I had not slept more than a wink thus far on the trip, and was lucky enough to watch as we flew through beautiful clear skies, and flew over Buenos Aires before landing. It was quite beautiful to see. I had forgotten how flying during the daytime feels.
View from my window seat!
We landed and arrived at customs, where- to the horror of both Asha (from Australia) and I (USA) and to the elation of Jimmy (England)-we discovered that Australians and United Statesians have to pay a retribution fee upon entry.... I had to pay $140 to enter the country, but it is good for 10 years. Poor Asha had to pay somewhere near the same price, but this is only good for 1 year. Ay caramba!
We finally arrived at Hostel 1 in San Telmo where our friends had already booked us our beds. We ran into Gaby (Australia) and Helouisse (France) on the street corner **Sketchy....** and then dragged ourselves up the flight of stairs to check in and set up our things. We walked into our room where there were 8 beds, 2 of which held our other 2 friends.. both extremely ...well... we'll just say tired and not in good spirits...after a long night out. Victor (France) slowly came to life to say hello, and eventually hopped out of his bed to welcome us and get ready to walk around Buenos Aires with us. Laura (Australia) said hello, covered her eyes, and tried to be sociable while complaining about the sunlight and the noise.... pobrecita. She ended up staying in bed until about 6PM.
We did a bit of wandering, and ate a nice lunch at small parilla restaurant with a short tango show. Fueled for the next few hours, we walked to Plaza de Mayo. This is a very important location filled with strong political and emotional history from the 1970s until now. The following wikipedia site will give you a small overview of the political movement of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothers_of_the_Plaza_de_Mayo
Jimmy, Asha, Victor
Signs at the Plaza de Mayo.
We walked down a few more streets before we discovered what turned out to be the most amazing ice cream I have ever tasted!! We each got our own huge bowls of ice cream to enjoy... more fuel to help get us back to the hostel so that we can pass out for a few hours!
Om nom nom!
That evening, after resting up for about 3 hours, we went out for a few drinks. We met up with the other 3 ladies at the lounge, and then the 5 women wisely decided it was time to go home, sleep and start fresh in the morning. The 2 guys could not fathom this idea, and so they went out for the night.
Next day, we all woke up and were out of the hostel by approximately noon to walk around and enjoy the sites!
All 7 of us were in great spirits until we all were struck with a strong feeling of hunger. We stopped and drank some coffee, shared a few Spanish Tortillas (egg, potato, sausage, onions...) and salads (for the vegetarian of the group) and we hopped back on the path of exploration.
We came across a rather beautiful park with a children's playground. Being that all of us have our own inner child that is crying to be let out to play, we naturally took a good 20 minutes to enjoy the beautiful weather, the beautiful scenery, and the fun of swings, see-saws, and slides!
We came across a rather beautiful park with a children's playground. Being that all of us have our own inner child that is crying to be let out to play, we naturally took a good 20 minutes to enjoy the beautiful weather, the beautiful scenery, and the fun of swings, see-saws, and slides!
We then continued to venture back into the more central part of the city, as the women were craving to do some shopping. The guys finally got the hint and were able to go do their own thing while we traipsed in and out of stores buying cute new earrings and clothes. We ended our "Ladies' Afternoon" with delicious ice cream from a quite modernized heladeria. We made the treck back to the hostel and prepped for the evening out.
We went to a very nice restaurant to have more parillas, pasta, and wine. It was delicious, and we left very happy.
My first Noquis! Delicious!
Most of us ladies are wearing some new purchase
We continued the night by going to the house party of a friend of a cousin of Helouisse... The friend of the cousin never showed up... But we had a few drinks and then continued our night (it is now around 3AM) by going to a club which was over crowded and was playing live Cumbia-Rap. When 2 girls decided they needed to go home, I went with them. I was too tired to deal with such a crowd. So, as we taxi-ed back to the hostel, I made a comment about how we were being smart and getting home before 3:30Am... that we could start early Sunday for nice coffee and relaxing breakfast. Laura laughed, looked at me and said, "Kate.. you realize it is about 10 minutes before 5AM...right?!"
Ooops!
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