Part I
This week has definitely been the most hectic week I have experienced in Argentina yet at the same time, it will probably be the week that I will remember the most. For those of you who didn't know, my birthday was this last Thursday on August 16th. This is the first year that I had school on my birthday, the first year that my birthday has fallen in the winter and the first year that it has rained on my birthday. So all in all, I wasn't expecting to have much of a birthday this year and was actually quite stressed out as I had 2 essays due (which my professor had assigned 2 days prior) and 5 hours of class. It had been a long day and right after school I had decided to accept my friend John's request from the day prior to spend the weekend in Cordoba with him. So right after class I spent 2 hours trying to book my micro (bus), which ended up not working and therefore I had to go to a travel agency in person that night to set everything in stone.
So I get back to the house feeling groggy from the day and sat down on my computer right before I was going to take a shower when my host mom asks for me to come into the kitchen. Now usually dinner is at 9, so I was thinking that I did something wrong since it was only 8:15. When I entered the kitchen I heard a loud "surprise" and found a table full of some of my friends that my host mom (being the sneaky person she is) had got in contact with to throw a surprise party for me and I must say it worked because I have never been so surprised in my life.
So I get back to the house feeling groggy from the day and sat down on my computer right before I was going to take a shower when my host mom asks for me to come into the kitchen. Now usually dinner is at 9, so I was thinking that I did something wrong since it was only 8:15. When I entered the kitchen I heard a loud "surprise" and found a table full of some of my friends that my host mom (being the sneaky person she is) had got in contact with to throw a surprise party for me and I must say it worked because I have never been so surprised in my life.
I actually didn't know what to do so I said "un momento", shut the door, ran upstairs, changed out of my clothes, washed my face and then came back down only to find a confused bunch of people wondering why I had just left. It ended up being a GREAT night. My host mom had made carne empanadas and pizza bits and had provided lots of red wine and beer. After stuffing ourselves, Alicia, my host mom, brought out a delicious cake with a tall skinny girl on top with oars in her hand (which she had made from coffee stirrers) since I am rower.
my host parents Alicia y Jose
So 12 o'clock rolls around and of course when I'm feeling about ready to crash in bed and have a good night's rest, my friends decided that I needed to go out for my birthday, so we met up with some other people at a fancy bar, then went to another bar (Sugar Bar, the one I had eaten "pancakes" at as mentioned in the previous blog) and then at 3am left for the Boliche (club). When we arrived to the boliche, a guy who was passing by in a car (as I think he heard us speaking english) told us it was closed. One of the guy's then asked if he knew of any that were open and after talking with him for a bit we found out that this guy works at the U.S. embassy in Buenos Aires and was actually from LA. After Alex and I had said we were from Long Beach he finally gave into the request of one of the guys, asking if he could take us to a Boliche.
Now I've never gotten in the car with a stranger before but being that there were 5 other people (half of them being guys) and it was a guy that works at the U.S. embassy, I decided it'd be ok. So he took the kids seats out of the back of his car, put them in the trunk and drove us around. Because the next 2 Boliche's were closed, he took us to a place of his friend's in which the only way you could get in was if you knew somebody. This place had 2 bars, one upstairs and one downstairs, a dancefloor and a nice outside resting area. Angel, the friend of Jermaine (u.s. embassy guy), who worked at the bar then told us that if we are friends of Jermaine then that place is our house and we're welcome any time. Angel then kept making us free drinks (to both the guys and the girls) for the rest of the night. Jermaine then talked with a lot of my friends who are international studies majors about connections to jobs in the Embassy. When we left the bar at 6am it started pouring down rain on us and of course, being umbrella-less we ended up getting soaked.
Overall, I think this was definitely the best birthday I've experienced yet.
