It was always close.

Talking about the city of Rosario, Argentina, is talking about the Parana River because it's by its side that the city lays. But in my case, it also means talking about family because half of mine lives there and it's thanks to that that I know it so well. That's how I grew up hearing tales of this city even though I only got to know it when I was 19 years old -actually the first time I went I was a 6 month-old baby but it doesn't count because of course I don't remember anything-.

My first time in Rosario, walking by the river with my mom.

Since a while ago, my aunt tells me that one of her favorite things of the trip from Rosario to Uruguay is watching the sunrise over the river, and since I started travelling there during the day in stead of doing it during the night, my favorite thing is quite the opposite, looking to the other side of the river to see the sunset.

Sunset over the Parana River and its islets.

I think about everything that I want to write about this city I like so much that I don't even know where to start, so I decided to make a sort of sum-up and later write some other posts about specific things. However, I have to start somewhere, so I'll start from the river itself.

From the port on the South side of the city to "La Florida" on the North side, the city has a belt of public parks that during weekends and spring and summer get really crowded, not only because of the green spaces but for the variety of cultural centres and activities that take place in that area, most of them free of charge. Even most of the barns that belonged to shipping companies or the port are transformed into cultural centers. The city's variety of offers of this kind makes me love it.

From the top of the Flag Monument, you can see part of the river and the park and some of the barns now transformed in cultural centers. The photo is not old, it's just from a time when I used to take black and white photos and apparently not correcting the contrast values.

I keep telling you about the city by telling you about one of my favorite weekend activities: going to the crafts market in Oroño Boulevard, continue seeing antiques in the next market and finishing the tour in a second hand clothes market called "el roperito". It was in that crafts market that I discovered my love for bookbinding -other of my current activities-. I liked it so much that I learnt how to do that work, and as if it was a joke from destiny, the person that taught me what I know about this, comes from Rosario.

The crafts market in Oroño Boulevard.

Talking about Rosario is also talking about its children. Just by naming some of them: the writer Roberto Fontanarrosa, the comedian Alberto Olmedo, the musician Fito Paez, the football player Lionel Messi and even the revolutionary Che Guevara. All of them where born here.

Every time I go to Rosario, I listen at least a few songs of Fito Paez, and that way I think that I get there much sooner.

Part of the monument to Alberto Olmedo in the neighborhood of Pichincha, where he was from. Next to this, a real size sculpture of the actor sits in a park bench waiting for the people that pass by to sit and take a photo with him.

This town also breaths football and has its own derby: Central - Newells. Since I was a kid I had my favorite team, maybe because its name rhymes with the one of my local team or the yellow stripes make some sort of contact in my subconscious

Of course I cannot finish this post without talking about the city's symbol: The National Flag Monument, a 70-metre high tower located in the park with the same name. You can reach it walking from Cordoba street, one of the most important comercial areas in town, and of course, also from the riverside. As an Uruguayan, I don't have any special patriotic feeling for it, but I love it as a viewpoint where you can have a beautiful view of part of the city.

The National Flag Monument.