Buenos Aires

In the last 5 days, we’ve spent 38 hours on buses, which is about one-third of our time. We practically live on buses. I’m afraid that when I get back home, I’ll have to install bus seats in my living room just to feel comfortable.

We had no accommodation booked when we arrived in Buenos Aires, and when we called all the hostels from a list we picked up at the tourist information office, we realized everything was fully booked.

In the end, Google found us a cheap ½ star hotel right in the centre of the town (extra money saved from accommodation would be put towards the “steak budget”).

Buenos Aires is very similar to Athens—a big city with a lot of 70s and 80s concrete buildings and some monuments scattered around that can brighten up the boring scenery of a typical busy old grey city.

The city is not very organized for tourists, and it feels like it’s not very organized for its citizens either. I think they need to host the next Olympics here to get a few things sorted. It worked for Athens…(not)

On our first day, we got rain that lasted a good 5 hours. So, we decided to go to a movie. The only one available in English was “A Violent Story”- don’t bother unless you are stuck in a foreign country, it’s raining and there’s nothing else to do.

We had planned to visit most of the interesting neighbourhoods in 3 days and spend an extra day learning everything the town has to offer regarding tango (all 4 evenings were devoted to learning everything the town has to offer about steaks).

Tango is everywhere. There are dedicated shops, restaurants, live shows, and academies all over Buenos Aires.

The town lacks decent museums or other historical places, and half of the existing ones were closed. So, we spent our time walking around from one neighbourhood to another.

One of the most interesting ones was “La Boca,” famous for its football club (Boca Juniors) and the architecture of its buildings. It looks as if artists decided to build their own neighbourhood (see pictures).

Back in the city centre, we did the obligatory tango dinner, where Dora and I joined the dancers (videos are destroyed already) and walked a lot exploring down town and paved shopping streets. After climbing mountains, walking around a city feels like a mere warm-up

Before we came here, I expected Buenos Aires to be a capital with a lot of exciting things to see, but I didn’t get that. I can’t pick out any major faults, but I got bored faster than I thought (as bored as you can get in 4 days). No time to moan about this—we have to catch a bus to Foz do Iguaçu for more exciting scenery…