2010/04/02
For the 2nd day this week I woke up in the morning on a bus pulling into a bus station. We grabbed all stuff and hauled it out of there and found a taxi to get back to Ale's house. When we got there we just dumped it off and crawled in her bed to finish sleeping.
When we woke up we didn't do much. Today was a resting day. We basically sat on her bed all day (like how she is every time I call her on skype :P) and played with our computers. We copied each others pics from the #revacation. I gave her a bunch of media that I had on my hard drive that I put on there specifically to give her. She downloaded Windows 7 for me and installed it on my laptop along with a bunch of other stuff which was awesome. It was a nice day to just be together in a more normal setting than with the excitement of vacation all around us. Later I actually wish we had spent more time doing stuff like this. I love how tech savvy Ale is. <3
As the evening approached we both could fell our hearts growing heavy. It was time to pack up her dad's car so they could ride me to the airport to go home. The was the most glorious week I had ever experienced in my life so far and although it seemed to stretch out for longer than it actually was it had to end sometime and this was now. I knew this moment would eventually come and I dreaded it. I was getting sad because I had to leave.
It was a crappy long ride to the airport and when we got their her parents stayed with the car and Ale walked me in as far as she was allowed to go. I checked my bag and we walked to where I had to walk thru the security gate and sat down. What was I supposed to say? I don't think I needed to say much we were both just crying. We hugged and kissed and stuff until I got up to go to my plane. I think I cried thru about 3 security gates before I was able to stop. It sucked. I don't know why I had to go thru so much security either. It was pretty stupid but I eventually made it to my gate and boarded. It was time to leave this country and go home. I knew I'd be back someday. This was after all the trip of a lifetime.
EPILOGUE
2010/04/03
When I woke up and got off the plane in Washington DC I had a little less than 2 hours to get to the next plane back to Pittsburgh. I knew we had to go thru customs but little did I know I still had a bit of adventure yet to go. I scheduled everything this way because I felt I'd have enough time to get back to make it to Isaac's first ever baseball practice. Something I did not want to miss. When I got off the plane and shuffled down with everyone else to customs I started thinking that not only might I not make it but I might be stuck here for a long time. The line wrapped between those velvet rope things throughout the entire room. Sure they had a lot of booths at the end to check the people out but like only 3 of them were staffed at this time. I got on chat on my phone with Ale and told her what was going on. She didn't want me to worry so she kept reassuring me that I would make it. She didn't see this line though. It moved agonizingly slow. You could hear everyone bitching to each other and to loved ones on their phones that they were stuck in this line and were going to miss their flights. It took about an hour and half for me to make it to my turn but it seemed like forever. I was thinking at this point I wouldn't make it. The guy looked at my stuff and let me go thru. I started running.
In the next room was all our bags. I saw mine immediately and grabbed it. Ok, I have a few minutes. Maybe I would make it after all I thought. The next room was another security station. Take off all your clothes, etc. Good god man. Where do you think I got a gun from between here and where I got off the plane? For real. Again the lines moved so slow. Well there goes my hope of making it. I finally got thru this and started running again.
I came out in the airport proper and although I knew what gate I needed to make it to I had no idea where that was. I asked some guy and he said go back the way I came. That confused me. I went back down the stairs to the security station. This wasn't right and I was wasting valuable time. I went back up the stairs and looked the other way. There was a sign for gate A. I ran. Oh boy did I run. I had less than 10 mins. There was no way I thought. You always see in movies people running thru the airport like that but never have I experienced in in real life until now. That was me. My gate was of course at the furthest point away from where I currently was. At least now I had running buddies coming along with me. Other people were killing themselves as well to get to their respective gates. We all got a small break to sit down and rest when we got to the shuttle that went between gates. My legs were killing me. When the shuttle stopped we all took off again but I could barely run anymore. My luggage was too heavy and my calves were on fire. at least now I was at the right gate and I had an early number like 3 or something. As long as they went in numerical order I was almost there. I couldn't be that lucky. It, of course, was in reverse numerical order. My gate was way at the other end. I kept running the best I could. I kept telling myself that I could rest when I got to the plane.
I finally made it and I burst thru the gate throwing my boarding pass at the lady. Oh man, the plane wasn't here. This just opened up into a whole other corridor I had to run down and without fail my gate was the very very last. I could see the words Pittsburgh on it as I tried to catch my breath. I was sweating and dying here but I MADE IT!! I don't know how but I did with 1 minute to spare. Luckily I was in seat 1A so I could finally sit down. Just a quick 45 min jaunt home now.
There was still some more pain hauling my stuff to where I parked (if you remember my first #revacation blog it was pretty far back) but the worst was over. Oh no someone in DC broke my luggage. I only had one wheel now. :| That's going to make it harder.
