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the dream
i landed in Buenos Aires with no sleep, feeling the effects of 24 hours drinking, flying and lieing in airports and arrived at the hostel to find my partner in crime, stufunky, asleep. he had been drinking again, and had only made it to bed moments before. this was the kind of behaviour I had learnt to expect from uncle rico ,but to my surprise he was up and ready to show me around in no time. turns out vodka is 1.75 sterling/litre, beer less than 1 pound a litre etc. ready made revelling. he was particularly keen to show me his new favourite food - empanadas- the argentine pie. (30p). classic fatboy fodder. all looking good, so a quick snooze and out for some fine dining - a giant steak of tastiness words cannot describe. classic british drink binge followed, complete with club (inc walk-around transvestites) and some sweet min tech. in bed by 10.
following days continued in the same vain, maxing, relaxing and chatting to passers through. a few freshers were lurking in the hostel but a few characters as well, including scouse-the angriest man buenos aires had ever seen and figer (like liger apparently)- the brazilian girl who tried to teach me how to dance brazilian. the dance was suspiciously like the classic british "bump and grind" but i went with it. things took a turn for the worse when hooch was caught sniffing around in her handbag for cigarettes but we managed to smooth things over. went to see uruguay vs argentina as well-absolute bloodbath.
before long we left the metropolis and headed to a place called rosario to learn some lingo. my attorney had lined up some lessons with a money grabbing broad who´s got us staying with a mum and her kids, school exchange style. we now find ourselves in frequent conversation with this crazy lady who jabbers incoherent babble and smiles at us while we say "si, si" and try not to offend her. you couldnt write this stuff, they even took us on their family day out at the beach on sunday. spanish is getting better but we´re mainly learnng words like "pedestrian crossing" and "electric razor", not sure when we´re gonna get to some words that people actually use. at the mo keeping our heads down and trying not to spend much, job prospects in any field seem slim out here so may try and set up a roller disco for the locals, who seem keen to welcome a brit and a greek. as for revelling here, apparently i was too drunk to get into any dancing clubs last friday but made it to one on sunday with a few sound scandinavians but the quantity of reggaeton/mika remixes may get some getting used to! rosario seems class so far though so probs gonna be around here for a while longer.
So we moved out of the crazy family`s house and into a hostel in an inspired move that saw our rigorous spanish studying policy detiorate but good times ratio rise considerably. The hostel is run by two classic clowns, one of which is like something out of spinal tap (long hair, aviators, led zep on repeat) and the other something of a chilled out entertainer (apparently can`t sleep unless he`s on a public bus), and we were generally the only residents in the week. So we joined the team which included Ramon- a man with a serious moustache who is a door to door salesman of meats, cheeses and of course herbal-, daniel- the man they are employing to renovate the place but turns up with a bottle of red wine (which he swigs out the bottle like some kind of troubled artist), his `happy box`(classic stoner) and his power tools which he uses more to wake me up than to do anything constructive with (probably for the best). Oh and he also brings his recorder (i know), within five minutes of meeting him he had me playing the guitar, intermittently shouting notes at me and tooting his recorder like we were at school. other characters include adrian, a real life international pimp, a group of broads who were training to be english translators (who looked at me and stu like the heroes that we are when we spoke normally-easy game), and about 30, 50+ bolivians who came to stay and every morning came out in their bright coloured pyjamas and sleeping hats shouting `buenas dias!` (pretty surreal off the back of a heavy night with no sleep).
Quite happy with the spanish as well, can speak and read decent enough but listening and understanding is still difficult...getting better all the time though, conversations are certainly a lot smoother now than before. In recent weeks we also made it to creamfields where we met 3 mexican lads who were seriously friendly and looked after us well while stu got frisked and had to bribe the security guy ¡n classic south american styleee, but later swindled his way into vip. Lads went for a sky dive as well for some classic traveller banter and left rosario on a high. We`re now on the move, at the mo in paraguay which seems even more devoid of tourists than rosario which is nice, and everyone told us was really dangerous but so far the country has treated us well. Met some friendly boys and girls the other night too who took us to a karaoke bar after hours (?!) and we are in this random place outside of the capital assuncion where within 5 minutes of asking a policeman where a cheap hotel was, he had me playing roll over beethoven to him while he smiled and tapped his foot!
