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Published: July 15th 2006
Córdoba, Argentina's second largest city (1.3million peeps), was our second stop. It was founded in the mid-16th century and named after the Spanish city of the same name. It is also home to the continent's oldest university, established by the Jesuits in 1613 and hence the town has a distinct studenty feel - typically rising later in the morning and partying into the early hours.
We stayed in Nueva Córdoba (the new town), a large district full of places to eat, drink and party. It is a very young and vibrant area and on Saturday night is teeming with raucous, vocal and extremely intoxicated students (and travellers).
Our first demand, was a good spot to watch the England vs Portugal game and we were in luck with our choice of hostel, which sported a big telly room which at the allotted hour turned into a home away from home, with a big "Three Lions" army convening there. Only one Norhern Irish guy (evidently bitter and envious) was supporting Portugal in typically anti-English fashion. We did have the support of the Dutch though - they wanted us to exact some revenge for their bitter disappointment at having been dealt "the
go home" card by the Portuguese, in the previous round. We were also sure that Daniel Bedingfield was being Portuguese for the day, had grown his hair into a pathetically wispy and alice banded mullet and was playing under the guise of Maniche!
Well, I don't need to tell you what happened, we don't need to replay that tragedy again. Suffice to say, our Northern Irish friend was nearly flattened for his excessive cheering and "rubbing it in" attitude, after the game! The whole affair put a bit of a dampener on affairs, only time proved to be a healer in this circumstance.
Unfortunately, just to make matters worse, Laura went down with another dodgy tummy bout. It stared straight after the game and so may have been a physiological response to the emotional woe she was feeling post-match. So for the 6th time of the trip so far, I had a day going solo which culminated with a "table for one" - truly embarrassing since I inappropriately chose to take dinner in a romantic candle-lit couples restaurant. To make matters worse I told my waitress that I was a little "embarazado" - a false friend to English
Travelling in Style
Oh yeah baby - loving the bed buses!speakers who are not embarrassed as they think but are in fact claiming to be pregnant!!! Still, the food was fantastic and I had my first real taste of the famous 2-3" thick steaks for which this country is renowned.
To be brutally honest, Córdoba, pleasant as is isn't that exciting or inspiring so Laura didn't miss much. There's plenty of nice architecture, a few nice green areas and some sight-seeing opportunities but it's limited. When Laura recovered we did do a bit of roaming and dropped in on the city's art museum but again, it being a weekend (and not for the first time) meant we stumbled upon a city that was generally closed for business. Our three days in Córdoba will not be remembered for good reasons but for the anguish and grievance we felt after being unceremoniously dumped out of the World Cup by a crap side, in Portugal!
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