Venturing out to the Downtown

Hayley spoke in confident Spanish enabling us to get the tickets for our first ride on the ‘Subte’ (underground train). The train itself was more like an underground tram. The old wooden train, we believe, is one of the last of its kind in the history of this train service. There was one other exciting feature about this train (if the latter didn't get you going), this train departs from the platform with doors open and people trying to clamber aboard!

Since arriving in Buenos Aires Hayley and I have been using a saying (probably as old as the tram) from the Grover ancestry – ‘Savour the moment’ – so we did, this day was our 17th Wedding anniversary. We recounted tales of the wedding day, our honeymoon and no regrets as we toasted the occasion, with our three beautiful girls, in a back street café. So I had the widest grin on my face, I also crossed the widest road in the world (an epic walk) and the next day I would sit at the edge widest river delta in the world.

On the return journey by the ‘underground tram’ we were entertained by a man who had strapped a laptop and speakers all to one arm whilst selling the pirated CD’s of 80’s music with his other – this one armed DJ gave us a 30 sec blast of ‘We will rock you’ tempting us into buying his mega mix. I had admiration for the ingenuity of his scheme, whilst hoping I would not have to resort to selling in this way to earn a living when I got back to the UK! (An extract from Mark’s travel writing.10/09/11)

1 week past...

Friday 9^th September 2011 – Buenos Aires (then time..)

Hola Amigos! Sorry for the delay of info, the telephone and Wi-Fi at our apartment doesn’t work so here’s a major catch up of everything!

Here we are in on our 8^th day in Buenos Aires, safe and sound after a long flight and quite an emotional week of goodbyes. Not gonna lie it was probably one of the hardest but exciting weeks of my life! I manage just about to hold my tears in at the leaving party but at the airport I wasn’t so lucky! I sobbed for probably half an hour after we got through security! But I managed to pull myself together in the end (well until about 3am on the aeroplane when I lost it again!) The flight was fine, Asia was practically bouncing of the walls as we got on the plane (which if you know Asia you’ll understand what she’s like when she’s excited!) It didn’t last long ha ha! The food was pretty bad but that was to be expected.

We landed at about 7:30am on Friday 2^nd September. We got picked up by one of our friends who took us to our apartment! It has 2 bedrooms both with double beds so Yas and I are sharing and Asia is on a mattress on the floor! It’s got a teeny bathroom, kitchen (which has no dishwasher and no bowls so we have to eat are breakfast out of soup mugs ha ha) and a lounge, it’s quite small but it’s got an awesome view to make up for it! Our apartment is also right by a busy street which has 2 Starbucks’s, a McDonalds, Burger King, 2 parks and lots of ice cream, clothes and food shops all in a 5-15 minute walk! The downside to our apartment is that the Wi-Fi doesn’t work and I have been itching to get on to Facebook haha! But apart from that it is perfect for us!

The past week has been pretty relaxed really. We spent the first few days catching up on sleep, reading and journal writing and getting to know the area! We have laughed a lot trying to communicate with our tiny bit of Spanish language – Mum is doing most of the talking (no change there then!). Dad managed to ask for 1Kg of Dulce de Leche ice cream in the ice cream shop. He was very proud of his Spanish but all he can do so far is order ice cream! On Tuesday I got my GCSE books out and made a sort of plan for this year, we are starting to get into a routine of our own even though it feels like we’re on holiday! Study in the mornings, snack lunch, afternoon out exploring, food shopping, home for siesta & ‘merienda’ followed by reading, playing, chilling and eating our dinner around 8pm.

So far we have not been out in the evenings but we are planning to be out a lot this weekend so evening meals will be late! I still don’t believe we’re actually here, it just doesn’t seem real at all even though we’ve been here a week! I have my moments of wanting to go home but I guess I will have that all year! The weather is so nice, it’s nicer than summer in England even though it’s their end of winter beginning of spring!

I have learnt and seen so many things already that have opened my eyes to a whole new perspective on the world and this is only the beginning.

Random Facts about Buenos Aires:

1 The taxi’s are black on the bottom half and yellow on the top

2 The local supermarket is called ‘Discos’

3 Buenos Aires is 4 hours behind the UK (so the jet lag wasn’t too bad)

4 My mum and I went without proper coffee for 4 days!!!! (that has defiantly  been the     most challenging thing of all so far ha ha!)

5 if you go to a park I can guarantee you there will be at least 5 couples sitting on benches or on the floor snogging for long periods time! You get used to it eventually….this is Latin America!

That’s all from me for now! I’m not sure when the next blog will be up but hopefully it  will be soon! I hope everyone’s ok and I miss you all lots and lots!

Much Love

Kaela-J xxx