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Published: September 21st 2009
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Tim Version:
* Checked out Cordoba over a couple of days on foot and its a real mixture of a place, both good and bad!
The slightly mystified version... the town, its quite a mixture and not as I thought it would be:
I'd been told it was a University town which generally appeals to me. Unfortunately I was arriving at a very quiet time of year so I knew it wouldn't be as lively and have that real University town feeling to it.
Arriving, the bus terminal is pretty large so gave me good hope of the town being lively. Wandering through the streets to my hostel however I barely saw another soul! All the shops were closed and the centre square was closed for reconstruction. It was a Sunday so I expected little to be open but even the small corner stores were not operating yet.
The first day I chilled mostly though I got to walk a good part of the city. I found it to be badly in need of repair but interesting in parts. These guys are definitely steak mad - its the standard and often cheapest meal at many a
place to eat. The water ways around 2 sides of the city (When I say "city" I mean the central tourist part and the park as described on most tourist maps) were unfortunately polluted, full of rubbish and in need of repair though I've come to expect this as the norm by now. With Argentina's economy severely damaged it is a visibly suffering place. By this I don't mean the people suffer - perhaps they do, perhaps they don't - but the infrastructure of the country is suffering through lack of maintenance. That night I just chilled with a few people in the hostel and had a few drinks watching Yes Man, not a bad movie!
The second day it was the weekend and apparently lots of people go to the parks then so I thought I'd check it out. Wandering through town it was still very quiet but near the parks in the South I did find much nicer areas with more modern buildings and open public spaces and a safer feeling. One especially nice part features the water statue and the "Woman in long dress" statues in a large redeveloped public open space area. It was filled
with families playing, kids running everywhere, and had a building with some sort of expo I think going on that had to do with children's books and literacy.
I walked down to the large park area in the south and found it to be filled with people! There were families everywhere, with casual soccer matches being played everywhere there was enough space. There was even a well setup small kids theme park type of thing. The park itself was a little ugly as it was totally dry and mostly turning to dirt but what can you do if a water shortage or some such issue kicks in - something we know a lot about in Western Australia. In the park in a path leading around the eastern edges is where I found the sad sight of the makeshift home in the tunnel part under a bridge that there is a photo of. No-one was home when I was there but it didn't look like it would be the best area to be at night or during rains but better than being without any sort of home for sure.
Wandering back from the park I went up the Eastern
side of town and discovered the seedy side! This is going past where the abandoned railway buildings and up along the water. There I found many more homeless, a few drunks, and the prostitution street that there is a photo of. Some parts starting really quite unsafe but to get away from it all you only need to walk a couple of blocks towards the city centre it seems. It is really mostly just on the fringes.
That night the hostel filled up a bit so we go to have a good social night of joking around and drinking, and for me some more solid Spanish practise.
The Third day I did near to nothing but sit in a chair up in the roof having a read or talking with those in the hostel about Argentina and other parts of Latin America until my bus late that night. Buenos Aires was my next destination and really that probably overshadowed Cordoba a lot as I had heard so much talk of Buenos Aires that I wanted to see this city that so many had fallen in love with as soon as I could. On the bus out of there
to BA I sat next to an elderly lady and as we drove out of town she explained how things had got much worse lately, much more dangerous, and that she didn't like Argentina very much anymore despite it being her home. A very sad thing to hear because though I have never seen Argentina before in it's glory days I can understand what she is talking about from what I have seen and read. I really hope their economy rights itself sooner rather than later as it could be such a great place but without maintenance on what they currently have it is going to fall into disrepair and be a much more expensive job to fix up.
about the park and it being big and good, tonnes of people on the weekend
about the beautiful parts of town but then also the shit parts of town
about the modern mall for a reprieve and the richer area near it different as it had curving nice streets instead of nothing but straight gridline streets
about the prostitution part and that area feeling dodgy and unsafe
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