Hotel Majestic Buenos Aires

I have arrived safe and sound in Argentina! Hooray! The flights were ok, except the ball in my roll on deodrant came out and it leaked deodrant in my hanbag! But i managed to catch it in time before any real damage was done (it was about to soak through to my MP3 player, I wouldn´t have been happy lol). As the plane was desending into BA I was overcome with excitement and nerves, but both feelings were out-weighed by the sense of freedom, I can now do what I bloody well ...

... the corner and approached me saying hello and some other stuff I could not understand. I stopped while Ang walked on a bit and this bloke was gibbering on and then he put his hand beneath his jumper as if to suggest he had a blade or a gun and started going muneey, muneey (I will assume for the sake of this blog he was saying "give me all your money or ill kill you gringo punk") That bit I did understand. I was fairly confident he wasn't packing anything so just pleaded ignorance for a ...

... dog sitters are doing a pretty good job. Oh, and I can now of course tick "Driving on the stupid side of the road" off my to-do list. Part of the bike tour took us to Recoletta, one of the nicer neighbourhoods in Buenos Aires and home to the famous Recoletta Cemetery where Argentina's famous are dead and not so much buried but on display for all to see. I didn't really need a map as it was easy enough to just follow the crowds of ...

... sit you had to take up the space of 2 people, one where your bum was and one spot where your feet would be. As it got closer to the game more and more people kept moving down into the stand and there was nowhere for them to get to any possible seats below other than past us. They kept coming and like the tardis, they kept on going through. The stand was so tight and we were literally held in place by all the other people and when they all ...

... and mainly spent in bed recovering from my first experiences of BA nightlife. How Stevie got up to play a rugby match at 2 in the afternoon is beyond me. I was due to go out and join him at his club in the suburbs but I conveniently mislaid the instructions on how to get there. Sunday, I changed to another hostel, Milhouse, one of the most popular in BA, and one with a whole social scene of it`s own. Later Stevie called over to show me a little bit ...

... and I am not sure how in the world I will be able to visit even a tiny portion of this wild place. There are countless museums and art galleries... which by now you should know is one of my passions. There is live music every night of the week from blues to rock to salsa... and I want to hear and see it all! The architecture here is outstanding and I am enjoying wandering around the center of BA checking out the various buildings. The ...

... Tonight it's round to our friend Mim's in Palermo, with Arturo, Richard, Ali and Astrid from the language school. Mim's an Aussie, but decided 3 months studying Spanish was a lot more benefical for her constitution than hearing the perpetual *****ing and self assertion of Sydney's Eastern Suburbs veterinary clientèle. She is staying at Christophes, a vagrant Frenchman with a full quiver of languages and experiences obtained from living in all parts of the world. Empanadas, beer ...

... headed back to the hostel so I could skype home to wish Steph Happy 30th birthday. Ed says its all downhill from here Steph!!! In the afternoon we got the bus to an area called Palermo where there are lots of nice parks and a Japanese garden. It is supposed to be the wealthiest and prettiest area of BA and I have to say it is beautiful. We walked through a couple of parks and then wandered through the Japanese garden which was beautiful, with little bridges leading to an island ...

... The cost included a bottle of wine EACH, so by the time we'd finished we were all rather tiddled, to say the least.

At least by this time the queue outside had disappeared, but it was getting late even by local standards!



We fancied a few more drinks somewhere, so Olly recommended a club up in ...