I packed up my car and blasted straight to the municipal field. What a good daddy I am. Flying home from another country overnight on a 12 hour flight to go straight to my sons baseball practice is a story I enjoy telling. I texted Ale I had made it and sat down to see my son learn the wonders of team sports. Could there be anything better? A leg massage would be nice. :P
THE END
Showing posts with label bus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bus. Show all posts
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Revacation part 7
2010/04/01
We had to check out of the hotel today but apparently your still allowed to check your bags and hang out there for free so rather than haul our stuff around all day that's what we did. We grabbed what we would need and checked the rest. We then started our day by grabbing a quick breakfast at the hotel and then walked down to the beach for the 3rd time. The first time it was cool and no one was there. Yesterday it was warmer and some people were there. Today it was beautiful out and blazing hot and it was packed!! We grabbed a spot to lay our towels down and jumped into the water. This is where we got some of my favorite pics. I also did some picross puzzles as we tanned. After a few hours it was time to eat so we decided to grab some lunch at that castle restaurant at the end of the beach. I think we had to pay more to sit on the outside deck but we went for it because it was nicer then sitting in the cramped inside. It was a bit windy but we still enjoyed ourselves. The food we got here was probably, I don't want to say bad but, the non-best we've had the whole week. The chicken thing I got was good but it was small and the pumpkin mashed potatoes were good but meh.
After we ate we walked down to where all these street vendors were selling their junk. Everyone other booth was sunglasses and stupid stuff made out of wood. I made fun of it and Ale thought I was hilarious. She is so sweet and awesome. It was a good walk down there and on the way back we walked down towards the water. Here there was no beach just rocks but it was fun to climb over them and jump over the cracks.
When we got back to the beach part there was some kind of memorial sidewalk area where all kinds of famous Argentinian people cast their hands in the cement. Ale acted like I heard of some of them but I have not. Excuse my ignorance dear. :(
Even though we had checked out of the hotel, our coupons for a free spa treatment were still valid so decided to cash those in. This was an awesome, relaxing time. It broke down into 3 separate stops: the sauna, the Finnish bath, and then the jacuzzi (15 min at each stop). First we went into the steam room with the heated rocks. It was damn hot. I kept pouring water on the rocks too for some reason which just made it worse. We almost couldn't take it but the lady came and pulled us out right before we gave up. That was a hardy sweating for sure. The lady showed us where the showers were between each stop. I guess you were supposed to rinse of all the sweat and cool down a bit before the next thing. So we did that, dried off and walked back out.
We went in the next thing which I had never heard of before, the Finnish bath. It was like being in a bathroom. The sauna was wood and this was bathroom tiles. More steam came from everywhere and it was almost so hot you couldn't sit down. The steam even smelled like a clean bathroom somehow. Once again though it was extremely hot in here and I think Ale did wig out and left the room before our time was up.
We took a quick rinse off shower again and hit the last thing, the jacuzzi. This was the best. Although this one wasn't as hot (as I expect a jacuzzi to be) it was very calm and relaxing. The bubbles and jets were very soothing and we just sat there and vegged out for a while. Actually a long while I think the lady forgot about us or soemthing because it seemed she left us in way more than 15 minutes.
We got cleaned up once last time and got dressed. It was time to check out the casino.
Neither of us really see the point in gambling so we didn't have that great of a time here. We walked around saw the tables and slots. I remember having trouble breathing because there were so many smokers around. I think we played the slots for about a dollars worth and then I dragged her over to the bar so I could get a drink. She ordered some fries so she wouldn't be drinking on an empty stomach and we both got some fancy drink. It was nice. When we were done that was all we needed to see. We left. I remember being amazed at the bill. It was so cheap. Back home just one of these fancy drinks would cost more than our whole bill!
We walked thru the town and stopped in some of the shops. There was an arcade here so we went there too. I had a strange sense of deja vu at one point like I had been here or dreamed about this place a long time ago. That was weird. They had one of those cool things where you put on 3D glasses and go into the small room and sit on one of those chairs that jerk around and watched a short roller coaster movie that they advertised was in 4D. I like those kinds of things and I think Ale liked it too.
When we left there we walked back to the mall to eat some dinner. We went to a normal burger type place and then got some ice cream after. We were getting tired after such an exciting week so we went back tot he hotel and chilled in the lobby till we took a cab back to the bus station.
The bus still wasn't too packed and we claimed our same, top of the bus in the back seats that we did before. No snack this time though. When we woke up next time it would be my last day here. :(
TO BE CONTINUED
We had to check out of the hotel today but apparently your still allowed to check your bags and hang out there for free so rather than haul our stuff around all day that's what we did. We grabbed what we would need and checked the rest. We then started our day by grabbing a quick breakfast at the hotel and then walked down to the beach for the 3rd time. The first time it was cool and no one was there. Yesterday it was warmer and some people were there. Today it was beautiful out and blazing hot and it was packed!! We grabbed a spot to lay our towels down and jumped into the water. This is where we got some of my favorite pics. I also did some picross puzzles as we tanned. After a few hours it was time to eat so we decided to grab some lunch at that castle restaurant at the end of the beach. I think we had to pay more to sit on the outside deck but we went for it because it was nicer then sitting in the cramped inside. It was a bit windy but we still enjoyed ourselves. The food we got here was probably, I don't want to say bad but, the non-best we've had the whole week. The chicken thing I got was good but it was small and the pumpkin mashed potatoes were good but meh.