Now I've never gotten in the car with a stranger before but being that there were 5 other people (half of them being guys) and it was a guy that works at the U.S. embassy, I decided it'd be ok. So he took the kids seats out of the back of his car, put them in the trunk and drove us around. Because the next 2 Boliche's were closed, he took us to a place of his friend's in which the only way you could get in was if you knew somebody. This place had 2 bars, one upstairs and one downstairs, a dancefloor and a nice outside resting area. Angel, the friend of Jermaine (u.s. embassy guy), who worked at the bar then told us that if we are friends of Jermaine then that place is our house and we're welcome any time. Angel then kept making us free drinks (to both the guys and the girls) for the rest of the night. Jermaine then talked with a lot of my friends who are international studies majors about connections to jobs in the Embassy. When we left the bar at 6am it started pouring down rain on us and of course, being umbrella-less we ended up getting soaked.
Overall, I think this was definitely the best birthday I've experienced yet.
Part 2
Cordoba is a beautiful providence (like most in Argentina), which is well known for their beer. Actually every year in the 1st week of october, they have a festival of beer called Octoberfest, which is also celebrated in Germany. The city of Cordoba has a large German population and German influence. I originally was planning on going to Octoberfest just to have the experience of going, yet when some of my friends invited me to go this last weekend, since we had a 4 day weekend, I decided to just go now instead since 1. I'm not a huge drinker 2. It'd be less packed 3. It'd cost less to go now 4. HIKING...of course 5. We'd be staying outside the city in a chill town called Villa Carlos Paz outside the city and 5. I wanted to get away from the rain that Buenos Aires was going to have that weekend. So of course the night before I left, I booked my ticket and was set to go. My friends actually left on Thursday yet because I wanted to be in Buenos Aires for my Birthday I decided to leave on Friday.
Getting there...was HORRIBLE.
If you ever decide to take a micro in Argentina, you DEFINITELY should go with someone who's done it before. Getting to Cordoba was quite hectic 1. because the city of Retiro in general, where the buses leave from is caotic, 2. It was pouring down rain outside when I was trying to find the place and 3. My ticket said the bus could arrive anywhere from platform 15 to platform 54 in which you need to listen to the person speaking over the microphone (in castellano -the spanish that argentine's speak- amongst all the background noise) for when and where your bus arrives.
As soon as the bus gets there and loads up the people, they're gone, so it can be quite easy to miss your bus.
To give you a small sample of what Retiro and the bus station is like I have provided a link to a youtube video below, only imagine it with double the amount of people in the pouring rain and flooded streets.
As soon as the bus gets there and loads up the people, they're gone, so it can be quite easy to miss your bus.
To give you a small sample of what Retiro and the bus station is like I have provided a link to a youtube video below, only imagine it with double the amount of people in the pouring rain and flooded streets.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2pGVlj8cqc
Luckily for me though, I found a really nice young couple who helped me out and walked with me back and forth searching for my bus until it arrive (20 minutes late!). Once I was on the bus all was good. I paid for the cama bus which had large, comfortable seats that decline 160 degrees and provide movies to watch, although everyone mainly just sleeps.
Luckily for me though, I found a really nice young couple who helped me out and walked with me back and forth searching for my bus until it arrive (20 minutes late!). Once I was on the bus all was good. I paid for the cama bus which had large, comfortable seats that decline 160 degrees and provide movies to watch, although everyone mainly just sleeps.
Cordoba itself was BEAUTIFUL.
The first day we went on a tour all over the providence where we visited Che Guevara's house, saw this huge lake with house boats which some people live on, went sausage and sweet wine tasting (the BEST meat I've ever had) and visited the main city, Cordoba where Octoberfest is held and where we stopped to eat. That night we had an Asado with a bunch of Argentine's around our age that we met at the hostile, where I had the BEST carne, short-ribs and chicken that I have EVER had in my life.
The first day we went on a tour all over the providence where we visited Che Guevara's house, saw this huge lake with house boats which some people live on, went sausage and sweet wine tasting (the BEST meat I've ever had) and visited the main city, Cordoba where Octoberfest is held and where we stopped to eat. That night we had an Asado with a bunch of Argentine's around our age that we met at the hostile, where I had the BEST carne, short-ribs and chicken that I have EVER had in my life.
