Ben wanted to track down a nutcracker - the practical, actually cracks nuts kind - one of those little things that can sometimes be surprisingly hard to find. Maria and I wanted to investigate some more affordable shopping prospects, and I wanted to show them Once (pronounced OHN-say, Spanish for "eleven"), a sub-neighborhood of the Balvanera barrio.
Once is more a colloquial term than anything else. You'll almost never see "Once" on a map, but it's what everyone calls this area, due to the train station of the same name at its center. The Estación 11 de Septiembre is one of two main stations in the city and was named to commemorate September 11, 1852, the day the province of Buenos Aires rebelled against the federal government controlled by General Justo José de Urquiza, founding the Confederación Argentina in its place.
Once is both the commercial district and a predominantly Jewish neighborhood. There are a bunch of synagogues, though you can't enter any of them without either being a member of the congregation or having special permission from a rabbi. This is for security reasons. There were terrorist bombings here in 1992 and 1994, first against the Israeli embassy and then against the Jewish Community Headquarters, the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA). Argentine police were able to track down and arrest one of the people responsible, a 21-year-old Lebanese suicide bomber backed by Hezbollah. These attacks were the first terrorism with Middle Eastern origins to ever take place in South America. Today, Buenos Aires has the largest Jewish population outside of New York and cities in Israel itself.
So off we went to Once. Being the commercial area that it is, there are a ton of shops there, often grouped into cute little blocks made up stores selling just fabrics or just underclothes or just shoes or just - weird as it is - mannequins. We were on a mission to find some sort of kitchen accessory-themed block where Ben might find his rompenueces - nutcracker - and, as always in this heat, we could really do with an ice cream-based one as well.
Above, marked by the green, you can see Recoleta, my neighborhood, and the location of the Academic Center - the little green square. Belvanera and the train station are marked in blue. The blue square marks the Abasto. My last adventure, to San Telmo, is marked by the purple. Plaza de Mayo is the purple rectangle partially covered by the words "Buenos Aires."
We didn't really last long in the heat. As soon as we got to the Abasto, a semi-famous and historical shopping mall in the heart of Once, we ducked inside to cool off in the air conditioning.
Its food court contains the only certified kosher McDonald's outside of Israel. That is Ben there in front of it above. In exchange for permission to use a photo of him, I've promised to watch the 70s horror movie, The Sentinel. Anyone else seen it before?
I had forgotten that there is a sort of year-round carnival set up on the top floor of the Abasto called Neverland.
Adults get in to the children's area half off at a certain time of night. We agreed we'll have to return to check it out... It's just too "Neverland" to resist.
Our quest for ice cream was unsuccessful, but there was no shortage of fruterías, and I picked up a few peaches along the way. Ben had mentioned offhand that they were really good here, and now, after going out of my way to try one, I'm obsessed. They are very sweet and very juicy. Few fruit stands were as picturesque as this one, though. It might be the cutest frutería in all of Buenos Aires.
Finally, after growing tired of all the shopping and walking and lack of ice cream, we discovered a park and a grocery store in close proximity. Having finally found and purchased his rompenueces at a little out of the way kitchen store, Ben was pretty committed to the ice cream mission, and only "real" ice cream from a heladería would do. None of this out of the freezer at a kiosko nonsense. We compromised. Buy very affordable multi-pack of ice cream treats from the grocery store and then eat them while sitting in the park. We got a pack of four little ice cream things - dulce de leche centers wrapped in vanilla ice cream, contained in a hard chocolate shell - along with a cold beer, my favorite, Quilmes, which we all thought could have been a bit colder.
We ate the rapidly melting ice cream and split the beer between us in the park - and then Maria decided we needed to visit the playground. I've got a pretty bad case of crazy hair here, but the picture was too cute not to share. Thanks to Ben for taking it.
And thanks to Maria for taking this one. Actually thanks to both of you two! I had a far more difficult time getting up there than I really should have... Ben and Maria basically forced me to climb the thing.
Main common room. Also napping room, eating room, studying room.
Second floor and computer lab.
Chandelier from the couch below.
Sources and further reading about Jews in Buenos Aires and the kosher McDonalds:
Further reading on the Abasto - very interesting! - which I did not go into very much above:
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