After we ate we walked down to where all these street vendors were selling their junk. Everyone other booth was sunglasses and stupid stuff made out of wood. I made fun of it and Ale thought I was hilarious. She is so sweet and awesome. It was a good walk down there and on the way back we walked down towards the water. Here there was no beach just rocks but it was fun to climb over them and jump over the cracks.
When we got back to the beach part there was some kind of memorial sidewalk area where all kinds of famous Argentinian people cast their hands in the cement. Ale acted like I heard of some of them but I have not. Excuse my ignorance dear. :(
Even though we had checked out of the hotel, our coupons for a free spa treatment were still valid so decided to cash those in. This was an awesome, relaxing time. It broke down into 3 separate stops: the sauna, the Finnish bath, and then the jacuzzi (15 min at each stop). First we went into the steam room with the heated rocks. It was damn hot. I kept pouring water on the rocks too for some reason which just made it worse. We almost couldn't take it but the lady came and pulled us out right before we gave up. That was a hardy sweating for sure. The lady showed us where the showers were between each stop. I guess you were supposed to rinse of all the sweat and cool down a bit before the next thing. So we did that, dried off and walked back out.
We went in the next thing which I had never heard of before, the Finnish bath. It was like being in a bathroom. The sauna was wood and this was bathroom tiles. More steam came from everywhere and it was almost so hot you couldn't sit down. The steam even smelled like a clean bathroom somehow. Once again though it was extremely hot in here and I think Ale did wig out and left the room before our time was up.
We took a quick rinse off shower again and hit the last thing, the jacuzzi. This was the best. Although this one wasn't as hot (as I expect a jacuzzi to be) it was very calm and relaxing. The bubbles and jets were very soothing and we just sat there and vegged out for a while. Actually a long while I think the lady forgot about us or soemthing because it seemed she left us in way more than 15 minutes.
We got cleaned up once last time and got dressed. It was time to check out the casino.
Neither of us really see the point in gambling so we didn't have that great of a time here. We walked around saw the tables and slots. I remember having trouble breathing because there were so many smokers around. I think we played the slots for about a dollars worth and then I dragged her over to the bar so I could get a drink. She ordered some fries so she wouldn't be drinking on an empty stomach and we both got some fancy drink. It was nice. When we were done that was all we needed to see. We left. I remember being amazed at the bill. It was so cheap. Back home just one of these fancy drinks would cost more than our whole bill!
We walked thru the town and stopped in some of the shops. There was an arcade here so we went there too. I had a strange sense of deja vu at one point like I had been here or dreamed about this place a long time ago. That was weird. They had one of those cool things where you put on 3D glasses and go into the small room and sit on one of those chairs that jerk around and watched a short roller coaster movie that they advertised was in 4D. I like those kinds of things and I think Ale liked it too.
When we left there we walked back to the mall to eat some dinner. We went to a normal burger type place and then got some ice cream after. We were getting tired after such an exciting week so we went back tot he hotel and chilled in the lobby till we took a cab back to the bus station.
The bus still wasn't too packed and we claimed our same, top of the bus in the back seats that we did before. No snack this time though. When we woke up next time it would be my last day here. :(
TO BE CONTINUED
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Revacation part 6
2010/03/31
We woke up and went down to the hotel dining room to get us some free breakfast buffet. Being free meant of course that there was nothing really good there. It was just a bunch of little desserts and things and some cereal. We still filled up as much as possible to get us moving. We want to try and hit the beach again.
We stopped on the way at the Human Body exhibit. It happened to be right here in Argentina while I was here. I missed it when it was in Pittsburgh. I don't think I actually tried that hard but now that it was here we could see it together. How cool is that? Well, while it was neat it wasn't like the greatest thing we've ever done in our lives. We saw a lot of dead people and their guts. If you like that kind of stuff then for sure go see it. I would think it would be a must for school children to attend like for health class or something. In fact there was a tour of them in there at the same time as us. They were not dead. You could hear the teachers pointing and talking to individual things telling the kids more information. If I had it to do over, not sure I'd be in the mood to do it again. We blew thru it in less than an hour and got out of there.
Oh it was definitely nicer today outside. A lot warmer, not super hot mind you but at least you could hang out and get in the water without freezing (The water here must come up from even further south because it is freezing year round). There were more people here today. We walked to this shop and bought one of those beach mat thingies to sit on. I took a lot of awesome pics of the environment up and down the beach trying to capture the atmosphere. There was a guy in the water trying to wind surf but he kept falling down so that was funny.
