I awoke on Christmas morning to my elderly flight steward playing 'jingle bells' on a harpsichord over the tannoy on the plane. We were an hour away from landing, and while I appreciated the sentiment, I would have preffered he kept his festivities to himself for about 30 minutes longer, so I could continue to sleep!
The flight was uneventful, as was the journey from the airport to meet Josh at the apartment we had rented for the week. I met a couple who were in their late 50s, and who literally had no idea how to get from the airport to their hotel. I had to help them buy their bus tickets, explain where they should go to change their dollars to pesos, and as they got off the bus at their hotel, the man turned to me and said, 'but how do we get back to the airport next week??' I told him to talk to someone at their hotel about it, and then wished them luck. I wonder how they're getting on without me!
Josh had prepared a wondeful Christmas meal for us when I arrived: smoked salmon, prosciutto and cheeses, champagne. It was so lovely! Then I had to nap as I was missing about 6 hours worth of sleep. Later that day we went for a walk around the local park, which is enormous and has lots of little different parks within it, like a Japanese garden, and a botanical garden.
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| Christmas lunch! |
Our apartment is awesome, and really well located too. There are lots of restaurants and cafes and bars nearby, plus the big park. Yesterday we walked from our neighbourhood to the next one, to visit La Cemetoria de Recoleta. It's exactly what it sounds like, a cemetary. It was huge, and filled with enormous tombs and crypts, it was more like a small town than your usual graveyard, except obviously everyone was buried. We saw the grave of Eva Peron, or 'Evita' as she's more well known as.
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| They know how to honour the dead! |
We then walked across to Plaza de Mayo, which is a big square flanked by significant buildings such as the Presidential Palace, and a huge cathedral. The square is famous for demonstrations, and there are huge banners everywhere protesting about the Falkland Islands ('they were, are, and always will be Argentina's'). Josh and I decided on the spot to pretend to be Australian if anyone asked. Josh was told at his hostel on his first night in Argentina that someone had been punched in the face by an Argetinean just because he was from England!
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| The Presidential Palace, where Evita made her famous 'don't cry for me Argentina' speech |
Last night we went out on a bar crawl, and met some locals. It was a really fun night, although am feeling it today a bit, but we exchanged email addresses with one girl, and her friend has offered us a place to stay in his house after New Year so we may stick around here a bit longer, and hang out with them!
We leave the apartment on the 31st, and are moving to a hostel for a few days so we can meet people to spend New Year with. Am going to miss this place though!
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| Our balcony |
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