Rather than 'Buenos Aires and Montevideo', i think a more accurate description of the second half of my trip would be 'Buenos Aires feat. Montevideo' as we were only in Uruguay's capital for a mere 24 hours. While this might not have been enough time to really get to know the city, I make no apologies, as our decision to extend our stay in Buenos Aires was based on it being cheap, fun and very sunn........y. I'm pretty confident my decision to spend the 2nd half of my year abroad there will turn out to be a great shout.
The journey to B.A. did turn out to be a bit of a let down, the lavish champagne buffet i had conjured up in my mind turned out to be a little optimistic, and instead we were offered an assortment of cheese based snacks with crackers and a bit of ham on a stick. Luckily there was also some pasta going round which i thought was pretty good. My Italian friend (who due to his heritage is a bit of a pasta snob) thought differently however, refusing to eat his portion saying 'this is nota how youa makea de bolognese' before adding 'babadibooppi' for effect.
I also decided on the journey that it would be a good idea to send an email to the man i will be working for in Buenos Aires, letting him know that i would be visiting the city. I don't know what i was hoping for, maybe a reply saying 'oh muy bien, lets go for drinks and a really nice meal (which i'll pay for) and then i can tell you what to see in the city and introduce you to some nice young argentinian girls' but unfortunately what i got instead was 'oh muy bien, come for an interview as soon as you arrive.' So after dumping my stuff at the hostel and donning my one remaining clean t shirt, i headed down to the offices on the riverfront.
The interview itself was a bit of a disaster, having put 'advanced level of spanish' on my CV my boss must have been surprised to hear his beloved mother tongue shamelessly blended with a coulourful assortment of other words, some portuguese and english and others just made up altogether. However, i'm taking the fact that he didn't withdraw his offer of employment on the spot, as a big positive.
After this rather stressful beginning, the days began to take on an altogether more relaxed shape. We spent most of the day time exploring the various 'barrios' (districts) of the city, sitting in the sun drinking beer and watching tango and visiting as many markets as was physically possible in order to maximise the benefits of the extremely good pound to peso exchange rate. I came to realise that one impulse purchase can start a whole string of other impulse purchases, until you end up back at the hostel lamenting your empty wallet and trying to remember why you bought that giant picture of a cow, or that lifetime supply of dulce de leche. Some of the group's best purchases included; a llama wool, poncho, a chessboard, an occarina, an indigenous flute, some salami, some incense, a variety of interesting hats, several football shirts, a lot of red wine and one very expensive glass of coke.
Buenos Aires is a bit of a football mad city, so when we weren't buying strange souveniers, we tried to take in as much football related culture as possible. Our big hope had been to see a Boca Juniors game, but as they were playing away from home we had to make do with visiting the stadium. Generally speaking i'm not a big fan of stadium tours as they usually involve walking through room after room showing lengthly black and white films about the construction of new stands. However in this case we were shown straight to the pitch where us four boys unashamedly paid to take the cheesey photo standing on the pitch holding various trophies. It was 100 percent worth it (although i did have my suspicions it might not be the official world cup i had in my hands).
As there was no Boca game we headed off to see River Plate (Buenos Aires' other big team). We went with a group, as we were told that it could be dangerous for tourists to go without a local. It turned out to be a good decision. We were waiting in the queue to enter the stadium with our guide who happened to look and act incredibly like Mr Bean, when a rather strange and drunk individual began to try and shove his hand in to my friend Nick's pocket, letting out loud grunts as he went. The guy, on whom we bestowed the appropriate if not very imaginative title of 'pocket man', would have probably continued this strange activity for some time (despite Nick not having any valuables in his pockets) had Bean not saved the day. After a short conversation which i assume involved bean informing pocket man of the inappropriate nature of his actions Nick and his pockets were left alone for the remainder of the afternoon. The game itself was quite exciting despite it ending as a draw, and the experience of being in such a huge stadium with such a great atmosphere was pretty incredible.
With so much going on in the daytime, we usually hit a 6 o'clock siesta before heading out again at night. Highlights of or after dark escapades included an amazing steak and wine meal in a restaurant called 'dos hermanos' where my friend Beth selflessly sliced her foot open on the stairs in order to get us all free dessert, and a club night in the Palermo district with Erol Alkan dj ing until 6.30 in the morning. A big thanks to my good friend Mr Gibbs for great company and hospitality, and a life changing bowl of cereal.....really appreciated it.
We left Buenos Aires by boat at 7am, and while my friends slept, I sat at the front like a little child and watched as we approached the coastline of Uruguay. Having arrived at our hostel we tried to make the best of our limited time frame by wandering to the seafront and exploring as much of the old town as possible. The hostel itself was pretty nice and they cooked a big barbecue that night as we watched the last chilean miners being rescued. While the situation was slightly different, I was nevertheless hoping for an equally joyful reception on my return to Florianopolis the following day
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