We went back out on the street for a walk to start sight seeing. I found a nice store right away that had souvenir shirts for small boys. I finally found what I was looking for to get Isaac! A Mar De Plata t-shirt. (PIC) We kept on walking down the beach seeing what there was to see and I got even more awesome pics. Some of the best were at this high point where you could almost see forever down the beach in either direction. We sat on this wall and took pics of both of us from all sorts of angles. It was awesome. These are some of my favorite pics that we got. (PIC)
We walked back to our home base area at this point and got some lunch. I was knocking out all the awesome Argentinian dishes that I wanted to try and I finally got to have some milenesa at Montecatini (she got the chicken I got the beef, both with eggs). After we ate we stopped in Italia and got some Cannoli which was this amazing ice cream thing. It was a churro covered with ice cream that was filled with peanuts and all with a chocolate shell around it. It was so good and super hearty but I could barely finish it I was so stuffed from everything.
There were more touristy things to do further down the beach at the port. So I let Ale drag me along to a bus stop to take about a half hour ride down the coast. I saw houses with actual yards and stuff which was cool. This is stuff I was used to rather than straight 100% city all the time. We got there and we right next to this circular plaza. Nothing really interesting here so we walked a bit down the road to the actual port. Here it turned into a pedestrian area with a bunch of souvenir shops and you could see about a million boats on the water. Where the concrete ended by the water there was another level underneath for the boat people to get to their boats I guess. That is where the sea lions were. There must have been at least 20 lying there sleeping. I wondered being so close if they would ever attack someone if they got in range but there were boat people walking back and forth and neither of them seemed to pay each other any mind. The fun thing to do while looking at them is to say 'Hey' to someone and point and go 'That one looks like you'. That was good fun to do that.
We left there and I found the perfect little trinket for my mom (even though I already bought her some stuff) and we found a dock that gave a tour via boat. We looked at the time and we were here right at the time we needed to be. We bought some tickets and hopped on. While is was a nice tour, it was the slowest damn boat I had ever been on in my life. We only went out and made a huge circle around the bay but damn. We sat on the top at first but it got chilly so we went down inside. There was a spot on the shore where more sea lions were. There must have been 200 of more at this spot. I wondered how they climbed up the rocks to get where they were.
When we got back we grabbed the bus back to the beach and went back to Manolo's to have submarino. I guess to tide them over until dinner since everyone eats so late, the popular thing to do is get warm milk and a chocolate bar for a snack. You stir the chocolate in the milk until it melts and then you drink it. I was happy to be doing these cultural things. We went back to our room after that and I think we were so tired we didn't even go back out for dinner that night.
TO BE CONTINUED
We woke up and went down to the hotel dining room to get us some free breakfast buffet. Being free meant of course that there was nothing really good there. It was just a bunch of little desserts and things and some cereal. We still filled up as much as possible to get us moving. We want to try and hit the beach again.
We stopped on the way at the Human Body exhibit. It happened to be right here in Argentina while I was here. I missed it when it was in Pittsburgh. I don't think I actually tried that hard but now that it was here we could see it together. How cool is that? Well, while it was neat it wasn't like the greatest thing we've ever done in our lives. We saw a lot of dead people and their guts. If you like that kind of stuff then for sure go see it. I would think it would be a must for school children to attend like for health class or something. In fact there was a tour of them in there at the same time as us. They were not dead. You could hear the teachers pointing and talking to individual things telling the kids more information. If I had it to do over, not sure I'd be in the mood to do it again. We blew thru it in less than an hour and got out of there.
Oh it was definitely nicer today outside. A lot warmer, not super hot mind you but at least you could hang out and get in the water without freezing (The water here must come up from even further south because it is freezing year round). There were more people here today. We walked to this shop and bought one of those beach mat thingies to sit on. I took a lot of awesome pics of the environment up and down the beach trying to capture the atmosphere. There was a guy in the water trying to wind surf but he kept falling down so that was funny.
We went back out on the street for a walk to start sight seeing. I found a nice store right away that had souvenir shirts for small boys. I finally found what I was looking for to get Isaac! A Mar De Plata t-shirt. (PIC) We kept on walking down the beach seeing what there was to see and I got even more awesome pics. Some of the best were at this high point where you could almost see forever down the beach in either direction. We sat on this wall and took pics of both of us from all sorts of angles. It was awesome. These are some of my favorite pics that we got. (PIC)
We walked back to our home base area at this point and got some lunch. I was knocking out all the awesome Argentinian dishes that I wanted to try and I finally got to have some milenesa at Montecatini (she got the chicken I got the beef, both with eggs). After we ate we stopped in Italia and got some Cannoli which was this amazing ice cream thing. It was a churro covered with ice cream that was filled with peanuts and all with a chocolate shell around it. It was so good and super hearty but I could barely finish it I was so stuffed from everything.
There were more touristy things to do further down the beach at the port. So I let Ale drag me along to a bus stop to take about a half hour ride down the coast. I saw houses with actual yards and stuff which was cool. This is stuff I was used to rather than straight 100% city all the time. We got there and we right next to this circular plaza. Nothing really interesting here so we walked a bit down the road to the actual port. Here it turned into a pedestrian area with a bunch of souvenir shops and you could see about a million boats on the water. Where the concrete ended by the water there was another level underneath for the boat people to get to their boats I guess. That is where the sea lions were. There must have been at least 20 lying there sleeping. I wondered being so close if they would ever attack someone if they got in range but there were boat people walking back and forth and neither of them seemed to pay each other any mind. The fun thing to do while looking at them is to say 'Hey' to someone and point and go 'That one looks like you'. That was good fun to do that.
