Blogs from Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina, South America

Sono capitato in Argentina quasi per caso e non sono assolutamente preparato: cosa vedere, dove andare, cosa fare, cosa si beve e dove si mangia, tutto questo mi è al momento completamente ignoto. Fortunatamente Buenos Aires, il mio primo porto d'approdo, si rivela una città quasi del tutto europea, per cui non faticherò ad adattarmi. Cosa fare rimane invece ancora un bel mistero perchè, dopotutto, cosa c'è realmente da vedere in questa immensa città? Caso vuole che proprio qualche settimana fa, nel Dicembre 2022, la nazionale argentina di calcio si sia laureata campione del mondo ed il paese sembra non essersi ancora del tutto ripreso dalla sbornia dei festeggiamenti: uomini, donne e bambini indossano orgogliosamente la maglia albiceleste a qualsiasi ora del giorno, murales dei più famosi calciatori argentini spuntano come funghi sui muri di tutta ... read more

Yesterday was a free day so I decided to make the most of the sights. I’d been looking in the wrong area apparently. The night before I trotted out for a drink to find the bar round the corner in Paraguay advertising Happy Hour was closed, and at 7pm on a Saturday evening. So I went along Cordoba, one of the main streets. My Argentinian colleagues had been persuading me to give it a go. It’s pedestrianised and has a lot of shops with a few shopping arcades too, none of which looked very appealing. There were people selling stuff on blankets on the ground, cheap stuffed unicorns, socks, sunglasses etc. There was a queue (I love a queue and have successfully joined them in the past without knowing what was going to be at the ... read more

Finally I decided I really had to make the most of it here and not binge-watch Ru Paul’s Drag Race on Netflix, entertaining though it is. It seemed that the most exciting attraction was the flag monument. The flag is apparently really important here and every town makes a big thing of it. So I walked down Santa Fe from the hotel all the way to the river. I found the monument, a huge concrete thing but minus a flag. It was like stumbling into a fancy dress party and finding that everyone else was in jeans and T-shirts. It was the hugest anticlimax, although, to be fair, I wasn’t expecting too much. There were a lot of people hanging around and having their photo taken and I nearly fell flat on my face in front ... read more

When it rains here it really means it. Proper thunderstorming, set for the day, so I was very happy to be picked up. Breakfast was very good, except for the sadness of the bread, which wasn’t at all fresh. I made a sandwich to take away on principle, which may do for dinner, as in Argentina they give you lunch at work every day. After googling mate, the national tea they are all mad about and deciding to ignore the warnings of its carcinogenic properties (after prolonged use) I gave it a go. It’s not terrible. A slightly herbal smokey taste, but I guess when you get it in the special cups and made of real herbs it’s different. Maybe I’ll try that too. A taxi picked me up for work. The driver was encased in ... read more

Wednesday 11th March 2015 to Sunday 15th March 2015 (days 20 to 24) After leaving Iguazu on Tuesday I arrived in Rosario on Wednesday morning. The bus I got this time was not as nice, it was a different company so maybe I just got lucky the last time.I found I couldn't sleep on the bus and anytime I did mange to sleep I woke up 15 minutes later with either a staff member or other passenger staring at me, so by Wednesday morning I was tired and looking forward to relaxing in my hostel. The hostel was 10 minutes walk from the bus station upstairs of a building. It was a very nice looking hostel. High ceilings with stone work visible and it is clean and not cramped and there are boxes to lock your ... read more