Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Having flown on a 3 year old plane we thought we were arriving in luxury to Buenos Aires find a real international airport, customs was a breeze the only two declaration questions being asked was did we have food with us or over $10,000USD (we wish!). Seems like the customs is ridiculously relaxed about stuff coming in - even though we declared it no-one seemed to care, or even looked, we went straight through the xray and we were on our way. We figured out pretty fast that there was a $5 difference between taking a Taxis straight to our hostel and taking a bus - where we would of had to switch and then find our way to accommodation, so $50 well spent. On our trip in we got to see some of the outskirts of the city where massive apartment buildings lay host to probably thousands of people, and the closer into the centre we got the more that it seemed like europe to Jane.
Our hostel is right in the micro-centre - the main downtown and the tourist district and not a far walk from the main plaza. It was clearly quite an expensive building with a marble staircase leading all the way to the top level. Our first night after getting settled was to find a supermarket which was easy enough - after we asked at a hotel continental after the directions given by the person at our hostel was less than accurate. After returning our groceries we went in search of a restaurant, Jane wasn't too hungry but Karl was eager for a steak after a short amount of walking it started to drizzle so the restaurant / cafe nearest to us did the trick, it was actually a bit average with Jane's spanish omlette being burnt and Karl's pepper sauce on his steak having whole pepper corns in it making the sauce varied in spice, but Karl's rum and coke came with more rum than coke which was quite enjoyable.
Buenos Aries Day 2 we spent firstly by having breakfast - Karl was delighted to finally have proper toast, Jane just happy that it wasn't stale bread again with tasteless marmalade and butter so hard from the cold you can't spread it. We even got dulce de leche (yum! it's caramelised sweetened condensed milk!). We got our days lunch supplies from the supermarket on our way to the Buenos Aries craft markets in San Telmo. When we got there we saw quite a lot we liked - unfortunately most made from untreated wood so we couldn't get any of it (fortunate for our wallets). We walked for 5 city blocks before taking a rest to the side of a jazz band playing in one of the side streets, they were fantastic Karl got some photos and Jane bought their CD. After our break we found some stuff for Jane to use in our wedding next year and purchased some of it and thought about coming back for the rest once we found the end of the market place. The total market starts on one of the streets just off the main plaza (town square) and extends using both sides of the cobble-stoned road for 12 full city blocks, we started around 10am and finished at about 4:30pm where we both bought a acrylic painting on canvas that we both loved when we started the day.
Day 3 - after a bit of a sleep in, we found that we had (again) chanced a public holiday. Not the biggest deal, but we had been planning on getting some washing done (way out of clothes!), but a lot was shut again for the public holiday, so we are again in dirty clothes (at least we smell equally as bad - and they have hot showers here!). So we were told about this farmers market so we decided to fear the public transport (which is cheap as) and found ourselves at another plaza where we walked a for some distance along park areas before descending on the markets where there was a dog training school right next door, so as well as a plentiful amount of yummy foods there were lots of dogs to dote affection on, especially a pug that Karl was so fond of however its owner was not keen on so much attention being placed on his dog. After the market we headed for a lovely stroll around the park which is well used by the locals and contains paddle boats in one of the lakes in the park. Karl attempted to entice a goose with a rock for a better photo, and got close to having his fingers bitten off. Walking back we went to see how much the zoo was, and it was out of our price range so we walked beside it sometimes grabbing glimpses of different animals like a giraffe, flamingoes, and odd looking geese, a cow, etc once back on the underground we plotted our way to the shopping district so we could look for snow gear and new undergarments as we both were out of stock due to the public holiday as mentioned before. After getting back to our hostel we packed up our gear for our flight the following day and then went out for pizza and a movie, Abraham Lincoln vampire slayer, the movie provided much entertainment as it really is as bad as its title.
This morning we got up early (for us holiday makers) and even managed breakfast prior to catching the taxis to a different airport. After our check-in we headed to the departure lounge where we couldn't get Wifi to work until we found someones phone had been setup with the wifi on so we stole their internet, once up in the air we lounged back some of the farms we were flying over looked like it had lakes spotted all over them. This afternoon we will check into our room and get our laundry done, and try to find a cheap local place to hire our snow gear for tomorrow, the field we are going to is called cathedral, it now has 39 lifts only half were open yesterday1200 hectares of ski able area and a maximum altitude of 2180. It has a massive area for learners, one area that starts from 3/4 of the way up the mountain, so Jane is looking forward to the long learner runs.
- comments
Val A more civilised lifestyle than previously .... wonderful. Sounds like retail heaven in the enormous markets. Good to know you have all your fingers Karl and not forsaken to a goose. Work on more one-liners Jane - was in stitches when reading previously of your translation for bum. :)
rob glad us,s got a newer plane back hope your days sking goes well
uellan sounds like markets was it for Buenos Aries... wonder if the zoo had kangaroos? lol! holidays are for not changing clothes often and being truly bumbs...