We left there and I found the perfect little trinket for my mom (even though I already bought her some stuff) and we found a dock that gave a tour via boat. We looked at the time and we were here right at the time we needed to be. We bought some tickets and hopped on. While is was a nice tour, it was the slowest damn boat I had ever been on in my life. We only went out and made a huge circle around the bay but damn. We sat on the top at first but it got chilly so we went down inside. There was a spot on the shore where more sea lions were. There must have been 200 of more at this spot. I wondered how they climbed up the rocks to get where they were.
When we got back we grabbed the bus back to the beach and went back to Manolo's to have submarino. I guess to tide them over until dinner since everyone eats so late, the popular thing to do is get warm milk and a chocolate bar for a snack. You stir the chocolate in the milk until it melts and then you drink it. I was happy to be doing these cultural things. We went back to our room after that and I think we were so tired we didn't even go back out for dinner that night.
TO BE CONTINUED
Friday, June 11, 2010
Revacation part 4
2010/03/29
We woke up Monday morning and it was time to check out the hostel. I ran around and took some more pictures so I would remember this place. You could get up onto various places on the roof from where we were so I went exploring. There really wasn't too much going on up there but boys always like climbing on stuff. We so got ready, packed our stuff up and checked out. It was about 15 blocks or so to Ale's house and she suggested we take a taxi but I thought we could handle it plus it would be good exercise to walk. My arms were aching a bit carrying all my luggage with me but it wasn't that bad when we arrived.
Her mother made us lunch of the meat that was leftover from the night before and then we geared up and grabbed a bus to downtown. Today was the day we were going to take the city bus tour. We got close and got off the bus (the transportation one). We were in a huge pedestrian area and it was packed. It must be lunchtime around here. I think this area around Florida St was called El Centro. I wanted to get my souvenir buying out of the way so I steered us over to some shops. I found some good stuff here. I got my mom a nice shirt and some other crap that said Buenos Aires on it that I thought she would like. My sister wanted a postcards so I got her one and also a shot glass.
I didn't find the perfect thing for Isaac yet but at least with them out of the way I only have to worry about him now.
At the end of one of the streets we came out in this triangle area and it was there that the tour bus and its ticket booth was. Ale went in to get the tickets but came out to sadly tell me that they were sold out for the day. That was not good that would mess up our whole day. I wonder what we should do now? 'Good day' I heard. Who? It was some little British woman and her husband. She must have heard us talking and wanted to help. They had already gone on the tour so they wouldn't need their tickets anymore so she straight up gave them to us. The tickets were not like get a ticket, take one ride on the bus and you're done. No these tickets were good for 24 or 48 hours from when you bought them so you could use them over and over until they expired. This made sense to me later since there were lots of stops on this tour, you could get off anywhere and go exploring. When you were done you found the stop and could get back on without having to buy another ticket. Well all right then we were good to go. We got in the queue and waited for them to let us on.
The tour bus was pretty kick ass.
There was an upstairs that was open but Ale thought it was too sunny and she didn't want my hairless scalp being torched. I wasn't worried about it but I just trusted her judgment. I like that I can do that with her. So we just sat in the main part which was right in front of a monitor. There were headphones available too. You put them on and the narrator would describe what you were viewing as you passed it. What I thought was crazy was how many languages they had available. When you put your headphones on you had to jack in to the audio. On the ceiling were the ports and you just found what language you know and plug in there but I swear the ports section was 2 ft long. There must have been 15 different languages there. Normal ones like English, Spanish, French but there was also Portuguese and Hebrew and ones I was like whoa, that's crazy.
The tour itself was epic. It lasted hours and we went all over the city, back and forth. I took about a million pictures of statues. Why? I don't know. I think that's the kind of thing you're supposed to take pictures of when you go on vacation. There was one part of the tour we had to variate from the path due to those protesters. The police had some roads blocked off so we had to skip one part and go a different way but that really didn't affect my enjoyment of any of it. It was very fun and I saw a lot of great stuff that made me extremely happy we did this. Plus we were together. That was the best.
Hours later when the tour was done and we got off the bus we jumped right on Subway A to go see the Congress. (That was the part of the tour that was cut out). Plus it's right next to where Ale works. 5 blocks or something. That became a running joke with us. Everywhere we were she tried to describe something that was near us and it was always like 5 blocks that way is this and 5 blocks that way is that. No matter where we were. It started to become really funny and I started doing it too. :D
We stopped at a cool Burger King to grab a quick bite because I was getting hungry. It was the only time I think I ate 'normal' food while I was there. It was cool because it was like a 3 story Burger King. Quite impressive.
