We wake up and pack our bags, have breakfast and walk to the
ferry terminal which was about 5 minutes away.
We had some Uruguay Peso’s remaining so we went to the gift shop and
bought a few traditional Uruguayan biscuits.
Now it is time to go through customs, we get our passports stamped for
exit out of Uruguay, take two steps to the right and get our passports stamped
for entry into Argentina. After about an
hour we are on the boat on our way to Buenos Aires. This boat ride takes us about an hour and 15
minutes across the Rio de la Plata, the river separating Uruguay and
Argentina.
We arrive about lunchtime, but we know that this isn’t Argentinean
lunchtime, that is about mid afternoon! We go to our hostel which we have
booked and has been recommended by Nico, our Italian friend who is currently
living in the city. We get settled in,
have a talk with the hostel manager who gives us a lot of tips for the city,
and then head out to grab some lunch (3pm, the normal time for lunch in
Argentina). We get 3 empanadas each, we
love them! The restaurant we had lunch at is in the same area as our hostel,
San Telmo. This area is the home of
Buenos Aires tango culture, but it all happens at night and the only time it
happens during the day is on Sunday.
This arean is full of cobbled streets and old historic buildings. We then walk into the centre of the city,
which is about another kilometre away.
We have a look at the Plaza de Mayo, where the Casa Rosada is situated. The Casa Rosada is the seat of the National
Government and is painted pink (known as the pink house). Its colour comes from a mixture of lime and
bulls fat that was usually used in construction in the past. Many times the bulls fat had blood and when
it was mixed with white lime, it made that shade of pink. There is a tour of the palace and there is
also a museum inside but these are only open during the weekends so we have
pencilled this in for Saturday. We then
continue walking around the city and taking it all in. Buenos Aires is a massive city so it is a
good opportunity to get our bearings. We
walk to the actual centre of the city which is the site of the Obelisk. The Obelisk is 67 metres high and each side
commemorates four historical moments related to the city with each one engraved
on its sides. The Obelisk is located on
Ave 9 de Julio, which is the largest street in the world. There are 20 lanes on this street, it is
huge! 10 lanes going in each direction.
To cross the road you have to do it in two stages as there is no way you
can have enough time to cross the street in one attempt. There are islands at three points while
crossing the road for you to wait. We
then walk back to the hostel and wait until 9.30pm which is when we went out
for dinner with our friend Nico. He has
been in Buenos Aires for about a month so he took us to a great restaurant
where we had a mammoth steak, and we also ordered a side of fries too. Wisely, Nico recommended that we share this
steak. There was no way I would have
finished it, it was massive! The steak was amazing, it was cooked to perfection
(medium-rare of course). We also had a
bottle of red wine with our steak too so it was a great night. We ended up getting home at 1am, a typical
Argentinean dinner time, but apparently it gets later as the week goes on.
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