Argentina-Day 1 (Buenos Aires)
Finally landed in Buenos Aires around….6pm. 2.5 days late. Fine-we can work with this. Get dropped off at my hotel…no on in this country speaks English. Silly me thought “oh, I’ve traveled all around the world, NO PROBLEM!!” Um, everyone in Europe speaks English. And the countries where they don’t…aka Germany…I speak enough German to get around. Well, rather, I pick up A TON when I’m back there. Poland-yeah that was rough. What with my debit card not giving me money and the bomb threat at the airport and stuff. But this time, I’m with people, I’m responsible for 2 other people. And we’re already late…plans were already falling apart. I was not a happy camper.
Then we got to the bus station to buy tickets to Iguazu Falls for the 29th and 30th. Everything was closed. Why? Well, it was Christmas Eve of course and what good Christian country doesn’t shut down for Christmas Eve? What else does this mean? Nothing’s open for dinner! Very few people on the streets. The streets of BUENOS AIRES!! Insane. What few people we see are those running to church to listen to Mass, I assume. We walked around for over 2 hours (after wasting about an hour at the bus station) and my sister is starving, I’m getting cranky b/c I get cranky when I’m not fed and my plans don’t work out and I have people trying to tell me what to do and where to go. Note to anyone who travels with me: FEED ME or don’t talk to me until I’m Fed.
We try hotels, the Intercontinental has a huge buffet style holiday meal. No. I want just a plain on Argentinean steak. We go back to this other hotel we see-they have a menu outside but when I went into ask for the restaurant, I got a lot of “No! No Tengo! No Aqui!” Oh good-way to be misleading with the Menu out front! They, nicely enough, pulled out a map and pointed back towards the direction we had just schlepped from. Probably the 4 time a back on that same Pedestrian street call Florida. Finally, I went “screw it, let’s just go take pictures” and of course as soon as we get to the biggest ave (where there were still so few cars, ppl were taking pics standing in the middle of the street-imagine someone standing in the middle of Champ Elysees b/c there were NO CARs), we run into a busy café. Went in, had me some steak and wine and the next thing you know, I’m giggling and laughing and acting silly with my sister. My mom looked very amazed at the easy effect meat and alcohol has on me. Who knew she had no idea.
No pics though…BA is a bit…dirty. Crowded. Very big. I’m not sure I like it. I don’t really like big cities unless they’ve had time to grow on me. I.e. I hated Philly all 4 years (ok, maybe 3.5) in school and it wasn’t until I went back that I felt comfortable. I hate NYC for about…12 years…from when I first visited as a child to when I was about…oh 22, staffed there on project. And I know, I didn’t give BA enough of a chance-I guess I was just disappointed b/c everyone told me Buenos Aires would be just like Europe and walking around-it def felt more like a third world country than Europe. I distinctly remember turning onto a street and seeing the wide avenue and European houses and I breathed in a sigh of “ahh..that’s more like it” to my sister but that was it. Sad. L
Maybe when I go back on the 28-29th I’ll have more of a chance to see it….
That’s what happens when you travel with people. You end up having to cater to their needs and hunger instead of your own desire to take pictures and see things. I can go on forever sightseeing and not eating. But traveling with the fam…def a completely diff experience. At least the wine was delicious….mmmm…food and alcohol. It’s amazing how easily those two simple things can immediately cheer me up. Lol ;-P