Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Buenos Aires - The Portal to Adventure


The City
Buenos Aires offered me a taste of what Argentina had to offer me—relaxation, spontaneous fun, excellent new friends to hang out with, memorable football, language challenges, and the kindness and generosity of Argentinean people—and prepared me for the next segment of my trip. A portal to adventure, Buenos Aires opened the door for the next 10 weeks of adventurous, exciting, hilarious travels throughout South America, this great, great land of fun and excitement! In walking through this gateway to travel, you experience a shift in priorities. Your most critical appliance changes from blow-dryer to headlamp, and the coolest thing you own is no longer your laptop, but the twisty elastic travel clothesline (you don’t need clothespins!).

Surprisingly, I didn’t live it up in BA. I arrived around 9am, exhausted from a mix of flying all night and a 5-hour time difference. The first day I walked across the entire city on a 6-hour journey to sightsee. It’s a busy city, but not overwhelming. Bright colors, cute boutiques, and dog walkers exercising 10 dogs of all shapes and sizes at a time. People not just kissing on the street, but seriously making out in public. Cute small corner restaurants and little confiterias/pastelerias. After my day of be-a-rock-star-and-go-all-day-until-2am, I reminded myself that I am on vacation, and my stay in the city proved this point. Each other day I slept in until noonish, getting up to hang around the hostel, watching soccer and drinking coffee in my sweats for a good hour before showering and being "productive."

The People
The travel experience is not only about what you see, but whom you meet. The people in my hostel were great. One of the girls, Kelley, is from the US and had been in the hostel for 3 months. I went out to dinner with her and her friends, all of whom had been staying in the hostel for months, each either doing long-term travel and staying in BA to learn Spanish, teach English, or learn Tango or Salsa. Also in the hostel was a group of 5 British boys, mostly from Bristol. They were all in my dorm, so I felt pretty acquainted with them after they got home from the clubs around 8 or 9 in the morning! Much to my delight, they invited me to go with them to see a Boca game and the experience was nothing short of memorable.

The Experiences
In preparation for my trip to Necochea, I needed to buy a bus ticket. Upon arriving at the main train/bus station, I looked around for the bus ticket booth. Nothing. I lapped a couple times, studying my surroundings in the ever-so-stealth, "I’m clearly not a tourist, so don’t mess with me" way. I soon realized I needed to ask someone for directions. Ok, who? Yes—I’ll go ask that old lady working in the pharmacy. While I asked in Spanish, apparently my accent was so bad that she couldn’t understand what I needed (but give me a break, that was Day One). More and more people crowded around to see what I needed and I kept trying, my face flushed with embarrassment. Estacion de Omnibus! Necessito una boleta para Omnibus! Finally, this nice lady approaches me and asks me in English, "What do you need?" She explained where the bus ticket booth was (actually a completely different building), and walked me halfway there while chatting with me about where I was from and where I was traveling. The unselfish kindness of complete strangers is such a reassuring feeling when so far from home.

The highlight of my experience in BA is without a doubt the Boca game. When I watch soccer and basketball, I get some sort of adrenalin rush. I’m focused, almost as if I am making the decision as to where the next pass will go, and whether or not it’s the right opportunity to take a shot. It’s always been that way for me. Here I am, watching—no, absorbing—something I get to be a part of...once again. It was the perfect warmup, a glorious little taste of what was to come the following week in Necochea.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

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