Thursday (3/12/15) - I got off the bus from Iguazu and returned to Romi and Gabi's house to fully pack my things. But before I could pack I had to spend at least 30 minutes catching up on my phone because 20 hours without wifi is a lot. So then I reorganized, fully packed and left my stuff at the house while I attempted to purchase a Lollapolooza ticket for the second time. This time it was a success and much easier of a process than I expected. I walked into the bookstore, asked for someone to point me in the correct direction for Lollapolooza tickets, and whallah, I was talking with the lady. I paid her the cash ($1240 pesos which is almost exactly $100 USD), she handed me the ticket, and we were done! I was surprised, but she reassured me that I had done all that I needed to do.
I snagged my stuff from the house, said one last bye, and made my way for Buenos Aires. Traveling with all my things always worries me because there is so much theft in this country that all of my belongings on me at once makes me a big target. Luckily the bus station was pretty close, Rosario wasn't the worry. I bought a bus ticket to BA for a 3pm departure, waited for a bit, and then hopped on after I made sure it was the correct bus. This was a simple 4.5 hour bus ride, and the bus line (The Rosarian - I believe) played some captivating movies in English, so the time really went by pretty quick.
When I go off the bus, I wasn't in a huge hurry, but I didn't want to get too far into nightfall with all of my belongings, so tried to find a map of the city, failed (the tourism office was closed), and found a secure cab. I had been told to not walk away from the bus station, it is in a bad part of BA. And looking out the window of the bus, I would agree as we pulled into the station. So, I didn't think twice before just getting in a cab even though I knew it was semi-far/pricey.
As far as lodging, I was luckily hooked up with an apartment. I was introduced through email to a new friend named Hache, and he happened to be out of town for the duration of time I was going to be in BA, so he graciously offered me his apartment to stay in! I gratefully accepted the offer for at least the first night, so that is where I was headed. But first I had to get the key from his friend, Pablo. I had the cab driver drop me off at Pablo's, and I got the key from him and we conversed for a few minutes before I was on my way (walking 6 blocks) to Hache's. At this point it was dark, but I walked on a very busy/lit street so there really was no threat.
Getting into the apartment was easy and relieving. I took a few hours to chill before I headed a few blocks away to dinner with some of Hache's friends that he e-introduced me to. They were extremely nice to welcome me to dinner (there were 6 friends and me) at their apartment with meat, potato, salad, and more. Within 3 hours of being in the city, I was siting down with some locals and having a homemade Thursday night dinner. It was fantastic, I am thankful there are people in this country that are so welcoming to strangers. We hung out for a bit afterwards, then we all headed home. Dinner was at the normal time of 10:45pm and everyone left at about 12:30am.
I snagged my stuff from the house, said one last bye, and made my way for Buenos Aires. Traveling with all my things always worries me because there is so much theft in this country that all of my belongings on me at once makes me a big target. Luckily the bus station was pretty close, Rosario wasn't the worry. I bought a bus ticket to BA for a 3pm departure, waited for a bit, and then hopped on after I made sure it was the correct bus. This was a simple 4.5 hour bus ride, and the bus line (The Rosarian - I believe) played some captivating movies in English, so the time really went by pretty quick.
When I go off the bus, I wasn't in a huge hurry, but I didn't want to get too far into nightfall with all of my belongings, so tried to find a map of the city, failed (the tourism office was closed), and found a secure cab. I had been told to not walk away from the bus station, it is in a bad part of BA. And looking out the window of the bus, I would agree as we pulled into the station. So, I didn't think twice before just getting in a cab even though I knew it was semi-far/pricey.
As far as lodging, I was luckily hooked up with an apartment. I was introduced through email to a new friend named Hache, and he happened to be out of town for the duration of time I was going to be in BA, so he graciously offered me his apartment to stay in! I gratefully accepted the offer for at least the first night, so that is where I was headed. But first I had to get the key from his friend, Pablo. I had the cab driver drop me off at Pablo's, and I got the key from him and we conversed for a few minutes before I was on my way (walking 6 blocks) to Hache's. At this point it was dark, but I walked on a very busy/lit street so there really was no threat.
Getting into the apartment was easy and relieving. I took a few hours to chill before I headed a few blocks away to dinner with some of Hache's friends that he e-introduced me to. They were extremely nice to welcome me to dinner (there were 6 friends and me) at their apartment with meat, potato, salad, and more. Within 3 hours of being in the city, I was siting down with some locals and having a homemade Thursday night dinner. It was fantastic, I am thankful there are people in this country that are so welcoming to strangers. We hung out for a bit afterwards, then we all headed home. Dinner was at the normal time of 10:45pm and everyone left at about 12:30am.
Friday 3/13/15 - I slept in a bit and did some stuff on the computer, and I decided to book a hostel for the weekend in order to meet people and become connected socially. So after I went and found a map, bought a transit card, and packed my backpacks, I ventured the public transit system to find the hostel. It wasn't that hard.
The hostel idea was a success, though, because as soon as I walked in, I was meeting people and being invited to activities. I already planned to go to a pub crawl, so one of the guys (Nick from California) decided to come as well. Another small group was going Salsa dancing first which sounded awesome, but we decided to leave that for another time and just do the pub crawl.
