the flight from sydney to buenos aires was quite long, supposingly 17 hours (didn't get round to calculate it myself, for with all the time and date changes it gets quite complicated). thus, we assume it was 17 hours. it is fascinating that we only arrived five hours after departure on the same day. hey, somebody must have added an extra day to our lives (just imagine, if it would have been new year, we would have had a chance to celebrate twice). the international date-line is a terrific invention!
17 hours was just about right for me! we flew with the airplane of my dreams: had my own little personal tv complete with remote control and a decent selection of movies - notwithstanding cd's, computer games etc. the ones who know me know, that i love long distance flights for the movies you get to watch (all those hollywood stuff you would never allow yourself to pay for at the cinema back home). so this plane was my paradise. i managed to watch four movies - manuela was asleep most of the time and i'm sure, she thinks i'm completely nuts;-) in the end, i didn't have much time to sleep myself, for besides watching movies i also had to indulge in the delicious food and first-class wine served by
lan chile. i tell you, 17 hours in the air seems much longer than it is!
then we arrived at
buenos aires. really? everything looked so european. broad avenues, the obligatory obilisk, majestic 19th century buildings, the people, the way they dress, cars etc. the roads are lined with cafes, espressi and croissants are being served. every hundred meters is a pizza shop, in the posher areas inviting restaurants with white tablecloths. that's what italy or spain look like, not the capital of an argentina that made worldwide headlines for it's economical collapse!
in the end: i was wrong, the air-ticket was right. buenos aires really looks like that! so what were we waiting for? sit down, sip a coffe and watch the world go by!
from the first minute on, we had a serious problem: everybody seemed to speak nothing than
spanish (even in china they spoke more english)! not surprisingly our first task was to find a language school. luckely at these places the friendly receptionists spoke english and after comparing some offers we decided to start classes next week at the promising sounding ibl (international bureau of language).
now all that was missing, was the appropriate accommodation for one month. we got lucky, found a recently refurbished
apartment at a reasonable rate in the old quarter of san telmo. it's a terrific suburb, jampacked with historic streets and places. the best time is sunday, when hordes of tourists and locals alike seem to be on a pilgrimage to the antique fair at plaza dorrego - especially to see those famous tango performances.
after being so busy, we deserved some destraction. we were happy to find out, that argentina-uruguay was on.
football/soccer is the unrivalled passion here, so this world-cup-qualifier seemed to be just about right! we went to the stadium of river plate, got ripped off buying a ticket in the street (we knew it was overprized, just didn't know how to say that in spanish;-)), climbed suspicious looking concrete stairs to the top and found ourselves surrounded by a vibrant atmosphere. it was terrific! i even picked up some international standard fan-vocabulary in spanish (you don't want to hear it). manuela and i cheered and jumped with the crowd! there were plenty opportunities to do so for the argentinians won hands down 4:2.
this are our first impressions of buenos aires. we are really looking forward to learn some spanish. i'm sure it will help a lot to get to know this great place better - which is very tempting indeed!
posted by christoph 22:33
