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We arrived in Buenos Aires at 3pm and took the tube into the middle of town towards our hostel. Buenos Aires is very European looking, the streets are clean and the shops look like shops rather than stalls - certainly a wealthy part of south america. We crossed the Avenida 9 De Julio the worlds widest Avenue (i counted 20 lanes of traffic and went to Millhouse hostel - which we had been told by many was the party hostel. We arrived and went for an explore but to our dissapointment all of the shops were closed, we found a pizzeria for food and headed back to the hostel to see if it lived it up to the reputation.
The hostel is an old manor house over 6 stories. The ground floor is a huge bar and social area so we headed down there. We bumped into Marso who is a French girl we briefly met in the Pantanal. She had broken up with her boyfriend 4 weeks into travelling only to storm out and find that 2 days later she couldn`t change her bus ticket so spent 40 hours on the coach sat next to him. Anyway over the coming days she also lost her money, twice, her camera, her only bank card, fortunately not her sense of humour though. She introduced us to some Australians and we joined in the drinking games....
There are 2 Millhouse hostels in Buenos Aires and there is a party in one every night with the venue alternating. This night it was in the other hostel so at 11pm we headed over ready for the start of the party. We met Lee from Middlesborough, who seemed more keen on drinking than anyone i have ever met. I think his boozing was contagious because at 2am and a little worse for wear we bought tickets to the club Kiki. Upon arrival Harriet disappeared either to the loos or she couldnt contain the urge to dance im not quite sure which. However, when i tried to find/join her on the dance floor i was repeatedly told by the bouncers that i wasnt allowed to. There was a small wall between the bar and the dance floor and only a narrow entrance leading up - despite my persistence i had to stay in the bar area, alone! I have no idea why, or what i did between 2.10am and 4.45am when we left but i seemed in good spirits as far as i can remember!
CHRISTMAS EVE!!
A somewhat lazy morning was followed by a stroll around the neighbourhood. I headed to a barbers for a haircut where once more i had to go through the sharad of explaining a 1 into number 2 on the sides please. I dont think he understood completely as it was not the best hair cut, but for around 5pd i wasnt going to complain too much. Harriet went shopping in the only open stalls and headed back to the hostel whilst i was trimmed and then i headed out to the stalls to buy Harriets Christmas presents. The only shop opens sold either model trains, sweets, wine or crisps so i decided on the latter two and thought i had done quite well! After a siests we went out for dinner with Marso and when we returned to the hostel we were greeted by Hans-Heindrich and Claudia who we met at Iguasu. We formed a drinking circle and got a few more people involved, before we knew it we were suitably smashed and ready for a night out. Everyone was heading to Pacha which is a huge club famous in BA. We bought our tickets at the hostel at 2am and queued outside ready for the bus...
We never saw the bus arrive, or leave, Harriet decided to take a turn for the worse and ran to the loo, never quite returning to the party spirit after! I stayed up with Lee for a couple of hours, and put my head down a little later.
CHRISTMAS DAY!!
Harriet woke up at 9am after a healthy 7 hour sleep, whilst i managed to stir at 1.15pm, just in time for Christmas dinner at 1.30pm. There was a few of us Brits from the night before, complete with santa hats and party hats. We had a starters of salad with melon (very refreshing considering the hangover) and then steak and a vegetable rosti for mains. Pudding was chocolate and strawberries in a glass, but the chocolate was solid so the plastic spoon provided was not up to the task! After dinner I opened the Christmas cards and small presents that i had carried around for the month. The party poppers, hats and Christmas decorations all added to the atmosphere. Donning my new hat I joined the Australians from the first night for a festive round of centurion (for those unaware that is a shot of beer every minute, for 100 minutes so 6 pints in total). Harriet managed to time her phone calls home at the same time as centurion started so was rather more passive in the drinking than me.
100 shots of beer later (and 2 small incidents involving me bringing up my Christmas dinner) and i was in a jolly mood once more - so jolly that when the Brits came down to start their own game of centurion i thought it was a good idea to join them for another round. At some point common sense kicked in as i didnt complete the second round. The rest of the day was spent drinking until a live band started playing and we drank some more and that was pretty much Christmas 2012 over!!
BOXING DAY
Having got up early enough for breakfast for the first time in 3 days (thats before 10.30am) Harriet and I headed to Recoleta to see the cemetary. It is one of the main sights in Buenos Aires and i can see why - it is so weird. All of the rich and famous people are buried there including Evita (the Argentian version of Princess Diana, well basically... thats probably not the correct thing to say). The graves, or tombs are all trying to outdo each other. They come in different colours and styles but are always around 12ft high with elaborate decorations. It was strange walking around in silence in the middle of a city bigger than London.
After a slightly odd hour we thought the best way to come back to reality was McDonalds so triple burger and chips it was! This was followed by what can only be described as Harriets revenge for going to the Pantanal as we walked around a shopping centre for 1.5 hours whilst Harriet and Marso shopped. This was followed by more shopping on Avenida Florida, which is the main shopping street. It´s also littered with people shouting "cambio cambio" where you can exchange your US dollars on the black market at a better rate than you can get in the Bureau De Exchange. In the evening we went for food in the middle of town with Lee, and some Brazilians who are definately the slowest eaters I have ever seen, even slower than my gran,sorry Granny :). It took them so long to finish, and im talking over an hour to drink half a small beer that we decided to abandon ship and call it a night.
After 3 days and only a pictures of a cemetary to show for it we decided to try and see a bit of Buenos Aires. We had an early start and despite the scary stories we had heard about muggings and police escorts decided to risk a trip La Boca, the somewhat dodgy, but very colourful working class neighbourhood. We went by bus but when we arrived it wasn´t clear what all the warnings were about as it seemed very, very touristy. Still the houses were awesome, all painted different colours and made of tin. It was also home to a certain Diego Maradona! An hour later we got back on the bus and headed to a district called San Telmo, which wasn´t all that good and walked back across town to Millhouse hostel. That evening we discovered UGI´s pizza. Possibly, the cheapest, best pizza place in existence. The pizza´s are all margherita and cost a staggering 22 pesos (2.70pd)! We spent the afternoon waiting for a travel agents to open. The sign said it would open at 4.30pm giving us just enough time to get to the boat port for 5pm ready for the boat that left at 6pm (you need an hour for immigration). At 5.20pm it finally opened and the only tickets left to Montevido that day were at 10.45pm, with little choice we purchased tickets and naturally drank away the afternoon with Lee. We did manage a brief walk down the main street to see the waterfront and the presidential palace. We timed it well as the Presidential helicopter landed just as we walked pass so we stole a glimpse of the President of Argentina. I wasn`t quick witted enough to hurl some Falkland based verbal assault though (and the guards were quite scary)!
By this point Marc, from Edinburgh had decided to join Harriet, Marso and myself on a trip to Uruguay for a few days. SO that evening the 4 of us caught the boat for an hour over the water to Colonia and then a 2.5 hour bus ride to Montevido, the capital of Uruguay. The combination of the journey and the hour time difference meant we arrived at around 4am.
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