Wandering around Buenos Aires: The Grand Splendid Athenaeum + Personal thoughts in the wander.

It's been a while since I took a moment to meet new places or being a tourist in Buenos Aires. The process of adaptation and making (and taking) part of the society has absolutely occupated my mind for a while. Well, yesterday I gave myself the chance of being a wandering person again. One of the things I love the most is jumping into the unknown (you can intepretate it as you wish), I consider myself a very curious person. I took a map (actually opened the Google Maps app and after a lot of digging I got the adress of a pretty amazing place I've heard of.

The Grand Splendid Athenaeum (its original name in spanish goes as El Ateneo Grand Splendid), these days is a library that used to be a theater. A library based in a theater.. How beautiful can that be! Hundreds of curious and avid readers go through it every day, never ceasing to marvel at the spectacle that surrounds them. Submerged on the old Grand Splendid theater in the Recoleta neighborhood, it retains its former splendor and elegance, with the dome decorated with frescoes, the original railings and the intact decoration.

In the old stage -with the half-open velvet curtain- there is a bar that invites you to sit down book in hand. You can also take advantage of the armchairs that are on either side of the main room or be located in the exclusive boxes that function as small reading rooms. In the subsoil works a sector dedicated to children's books, and the upper floor is dedicated to exhibitions and exhibitions.

The current building was started in 1917 and inaugurated in May 1919 by the businessman of Austrian origin Mordechai David Glücksman. He commissioned its construction in order to install a cinema-theater on the foundations of what was the North National Theater. He called the new theater Gran Splendid. It was designed by the architects Peró and Torres Armengol and built by the architects Pizoney and Falcope. It had four rows of boxes and a stall with a capacity for 500 people.

It featured great tango personalities such as Ignacio Corsini, Roberto Firpo and Carlos Gardel, who began recording for the Odeon National Label in 1920, which Glücksman had installed in the building. According to the tour guides and people who work in the bookstore, Glucksmann taught Gardel how he could do to give more power to his voice in the recordings: by standing behind a chair and holding hands with his back, way to expand your rib cage. The room where Gardel was filming still exists in the building, but it is not public access.

The dome measures 20 m x 19 m x 3.65 m. The technique to paint the work that is seen in it was that of oil painting, and its director was Nazareno Orlandi. It is an allegorical representation of peace, painted in 1919 as a celebration for the end of the First World War. Peace is represented by a sensual female figure that is painted on a staircase surrounded by flowers. The different representatives of the world in conflict support it, celebrating the restoration of their power. Garlands of flowers, clouds that have left behind the stormy war, pigeons, angels and nymphs surround the scene.

"El Ateneo library" is a traditional brand, created in 1912, which is currently associated with Yenny (a national brand of bookstores), and has more than 34 stores spread throughout Argentina, mainly in Buenos Aires. The venue of the former Grand Splendid theater is the largest and most diverse of the chain's offer: 120,000 titles in stock. According to 2008 figures, some 3,000 visits per day were taken - measured by an electronic counter at the entrance door - and more than 700,000 were sold. It is a tourist point in the tours of the area especially for foreigners.

The current bookstore maintained the splendor of the disappeared cinema-theater, with the painted cupola, the original balconies, the intact ornamentation and even the velvet curtain. Several comfortable armchairs distributed allow you to sit down to read any book without obligation of purchase so much in what was the place of the stalls as in the old boxes, or in what was the scene that is currently used restaurant and confectionery and has a piano in the which music is played that accompanies the reading. In the subsoil the escalators lead to the lounge selling music and books for children. The highest floor is dedicated to exhibitions. Where the paperback books are sold were the windows for the sale of tickets.

This was such an amazing place to randomly spend time, wandering in here is nice, trust me. Had the chance to talk to a couple of nice people who told me stories about this place in its greatest times. Stepping away from the fear of "getting lost" in such a big city has been one of the most difficult things I've ever done. Sounds silly right? But sometimes getting out of the comfort zone feels that way, but it's always worth it.. I mean, what kind of magic could happen in that zone?

At the end of the day I felt a weird sensation of peace with myself.. There's been already 2 months that definitely feel like a year. It's been an exhausting, but exciting time. I've been relief and I've been in pain since I first migrated. But after this -short- time, I'm thankful for every opportunity I had, for every moment I experienced and every memory I created. Under the protection of the eternal insomnia of the city, I learned to give myself five minutes of crying when I feel helpless because I don't get things. To put more desire when I feel like I'm never ready. To stop looking back and to the sides, not even to cross the street. To walk a million with one goal in mind, in a straight line and without staggering. But most of all I learned from you to be selfish when you have to be selfish because I understood that sometimes the most important thing is not to disappoint myself.