Buns, Cakes, Steaks, and all things nice. Buenos Aires.

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Well the bus journey was 100 times better than the Brazilian bus journey. For starters our seats reclined to 160 degrees and there were only three in a row instead of four. We got a pillow, a warm blanket and there was a TV screen for every three rows. The bus pulled out on time but not before the Brady Bunch got on board! Half were behind us and the others were in front. They all seemed fine until one of the girls around three years of age started balling her eyes out for well over an hour. It was one of those angry temper cries that kind of screams as much as cries. Luckily our mp3 players were well charged and it didn’t really bother us (that much!).
We had been told that we would be well fed on the bus and get loads of tea and coffee. We got on the bus at 2:20pm and only brought salted crackers and water with us. By 6pm we were rationing out the crackers and giving up on any hope of food. Every stop for a new passenger brought hope of maybe stopping at a shop and been told we had ten minutes. 7 o’clock past and 8 did too. I had started to become delirious and Michelle’s patience with me was been tested. I was reading out phrases from the Spanish phrase book loudly and probably sounded like some demented fool shouting our random sayings. Estoy ambient (I’m starving!), Es posible alquilar una bicicleta (can I hire a bike!) Lo siento, no puedo levantarla (I wont tell ye what that is but it’s in the book!). People must have thought what kind of ejit have we got on board. 9 o’clock came and some announcement was made over the bus about god knows what. The crackers at this stage were like eating sand and we had gone beyond the point of being hungry. We were feeling sick at this stage as we hadn’t eaten since 11am and when you have time to sit around and think about being hungry it’s even worse. Shortly after 9pm we were handed a tray with quiche, bread, ham, cheese, and some fruit. We were just about to polish of the fruit when they came with some more. Chicken and rice. It didn’t taste too good but we were in food heaven. The guy came with drinks for us and we had a choice of fizzy drinks or wine. We were happy again and we started to get ready for a good nights sleep. With our chair in sleep mode it wasn’t long before I fell asleep. The chairs were quite comfortable and it wasn’t hard to nod off. Michelle on the other hand found it hard to sleep and it was nearly 12am by the time she slept. I woke only a few times during the night and thankfully the young girl decided to sleep too! The lights on the bus were turned on at half six, two hours before we were due to arrive in Retiro bus station. We were served a breakfast of croissants, bread and some very sweet coffee. The young girl woke and screamed/cried for an hour solid. I can imagine though that been a child stuck on a bus for 20hrs is a right pain in the behind. God, if I could have cried I would have too!

We got off the bus and headed straight for a taxi. The driver was friendly and though both of us didn’t understand a word we were saying to each other we had a great conversation! Lots of nodding and one worded sentence’s. Contepomei, Rugby, Ireland, Argentina, Beer, Buenos Aires muy bien. He dropped us off at our hostel and the cab only cost about €3 for 10 mins. As it was early morning our room wasn’t ready, so we checked in, paid for our room and headed out onto the streets of Buenos Aires. We walked as far as Plaza de Mayo and had a look around. From there we walked out of the north west side of the plaza in search of food. We eventually happened upon a place and settled on a few empanadas and coffee. After that we walked through Av. Florida which seems to be the main shopping street in Buenos Aires. We returned to our hostel before 2pm and spent some time on the internet while we waited for our room which is on the fifth floor. Our room is in a separate room with two others beside it and a kitchen and with a small table and chairs.

We ventured back out on to the streets for pizza, clothes shops and a supermarket. We found a nice pizza place where you pick what slices you want. For €5 we got 4 big slices and a bottle of water and we were full after that. The pizza was lovely and I’m sure we’ll be having plenty more. This town is my kind of nightmare and also my kind of dream. Everything you eat comes in pastry whether it is savoury or sweet. There are cake shops absolutely everywhere. Empanadas are a kind of pastie filled with either chicken, cheese or beef, pasta and pizza is everywhere and you can get the biggest steaks we have ever seen, all in this place. These are all the foods we’re told either not to eat or to eat in moderation. But here you cannot help but tuck in as it’s fairly cheap and everywhere you go. You cannot walk 10 metres without seeing one or the other. Luckily we’re doing lots of walking so it makes up for all the pastry eating! Also this place is like 'flyer city'. Every two yards some guy or girl is trying to give you a flyer for some sort of thing or another. It’s not annoying or anything, I just couldn’t get over the amount been handed out. At times as well you have to remind yourself that you are in South America as BA looks like a big European city. The people, shops, food, and buildings all look European. You can loose yourself and forget where you actually are. Anyway, after eating we went clothes shopping. Michelle wanted to get a new dress for Paddy’s day and with all the shops around why not. We tried a few stores and couldn’t find anything until she was just about to give up and low and behold she found two!! Armed with two new dresses all we needed was to do some shopping for the dinner. We quickly found a small supermarket and got some pasta, bread and melon. We went back and relaxed at the table drinking Barry’s tea and talked about our plans for the next few days. Although we have six days in BA, nearly three of them are for drinking and recovering from drinking. Today is Paddy’s day so tomorrow we might be a bit rough and Saturday is the match and if Ireland win we'll be even rougher! We can’t wait!

In a bit. DH

Song of the blog: Champagne Supernova - Oasis

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