The journey begins... and gets off to a bad start

---

Hello - now I´ve got a bit of time spare I thought I´d do a cheeky little blog update.

Day 0 and 1:

The two plane journeys were pretty exhausting. Adam transpired to lose his jumper on the first flight. At least he has yet to hit the final goal in his potential hat-trick of lifetime passport losses. But there´s plenty of time for that. On arriving at our supposed hostel in Buenos Aires, we were hit by the news that our hostel booking was no longer valid and we would have to check in somewhere else. Can you guess why...? Adam booked the hostel for the wrong day. Good one. Fortunately we move to a nearby hostel (St Nicolas) and everything is fine. Got the most wet I´ve ever been in my life during a half an hour monsoon on the way to a bongo party. Whilst there, met a Russian who spoke virtually no English but kept trying to make conversation with us. Plonker.

Day 2:

Having finally found a currency exchange, we embark on a tourist´s adventure. Visited the ´Casa Rosada´and the rather eerie cemetery in Recoletta, which is a congregation of graves housed in tall buildings. Weird, but pretty interesting. Then we embark on the long trip to Palermo by foot passing a giant metal flower on the way. Palermo is the home of ´La Cabrera´ - a steak eater´s heaven. Probably about a kilo of tasty meat was slapped onto your plate and make no missteak about it - this stuff was tasty. Whilst sat down eating the food, met a hilarious American who looked strangely like Pete Sampras.

There have been plenty of Spanish fails along the way, but none as funny as today. Having been asked in Spanish what he wanted to drink at a cafe, Adam pointed to a section of the menu and responded sheepishly ´a lemon biscuit´. Those lemon biscuits are just such popular beverages these days. Especially in Argentina.

Day 3:

Got up outrageously early to travel to Mar del Plata - the home of today´s big football match: River Plate v Boca Juniors. Never been so uncomfortable in my life on the 5 hour bus journey - made the foolish decision to sit on the back row and had my pathetic scrawny shoulders dominated either side of me by the hunk of meat that is Adam and some random foreigner. Went to what seemed to be the busiest beach in the world before the game and schooled the Argentinians in how to catch a wave with your body. And then do a few underwater sumersaults and get lots of water up your nose. They were clearly impressed. Or maybe they were just staring a body whiter than the inside of an Oreo. One of the two.

The game itself was quality - we were in the Boca end but both sets of fans were incredibibly noisy. And also very supportive of their team - Boca fans seemed to get even louder when they conceded a goal (which happened 3 times in a gauling 3-1 defeat). Which is refreshing considering that most fans in England start to boo their teams after the first misplaced corner. Adam and Charlie had their bags heavily searched and received a sensual pat down by the Argentinian security guards. I just walked straight on through - maybe I´m starting to blend in with the locals more. Good. I am also still the proud owner of a lynx deoderant - the others got theirs confiscated. Clearly it´s against the rules to smell good while watching a football game in Argentina.

Day 4:

Slow start, not helped by my insistence that I HAD to change my currency at HSBC, the world´s local bank. More like world´s slowest-at-giving-you-money bank. Walked to La Boca - home of my new 6th favourite football team and bought some quality merchandise. Then had a little gander to Caminito - a very quaint little part of Boca with colourful housing. Finished the evening by walking through San Telmo and having a Mexican dinner where Adam accidently ordered soup instead of something more substantial.

Spent the rest of the evening in the upstairs bar in our hostel and met a Swede who looked like Roger Federer and a Dutch girl who Adam insists has some kind of disorder. Mafans syndrome. I´m not sure what to think - Adam is normally full of nonsense. Ever since he claimed that 1 tablet of paracetamol is worse for your liver than a large alcoholic bender I´ve started to question his judgment on scientific issues. Got to bed only to find that it was now occupied by a Chinese girl. Brilliant. Slept underneath Shrennie (in a bunk bed, not literally...) and had to constantly resist the temptation to give him a slap whenever a limb dropped down to my part of the bed. Don´t want to send out a bad message to our new Chinese friends.

---