Sunday 3/15/15 - Woke up at the early hour of 11 and dragged myself out of bed to tell the hostel employee that I wouldn’t be staying one more night and to pack my things. The previous evening (really earlier that morning), when we were hanging on the roof, I told an Argentine girl named Victoria that I would go to the San Telmo street fair with her and her friend, so us three picked our bus route and were on our way. I left my things at the hostel to pick up later that day. Victoria wanted to practice her English so she spoke in English and I spoke in Spanish, and the friend really wasn’t having the English so she stuck to her native tongue (more practice for me).
San Telmo is a small barrio of Buenos Aires and each Sunday they have a street fair where a bunch of venders sell their keychains, clothes, fray bands, jewelry, etc. But, before we headed there, we decided to head to La Boca, which is one barrio south of San Telmo and walk around a bit. La Boca is known for hosting the soccer team Boca Jrs, but it is notably poor and a little more dangerous. I felt completely fine on a bright Sunday afternoon with two locals. We visited the futbol stadium, which was really cool, and then found the little street fair of their own. After walking around for a bit, I snagged a 20 peso Choripan (basically sausage prepared to eat like a hamburger), and we took a bus back up to San Telmo.
The street fair was tremendous. Basically they blocked off probably 15 blocks of a street (and other side streets as well) for people to set up their little presentations of whatever they were selling. Victoria and name-less-friend sat down at a restaurant in the main square for a beer and I walked around for a while. I succumbed to the fray bands because my previous pair of sunglasses broke. I actually came across some other English speakers at the Fray band stand, and while delicately demonstrating the lack of quality of the sunglasses, I broke a pair. The venders weren’t happy, but it is their product that broke upon a simple attempt to use them. We laughed about it in English as we walked away.
I eventually returned to Vic and co, and we decided to head back to the hostel because we were all exhausted. I really don’t know how natives consistently stay up so late and still do stuff during the day.
I picked up my stuff from the hostel and walked to meet Emma at a coffee shop to take care of some things on the computer. This coffee shop (named LAB) had some of the tastiest cookies to ever enter my mouth. It was fun. Then after a few hours there, we walked to have dinner at a place called SOMETHING, a Mexican themed restaurant. I felt right at home. The food, drinks, and guacamole was great. They didn’t have my kind of “queso” though, so that was a big hit.
After dinner I headed back to Hache’s apartment at around 9:30. The bus ride home was a mini adventure because I didn’t really know where I was going and I had two backpacks, but I very nice lady told me directly where to get off and where to walk from there. People here are very nice and helpful, even if they don’t look it at first glance.
My attempt to go to sleep early failed as I FaceTimed big Stevo until 1am my time. Which I guess is pretty early in the nocturnal city of BA.
San Telmo is a small barrio of Buenos Aires and each Sunday they have a street fair where a bunch of venders sell their keychains, clothes, fray bands, jewelry, etc. But, before we headed there, we decided to head to La Boca, which is one barrio south of San Telmo and walk around a bit. La Boca is known for hosting the soccer team Boca Jrs, but it is notably poor and a little more dangerous. I felt completely fine on a bright Sunday afternoon with two locals. We visited the futbol stadium, which was really cool, and then found the little street fair of their own. After walking around for a bit, I snagged a 20 peso Choripan (basically sausage prepared to eat like a hamburger), and we took a bus back up to San Telmo.
The street fair was tremendous. Basically they blocked off probably 15 blocks of a street (and other side streets as well) for people to set up their little presentations of whatever they were selling. Victoria and name-less-friend sat down at a restaurant in the main square for a beer and I walked around for a while. I succumbed to the fray bands because my previous pair of sunglasses broke. I actually came across some other English speakers at the Fray band stand, and while delicately demonstrating the lack of quality of the sunglasses, I broke a pair. The venders weren’t happy, but it is their product that broke upon a simple attempt to use them. We laughed about it in English as we walked away.
I eventually returned to Vic and co, and we decided to head back to the hostel because we were all exhausted. I really don’t know how natives consistently stay up so late and still do stuff during the day.
I picked up my stuff from the hostel and walked to meet Emma at a coffee shop to take care of some things on the computer. This coffee shop (named LAB) had some of the tastiest cookies to ever enter my mouth. It was fun. Then after a few hours there, we walked to have dinner at a place called SOMETHING, a Mexican themed restaurant. I felt right at home. The food, drinks, and guacamole was great. They didn’t have my kind of “queso” though, so that was a big hit.
After dinner I headed back to Hache’s apartment at around 9:30. The bus ride home was a mini adventure because I didn’t really know where I was going and I had two backpacks, but I very nice lady told me directly where to get off and where to walk from there. People here are very nice and helpful, even if they don’t look it at first glance.
My attempt to go to sleep early failed as I FaceTimed big Stevo until 1am my time. Which I guess is pretty early in the nocturnal city of BA.
