By Adrian Royo Caldiz

Another year comes to an end, and with it, Argentina, gets ready for some family friendly festivities such as getting drunk, eating a lot of pan dulce, drinking many bottles of cider and for some reason, having lots of marzipan for dessert.
It’s also a time in which, like in many other countries in the world, you’re forced to spend some time with those dreadful family members you despise so much.

Of course, teenagers have it easy here, because after 2 AM, when the party is barely getting started, they kiss their parents goodbye, grab a couple of champagne bottles and steal their dad’s car to go meet their other friends and of course, start the new year by getting awfully wasted. Yes, many times they total their cars but hey, apparently that’s part of the fun. And since starting January 1st., the Buenos Aires city government is resetting the score on the amount of points people are allowed to have before their license is taken away, why care!

So the families get together to have a lovely dinner before midnight, in which everyone yells, and complains about the government, inflation and tells their kids what a disappointment they are for not following an honorable career, like Law, Medicine or professional soccer, a tradition that goes back to a hundred years ago, when many spanish and italian immigrants decided to take a ship to South America in search of a better life. And boy there were in for a treat!

So, Buenos Aires feels special this time of the year, with many parties and exclusive events going on to celebrate that 2010 is upon us. “A new decade begins!”, people gleefully holler (although technically it starts in 2011, but who am I to rain on their parade, right?)!.

And it seems that the word got out that partying in Buenos Aires is fun (and cheap!) so celebrities from around the world have been coming down to Argentina to be part of the celebrations, like blogger Perez Hilton or fictional Gossip Girl character Serena Van Der Woodsen, who have all experienced the new year fun, Buenos Aires style (although to be honest, when Van Der Woodsen talks about her “trip to Buenos Aires” in the series, she shows some pictures of her dancing salsa in some cuban venue, so I’m not sure she really came here. Either she went to the wrong country or some producer really fucked up on that one), so now BA is one hot destination for people from all over the world who want to see what the city’s all about.

One of the city’s many attractive features is its hardcore way of celebrating via anything that involves gunpowder. Watching fireworks in the sky while sharing a bottle of champagne in the balcony? Boring! That’s for sissies and Europeans. To really celebrate like a man you gotta do it the argentine way, which means setting off some heavy bombs on your backyard and spending the rest of the evening at the emergency room. Have you ever heard of a “stray bullet” (“bala perdida”)? Well, apparently, when people can’t afford those cheap a-dime-a-dozen fireworks, they come up with the brilliant idea of aiming their guns to the sky and firing them. YEEHAW cowboy! No, this ain’t Texas, but it can sure as hell feel like it! So don’t freak out if the city sounds like Baghdad, it’s just the New Year! (Unless, of course, you’ve screwed up like Van Der Woodsen did and have actually gone to Baghdad, which is not the best place to be right now. Just sayin’).

But to be fair, spending New Year’s in Buenos Aires is an unforgettable experience, whether it’s because you fall in love with its melancholic streets, feel at home when somebody invites you to spend the festivities with their family or simply because you get shot by a stray bullet.

And the best part: everybody’s gone! There’s no traffic jams, no stuffed subway and no long lines to buy a Frapuccino at the Alto Palermo Starbucks because porteños have started their exodus to the three top argentine destinations: Mar del Plata, Carlos Paz and Punta del Este!

What’s that? Punta del Este is in Uruguay, you say? Not to the argentines, it’s not! But that’s a story for another post.

Right now it’s time to get stuffed with chicken, beef, cider and pan dulce (just remember to remove those ugly tasting dry fruits they put in there. Why they still do that when NO ONE in this country likes them? Only God knows).

Happy New Year, Argentina Independent readers!