Buenos Aires, Argentina

December 23, 2009-January 2, 2010

From El Calafate, I flew to Buenos Aires, Argentina. My first and only flight during my South America trip, simply because otherwise I would have had to do about 40+ hours of buses! Dor and I split at this point, as he wanted to spend Christmas (his first, being from Israel) in Bariloche, the lake district in Argentina. It was sad but we hoped and planned to meet again along the way. Not to mention that Irit was in Buenos Aires, so it was as if I was saying bye to one buddy to be received in the arms by another! In Buenos Aires, I stayed in Milhouse Avenue downtown. It was okay...but it had 200 beds which was just too much for me! It was nice enough, but one of the first hostels that truly overwhelmed me! Of course, after putting my stuff down I went to find Irit, who was staying in the other Milhouse Hostel. :) When I walked in, I saw a friend, Gurpal, I had met in another city in Argentina, so that was exciting. It was great catching up with Irit about where she'd been and what she'd done. Ironically, as you know, Irit and Dor traveled together, and Teja and I traveled together. During our time apart, while I was with Dor, Irit was with Teja! We did a little switcheroo with our travel buddies!

The time in Buenos Aires was great. Irit was leaving South America on Christmas evening so I spent a lot of time with her my first few days there. My first night in Buenos, of course we went out and Irit introduced me to her friend Alon, who I ended up spending the majority of my time with in Buenos Aires. On Christmas Eve, Irit and I went out to dinner and saw a little tango show, which was nice. It was Irit's last night so we went out, of course.

Spent Christmas together too. Let me just comment on being away for Christmas. I don't think I'll ever really do it again. It was probably the only time I was homesick the entire trip. The hostel I stayed at was crazy all the time, so not the ideal Christmas atmosphere. It was big and impersonal. I video chatted on Skype with everyone at my house on Christmas, which was such a weird experience. It was like watching a video of my loved one's celebrating Christmas...too weird! It didn't help that Irit left that evening (see our last pic in South America together!). After I saw her off in a cab, I was walking back to my hostel shedding some tears and feeling quite dreadful, but happened to run into Alon. Now looking back on that moment, he really helped save Christmas...the Israeli who saved Christmas-ironic! haha.

Did a lot of good little touristy things during my time there. Rode the subway, visisted the neighborhood of Palermo, went to San Telmo's antiques fair (AMAZING shopping) where I dragged Alon around literally for hours, had fantastic steak dinners at Siga La Vaca and La Cabrera, went to the La Bomba show (a drum/percussion show), walked around Puerto Madero at night, toured the tough neighborhood of La Boca (home of the La Boca Juniors famous soccer team-saw their stadium), visisted the Eva Peron museum....

Ran into Dor on the street near my hostel, and got to spend New Year's Eve and a little time with him before I left to my next stop. Spent New Year's Eve with Dor, Alon, Gurpal, and a whole crew of mutual friends we had all met along the way. Rang in midnight at the hostel party (as Argentinians don't go out before 2 am even on New Year's!) and then went to Pacha for a long night of partying and dancing!

After all these amazing memories in Buenos Aires, which was a city that I really enjoyed and liked, I was headed alone again to Puerto Iguazu, my last stop in Argentina...I left hoping I would see both Dor and Alon again, so stay tuned...