My brother and I spent a fun and memorable week in Argentina last fall. I promised myself that I was going to post some of the things that we learned. I had better do it now before my next trip. We didn't speak much Spanish or know anybody there, so we had to rely on what we learned from the web and guidebooks to get around. Here are some things I can think of that surprised us. This is from the American perspective--I'm sure Europeans would be surprised by different things.
Taxis: I was prepared for the possibility that we might get ripped off by cab drivers. Sure enough, it happened in the first cab we caught from the airport. It looked exactly like a licensed "Radio Taxi" but the driver must have rigged the meter because it ran up a bill that was 4-5x too high. In retrospect the dispatcher and driver seemed way too anxious to get us into the cab, so we probably should have waited for a less enthusiastic driver. Better yet, you might try doing what we did when we arrived into Buenos Aires for the second time, at the domestic airport. We found a taxi service that had a booth at the airport. We prepaid a very reasonable fare for the ride, waited a couple of minutes and a driver whisked us away to our hotel. The price was so low that we were expecting it to be a shared-ride service, and maybe it is sometimes. We didn't have trouble with any of the other taxis we took from hotels or hailed on the street. Don't expect the drivers to hablar any Ingles, of course.
Restaurants: If you like steak, pizza, empanadas, and not spending much money, you'll love eating in Buenos Aires. If you want to blend in with the locals, you'll sit down for dinner around 9 or 10 and make it last for 2-3 hours. We did our best to adapt to this schedule, but there were times when we were starving at 6pm and weren't going to make it until dinner time without splitting a pizza, and no one really gave us any weird looks for doing this. The service is a lot more hands-off than in the US. They're not going come around with "how did everything come out for ya"s and "are you still workin' on that"s. Thank goodness, I say. But when you want the check you have to flag someone down. Paying was a little different everywhere we went, especially if you wanted to pay with a credit card. Sometimes they would bring the machine out to the table. Tipping 10% seems to be pretty standard, and sometimes the waiters would ask if we wanted to add 10% to the bill. Other times they would assure us that the tip had not been added. I guess don't worry about forgetting to tip because they'll probably remind you. I particularly liked El Sanjuanino in Recoleta for empanadas and El Mirasol, also in Recoleta, for steak.
Soccer - Going to a soccer game was an unforgettable experience. Apparently there are services that will escort tourists to a soccer game and hold their hands so they don't get scared. My advice--just go to the game. We went to a Racing Club game. There weren't any Boca Juniors or River Plate games that fit our schedule. (Also: Racing Club rules!) My biggest worry was getting caught in between some rabid supporters wearing the wrong colors and becoming the victim of some ruffian antics, or even hooliganism. I think it's pretty hard for this to happen. It looked to us like the visiting supporters were escorted into and out of their own section of the stadium by vans full of riot police and that there was no way they could encounter any of the home fans. Moreover, as far as we could tell, everyone was there to have a good time and there wasn't a hint of violence. Perhaps it would have been a different story if River and Boca were dueling for the league title rather than Racing and Tigre trying to stay out of the cellar? Somehow I doubt it. Anyway, we bought the most expensive seats we could get, which were about US$20, I think. For those who don't follow soccer much, like me, the best seats at a soccer game are along the sideline and up high, in the upper deck if there is one. There were different ticket booths for the different sections with diagrams showing where the seats were. So it was pretty easy to figure it out. After the game everyone filed out to the gates, which stayed closed for 10 min or so before they let us out. My guess is this is to give the police time to get the visiting fans into buses and out of the neighborhood. So leave your worries behind and go spend 90 minutes with some singing, jumping, banner-waving soccer fans having the time of their lives.
Random: Just about everyone in Buenos Aires is caucasian like me, but just about everyone in Buenos Aires had me pegged as an American from about a mile away. If you're ethnically Italian or Spanish and you have some stylish jeans-and-sport-coat ensembles, you might blend in, but otherwise, you might as well be wearing a star-spangled fanny pack. I don't think it matters that much because the attitude in Buenos Aires is very laissez-faire.
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