The German-influenced City of Cordoba.
On our second day there we had planned on going hiking in the city we were staying at, Villa Carlos Paz. Yet when we tried to get on the trail after walking through a favela-like area, we found out from the locals that the trail had been shut off to the public and is now private property, so the only way to get there was to take a gondola ride to the top of another mountain which would cost 50 pesos and get on the trail from there. Another guy from the neighborhood then suggested we go to another place called Cerro de la Cruz and said that if we follow the river, there are some mountains that would be a lot more worthwhile hiking that the ones in Carlos Paz. So like usual adventurous and fearless college kids we took a bus about 30 minutes outside of town which dropped us off in the middle of nowhere. We actually encountered some girls at the bus station that were in our class at school, who then joined us as we went in search for the river.
After finding the river, we hiked through a bunch of rocks and discovered a really nice beach area where we then laid on the sand and rocks under the sun relaxing and eating our sandwiches for the majority of our time there.
After finding the river, we hiked through a bunch of rocks and discovered a really nice beach area where we then laid on the sand and rocks under the sun relaxing and eating our sandwiches for the majority of our time there.
Once we decided we've relaxed enough, we went on to search for some mountains that we could climb. On our way we encountered a stray dog playing with a man in the water who we were asking directions from. This dog was SUPER playful. If you kicked water at her, she would try to catch it and would go all the way across the river to fetch a stick and bring it back to you. When we left that spot the dog started following us EVERYWHERE we went.
And so day 3 came.
We then got to a point where we needed to cross the river to get to the other side. At this point, 2 of the guys did not want get in the river and decided to try to find another way around. When we crossed the river, one of the girls fell into the water, dropping her shoes which the current then started taking away. She then tried to throw her jacket on the sand to free up her hands to grab her shoes, only the jacket didn't make it to the beach and fell in the water as well, along with her phone and camera that were in her jacket. She did get her shoes but made it out soaked and camera-less. After the guys had been gone a while, we decided to leave as we didn't know where they were at, had been waiting awhile and figured they'd be able to make it back home by themselves eventually. From here I will list a sequence of events that happened.
We...
We...
Looked for the guys but didn't see any traces of them anywhere.
Came across a road that split into 2 directions.
Came across a road that split into 2 directions.
Picked a direction (simply by the assumption that right is always right) and continued.
Found some Argentine's playing American Football (very rare).
Found some Argentine's playing American Football (very rare).
Played Football with the Argentine's.
Found the guys we had lost while we were playing.
Found an ice cream shop with THE BEST ice cream.
Found an ice cream shop with THE BEST ice cream.
Made it back home.
Went to a Jazz Festival at a bar for dinner.
Went to a Jazz Festival at a bar for dinner.
John ended up being the only guy left once we lost the other 2 guys after crossing the river.
This dog kept trying to beg for my ice-cream but I kept telling him he's too ugly for me to give in.
We had ended up staying out quite late the night before and once we got up in the morning, we decided we just wanted to chill outside on the roof in the sun since it was a GORGEOUS day. So this next picture pretty much sums of the majority of our day.
Overall, I had a GREAT time in Cordoba in which I was able to meet some really cool Argentine's in our hostel, eat some AMAZING asado, take a break from school and the city-life of Buenos Aires and FINALLY absorb a bit of that warm "California" sun I'm accustomed to.
drinking Mate, reading books, lounging around, listening to music and laying underneath the sun
After that we decided to play some ping pong in our hostel, then explore the city and get some empanadas to eat. We ended up finding an arcade game place in which we played pool, air hockey, and lots of arcade games.
Overall, I had a GREAT time in Cordoba in which I was able to meet some really cool Argentine's in our hostel, eat some AMAZING asado, take a break from school and the city-life of Buenos Aires and FINALLY absorb a bit of that warm "California" sun I'm accustomed to.
Me and 2 Argentine guys (Mateus y Paulo) in our hostel at "breakfast".
