I loved the street signs in Buenos Aires, though they took a bit of getting used to. The arrow doesn't mean the address range listed on the sign is on the block in the direction of the arrow, which is what I thought at first. Rather, the address range for the given street is on the block where the sign is physically planted. The arrow tells you the direction of the traffic on the street.

Navigating around the city is incredibly easy due to the logical grid layout. More on this when we get to the Guia T at the end.

Back to the apartment: we arranged it through Stay In Buenos Aires. It was a good location (next to the Independencia Subte stop and many bus lines) and a nice place to call home for a week. It was also great to have an apartment because it provided more insight into life in BA and connected us with more locals. For example, it wasn't obvious where to throw the trash, so I asked the building manager. He patiently explained in Spanish that you place it in a nook in the staircase. I was confused because I hadn't realized there was a staircase! Sure enough, the unmarked door across from the elevator opened up to a staircase, and indeed there was a nook to place the trash. The locals were helpful and patient in dealing with us for even the most mundane things.

It was also nice to be able to go to the grocery store and stock up on food, instead of always having to go out to eat. Hostels have kitchens, as you've seen, but there's not a ton of space to store a variety of food. I made many trips to the market for fruit, cereal, etc. I think I made the same number of trips to pastry shops. =)

It was also nice to have access to a phone to make local calls. I had bought a phone card for long distance and called home on Thanksgiving with it. I tried using the phone card to call some cell phones in Buenos Aires (since those cost extra and couldn't be dialed from the phone in our place), but the cell phone calls ate up the phone card's credits at an astonishing rate! I later learned that it was better to go to a locutorio (a shop with phone booths where you can make calls). There seemed to be a locutorio on nearly every block! They often had computers for internet use as well, though for the most part I borrowed Kragen or Beatrice's computer and used the wireless connection available in our rented apartment.