The pub crawl (BA pub crawl - I highly recommend it) started at 10 and from 10-11 there was "free" (included in the price) beer and pizza at starting plaza. We wanted to make sure we took full advantage of the pizza and beer then, so we were there promptly before 10 and that worked out. This specific night, the pub crawl was also celebrating St. Patty's day so they had an artist painting clovers and what not on people, so naturally I got an Irish flag on my cheek. Apparently this was the second biggest night of the year (behind halloween), and they were expecting 500 participants. I don't know how many people came but it was a lot, maybe 500. We split up into groups and with our groups we went to 3 bars before going to a "boliche" (night club) at the end of the night. At each bar we got a free shooter and then we got free entry to the boliche. All for paying the entry to the pub crawl, it's a pretty good deal.
Anyway, I met and hung out with some new friends from BA and it was a very fun night. Most of the night was in Spanish as I got a taste of the night life and of the people. The bars seemed very similar to those I am used to at home, and I don't remember which ones we went to because I was simply following a mass of people not paying attention to streets or names. The boliche (named Moore) was a ton of fun too, it had an outside area for hanging out and an inside area for dancing. And an upstairs area for VIP - it seemed. When we left at around 4 or 4:30, there were still people entering the club and it was still absolutely packed on the dance floor. People here are nocturnal. The hostel ended up being walking distance from Moore, but Nick and I grabbed some pizza before heading there, no ragretz. Then I ended up hanging out on the pleasant rooftop for a little while with some friendly other hostel residents before crashing.
The hostel idea was a success, though, because as soon as I walked in, I was meeting people and being invited to activities. I already planned to go to a pub crawl, so one of the guys (Nick from California) decided to come as well. Another small group was going Salsa dancing first which sounded awesome, but we decided to leave that for another time and just do the pub crawl.
The pub crawl (BA pub crawl - I highly recommend it) started at 10 and from 10-11 there was "free" (included in the price) beer and pizza at starting plaza. We wanted to make sure we took full advantage of the pizza and beer then, so we were there promptly before 10 and that worked out. This specific night, the pub crawl was also celebrating St. Patty's day so they had an artist painting clovers and what not on people, so naturally I got an Irish flag on my cheek. Apparently this was the second biggest night of the year (behind halloween), and they were expecting 500 participants. I don't know how many people came but it was a lot, maybe 500. We split up into groups and with our groups we went to 3 bars before going to a "boliche" (night club) at the end of the night. At each bar we got a free shooter and then we got free entry to the boliche. All for paying the entry to the pub crawl, it's a pretty good deal.
Anyway, I met and hung out with some new friends from BA and it was a very fun night. Most of the night was in Spanish as I got a taste of the night life and of the people. The bars seemed very similar to those I am used to at home, and I don't remember which ones we went to because I was simply following a mass of people not paying attention to streets or names. The boliche (named Moore) was a ton of fun too, it had an outside area for hanging out and an inside area for dancing. And an upstairs area for VIP - it seemed. When we left at around 4 or 4:30, there were still people entering the club and it was still absolutely packed on the dance floor. People here are nocturnal. The hostel ended up being walking distance from Moore, but Nick and I grabbed some pizza before heading there, no ragretz. Then I ended up hanging out on the pleasant rooftop for a little while with some friendly other hostel residents before crashing.
Saturday 3/14/15 - Far before arriving in Argentina, I was put in touch with a girl named Emma (thanks RS!!) who is from NY but is living in BA for the year. She was a big help with planning and such, and on this Saturday she was nice enough to include me in the lunch she was attending at Menora, a gathering place for Jewish people. (I don't think it is a temple but it could definitely host services). We met up before the lunch to grab some coffee and then went to the lunch.
There were probably 50 Jews from around the world here (I think it is specifically intended for international students, but anyone is welcome) and 19 of those were from Harvard on spring break. So needless to say, this lunch was really cool. It was far too easy to make conversation and there were some superrrrr smart people in the room. Not to mention the food was tremendous and endless, I mean it was a Jewish event after all.
I stayed and mingled until about 4 when I left and strolled around the parks in Recoletta. On the weekends, they have a little fair set up with tons of mini shops, mostly targeted toward tourists. It was a fun area, there were plenty of people there and some live music as little groups were performing and it seemed like they were having more fun than the onlookers. I just strolled around for a little while, wandered to/through the shopping mall around the corner, then I walked the long way through the parks to the bus to get back to the hostel.
Later that evening I went with some people from the hostel to a different pub crawl, where we were also going to meet up with a few of the new friends I made at the luncheon earlier that day. This pub crawl was also a lot of fun, we went to new bars and a new boliche, all of which had a similar feel to those on Friday night. Night life is clearly what makes this city go round.
There were probably 50 Jews from around the world here (I think it is specifically intended for international students, but anyone is welcome) and 19 of those were from Harvard on spring break. So needless to say, this lunch was really cool. It was far too easy to make conversation and there were some superrrrr smart people in the room. Not to mention the food was tremendous and endless, I mean it was a Jewish event after all.
I stayed and mingled until about 4 when I left and strolled around the parks in Recoletta. On the weekends, they have a little fair set up with tons of mini shops, mostly targeted toward tourists. It was a fun area, there were plenty of people there and some live music as little groups were performing and it seemed like they were having more fun than the onlookers. I just strolled around for a little while, wandered to/through the shopping mall around the corner, then I walked the long way through the parks to the bus to get back to the hostel.
Later that evening I went with some people from the hostel to a different pub crawl, where we were also going to meet up with a few of the new friends I made at the luncheon earlier that day. This pub crawl was also a lot of fun, we went to new bars and a new boliche, all of which had a similar feel to those on Friday night. Night life is clearly what makes this city go round.