits so you can go into a building on your left or your right. the building on the right had the name i saw from the internet. we walked up the stairs and granix was right there but there was no sign for it, oddly enough. it was large and practically empty. we paid 30 pesos each and asked the lady which foods are vegan. she didn't even know the word vegan! we'll just figure it out on our own. we skipped anything that looked like it had cheese or dairy. the food was really bland and uninspirational but it was vegetarian food damn it! there was some odd dessert of what appeared to be chocolate covered saltine crackers. it was weird but oddly good.

yerba mate

then we wandered the shops on calle florida for souvenirs. i went in to a music store to see what they had. the price of cds is not bad. i'd probably pay a few bucks more back home for the same thing new so i decided to get a few things. they also had some guitar tab. the only band i liked that they had was los fabulosos cadillacs so i got that too. we walked down avendia corrientes then sarmiento to buy the last of the souvenirs that we need for folks back home.

in the afternoon, oshaberi came over and prepared yerba mate for us. she had a whole travel set for mate and a lecture on the preparation. it was really nice and cute actually. (and really just too kind overall!) not that i would know about these things but drinking mate is really something to do among friend as you share the gourd and pass it around, much like passing the bong. i took pictures of everyone's first reaction to mate and it was quite funny. to me, mate tasted like unfiltered cigarettes. sipping it flooded me with memories of that very brief period during my first year at university that i solitarily smoked unfiltered lucky strike cigarettes and would take the cigarette and burn holes into my nylons 'cos i was punk like that. oshaberi also brought some snacks to eat with the mate. some were vegan friendly and very yummy. we spent a long time talking and finishing that thermos of hot water. if last night was the true start of friendship then sharing mate today sealed the deal.

my first real mate

after mate we were supposed to check out a record store that oshaberi recommends but it would probably be closed by the time we got there so we decided to just have dinner instead. we went to el clavel del suárez again. the waiter was just so helpful last night, the food was pretty good, and the waiter remembered us and our weird requests. we walked to the obelisco for one last view of buenos aires at night. dani wanted to say good-bye tot he city and shouted his good-bye. the rest of us looked away laughing as we didn't want to be the weirdos. i'm sure the police across the street had a good laugh as well. we walked back to the hostel and said our goodbyes. overall we had a very nice conversation and another nice last evening in the city. (the last evening in sáo paulo was very nice too.)

it was time to pack up for leaving tomorrow and so everyone spread out their things to contemplate how best to pack it up. i was done first and the last few things to pack can't be done until tomorrow morning so i decided to just lay down and listen to my ipod. i got emotional listening to buck-tick's album "13 kai wa gekkou" while i contemplated our new friends, the trip, and life in general. damn that's a good album. i was hearing layers i had not heard before. i love that.