We kept on walking until we hit the center of the town where the obelisk was. This was one of Ale's favorite places to be. A huge Washington monument thing rose from this Central park area and it was awesome. There was a sitting area below it for people to stop and relax and take in all the sights. I really liked it there too and that would be one of the main places I would have to go
see again if/when I go back.
Later that night we went back to Ale's to have Passover dinner. (That is some kind of Jewish thing, I think it is when Jesus saved the Easter Bunny) I was nervous of being in the middle of this huge party meeting all of her family that want to know who this strange Americano is and why can't he talk to us and a million questions but it wasn't like that. Her cousin Diego spoke a little English so we had a few words and I did meet everyone but luckily for me his kids were the center of attention. Once everyone saw me that only wanted to play with the babbies. That was cool. I didn't mind at all. I was happy to meet everyone and let them know that I was hoping to be part of their family someday. It did make me sad that I didn't learn more Spanish so I could speak with them better but I'm still trying (slowly). I have no doubt I'll get there eventually. So we ate and partied and had a great time well into the night. We had to be at the bus station though by midnight so we could get to Mar del Plata so we called a taxi, grabbed our things and left before it was totally over. As fun as everything was up until now I had even more crazy stuff to look forward to.
TO BE CONTINUED
We woke up Monday morning and it was time to check out the hostel. I ran around and took some more pictures so I would remember this place. You could get up onto various places on the roof from where we were so I went exploring. There really wasn't too much going on up there but boys always like climbing on stuff. We so got ready, packed our stuff up and checked out. It was about 15 blocks or so to Ale's house and she suggested we take a taxi but I thought we could handle it plus it would be good exercise to walk. My arms were aching a bit carrying all my luggage with me but it wasn't that bad when we arrived.
Her mother made us lunch of the meat that was leftover from the night before and then we geared up and grabbed a bus to downtown. Today was the day we were going to take the city bus tour. We got close and got off the bus (the transportation one). We were in a huge pedestrian area and it was packed. It must be lunchtime around here. I think this area around Florida St was called El Centro. I wanted to get my souvenir buying out of the way so I steered us over to some shops. I found some good stuff here. I got my mom a nice shirt and some other crap that said Buenos Aires on it that I thought she would like. My sister wanted a postcards so I got her one and also a shot glass.
I didn't find the perfect thing for Isaac yet but at least with them out of the way I only have to worry about him now.At the end of one of the streets we came out in this triangle area and it was there that the tour bus and its ticket booth was. Ale went in to get the tickets but came out to sadly tell me that they were sold out for the day. That was not good that would mess up our whole day. I wonder what we should do now? 'Good day' I heard. Who? It was some little British woman and her husband. She must have heard us talking and wanted to help. They had already gone on the tour so they wouldn't need their tickets anymore so she straight up gave them to us. The tickets were not like get a ticket, take one ride on the bus and you're done. No these tickets were good for 24 or 48 hours from when you bought them so you could use them over and over until they expired. This made sense to me later since there were lots of stops on this tour, you could get off anywhere and go exploring. When you were done you found the stop and could get back on without having to buy another ticket. Well all right then we were good to go. We got in the queue and waited for them to let us on.
The tour bus was pretty kick ass.
There was an upstairs that was open but Ale thought it was too sunny and she didn't want my hairless scalp being torched. I wasn't worried about it but I just trusted her judgment. I like that I can do that with her. So we just sat in the main part which was right in front of a monitor. There were headphones available too. You put them on and the narrator would describe what you were viewing as you passed it. What I thought was crazy was how many languages they had available. When you put your headphones on you had to jack in to the audio. On the ceiling were the ports and you just found what language you know and plug in there but I swear the ports section was 2 ft long. There must have been 15 different languages there. Normal ones like English, Spanish, French but there was also Portuguese and Hebrew and ones I was like whoa, that's crazy.The tour itself was epic. It lasted hours and we went all over the city, back and forth. I took about a million pictures of statues. Why? I don't know. I think that's the kind of thing you're supposed to take pictures of when you go on vacation. There was one part of the tour we had to variate from the path due to those protesters. The police had some roads blocked off so we had to skip one part and go a different way but that really didn't affect my enjoyment of any of it. It was very fun and I saw a lot of great stuff that made me extremely happy we did this. Plus we were together. That was the best.
Hours later when the tour was done and we got off the bus we jumped right on Subway A to go see the Congress. (That was the part of the tour that was cut out). Plus it's right next to where Ale works. 5 blocks or something. That became a running joke with us. Everywhere we were she tried to describe something that was near us and it was always like 5 blocks that way is this and 5 blocks that way is that. No matter where we were. It started to become really funny and I started doing it too. :D
We stopped at a cool Burger King to grab a quick bite because I was getting hungry. It was the only time I think I ate 'normal' food while I was there. It was cool because it was like a 3 story Burger King. Quite impressive.
