Buenos Aires: 14/11 - 17/11

(Warning: the following post contains a big rant and could possibly bore you a lot... time to spit the dummy) Forget Friday the 13th - it´s Saturday the 14th you have to watch out for... Having been busy and stressed for essentially the last 2 months and having to pack/organise our stuff on Friday, we arose like fluffy spring chickens at 4am Brisbane time, prepared, left and caught the 6am flight to Syd-on-my-knee. It was a turbulence ridden flight. I felt like shit already. We then got our luggage and transferred to International, checked-in, changed some money and got a little food before the flight. Then we boarded an old 737, which thankfully lacked the in-your-face televisors on the back of each seat, but also seemed to lack regular maintenance checks - (water dripped on us as we approached Buenos Aires and the plane rattled like an old XE Falcon). The service was not particularly good. Our request for special meals apparently got lost in the wash, but when the gluten-free meal came, I realised they had perfected the alchemy of converting dry porous soil into a bread-like substance. The only exception being that the gluten-free bread roll didn´t taste like anything let alone dirt. We landed in Auckland, endured a few ´Ím beitched iz, bro´jokes, stretched and reboarded. The flight passed well enough for Michelle but I slept for a total of 2hrs. Painful. To add to my uncomfortableness I had to watch Ben Affleck trying to act. After we landed we collected our luggage and exited customs relatively quickly. Then we had a few touts try to get us into taxis and buses etc. but Michelle simply put them to sleep with her Ju-jitsu neck hold. So we changed money, found our pick up point and waited, discovering in the meantime that Argentians haven´t heard of soy milk. After we arrived in the city and fumbled our way to the Subte, we caught one of the regular and on-time trains to Palermo and finally arrived at Tango Backpackers. It was 8pm local time. A total of 30hrs travel and transfer time. We (I particularly) were shattered.

Buenos Aires is a bit of a contradiction, and also a great example of the failings of the capitalist system. Advertising is everywhere, including street-signs and subway train-timetable televisors. Large corporations and hotels and businesses construct shiny new buildings but yet there is not enough money for basic amenities. Rubbish collects on sidewalks where it is left - at least some people are considerate enough to put it into plastic bags. Not so the dog shit. It litters the parks and occurs less so on footpaths. The parks are mostly poorly maintained except for a few like Rosedal, which is meticulously manicured and fertilised. The pollution here is horrendous, mainly due to exhaust from hundreds of diesel buses and constant car traffic being caught in the sheer walls created by groups of buildings shaped like entire block-sized cubes. This is certainly a car-addicted city. Bicycles are few and far between. We have not found the locals to be very amiable (you were right Joaquin) and to add to this my Spanish has awoken like a cranky bear after hibernation. But nonetheless we have managed to achieve most of what we wanted and will hopefully leave tomorrow organised. The photos (yet to come) are of local graffiti around Palermo and a bit of ´Spangrish´- our word for Spanish translated literally which turns out funny in English. The literal translation (I think) of the hungry Jacks ad is ¨Feel the music in the meat¨. Hmmm. Like that one, Joycey¿