Jana booked a nights worth of accommodation for when I got to Buenos Aires. That was extremely helpful as I hadn't had the opportunity to book anything with the incredibly weak Internet I was getting. Then all I had to do was show the address to get to the hostel.
BA airport was a bit of a joke. Lined up to get my passport stamped. Waited about 30 mins in line, only to be told at the counter that I needed to pay a tax first. I had to pay on a computer, print it out and then line up again. Luckily they had these computing and printing facilities close by. But it was US$100 and another 30 mins later before I could collect my bags. Well because that process took so long, all of the belts had stopped moving and all leftover luggage was scattered over the entire floor of the airport between belts 1 and 15. I asked multiple people where I needed to go to find my bags, showing my luggage receipts. One lady told me belt 2. It took about 10 mins to reach belt 2 from belt 14. And my bag was nowhere to be seen. I asked someone else. They said belt 15. So off I went. No bags. Asked someone else, praying all the way. "Belt 2. But it's stopped now so you might have to go looking for it around belt 1."
Pretty frustrated at this point. Eventually found them buried under other bags.
There were no signs with my name or the hostel's name on it when I finally exited the airport. Probably because I took so long. Went to a desk that said taxi and showed them the address. They said it would be 220 pesos or US$40. They didn't accept credit cards so pointed me in the direction of the ATM. I got out 1000 pesos in hundred peso bills and paid the lady. Some kid then grabbed my bags and said "follow me", so I did. When he helped me into the cab, he asked for a tip. Crap. I only have large notes, and I don't think they would give me change. I asked if he takes US dollars and he said ok. So handed him the last of my US dollar bills. When the taxi dropped me at the hostel, he also asked for a tip and I only had US coins! I emptied the contents of my coin compartment in embarrassment. Sorry guys, I thought that $40 was steep.
Anyway, feeling embarrassed, overwhelmed, ripped off, exhausted (arriving at the hostel around 7pm), and hungry as a hippo, I felt like going home. I skyped Shane and cried because I miss him so much. He told me how well I'm doing, as it was now marked just over 3 weeks since we had seen each other and this is a new record for us since we have been married.
I got to meet my roommates, 2 males from Brazil (no female dorms available) and they are really very friendly. Guatavo and Mathias. I described them as friendly in a non threatening sort of way. Gustavo was about to meet a friend and Mathias was going to call his mum. Because I was feeling so intimidated of the world outside of the hostel, I asked if Mathias could come with me to dinner. He said that he would after he called his mum. It was around 9:30pm when we left and I had forgotten that I read that Argentina is a very late sleeping city. Restaurants are still alive at 2am so we easily found somewhere to eat. When I say easily, I mean it was a really difficult decision where we should go. There are 100s of restaurants around. We wound up at a Mexican restaurant, mainly because I was too hungry to look much further. Ordered the first thing I saw, which was chicken nachos and a "limonade", hoping for an American lemonade. It came in a cocktail glass with what looked like salt around the rim. I became very nervous, however it was exactly what I had hoped for and the "salt" was sugar. Delicious. The nachos was a bowl of corn chips and a separate bowl of cheese sauce with bit of chicken roasted capsicum throughout it. So the idea was to dip the corn chips into the cheese sauce. Quite tasty and I finished my food in 5 mins flat. After eating, I felt SO much better. It's amazing what food can do to your mood. I didn't need anything else after my pollo nacho, so Mathias asked if I would like to go for a walk and have a look around the area a bit. Sounds good. Walked around the river and we both spoke about our other halves back home. He showed me where he went to a tango show the night before and said that I must see it!
Walking back toward the hostel, we stopped by Burger King because he felt like an ice cream. He bought 2 sundaes and gave one to me. It looked like a caramel sundae. But it wasn't caramel. It was dulce de leche, translated to English is sweet milk. It tasted like very concentrated condensed milk and normally, people spread it on their bread. SO delicious. But by the end of my sundae, I was over it.
As soon as we got back to the hostel, I rented a towel and had an incredible shower. 3 days with the same pair of underwear was not pleasant. I also paid to stay an extra week in this hostel. It is really quite sweet here. Very colourful and bright and the room has a bay window that is ceiling high and overlooks ye street.
Slept well on the top bunk last night. Got to bed around 1am. Crazy to think I lasted nearly 24 hours and still felt like exploring!
Breakfast is free and is such a good spread! Croissants, baguettes sliced up, to put butter, marmalade or dulce de leche on it, cornflakes, froot loops, fruit, tea/coffee, strawberry milk (no thanks) and freshly squeezed orange juice.
Gustavo at breakfast told me that I was talking in my sleep and laughing about it. Apparently I was saying "No, I'm not dreaming! Nooo!" Which is a bit embarrassing. But a bit funny too.
After breakfast the three of us still looked pretty tired and I told them that today I was going to rest and catch up on sleep. They said that they were about to say the same thing. So we went off to bed again. I woke up about an hour later feeling so comfortable and much more revived. The boys were already awake and talking. They asked if I would like to come with them for a walk. I said sure! Grabbed my camera and was ready within 30 seconds.
We walked for about 2.5 hours before stopping for lunch at a pizzeria. The menus were a bit of fun to try and interpret. I couldn't find the word pizza on the menu so ordered pasta ravioli with a limonade. She asked if I wanted it naturale. I said yes, thinking again of American lemonade and not solo or sprite. But this time, it came out as just plain lemon juice. Still had the rim of sugar, it just was very hard to gulp down.
After lunch we walked and walked. I saw lots of amazing shops that I need to check out but didn't want to bore the boys, so tried to remember land marks so I could visit them in my own time. The buildings in San Telmo are so beautiful. They are old and have so much character.
All of a sudden I desperately needed the toilet (el baño) and so we headed back toward the hostel, because apparently there are no public toilets.
After relieving myself, I went back to the room and plugged my phone in to charge (same as Australian power points!!) and lay down on my bed. Next thing I know, I wake up at 4:30pm and the boys are asleep as well. They leave tomorrow after 8 days in town. I don't know how I'm going to cope without some male bodyguards who translate Spanish into English.
Feeling much better after food and constant napping. Argentina doesn't even do siestas. I think they should. I'm on board.
Need to find an ATM aswell.
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