To celebrate two years of us being together, my boyfriend arranged a trip to Teatro Colón. We joined an English-guided tour with a bunch of other tourists.
We’re scheduled at 13:30 so we went out of the house at 11:30 AM (we live an hour away from the capital city).
While on the train to CABA, a woman shouted “La puta madre!” a bit softly. I thought it was just something simple like she spilled water or something, but it turns out a man from the train station snatched her phone. Everyone was worried, especially when she stood up, everyone saw she was also pregnant (and it also looks like she’s a month away from giving birth, and on top of that, she’s a foreigner (my boyfriend said her accent sounded Venezuelan.) Good samaritans came up to her offering help like water to calm down, phones to contact someone, and one woman offered to use her Sube (the rail card) so she can get where she needs to go. Note to self and to commuters elsewhere, protect your belongings! My boyfriend always told me to hide my phone while in a public transport, especially if the train is at a stop because people actually go through windows to steal phones. I’ve always thought he was just dramatic, but now it actually happened where I was, you bet I’ll hide it until I get home!
We arrived at CABA and immediately went to Mostaza for a bathroom emergency. I ordered the first one I saw. After the emergency, we were munching peacefully when he noticed we only have 15 minutes before the tour starts, so we started chewing quickly and took the fries and devoured them on our way to Teatro Colón. While he was walking quickly, I was almost running – short legs…
We made it just in time! We joined in a group of tourists from different countries – Brazil, Austria, Italy, Japan, USA, France, and I’m the only one from the Philippines. I was not surprise! It’s not easy for Filipinos to go to the other side of the globe.
Here is a list of some things I learned from the tour:
- It took 18 years to finish the building.
- Two architects died before it was finished.
- It’s dubbed as the opera house with the best acoustics (alongside Scala).
- It has one of the biggest auditorium for an opera house, it can house 2.400~ audiences.
- The design was very “heavenly” with loads of angel statues, kind of like the ones you’d see in churches, because the designer believed that opera houses should be a place to forget the burden of our daily lives, a place where everything is beautiful and there is no pain – like heaven!
- The theatre has boxes for widowers because back then, widowers were not allowed to enjoy themselves in time of mourning because god forbid women try to enjoy themselves trying to forget pain. Teatro Colón was one of the first theatres to let widowers enjoy art despite still being in their mourning period.
If you wish to book a tour of Teatro Colón, you can visit their site here. They offer guided tours in Spanish, English, and Portuguese.
After the tour, we went for a walk around the city.
We saw the congress.
We saw the Obellisk.
We visited some bookstores.
I also took some ads for sex workers everywhere I saw them. This is one of the weirdest things I saw in Buenos Aires. While prostitution is rampant in the Philippines, you will never get to see these types of ads anywhere. If you want to avail their services, you need to go to a bar or just walk at night because there are people out there offering their services to you directly. Prostitution looks different here it seems. The ads are very interesting. People actually take the posters, and where we went, the posters get fewer and fewer.
We also had a bubble tea. This is super common in the Philippines. You can buy one from every corner, but it’s not that common here. So, this was my first cup of bubble tea since I got here.
After 13,000 steps, we headed home.
It was a fun anniversary date! Historical and spontaneous which is always fun for the both of us. I’m grateful for this sweet date. It reflects both of our personality and it’s always fun traveling with someone you love. Happy 2 years, mi amor <3
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