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Published: September 18th 2012
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We spent the night befor our flight in the Travelodge at gatwick, very cheap, stress free and a full English breakfast the next morning (our last for a while I suspect) The flight out of Gatwick to Madrid left on time and proceded to fly just south of Alton (We were watched by our plane spotting friends "Richard & Trudles Junger" as we made our way across the sky, next we flew just to the east of Bounemouth (our new home when we come back) maybe watched by the Bounemouth gang at the Airshow? After the channel we flew over Arzal in the Brittania and the old house which helped with this trip. Landed in Buenos Aires after a 25 hour journey all went smoothly apart from the 4hour delay at Madrid airport.
The pick up service was there kindly waiting for us to whisk us to our first accomadation. After sorting out a few things from our rucksacks we had a walk around the local district and found a local market and a cafe had something to eat. Lack of sleep had set in by now so we returned to our hotel to have a rest, we woke up
15 hours later feeling a lot more refreshed and hungry. The hostel breakfast consists of coffee, strange tea called "mate" bread, croissants and jam.
Avenue De Mayo to Plaza De Mayo the formal central area where the Cathedral Metropolitana and Casa Rosada the home to the offices of the president and executive branch of the Argentina goverment. We went in search of the river(always that need to find water) and ended up in the area of Puerto Madero where we found some street food stalls full of locals (always a good sign) after some grunting and pointing (wish we had studied the native tounge more) we ended up with a "Chorizopan" (sausage in a roll)
The buildings in Buenos Aires are a mixture of beutifull spanish architecture (although unmaintained for the last 100 years) and grey cement blocks thrown up in the gaps, the roads are still cobbled which is better than tarmac, the pavements are narrow and uneven, and every so often there is slabs missing or broken (where they go we do not know) The traffic is frightening at first but the longer we are here the more cockey we become, the rubbish is put out
in bins but then tipped out and scavenged by the poor for cardboard and other stuff to recycle, but in doing so a lot of the rest rubbish ends up in the street. The restaurant "Des Nivel" in San Telmo was our first Argentinian steak and wine experience and I do not have the words to describe the mouth watering taste and shear size of the steaks we ate, most people were taking photos of their food, we only managed a photo of the empty plate and two very full and happy customers.We have started our spanish lessons and go everyday to school to be taught by our teacher Nancy and although we look like fish out of water during the lessons things are starting to make sense.
We visited La Boca on Saturday morning an interesting place with many pizza restaurants with young couples dancing the tango on a makeshift stage interesting but extremely commercial and touristy. After a quick mooch around there we headed off to a small Cafe just outside the area had coffee and typical Argentinain cakes crossaints/sweet pastries the type we get every morning !!
In the afternoon sat in the
Plaza Dorrego the streets around this square are mostly antique shops which are full with vintage watches,jewellery and antique/retro clothing. In the plaza we watched a couple dance the tango while we sat there and soaked the atmosphere up and enjoyed a beer or two !! We must do our Spanish homework for Monday morning class
We have our fiirst and second problem with our bank cards! We set up an TRAVEL account with HSBC got a card each told them where we were going and when but after drawing out our first 1000 pesos the cards were blocked, after a long conversation with a man from Delhi they agreed to unblock them and told us off for not letting them know we were going abroad? !! two days later the cash machine informed us we had had 3000 pesos when all we had was 2000 this is ongoing so watch this blog!!
We took a boat trip to Tigre rio de la Plata about 30 km up the river in the swamp delta, a cross between deliverance (the film) and sandbanks very few roads everyone gets about by boat.
We have two more spanish lessons and
then Thursday we cross the river and head north to Colonia de Sacramento and Montevideo in Uruguay.
Ps Thanks to the man from Delhi who gave us the 1000 pesos back
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Paul Cottrell
non-member comment
Great
Great blog - brings back good memories - go see a Boca Juniors game if you get the chance!