Took my first flight within South America, working for an airline myself im always watching how other airlines work. But the safety video really disturbed me it said "In the case of a crash landing in the ocean please be reminded that your seat cushion floats" What the hell!! The second flight was ok i was really tired and wanted to sleep but there was a chinese man sat next to me and was so excited to find out that i was english he proceded to ask but question after question, he used to be a foriegn diplomat but no owned his own company producing natural gas, he told me all about his family, were he had travelled around the world, he even got out his passport and went through every page telling me each country he had visited. He was really nice but i couldnt take it anymore and after hint after hint that i was tired he carried on talking, in the end i just put my ipod headphones in and ignored him! I arrived at the hostel at 3am, it was huge 6 storey building on the main street of Av Corrientes in the city, as nice as it seemed the staff were really unfriendly when i arrived, not showing me where anything was and basically just giving me a key to a room on the 4th floor and told to find an empty bed, the lift was also broke and with no offer of help from the reception guy i lugged all my stuff up the stairs, my empty bed was one of 6 bundbeds in a huge room, i was on the top bunk which had no ladders, the room had no aircon so the window was left open letting in all the noise of the busy main road, not a good start.
I awoke to my second day in Buenos Aires to with a huge protest on the main street, horns were going off from every direction. The room was so hot in the night and i hadnt slept well so i headed out to see what the city had to offer. I spend the day strolling aroud the city. First down Av de mayo passing lovely buildings, lots of cafes and book shops. It feels like you could be in any europeon city in BA, maybe a bigger barcelona or madrid. A huge spanish influnce anyway, it was really cool. Plaza de mayo was holding a weekly protest. A group of around 40 women all with white head scalves on their heads walked around the square holding banners and flags, i brought a little pin badge of one of the ladies, it was a protest about children that has been taken, im not really sure the full detials but it was quiet sad to see them with their childrens photos.
I practiced my spanish whilst in a cafe, the lady giggled at me but it was fine, i need to be more confident and i was using spanish as much as i could. I walked for a total of 8 hours and i was so tired, it was quite far back to the hostel so i decided to have dinner here, i looked at the menu and of course i had to have steak, its meant to be so nice here and sure enough it didnt disapoint, it was lovely, the steak was so huge i just ate that and didnt bother with the poatotes. On my way back to the dorm i called in the bar, there wasnt many people in but i ordered a beer and sat down, started chatting to a lad called Greg he had just arrived from ireland and was having a quick beer before heading to bed for an early night, this was at 9.30pm and at 5am i left him there, ha!