future plans involve catching a ride up river paraguay on a cargo boat for 30 hours (apparently w/ hammock, hooch cant wait) and then trying to hitch our way across to some waterfalls back in argentina. Afterwards the plan is a bit of uruguay beach action so hopefully good times ahead!!
following days continued in the same vain, maxing, relaxing and chatting to passers through. a few freshers were lurking in the hostel but a few characters as well, including scouse-the angriest man buenos aires had ever seen and figer (like liger apparently)- the brazilian girl who tried to teach me how to dance brazilian. the dance was suspiciously like the classic british "bump and grind" but i went with it. things took a turn for the worse when hooch was caught sniffing around in her handbag for cigarettes but we managed to smooth things over. went to see uruguay vs argentina as well-absolute bloodbath.
before long we left the metropolis and headed to a place called rosario to learn some lingo. my attorney had lined up some lessons with a money grabbing broad who´s got us staying with a mum and her kids, school exchange style. we now find ourselves in frequent conversation with this crazy lady who jabbers incoherent babble and smiles at us while we say "si, si" and try not to offend her. you couldnt write this stuff, they even took us on their family day out at the beach on sunday. spanish is getting better but we´re mainly learnng words like "pedestrian crossing" and "electric razor", not sure when we´re gonna get to some words that people actually use. at the mo keeping our heads down and trying not to spend much, job prospects in any field seem slim out here so may try and set up a roller disco for the locals, who seem keen to welcome a brit and a greek. as for revelling here, apparently i was too drunk to get into any dancing clubs last friday but made it to one on sunday with a few sound scandinavians but the quantity of reggaeton/mika remixes may get some getting used to! rosario seems class so far though so probs gonna be around here for a while longer.
So we moved out of the crazy family`s house and into a hostel in an inspired move that saw our rigorous spanish studying policy detiorate but good times ratio rise considerably. The hostel is run by two classic clowns, one of which is like something out of spinal tap (long hair, aviators, led zep on repeat) and the other something of a chilled out entertainer (apparently can`t sleep unless he`s on a public bus), and we were generally the only residents in the week. So we joined the team which included Ramon- a man with a serious moustache who is a door to door salesman of meats, cheeses and of course herbal-, daniel- the man they are employing to renovate the place but turns up with a bottle of red wine (which he swigs out the bottle like some kind of troubled artist), his `happy box`(classic stoner) and his power tools which he uses more to wake me up than to do anything constructive with (probably for the best). Oh and he also brings his recorder (i know), within five minutes of meeting him he had me playing the guitar, intermittently shouting notes at me and tooting his recorder like we were at school. other characters include adrian, a real life international pimp, a group of broads who were training to be english translators (who looked at me and stu like the heroes that we are when we spoke normally-easy game), and about 30, 50+ bolivians who came to stay and every morning came out in their bright coloured pyjamas and sleeping hats shouting `buenas dias!` (pretty surreal off the back of a heavy night with no sleep).
Quite happy with the spanish as well, can speak and read decent enough but listening and understanding is still difficult...getting better all the time though, conversations are certainly a lot smoother now than before. In recent weeks we also made it to creamfields where we met 3 mexican lads who were seriously friendly and looked after us well while stu got frisked and had to bribe the security guy ¡n classic south american styleee, but later swindled his way into vip. Lads went for a sky dive as well for some classic traveller banter and left rosario on a high. We`re now on the move, at the mo in paraguay which seems even more devoid of tourists than rosario which is nice, and everyone told us was really dangerous but so far the country has treated us well. Met some friendly boys and girls the other night too who took us to a karaoke bar after hours (?!) and we are in this random place outside of the capital assuncion where within 5 minutes of asking a policeman where a cheap hotel was, he had me playing roll over beethoven to him while he smiled and tapped his foot!
future plans involve catching a ride up river paraguay on a cargo boat for 30 hours (apparently w/ hammock, hooch cant wait) and then trying to hitch our way across to some waterfalls back in argentina. Afterwards the plan is a bit of uruguay beach action so hopefully good times ahead!!
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