For the past month and a half I’ve been searching for the best places around Buenos Aires to study Spanish notes. I figured the best way for me to learn the language and experience the city (during the day) was to combine the two. Here’s a list of my top 5 favorite places to study so far.
1. Bosques De Palermo – Basically the Central or Hyde Park of Buenos Aires. There’s a ton of funky trees and grassy hangout spots to setup shop. My favorite area is the Parque de las Poetes, with benches and sculptures of the major figures of poetry. If you can find a bench unoccupied by a young couple rounding second base then you’ll have a great time. If I was a good multi-tasker, I would rent a paddle boat and take a stroll around the beautiful ponds while reading. Also, within the parks enormous perimeter is the Japanese Gardens, which I bet is a great study spot but I haven’t been just yet. Any other park this time a year will suffice. They’re all are great for reading, writing or people watching. The parks in Plaza San Martin is another favorite.
2. Any Cafe – Especially this time of year. There is nothing better than sitting outside, enjoying some empanadas, while trying to conjugate my past, imperfect verbs. However, be careful, the eye candy is usually very sweet so they aren’t always the best places to focus for me and my ADD tendencies… aw cool a video about leopard seals.
3. Puerto Madero – Just outside the city center, Puerto Madero has tons of benches and nice restaurants right along the water. It’s very peaceful at night but don’t expect to get much done between 4pm and 7pm during the week. From what I hear there is also a fully protected ecological reserve right on the banks of the Rio de la Plata near Puerto Madero. I haven’t been yet, so I have to check it out.
4. Biblioteca Nacional – These last two will get ranked higher once the weather starts to heat up. But the national library is a great spot to get a lot done. On the top floor there are a ton of big tables and huge windows with amazing views of the city. Don’t bring a bag unless you want to have it checked a million times and you will have to put it in a locker when you try to enter any area with books (its a library so think about it). BONUS: If you head up Aguero from the library there is this an amazing strawberry stand about 4 blocks away. You can get about a pound of strawberries for around 2 bucks.
5. El Ateneo – (Pictured Above) Lots of tourists taking pictures and limited seating but if you can find a little spot on one of the upper levels or in the cafe there is good music and a great energy of knowledge, intrigue and tranquility.
What are other great spots?
