Vogue Fashion Night Out

Better late than never..... right??

I went to my first Vogue Fashion Night Out a few months ago (just before I left for South America).  It was actually a lot of fun.  LOADS of stuff going on around Sydney CBD which kept me busy til 10pm when I realised I had an early morning conference call the next day.

One of the first stops my sister and I made was David Jones where we found a Christian Dior photobooth and some chocolate-covered strawberries.

Seed Heritage was one of the best retailers I thought - they had food and drinks served to you by hot male models (yes please!), 20% off storewide and personalised manicures.

 I left my sister here for a caviar manicure while I went to get a popsicle from Oroton.

While I was waiting in line I read that they were holding an Instagram comp - post a pic of your popsicle to go in the running for an Oroton watch of your choice.  Aaaaaand ta-da!  I won!  I couldn't believe it, I literally never win anything.

(oh ps - if you haven't already, add me on instagram)

I chose the amazing Heritage Bracelet Watch in rose gold with a pearl face.  I have been looking for another watch for a while and am over the moon with this.  Thanks Oroton!!

Finally my sister was done with her manicure so we popped over to Westfield to check out Ted Baker and my mecca Christian Louboutin.  At Ted Baker they were giving out Acai energy drinks and mini cupcakes and Mr Louboutin had his limited edition shoe specifically designed for VFNO.

Hermes was so much fun!  I got there too late to pick up a silk bracelet but they still had a ring toss game and a live mannequin to keep us entertained (and a celeb sighting - Terry Biviano heavily pregnant in mega high/skinny heels.... no idea how she did it but she looked radiant).

After all this running around we were tired and thirsty so went up to Level 7 of David Jones (the Bridal floor) for The Social Party.  They did the place up and it looked absolutely amazing.  The Patron Tequila Lemon Granita was actually super yummo and I'm so glad the bartender gave me TWO!  I'm not usually a huge fan of tequila but will always make an exception for Patron.  Obviously I loved the Ultimat Vodka Pelicano Martini because ummmm vodka.

......and that's it for this year's VFNO.  I took my tired butt and put it on a train home.

Random Facts about Buenos Aires

Taxis
Cab drivers are fantastic!  Even though almost none of them spoke any English they will bend over backwards to get you where you need to go.  When we arrived at Ezeiza airport we caught a cab to the hotel.  The cab driver went to the effort of getting out of the cab and asking the hotel whether they were in fact our hotel and when they said no he drove around until he found another hotel he suspected it was and went in and asked again.  When they said yes, he came back and asked for our name so he could check there was a reservation for us.  Another driver accidentally took us the long route to our destination so he charged us less than the meter.

Cabs start at 10 pesos and go up in <1 peso increments.  During off-peak hour you pay 120% of the usual rate and if you call a cab it's an additional 6 pesos.  All in all they're pretty cheap and a good way of getting around as their public transport network isn't great.  Available taxis have a red neon sign in the top left front window saying 'LIBRE' (free). It's common practice to round up the fare to the nearest dollar.

Shopping
I found the fashion was quite different in Buenos Aires and I personally struggled to find things to buy.  I'd recommend the following if you want to shop: Alto Palermo shopping centre, Abasto shopping centre, Florida St (mall shopping), Santa Fe Ave (probs the best shopping in my opinion), Recoleta Mall, San Telmo markets (Sunday), Recoleta Fair (markets on Fri/Sat/Sun).  I strongly recommend San Telmo markets and the Recoleta Fair.

Dog poop
You'll find dog poop on the sidewalk everywhere.  It's especially bad in Recoleta.  There are no laws regarding the picking up of dog poop and Argentines love dogs and walk them often as most of them live in apartments.  It's super super annoying when you're a tourist and want to be looking UP but end up spending most of the time looking down.  Despite constantly looking down I did manage to step in a large fresh pile of doggie poo which oozed under my shoe and almost sent me stacking.  I think it's the Spanish influence but it's super frustrating.

Districts of Buenos Aires
BA is a bit of a sprawling city and despite having a city centre, there are many districts around the city centre that are of more value to the tourist.  Recoleta is a very tourist-y area which is considered a rich area to the locals.  Real estate here costs about 5x the city average.  It's home to the Recoleta Cemetary, el Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Museum of Fine Arts) and Plaza Francia.

Palermo is a huge district that's further divided into sub-districts such as Soho Palermo, Soho Hollywood, Old Palermo, New Palermo, etc.  To be honest I couldn't wrap my head around it but it's right next to Palermo and boasts some beautiful huge parks.

San Telmo is the oldest district of Buenos Aires.  Today it's considered a working class area.  Tango was born here hundreds of years ago (Argentine Tango that is).  Make sure you get to San Telmo markets on every Sunday.

Madero Port (Puerto Madero) is the richest area in Buenos Aires by far.  Most apartments cost over USD$1M!

La Boca is the poorest district of BA and right next to Madero Port.  Its buildings are very colourful because sailors from the port would house their families in La Boca and bring home the extra paint.  There's only one square block which is considered safe for tourists so be careful.

Buenos Aires through my camera

I'll be quiet for once and just let you enjoy pictures of Buenos Aires.

Recoleta Cemetary - bit of a weird concert travelling halfway across the world to go to a cemetary.  It's more a collection of mausoleums and some of them are just spectacular.  Families buy mausoleums (you can't buy them anymore though) and can house up to 35 people.  There are quite a few famous people buried there.  Plus cats errwhere

Creepy

Eva Peron (Evita)'s tomb

Colon Theatre

The Obelisk

Empanadas galore

San Telmo markets are on every Sunday

SO MUCH CHEESE

Tom with my sister and my cousin (the bride)!

