My first Rainy Weekend in BA!!

I realize this probably makes me a complete and utter weirdo, but I love a good rainstorm. A little thunder, a little lightning, and a ton of rain is just perfect to me. I can stay home with a good book, good food, good drink and no one questions why I have not left the comfort of my own apartment. And if they do I just tell them like the Wicked Witch of the West I would melt if I had to go out in the rain. So when I saw the weather report for this weekend, unlike many people here in Buenos Aires, I was a little excited. Its supposed to rain Friday (which it is), all day Saturday, and most of Sunday. Of course this means the parrilla I was supposed to attend this afternoon got cancelled which sort of stinks, but I'm sure I will have a chance to attend another one at some point as they're a pretty common occurrence here in Buenos Aires. 


What did I do instead of stuffing my face with barbecue food and hanging out with new friends? Well I prepared for a weekend holed up in my apartment. First stop, by far the coolest bookstore I have ever been to in my life. Anytime there is a rainstorm I always feel this need to read a book. Now I brought a few books from home that I am excited to read, but I wanted something in Spanish (a little challenge to myself). So I asked a few people about what librería I should check out and without question everyone told me to go to El Ateneo. Unsure of the reason for the recommendation I followed everyone's suggestion blindly and boy am I glad I did.  Luckily, I had my camera in my bag and I took some pictures because its hard to make people understand. This book store actually use to be a major theater here in Buenos Aires and at some point was bought and turned into a book store with a cute café/bar on the stage and books throughout the rest. In an odd way it actually reminded me of the library in my high school. Anyway, here are some pictures to you can see what exactly I'm talking about.

 Now I love my pictures as much as the next person but I do realize I am not the best photographer in the world. So here is a little video I found on youtube of the place.

The next stop on my way home was the grocery store for my usual staples, soda and chips. Then I hopped on the Subte and headed to my local pandería to pick some stuff up. What did I pick up? Empanadas and facturas of course....my new staples here in Buenos Aires. For all of the non-spanish speakers reading my blog you are probably asking yourself what the hell is a factura? Well I'm still not exactly sure, but they are delicious! They're sort of like tasty pastries of all kinds. Churros, strudels, cream puffs, etc. and they are all delicious and usually on one whole wall of the panedería. When you walk in you grab a big bowl and some tongs and just fill it up. Then you just pay by the dozen. So I of course bought a whole dozen for only 20 pesos or about the equivalent of $7 in the states. AMAZING!! I took some pictures of the facturas...forgot to take some of the empanadas but here are what the facturas look like....

This is the adorable way the lovely baker woman in my neighborhood wraps them all up for me.
Its so old school! I love it!

And this is my dozen facturas! Absolutely a delicious combination of  sugar, fried dough, dulce de leche, chocolate, and candied fruit!

The final pieces to my rainy day weekend here in Argentina are of course the books (yes you read right books, because even in South America where every book in the store is written in Spanish I can't buy just one book when I walk into a book store) and the iced coffee. And I have pictures of both. I actually purchased two different books, one by Jorge Borges, who I learned is the guy in the picture from Being a tourist part 1 and the other by Gabriel García Marquez. And the pitcher of iced coffee I made this afternoon was absolutely amazing!

Yes my iced coffee is in a wine glass. Do NOT judge me. Its the largest glass I  own....wait maybe I should be judged_

We'll end this post with a bookmark from El Ateneo!