Monday 3/16/15 -
I am so far behind on my blog that I have to make notes about each day so I don’t forget what I did or anything noteworthy that happened. And, reviewing my notes, Monday was a pretty busy/awesome day.
In the afternoon, I hopped on the Subte (Subway) for the first time. It is actually extremely close and convenient to Hache’s apartment, but the Subte lines are fairly spread out, so it is really only useful if you are going somewhere moderately near the line. Otherwise the bus system is preferable to me. Regardless, the Subte is quick and very easy and simple. I headed down to San Nicholas, a lively shopping/happening barrio, where one of the main streets is called Florida street. Florida street is very busy and active as there are shops all the way up and down the street selling anything and everything, but it is most known for all of the people actively trying to buy dollars. The street is lined with people standing there casually saying “cambio… cambio”, which means change, they’re trying to exchange pesos for US dollars. They are probably 2 or 3 of these people every 10 yards and they’re fairly aggressive. So exchanging money was quite the intimidating task as I approached 3 or 4 of these solicitors and discussed in Spanish different rates. I finally agreed on a change ratio with a guy and he took me around the corner, away from the loud street, up the stairs, and to the locked door. I thought to myself “well this was a fun final experience in my life.” He knocked on the door and a live, breathing, and seemingly healthy woman left the room as it was my turn to enter. The guy told the main guy the rate we had agreed on, and I gave my US dollars to the main guy to be exchanged for pesos. He gave me the pesos, I counted them, and exited the room, unscratched. Victory. Not gonna lie, my heart was pounding as I honestly had no idea what was going to happen behind that little quiet locked door, but at this point I was back to reality again and on to the next event in my day. I walked around San Nicholas a bit, grabbed some lunch, and headed to a couple of places to hopefully book my travels to Uruguay later that week.
I learned all about the travel options, but didn’t end up booking my trip because they didn’t accept Argentine pesos cash from me since it was an international journey and I wasn’t natively Argentinean. I didn’t completely understand that, but I had the opportunity to pay online later with a credit card in US dollars, so paying there wasn’t a necessity anyway.
Then I walked a bit and found the park where I was going to meet my Dutch buddy Manno for a Buenos Aires walking tour later that day. But before the tour, I needed some water (actually hard/impossible to find for free in the city), so I found a little coffee shop with a TV and wifi to be able to 1. Watch the Rosario Central futbol game 2. Use the wifi to check stuff on my phone 3. Drink cold water. Also, today I was wearing my Central jersey, so I was really playing the part by going out of my way just to watch some of the game, which I felt was authentic because when the game is on, true “hinchas” (fans) drop what they’re doing and become immersed in the game. Anyway, the game was tied at half when I had to leave to meet up with Manno at the walking tour.
The walking tour was a little slow paced as we didn’t do as much walking as I would have liked, but I did learn some interesting things about the city and architecture and history and what not. We stopped by the memorial of the Israeli embassy bombing in recent history, that was pretty meaningful, and it was cool to me that it was part of the tour. The tour guide said that 10% of Buenos Aires if Jewish, not sure if I believe that, but come to think of it, I did see a ton of yamacas on the streets. Manno and I left the walking tour a tad early to try and catch a bus to La Bomba De Tiempo, a drumming show where we were meeting friends. We ended up just walking after we got on a bus but the bus driver told us he recommended walking because it would be faster. We were both super puzzled, but we got off and walked the 20-30 minutes to the show. Turned out there was a street blocked as we approached our destination, which must have been what the bus driver was referring to. We found the venue hosting the concert, had a quick beer outside, and then paid the $80 pesos to enter. It was basically 15 drummers with different types of percussion instruments putting on a show. They rotated conductors and created fantastic energy for the crowd of probably 7-9 thousand swaying/dancing/jumping right along. It was a ton of fun, the drummers were really good and were clearly just having fun themselves. They brought a guest Clarinet player up at one point too and that added a jazzy touch.
I was still wearing my Rosario Central jersey, so numerous people came up to me and made comments throughout the day and at the concert. Some good (vamos Central!!), some bad (Dale Boca, amigo), but all were semi surprised when they heard my foreign accent and most immediately asked where I was from. Futbol is such a way of life here, it’s really crazy.
After the concert, the group I was with (people I met at the hostel) decided to head to the streets and find a place to hang around some beer. We did exactly that as we stood around, enjoyed each other’s company, witnessed some street violence from a far, and met some new people. Then 4 of us went to hang at an apartment before finally calling it a night at the too late hour of 3am.
I am so far behind on my blog that I have to make notes about each day so I don’t forget what I did or anything noteworthy that happened. And, reviewing my notes, Monday was a pretty busy/awesome day.