Apple pancakes with dulce de leche sauce

Argentinean Food

Dulce de leche
Argentinean caramel.  Tastes different to what we know as caramel though.  Tastes more dairy-y.  Tastes exactly like a can of condensed milk being boiled in a pot with hot water until it turns to caramel.  It's used primarily as a spread on toast but also in baking; alfajores (Spanish dessert really popular in Argentina) are 2 biscuits filled with dulce de leche.

Empanadas
We all know what empanadas are right?  But Argentinians take it to the next level.  The traditional empanadas are carne (meat - btw when Argentinians say 'meat' they mean 'beef'), but they also do 'jamon y queso' (ham and cheese) and chicken.  Some places will do 'picante carne' (spicy beef), corn and bechamel sauce, onion and cheese, chicken and mushroom, tuna, the list goes on.  The reason why they're so yummy is because you can get them fried or baked (in Aus we generally only get them fried), and the pastry is generally thinner which means more filling!

Choripan
Hot dog with a chorizo.  Need I say more?  It usually comes with an assortment of sauces/toppings which you add yourself.  The best part is we never paid more than ARS$25 (AUD$2.77) for one.

Coffee
They drink their coffee short and strong.  You generally need to ask for milk - 'cafe con leche' (cafe=coffee, con=with, leche=milk).  I had a wicked iced coffee with dulce de leche:

Red wine
Any red wine from the Malbec region is GOOD.  Even if it costs 8 pesos.  Seriously.

Jamon/proscuitto
They refer to ham as 'jamon', although what Aussies refer to as jamon is specifically jamon ham which tastes similar to proscuitto.

Italian - pizza, pasta and gelato
Argentina has a huge Italian immigrant population and therefore an Italian influence in their food.  I was personally disappointed by all the pasta I ate in Buenos Aires - it was soggy and overcooked and not at all 'al dente' like the Italians do it.  Pizza was similar to Italy but with a lot more cheese.  We had one pizza which was almost deep-dish and had a thicker layer of cheese than it did dough.  Way too cheesy for a lactose intolerant person.  They redeemed themselves with their gelato though.  I didn't have a lot of it but what I had was delish.

The Argentinean Economy

Ok, weird topic I know.  But it's pretty imperative to understand the Argentinean economy before I start posting about my Buenos Aires experience.  Ok well it's not imperative but it's just good to know.

ANYWAY.

Argentina operate a dual-currency model: they have their Argentine Peso but the US Dollar also features heavily in their economy.  The problem with the peso is Argentina's inflation is a whopping 30%.  Can you imagine earning a salary of say $20,000 peso and by the end of the year, your money is worth only $14,000 peso?  How does one save for big ticket items?  Especially when houses/apartments/cars are listed in US Dollars?

As a result Argentines are scrambling to get their hands on USD cash but the government imposed something a few years ago which makes it almost impossible for locals to get USD cash (I'm sure you can google it, I'm not across the details).

So anyway the official exchange rate between USD and ARS (Argentine Peso) is 5.8 to 1.  However the "blue rate" they call it is about 9 to 1.  What this means is when you change your Aussie dollars in Australia to Argentine Peso you get about ARS$5.50 to AUD$1.  But if you take USD cash over to Argentina, you can find people/exchange houses who will exchange your USD at a rate of about ARS$9 to USD$1.  Apparently this blue rate is published in the newspaper but it's technically illegal to exchange money at this rate.  

An option is to just find almost any local and they will be more than happy to exchange USD cash for you.  We were lucky that we were able to exchange unlimited amounts of USD into ARS via my cousin's fiance's (now husband's) family.  However we also did change some with one of our tour guides, and the manager of the serviced apartments we stayed in.  The best rate we got was 9.1 and the worst rate was 8.6.  The actual rate fluctuates every single day and multiple times within the day.  It almost always sits between 8 and 9 though.

One thing to keep in mind though, is to only exchange as much as you think you will need.  If you exchange too much and have leftover ARS, NO ONE will change it back to USD for you (obviously).  Even Aussie currency exchanges will not accept ARS back.

Another thing to keep in mind is if you aren't able to exchange at the blue rate, a lot of restaurants will actually allow you to pay in US Dollars and at a better rate than 5.8 to 1.  Most of the restaurants we saw were happy to accept around 8 to 1.  Some market stalls (run by individuals) are also happy to accept USD at a rate of about 8 to 1 but large retailers won't.  Can't hurt to ask!

What this all means for Aussie tourists is that at a rate of 9 to 1, things in Argentina are cheap.  At a rate of 5 to 1 some things (especially retail items) are as expensive as Australia.

Lastly, as I blog about Buenos Aires, the prices I mention in AUD/USD are at the blue rate because that was the cost incurred to me.  Hope this makes things clearer.  I had NO idea this was going on before I arrived.  I mean I always knew about the troubles the Argentinean economy has been through in the recent history but I had no idea things were this bad.  It's very very scary that inflation is so high.  It means most Argentines have no hope of ever leaving the country or buying decent property.

I'm baaaaack!

Hello hello.

I arrived last night and went to work today. Zombie I think is the right word.

I have to sort through my photos and gather my thoughts, then there will be some blog posts coming your way!

Hang tight :-)