We kept on walking until we hit the center of the town where the obelisk was. This was one of Ale's favorite places to be. A huge Washington monument thing rose from this Central park area and it was awesome. There was a sitting area below it for people to stop and relax and take in all the sights. I really liked it there too and that would be one of the main places I would have to go
see again if/when I go back.Later that night we went back to Ale's to have Passover dinner. (That is some kind of Jewish thing, I think it is when Jesus saved the Easter Bunny) I was nervous of being in the middle of this huge party meeting all of her family that want to know who this strange Americano is and why can't he talk to us and a million questions but it wasn't like that. Her cousin Diego spoke a little English so we had a few words and I did meet everyone but luckily for me his kids were the center of attention. Once everyone saw me that only wanted to play with the babbies. That was cool. I didn't mind at all. I was happy to meet everyone and let them know that I was hoping to be part of their family someday. It did make me sad that I didn't learn more Spanish so I could speak with them better but I'm still trying (slowly). I have no doubt I'll get there eventually. So we ate and partied and had a great time well into the night. We had to be at the bus station though by midnight so we could get to Mar del Plata so we called a taxi, grabbed our things and left before it was totally over. As fun as everything was up until now I had even more crazy stuff to look forward to.
TO BE CONTINUED
Friday, April 23, 2010
Revacation Part 2
2010/03/27
Someone must have reached across me and shut my window shade because when I woke up it was closed. That was a smart thing though because when I opened it, light blazed in. It was morning and I was almost at the airport (EZE). Nothing could stop me now!!
So we went to Ale's house and met her family. Her mom and dad and sister were all awesome I just wish I could understand them better. I got to see her house and her room. For some reason I never got the impression that her room was that small. They have a huge brick oven / grill thing in the middle of their house that is cool. Her dad grilled us all kinds of meat that we had for dinner. They kept testing things out on me to see if I'd eat it. Most things were ok. I mean meat is meat. Sure it tasted a bit different but as long as you don't tell me what it is until later I'll be okay. There was one kind of purple sausage that was all mushy and I didn't like. I found out later it was mixed with cow's blood so that was totally gross. Everything else was awesome. I gave her dad the headphones I bought for him (although for some reason Ale told him that she gave me the money to buy them. I'm not sure why. I thought he'd like me for giving him that present but if he thinks she bought it I won't have that going for me).
I also got to give Ale all the stuff I had been collecting for her. The Pens calendar, tons of American chocolate candy, a book on how to speak Pittsburghese and most importantly the less than 3 necklace. She really liked it which made me happy. When I saw it I knew it was the perfect gift since in all our chats we <3 each other. She says it's the best present she ever got and that she's never taking it off. That makes me feel good. We went back to the hostel and .. and slept. What a crazy first day!
TO BE CONTINUED
Someone must have reached across me and shut my window shade because when I woke up it was closed. That was a smart thing though because when I opened it, light blazed in. It was morning and I was almost at the airport (EZE). Nothing could stop me now!!
When we de-planed we walked down these awesome glass hallways that attached the planes to the terminal. Nothing like the retractable pieces of garbage at (PIT). I followed everyone down to Customs. We had to wait in line to show our passports and pay some kind of entry tax. Apparently you don't need a visa to visit Argentina from the US but the other way around, you do. Argentina recoops this cost to their citizens with this tax. Either way I could have used the $131 for other purposes but I knew about it ahead of time so I was prepared. After that I waited in line for another guy who stamped my passport and that was it. Get my bag and head out. Happiness!!
The area sort of funneled everyone towards a frosted glass double door that was the exit. I walked thru it and directly in front of me was a giant glass wall with hundreds of people staring at me with their faces pressed against it looking for their loved ones. Hi everyone that is staring at me. I am not the person you are looking for. Now I know how the monkey's at the zoo feel like. Where was my loved one? How was I supposed to find Alejandra in this mess? I started walking and saw the end where my area merged with the area all these people were. If I didn't see her by the time I got there what was I going to do? Ah I see her arm outstretched. I iz saved!! Hugs! Wow I'm here. You're here. This is slightly weird but not. I can't believe this. How was your trip? How long were you waiting? Where are we going now? Let's go to the hostel. Okay.
Outside a taxi man told us I couldn't bring my bags on a bus and that we should go with him. Ale said he was lying and we found and boarded the #8 bus after a few minutes with no problems. She sort of sat half on me and finally got to start enjoying each others company. We took our first picture together here. There was a rear view mirror on the ceiling in front of us for some reason and we could see ourselves in it. We did it! The revacation has started!
I got to see the country side of this strange land I was in while Ale filled me in on what was going on. The bus was empty when we got on it but the closer we got to the city the more and more people that boarded. Wow here we are, check this city out. Every block was packed with stores and there were signs and huge billboards everywhere. Wow there's a gas station, a sign to drink Coke, a soccer stadium, a train station, huge apartment buildings. This looks like normal familiar stuff but for some reason slightly strange to me. For blocks and blocks and blocks it just went on. NYC probably looks something like this but I have never been there. Ale showed me her bus schedule book. As big as this city was I was impressed she had studied this manual enough to know when and where to go. The bus wouldn't go directly to where we needed to go but we could get a taxi the rest of the way. 4 pesos for the bus but it would have been 40 pesos to get a taxi this far. I love that she knows things like that. We stopped and I dragged my stuff off the bus and into a taxi. Do these intersections lack signals? I think so. I don't know how many car accidents they have around here but from what I'm seeing it should be a lot. At least half the cars on the road are taxis and it doesn't seem to be mandatory to stay in your lane either.