In the afternoon, I hopped on the Subte (Subway) for the first time. It is actually extremely close and convenient to Hache’s apartment, but the Subte lines are fairly spread out, so it is really only useful if you are going somewhere moderately near the line. Otherwise the bus system is preferable to me. Regardless, the Subte is quick and very easy and simple. I headed down to San Nicholas, a lively shopping/happening barrio, where one of the main streets is called Florida street. Florida street is very busy and active as there are shops all the way up and down the street selling anything and everything, but it is most known for all of the people actively trying to buy dollars. The street is lined with people standing there casually saying “cambio… cambio”, which means change, they’re trying to exchange pesos for US dollars. They are probably 2 or 3 of these people every 10 yards and they’re fairly aggressive. So exchanging money was quite the intimidating task as I approached 3 or 4 of these solicitors and discussed in Spanish different rates. I finally agreed on a change ratio with a guy and he took me around the corner, away from the loud street, up the stairs, and to the locked door. I thought to myself “well this was a fun final experience in my life.” He knocked on the door and a live, breathing, and seemingly healthy woman left the room as it was my turn to enter. The guy told the main guy the rate we had agreed on, and I gave my US dollars to the main guy to be exchanged for pesos. He gave me the pesos, I counted them, and exited the room, unscratched. Victory. Not gonna lie, my heart was pounding as I honestly had no idea what was going to happen behind that little quiet locked door, but at this point I was back to reality again and on to the next event in my day. I walked around San Nicholas a bit, grabbed some lunch, and headed to a couple of places to hopefully book my travels to Uruguay later that week.
I learned all about the travel options, but didn’t end up booking my trip because they didn’t accept Argentine pesos cash from me since it was an international journey and I wasn’t natively Argentinean. I didn’t completely understand that, but I had the opportunity to pay online later with a credit card in US dollars, so paying there wasn’t a necessity anyway.
Then I walked a bit and found the park where I was going to meet my Dutch buddy Manno for a Buenos Aires walking tour later that day. But before the tour, I needed some water (actually hard/impossible to find for free in the city), so I found a little coffee shop with a TV and wifi to be able to 1. Watch the Rosario Central futbol game 2. Use the wifi to check stuff on my phone 3. Drink cold water. Also, today I was wearing my Central jersey, so I was really playing the part by going out of my way just to watch some of the game, which I felt was authentic because when the game is on, true “hinchas” (fans) drop what they’re doing and become immersed in the game. Anyway, the game was tied at half when I had to leave to meet up with Manno at the walking tour.
The walking tour was a little slow paced as we didn’t do as much walking as I would have liked, but I did learn some interesting things about the city and architecture and history and what not. We stopped by the memorial of the Israeli embassy bombing in recent history, that was pretty meaningful, and it was cool to me that it was part of the tour. The tour guide said that 10% of Buenos Aires if Jewish, not sure if I believe that, but come to think of it, I did see a ton of yamacas on the streets. Manno and I left the walking tour a tad early to try and catch a bus to La Bomba De Tiempo, a drumming show where we were meeting friends. We ended up just walking after we got on a bus but the bus driver told us he recommended walking because it would be faster. We were both super puzzled, but we got off and walked the 20-30 minutes to the show. Turned out there was a street blocked as we approached our destination, which must have been what the bus driver was referring to. We found the venue hosting the concert, had a quick beer outside, and then paid the $80 pesos to enter. It was basically 15 drummers with different types of percussion instruments putting on a show. They rotated conductors and created fantastic energy for the crowd of probably 7-9 thousand swaying/dancing/jumping right along. It was a ton of fun, the drummers were really good and were clearly just having fun themselves. They brought a guest Clarinet player up at one point too and that added a jazzy touch.
I was still wearing my Rosario Central jersey, so numerous people came up to me and made comments throughout the day and at the concert. Some good (vamos Central!!), some bad (Dale Boca, amigo), but all were semi surprised when they heard my foreign accent and most immediately asked where I was from. Futbol is such a way of life here, it’s really crazy.
After the concert, the group I was with (people I met at the hostel) decided to head to the streets and find a place to hang around some beer. We did exactly that as we stood around, enjoyed each other’s company, witnessed some street violence from a far, and met some new people. Then 4 of us went to hang at an apartment before finally calling it a night at the too late hour of 3am.
Tuesday 3/17/15 - I said the too late hour of going to sleep because I woke up feeling pretty uneasy. I rolled out of bed, took my laundry to the launder mat around the corner, and wasn’t feeling any better as the day went on. Turns out I was truly sick with a stomach bug. I think it was a combination of something I ate, lack of sleep, and general fatigue. But regardless, I was either on the bed or in the bathroom all day, except for when I picked up my clean clothes and ran to get some meds. During this semi-suffering, I made the decision to omit Uruguay from the trip and just take the next couple of days to recuperate. I had Lollapolooza and then a 5 day hiking trek coming up in the next week, quite the energy demanding activities for which weren’t worth risking my health. And I wasn’t crazy ecstatic about Uruguay anyway.
I napped all day and went to sleep at 9:30pm. So bittersweet. It was this day I was extremely thankful to have an apartment.
I napped all day and went to sleep at 9:30pm. So bittersweet. It was this day I was extremely thankful to have an apartment.