Kacie and I were planning on heading into Santiago on Thursday to chill around before our flight on Friday, but ended up getting lazy and going to the beach instead. We didn't leave Vina until 6 or 6:30 on Friday, and got to the airport around 8:30 for our 10 o'clock flight. There was a bit of a hold-up at the airport because the Chileans were mad that I don't have my student visa yet, but I'm not sure why they wanted me to have a visa to leave the country. We flew LAN again, and again it was an exellent experience with croissant sandwiches and free wine on a flight that was only two hours. Coming into Buenos Aires was pretty impressive, the lights literally extended into a haze on the horizon; Kacie said it was the biggest city she's ever seen, and she lived in Europe for three years.
We had an adventure in the cab into town, our cab driver kept driving in-between lanes pointing out tourist attractions, but since we got in at midnight, the sights weren't very easy to see. Our hostel was a kinda neat oldish building with a spiral staircase and its own bar. Kacie thought she had reserved beds in a girls' quad, but we ended up in a coed 8 with a door that squeeked like hell, which made our midnight entrance a nuisance to our roommates. The attendant directed us to a bar downtown; we didn't realize until midway through the night that the reason why we weren't being accosted was probably because it was a gay bar. Once we were more aware of our surroundings, though, it was a blast and we didn't get home until 7ish, just in time to wake our roommates yet again.
Our hostel didn't have water for a shower and we felt quite disgusting and not entirely satisfied with the experience, so we did some research and took the subway to a new hostel. The one we're in now is pretty rockin', they have social events and we drank in the bar downstairs with a bunch of fellow hostel-ers. There are quite a few from the U.K., a couple from France, a handful from Australia, and a smattering from the rest of the globe. Kacie made some quick friends, and we went out again for the fourth night in a row.
Yesterday day was pretty neat, too. After moving into the new hostel, we were planning on showering and napping, but Kacie wanted to check out a plaza nearby. She was designated the tour guide, and we ended up missing the plaza but finding an awesome urban park, complete with live music, multiple playgrounds, and a Saturday market. The walk was a lot longer than we expected, and we satiated our hunger with a "completa," a beef sandwich with grilled onions and bell peppers. This was definitely superior to the Chilean completo. We did end up finding the plaza we initially set out for; it had a street market, too, and Kacie bought herself a mate gourd.
This morning we nearly slept through our alarm for breakfast (11 am), and could barely drag ourselves out of bed. I did, however, thoroughly enjoy our fresh-baked bread with dulce de leche, and fresh-squeezed (like, literally squeezed just there) orange juice. We went back to bed and Kacie slept until about four. I got up around 2 to buy us an Easter treat: a giant Kinder egg. As soon as I could get Kacie out of bed we trekked back to the completa stand to enjoy another steak sandwich.
Buenos Aires is amazing so far. There are parts that are a tad scary, the cars drive even more crazily than they do in Vina, and there is a lot of trash and poop on the streets. On the other hand, there are some amazing buildings and the people are interesting. I've seen multiple bongo/percussion bands just on the street. The temperature is perfect. I guess I didn't spend much time out-of-doors today, but I think one day's rest is okay after the past four weeks that I've had in South America.
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