A Beautiful Day Gone Ugly.

So it has been a while since I have written about any random adventures. Today, after my Zumba class, I ventured off into Plaza San Martin (pictured below...I will post a better one later). It was a beautiful day and since it had rained pretty hard the day before, I wanted to make sure I relished in it. Plaza San Martin is beautiful and made me feel a little bit nostalgic with the random palm trees. I sat in the park and wrote a few postcards (BTW, If you have not gotten yours yet don't be offended. I am waiting for inspired moments because I don't want to mechanically spit them out.)

The park had a beautiful view of the Argentine flag and Torre de los Ingleses (The English Clock Tower). It was a gift from the local British community to the city in commemoration of the first centennial of the May Revolution of 1810. That was 100 years ago (as we are now about to celebrate the bicentennial of the May revolution.)

Next I decided to get closer to the Torre Monumental. Nothing really exciting as I got closer. There was a little museum inside but it was small and un poco aburrido. :) I looked to my left and saw that my journey had brought me right next to the Retiro train station. I jetted across the wide street to take a look inside. Again, nothing really exciting, There were a lot of food places and kioscos and a long line to buy tickets for the Tigre train but other than that there was not much more to see.

As I emerged from the station I decided it would be a bright idea to wonder off further. After all, I didn't want to miss any other sights while I was over there. I crossed over one main road and walked about one block only to learn that after the train station and bus depots there was nothing more waiting for me than big trucks and wide streets so you can imagine the feat it took to get back to my starting point. There were tones of parked trucks along one road,, causing me to have to minder my way around them as if I were in a maze. All the while I was hoping none of them would magically start up and decide to reverse on little ol' me. I then got to another street where there was really no indication of when it would be safe for me to walk. It seemed that all the cars were moving around at once. It was at this point that I realized that this probably was not a usual pedestrian route. I laughed to myself as I barely made it across the street and saw that I still had two more roads to cross. I couldn't understand how this could be seeing as I had simply crossed ONE street to get into this mess. By the grace of God there was another pedestrian who met me at the corner I was at. She looked like she new what she was doing so I just followed her lead as she jetted across the street. Once we made it to our corner she continued in the opposite direction of me and yet again I was alone to brave yet one more busy and confusing street. I ran across half of it and hopped on one of the concrete islands. I had to take a minute to focus and to time how fat the cars were coming. That huge truck looks like it is about 4 second away...I can make it, I thought to myself as I flung myself across to the awaiting sidewalk, to safe ground. By thins time I was exhausted, My flight instincts had been heightened and my brain had to work overtime to evaluate when it was safe to brave the open road. Needless to say, I headed straight home to rest after all this. Whew, what a day.