I left home at 18:00 (BST) yesterday and arrived in my hotel at around 15:15 (BST) today. Now I'm on Buenos Aires time (GMT -3). Having had (British Airways, low calorie option) breakfast at around 6am local time, I was pretty ravenous by 2pm and a lot of places were shut, but then I stumbled across Florida street. It's a pedestrianised street that runs from San Martin Park up to the cathedral. And on it I found a shopping centre near the hotel that has a food court. Lots of options, quite a few of them beef based. Heading for the stand with the biggest queue, I ended up with a sirloin steak, some salad, a bread roll and a diet coke. All for $20 - that's Argentinian Pesos (exchange rate at around 6 to 1) - making that £3.40 for lunch.
I've spent the rest of the afternoon so far in search of a power socket adapter. The guide book says "standard European 2-pin round", when I asked at work I was told that "yes, it's the same as Europe". Well not in this bloody hotel it isn't. Three pin, two slanted and no allowance for round pins (unlike in the electrical shops I hunted around which all had power sockets that could go either way). All of the shops seem to be shutting up now, including the street traders (selling mostly crappy knockoff "designer" jumpers, leather bracelets and sketches of the city's landmarks) which are pretty prolific.
One thing that really hit me on my wanderings was that the well-known leather shops of the city also tend to sell fur, and not just the odd stole but wall's hung with 20 or so wolf skins. It's pretty shocking, coming from the UK where you just don't see that kind of thing.
I'll probably try to investigate one of the cafes I passed earlier for dinner, but knowing my luck, they'll all be closed later. Eh, there's always room service if I get desperate. It's not exactly expensive here.