Here at the hostel it is kind of weird. I had my first real interaction with someone that could not understand a word I was saying and vice versa. Luckily Ale took over and handled all this but it was neat to be right there and try to figure out what they were saying. They didn't clean our room yet or something but we could dump our stuff and by the time we came back it would be ready. Sounds like a good idea to me. My arms are killing me from hauling these bags around. There's only one remote for the air conditioners so we have to get the guy to come up here to turn it off and on. :/ Okay there's a bed and a dresser. Where is our bathroom? Oh it is the room next door. So we have to leave our room to go take a shower and stuff. :/ I got some shorts on and got my feet out of my big boots. It was cold in Pittsburgh but it's not here. We will go get a bite to eat and take a quick walk around while they finish doing whatever they are going to do to our room so we dumped our stuff and walked back out onto the street.
Right down the street from the hostel was a nice looking restaurant called Imperio's so we went in there and took a seat. Now I get to see how they do things down here. First thing I noticed, they don't give you free refills on drinks and everything is either con gas or sin gas (do you want it bubbly or not). It was fancy here. They had cloth napkins and the waiters were all dressed sharply but I could not read the menu. Yeah I see it says Pizza but what kinds are these? You don't have pepperoni down here? That is the most insane things I ever heard. Hmm since I don't know what this crap is I'm going to have to bite the bullet here and just trust you Ale to get me something I'll like. She ordered me 'Matambre con papas a la espanola'. It was awesome!!! :D 
Imagine a kind of regular personal pizza but instead of a bread crust that everything is on it's a big piece of meat. On top of that is ham. On top of that is a ton of melted cheese with spices and a few tomato slices. The whole thing is served with what we would call here potato wedges. It was awesome. I had a couple of 7ups with it, we took some pictures, I stole one of their classy cloth napkins and we were out.
It was a nice day for a walk. I remember seeing a block on the bus map that was in the shape of a circle. Apparently that was the park Ale wanted to show me so we went off in that direction. Watch where you step. There is dog poop all over the place. There is a burned out car filled with trash. Don't they clean up that stuff around here? Is this a foreign land thing or just a big city thing? I never figured that out. I started taking lots of atmosphere photos to remember how it felt to be there and pretty soon we were at the park. Around the outside were lots of vendors selling their stuff out of tents. Ale told me that most of the stuff there were selling was pirated America stuff. I guess it is marked up so bad in regular stores that no one buys it and almost everyone there has no qualms about buying their goods this way. That's just how it is. (I 
discovered this later when we found an electronic store and I looked at their PS3 stuff. Both the system and the games were about 4 times as expensive as if I would of bought them in a store back home.) There was a big pond in the middle of this park and there were a million pigeons flitting about. There were fountains in the water and cool statues around. We sat down and relaxed for a bit. We talked for a while and enjoyed each others company and the environment but there were some strong desires burning in the background. I think it's time to see if they finished our room.
I won't go into what happened next in too much detail. Let's just say the bed was insanely squeaky almost to the point of embarrassingly so. Now we can clean up and go back to meet her parents at her house and have dinner.
Wow this bathroom that we had to keep our clothes on to walk to doesn't even have a shower. Oh wait there is a hose in the sink. Oh we hook it to the faucet and hang it on the wall. How novel. :\ Wait the water pressure is so much that it keeps blowing it off the spigot. This sucks.So we went to Ale's house and met her family. Her mom and dad and sister were all awesome I just wish I could understand them better. I got to see her house and her room. For some reason I never got the impression that her room was that small. They have a huge brick oven / grill thing in the middle of their house that is cool. Her dad grilled us all kinds of meat that we had for dinner. They kept testing things out on me to see if I'd eat it. Most things were ok. I mean meat is meat. Sure it tasted a bit different but as long as you don't tell me what it is until later I'll be okay. There was one kind of purple sausage that was all mushy and I didn't like. I found out later it was mixed with cow's blood so that was totally gross. Everything else was awesome. I gave her dad the headphones I bought for him (although for some reason Ale told him that she gave me the money to buy them. I'm not sure why. I thought he'd like me for giving him that present but if he thinks she bought it I won't have that going for me).
I also got to give Ale all the stuff I had been collecting for her. The Pens calendar, tons of American chocolate candy, a book on how to speak Pittsburghese and most importantly the less than 3 necklace. She really liked it which made me happy. When I saw it I knew it was the perfect gift since in all our chats we <3 each other. She says it's the best present she ever got and that she's never taking it off. That makes me feel good. We went back to the hostel and .. and slept. What a crazy first day!
TO BE CONTINUED
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