Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is not like any other city. And this metropolis was even more Buenos Aires when I first visited her in the 90's. In those days she was like no other city. Coming to Buenos Aires was like travelling back in time to some European massive fantasy city who had sailed away to South America and got stuck in the mid 1970's. Wonderful!

In Buenos Aires the men had a classic style that got lost in Europe many years ago and in the streets you could admire the women in their office outfits with high heels, a black short skirt and white blouse. In the cafés and restaurants the waiters looked like they had done since the 1950's and the interiors were original with a lot of patina. In the streets you could see old Fiats, Renaults and Ford Falcons. The Police drove Moto Guzzis with the second officer sitting with his back facing forward holding a repeater shotgun. On the plate there was meat and in the glass there was red wine. Along the streets there were beautiful jacarandas and a perfume of diesel. There was Boca. There was passion.

The people of Buenos Aires also had a taste for a higher culture that Europe lost somewhere when commercial television entered our livingrooms. The intellectual level of the people in Buenos Aires can be illustrated with the following example: If you are from Sweden and travelling in some foreign country (in the 90's) the locals would possiblty associate Sweden with Abba or Roxette. Not so in Buenos Aires though! For the people in Buenos Aires, Sweden was Ingemar Bergman and Ronnie Petersson!

Big thanks to Martin Marazzi, Juan Hopwood, Maria del Valle Gonzalez and Vartush for taking care of me during my stay in Buenos Aires!

The photos are from three different jouneys over a period of more than 10 years. The first photos are from 1998.