I did not take a nap when I got to the hostel. I went to breakfast and ended up making friends with a girl from Switzerland and a girl from Germany. They were planning on going to Tigre that day and invited me to go. It was perfect because I didn’t make it over there when I was here in Buenos Aires in January. It was a very magical place to me in 2010, so I was very excited to go visit it again. We took the subway a bit to take an hour trip on a train to Tigre. Tigre was just as wonderful as I remembered. I had more moments where I felt as though I was walking through my Facebook album of Argentina from two years ago. The McDonalds that I was forced to go to last time was still there. I noticed that they had remodeled. We bought tickets to take a boat tour around the delta to see all of the houses on the river, but the tour wasn’t for another hour and a half. We walked over to the fair and market just to see what was there. I managed to find more gifts that I needed to buy for people, and maybe a few for me as well. We had hotdogs for lunch and headed back to the boat tour. The lady that sold us the tickets found us to say that they were having trouble with the boat and it would not be for another hour or so. We had heard about a maté museum that was just down the street and decided to check that out. I loved it! There was a cute old man that gave the three of us a personal tour of the tiny museum. He was so passionate about everything that has to do with maté. There was a short film about the importance of maté too that we watched. It had absolutely terrible English subtitles. Very entertaining. After the museum, we went to the boat tour. The girl from Switzerland, Sabrina, and I bought a Quilmes beer for the trip. It felt very weird carrying around a beer in the afternoon onto a public boat tour. I kept waiting for someone to tell me it was illegal, but I never happened. There were two other people with a beer too…when in Argentina do as the Argentines do, I guess! The boat tour was so great. I got to see the art museum I want to get married in and other things I saw two years ago. After the boat tour we headed back to the hostel. First we stopped at a store to buy chips because I was starving. I Skyped and started panning out my trip to Uruguay with Jacobo, Jose, and one of their friends from Brasil. There is an actual bar in the hostel. I waited there for Ren, my friend I made in Buenos Aires in January, to get there. Two guys from Canada were hanging out, a guy from LA who has lived in South America for 11 years works at the hostel for free stay, and a French guy was the bar tender. They were all very entertaining to talk to until Ren got there. Oh how they begged us to stay there for the night, but Fer came to the hostel to pick us up so we could go get dinner. We had pizza at a restaurant then went to a bar to listen to some live music. It was nice to get to catch up with my old friends. Back at the hostel, I got ready to go to sleep. I didn’t move once that night, I woke up in the same position. For some reason I slept great in the hostel in Buenos Aires.
Thursday morning I went to breakfast and met Sabrina to decide where we would go that day. We chose La Boca neighborhood. That is the place that has photos of very colorful houses, apartments, and restaurants. I was just beside myself when we decided to go. I had wanted to get a picture in front of the colors for years now! It was so pretty! We stopped at a café to have coffee and watch people tango. I even got to take a picture with a tango guy. We walked around more to see all of the fair booths. The one bad thing about La Boca was the number of people who would ask you to go to their café, or shop, or to let them take a picture of you with the colorful buildings in the back. That last one I definitely would not do. Crime is pretty abundant in La Boca, so I was sure they would just run off with my camera. Actually they would probably just demand that I paid them. But still…. Before I came to Argentina, I knew I wanted to buy an Argentina soccer jersey. In Córdoba they were about $100. I am glad I was hesitant to buy one there, because I found the jerseys for under $30 in La Boca! Maybe it isn’t as “official” as the more expensive ones, but it looks identical to me! Sabrina and I took the bus back towards the hostel, but jumped off when I noticed we were next to Florida street at one point. I felt very proud that I knew where I was, somewhat. It was about lunchtime so we started to look for something to eat. The only places to eat on Florida are either super fancy places, or US places like Starbuck, Burger King, or McDonalds. Starving to death and craving something unhealthy due to all the walking we just did, we went McD’s. Plus, we were at the end of Florida, and that is all that was there. We had never seen so many people in a McDonald’s ever! It was so crowded, like it was an opening day or something, but it was just a normal day in McDonald’s in Florida. We walked back to the hostel from there. I was glad because I felt a little guilty eating at McDonald’s. Back at the hostel I made friends with another French guy working there, and an Australian who was the person sleeping below me in our room. I played my ukulele on the balcony for a while, and then managed to make plans to go to an art gallery opening with the Australian, a New Yorker, a girl from Norway, and Sabrina. The New Yorker left before the rest of us did, and he knew how to get there really well. It was quite the trip getting to the gallery because there was tons of traffic on the bus. We jumped to bus and took a sub instead. The art gallery was so awesome! Free to get in and there was free wine too! We felt so important. Almost everyone there was an Argentina hipster. There were a few that I almost asked to take a picture with they were so hipster! We looked around for an hour or two and saw some very interesting art. Then began the adventure to find dinner. I very nice man who gave us directions also recommended a pizza shop when we were searching for the gallery. We went to this restaurant to get dinner, but there was no room to sit. So we opted for take-out, but it took us forever to decide on which two pizzas to order. I never realized how impatient I could feel when I am starving. Then the three girls were sent to find some beer while we waited on the pizza to be made. The first place we tried said they didn’t have any, but didn’t bother telling us where we could go. So we kept searching and found a place that told us that beer cannot be sold after 10pm in Buenos Aires. Oh…so we bought water. After we got the pizza, some people still really wanted to find beer. Somehow a lady sold us two. I don’t understand why. Then we went to a park to eat, but didn’t have any bottle openers. So we ate the pizza and went back to the hostel to have the beers. I had a great conversation with Sabrina; I think we will be friends. A few other people joined us on the rooftop – the second French guy I met and a guy from Portugal. He has a very US accent. He says it is because he watched lots of US television. I asked if he watched lots of Brad Pitt movies because he sounded just like him! Then the girl from Norway said to the guy from Portugal, “I’m sure you get this all the time, but you look a lot like Jim Carrey.” HAHA!! From one great compliment to an insult. Slowly one by one we went to bed.
Friday Sabrina and I decided to go check out Palermo and then see where the day took us. We walked down some streets, found the shopping areas, had empanadas in the botanical garden, and then went to the central part of Buenos Aires. I got a picture of me in front of the Casarosada with my Argentina jersey on. How much more Argentina can you get?! The bad thing about wearing my jersey through Buenos Aires is that I got lots of attention that day. The men here are not slow to tell a girl she is pretty or make some kind of comment, but when I had my Argentina jersey on and was with a blond girl, it was literally constant attention. We walked down one street headed towards Puerto Madero and every single truck driver honked the horn, waved, or yelled out the window. It was ridiculous!!! We went to Havanna to have an afternoon snack then went back to the hostel. I found another place to get a leg wax before I came back to the US, made plans with Ren and Fer for the night, showered, and repacked. Ren and I met at a plaza to have coffee before we went to eat with Fer. She was a bit late because the buses didn’t stop at her stop. So I got to watch a group of Argentine hippies working and hanging out at the fair in the plaza. Oh how I wanted to be their friends. For a moment I wanted to ask them if I could join their clan. But I got too scared. Haha. Ren got there and we went to a restaurant to have a drink. While we were there we found out the Fer was not going to make it to dinner. So we went to another restaurant to eat. I was super tired so I had a coffee too. Ren took me to a club that she has been to before that was really awesome the time she went, but we got there at about 1am and no one was there yet. So we hung out on a couch and chilled for a while. Every hour we kept saying that more people would arrive. But by 3:30am it still wasn’t hoppin. So we left. I had to get up around 6:45am. So the sleep was much needed.
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