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We arrived in Buenos Aires (BA) in the early evening, somewhat exhausted after the thrills of the skydiving during the day! After driving around a few of the hostels only to find they were full, we finally arrived at Hostel Inn Tango City, which was to be our home for the next ten days or so. We popped out for some very tasty and cheap dinner where Marisha had Argentine steak, and assured Rakhee that it easily deserved its reputation!Back at the hostel we were all set for an early night, when we found an e-mail from Andres, our Argentine friend who's birthday we had celebrated in Belem, back in Brazil at the beginning of the trip. He was literally a few blocks away in a bar, so we headed over there to meet him, his brother, and friend, and passed a few hours catching up and laughing about our days in Brazil. The next day we explored BA a little by foot. It was an interesting place, very much a cosmopolitan capital city, with a very European feel. The roads were wide and backed up with traffic, the streets bustled with people hurrying about between the shops, cafes, and restaurants, and BA even came complete with its own high-rise, glass building, banking district. The ambiance was simply incredible and felt somewhat surreal because it was nothing like any of the other South American cities we had visited, but we loved it instantly all the same!That evening we went round to inspect Andres'flat, where we ordered a much needed Chinese take-away and chilled out in front of the tv. In BA, nobody goes out until around 2am, so Marisha took the opportunity to have a little snooze on the sofa, before we all headed out to a club called Sahara, in the fashionable Recoleta district. The club was desert themed, with statues and Egyptian hieroglyphics decorating the walls, and being three floors, it was also pretty huge. We passed a good few hours prancing about along with everyone else, to the random collection of songs that was being played, before finally dragging ourselves back to the hostel in the early hours of the morning!The next day Rakhee was up early to go for a haircut, at a very cool salon that had its own bar inside! Marisha was up a bit later, but just in time for the long-awaited arrival of Jonny, a good friend from home, who was travelling with his friend Anand. The first five minutes contained much hugging, jumping about, and screeching, before everything finally calmed down a bit and introductions were made.It was great to see a familiar face after so long, but very surreal at the same time. Nonetheless, within 15 minutes it was just like being back in North London, as we played catch up with our travel stories.Rakhee arrived back at the hostel sporting a gorgeous new haircut, and so began a week of madness and mayhem, in which the four of us nearly split our sides from laughing so much.We passed our days exploring the various areas of BA, which ranged from rundown market areas to much more upmarket districts, crammed full of boutique shops, cafes and restaurants.It was incredibly hard for us girls to resist buying almost everything we saw, because for the first time in months, the window displays were full of fashionable clothes that we would wear back home, all at a fraction of the price!!Somehow though, we managed to fit in all of the areas of BA during the course of the week, despite not leaving the hostel till almost 1pm every day!!Of our daytime activities, a few spring to mind.One afternoon we visited a humongous, but thoroughly interesting, Modern Art Museum, which had some fantastic contemporary work, and was also housing Rhodin's sculpture - "The Kiss".This excited Rakhee because it was Rhodin and she had no idea it was there, and it excited Marisha just because she had heard of it!!Another afternoon involved Marisha dragging the others to Recoleta cemetery to see Eva Peron's (Evita) grave.When we finally found it, it was a bit of an anticlimax, and wasn't nearly as exciting as running into Olaf and Kristin from our tour in Bolivia, right next to the tomb!! On Sunday afternoon we went to watch Boca Juniors play a match at La Boca stadium against a team called Arsenal(!).We huddled together in the cold and entertained ourselves by watching the match, drinking coffee, and making a lot of mess with a bag of nuts!The game wasn't that great, ending 1-1, but in many ways it was similar to football at home, with the Argentines shouting and swearing all the way through from the terraces behind us.Another day's highlight was a trip to a Kosher restaurant in the Jewish quarter of BA!! Keeping Kosher, Jonny hadn't eaten meat in almost four months and so with the help of his trusty Jewish Guide to Travel, we located the nearest restaurant and went to chow down!!Jonny and Marisha ordered a mixed grill to share and when it arrived, they were both absolutely astounded!!The plate was huge and contained every single type of meat you can think of, and some that to this day remain unidentifiable!!The look on Jonny's face was matched only by the look on Rakhee's face when a plate of humous arrived at the table!!After about 30 mins all of us were full, except Jonny who kept going and going, and eventually ended up taking away a doggy-bag of the meat, determined not to let a single piece go to waste!!We didn't think about it too much at the time, but on reflection, a Marisha, two Indians, and non-religious Jew, arriving into a very religious looking restaurant, in a very religious area, must have been pretty hilarious!!Only one word can be used to describe our evening activities - CRAZY!!On the boy's first night, we headed out to an uber posh club called Opera Bay, which is constructed to look like Sydney Opera House, and overlooks the river that runs through BA.The club itself was stunning, with millions of rooms and bars, a small pool, and outdoor areas (despite the fact it was freezing!), however the music wasn't all that and the drinks were overpriced.Although we tried our best, we all stood out a mile as backpackers, because the Argentines are always dressed immaculately - day or night!It was still an interesting night out though, and apparently a must-go nightspot if you ever find yourself in BA.One night we did the tourist thing and went to see a tango show.Although not much can be said for the food, the dancers were absolutely phenomenal, and we all tried hard to figure out just how they didn't end up stepping on each other's toes when they moved so fast!The costumes were beautiful as they swished about the stage and we did contemplate taking a tango lesson the next day, but it never materialised!When we arrived back at the hostel, Jonny went to bed as we were getting up early the next morning to go to Uruguay for the day(!).Anand, however, decided to join us, along with Hannah (a girl who had been staying in our room, who happened to be on her year abroad from Nottingham University!) in an outing to a Drum and Bass night, at yet another of BA's nightclubs!It was a great little place and the music was perfect as we all jumped about to the beat and partied hard!To add to the greatness of the night, we bumped into Richard, a guy who had been staying with us at the hostel in Bonito (Brazil), and Rakhee also bumped into Pritesh, a friend from university.As if that wasn't enough for one night, there were also two members of the Harlem Globe Trotters basketball team partying away with us in the club!!All in all, it was a fabulous night, and we didn't end up back at the hostel until the early hours of the morning.It probably wasn't the best idea, since we were booked on the 8am ferry to Colonia in Uruguay, but we figured we were young and could handle it!We stayed up in the hostel bar/common room, still hyper from the excitement of our night out, and when 7am rolled around, Jonny joined us and the four of us headed to the harbour?
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