Today turned into quite a sporty day, as we started early in the morning with a run organized by the STC Run Club. Unfortunately, the park we had planned to run through was closed, so we’ll have to try again later this week. After that, we took it easy for a while and played a few more rounds of our pool tournament before Tymen, Stijn, Micha, and I decided to walk into the city center. We also needed to grab lunch, and Tymen had found a place online that looked pretty good.

The restaurant was a little difficult to find at first, but once we got there, it turned out to be an excellent choice. It’s a small family-run lunch spot that mainly serves traditional Argentine sandwiches with grilled meat. They gave us a very warm welcome, and we immediately ordered four choripáns (Argentine-style hot dogs) along with some drinks. However, we soon discovered that they only accepted cash, and I was the only one carrying any (20,000 pesos), which was just enough to pay for the sandwiches. So, we decided to skip the drinks.

The man working the grill must have felt a little sorry for us because he immediately offered each of us a small piece of grilled meat to try. The sandwiches themselves were delicious, and our hostess also brought each of us a glass of water, so they really took great care of us.

After lunch, we headed to the day’s other activity: a bike tour through the city. There, we met up with part of the rest of the group and, like true Dutch people, explored the city by bicycle. It was actually surprisingly easy. Unlike Brazil (where, according to our guide, “they have a culture of not planning”), people here have clearly heard of urban planning. There are dedicated bike lanes and long, straight roads, with the city laid out in a grid much like many cities in the United States.

The only thing I found a bit inconvenient was that the bike lanes were often two-way paths on the left side of the road, instead of having one lane on each side. On top of that, some taxi drivers weren’t particularly eager to give us the right of way. Our guide summed it up perfectly: “They want to turn left, so let’s block them.”

Buenos Aires is laid out much like an American city, but architecturally it feels much more like Paris, with countless impressive buildings built in a variety of European styles. Everywhere you look there’s something worth seeing, including the Casa Rosada (the Pink House). While we were there, a demonstration was taking place protesting what—believe it or not—the British “occupation” of the Falkland Islands. We’ve been seeing references to this issue all over the city, so I’m sure I’ll come back to it in future updates.

To wrap up the tour, we had a maté tasting. Maté is a type of herbal tea that Argentinians drink constantly, and it was served alongside some dulce de leche cookies, another Argentine specialty. The combination of the two was especially tasty, although the maté itself is quite bitter.

After the bike tour, a group of us went for drinks at our regular bar, Patagonia, which has a great happy hour deal. A few of us even tried a matcha beer, which was… interesting. Afterwards, we continued to a smaller bar nearby, where I decided to try a classic Argentine cocktail called a Ferroviario—a mix of Fernet (an Italian herbal liqueur), red vermouth, and sparkling water. I actually liked it, but the rest of the table wasn’t impressed, and I have to admit it’s definitely an acquired taste.

When the bar eventually closed, we took that as our cue to call it a night and head back for a well-earned sleep.