Chaotic, crazy, extreme, unreal – but nevertheless also somehow wonderful and anyway very impressive

I think this describes best my first impressions, but let’s start chronologically:

My long journey started on last Friday, the 27th July, by taking the train from Frankfurt to Paris. Since it was an ICE, after 30 minutes of driving 300 km/h through France (something that is never possible in Germany), something broke in the motor and afterwards the train could only drive 150 km/h until we finally reached Paris – with almost 90 minutes delay. But perhaps I’ll get a small compensation for that. I then took the overcrowded metro towards “Charles de Gaulle”-airport, where I was asked whether I’d like to be a volunteer for not flying today due to the flight being overbooked. As I didn’t have to reach Argentina on a specific day, I accepted – and got 200€ cash plus a night and a day with dinner, breakfast, lunch and dinner in a 4 star hotel

After this relaxing stay watching the Olympics, I finally had my flight on Saturday 28th at 23:20. When checking in, I always was like seeing some of France’s best rugby players from Paris’ team “Stade Francais“, among others Turinui, Lyons, Sackey, Parisse, Contepomi or Pascal Papé. They also were heading to Argentina for playing two preparation matches against the Argentine national team “The Pumas” and I had the great honor to have my seat next to the former captain Pierre Rabadan, a really amazing and open-minded guy. So being a volunteer on the previous day was really worth it!

We arrived at Buenos Aires the Sunday morning (local time), after a long flight, but where I was able to sleep enough. Instead of taking an expensive taxi or a way cheaper bus from a private company (which most of the tourists do), I opted for the most “adventurous” part and took the public bus (“colectivo”). For only 2 Argentine pesos, the ride lasts 2 hours from Ezeiza-Airport through the endless popular districts of Buenos Aires and finally reaches the center at the “Plaza del Mayo” (almost every second place or street seems to refer to the revolution in May 1810 that eventually leads to the Argentine independence). From here I walked to the “Avenida 9 de Julio” with its obelisk and went to the Limehouse Youth Hostel where I had planned to stay for the next two days (if you ever go to Buenos Aires and are looking for a nice, friendly and cheap hotel – go there! You’ll meet lots of smart and open guys from all over the world).

I spent the rest of the day mainly with three other people, a Peruvian boy, a Mexican and an German girl. We went to the antique market in San Telmo, which is really lively and interesting. The next day we visited the beautiful town Tigre (by the way – NEVER buy a ticket if you take the train, as no one will ever come and check it!) and the Estadio Monumental, home of the “River Plate” soccer team. I definitely need to see a football game there when the temporada has started again! This basically summarizes my two days in Buenos Aires, an impressive city with much more to see. Even at the train station and bus terminal at Retiro (which are next to a bigger slum) I actually never felt unsafe. The only “bad” thing that happened to me was the good old “mustard trick”, where a robber throws some dirty sauces at your backpack and then kindly offers to help you with cleaning it, but while doing so he additionally removes every valuable thing he can find. Luckily I was aware of it and immediately sent him away without letting him approach me (anyway I protected my valuables with a lock, but now I will also always use the rain-cover of my bag, it’s much easier to clean it up ).

Tuesday, 31st, I took the bus at Buenos Aires terminal in Retiro for Tandil. In South America, buses are the number one transport, with at least the same service as in planes, but offering much more comfort and flexibility. The trip lasts 5 hours, always straight forward on a national road. I can definitely say that now I know what the pampas are: endless fields full of cows but without any hills for miles around – pretty boring though. I arrived in Tandil in the evening and headed to a nice hostel named “Casa Chango“, with an artistic interior decoration (but why on earth don’t Argentines know what isolation means? The winter here is not that cold, but it feels like you also have your 12 degrees inside….). I slept two nights here for having time to go to the university campus and choose my courses, visit the city (very simple for orientation as it just looks like a checker-board, and almost everything is near, of course except the faculties), buy me a simple cell-phone and last but not least move in a “pension”.

I need to get a bit into this last point, because pensiones seem to be quite frequent here. In contrast to a normal sharing of an apartment (where the persons need to cook, wash and care for themselves), a pension is when someone has a bigger house or flat and offers free rooms for students. But beyond that the landlady cooks three times a day, washes clothes, cleans the house and does more or less everything that is needed (I think that Argentine students are not that much independent and need a substitute mum ). At the beginning I was kind of suspicious and the first two pensiones I visited somehow confirmed it, because there the rooms were very small and the guys rather reserved. But when I saw the third one, it was the first time since I arrived in Argentina where I finally felt like being “at home”. The proprietress and the students (when everyone is here there are almost 20 people) are amazing: friendly, funny, open-minded, we’re like a family. The house is very big, well located, in a very good condition and has central heating! I’m feeling very comfortable here, everyone has its own interesting personality and I have to understand and speak Spanish (no, it is castellano!) all day long, which is the best that could happen to me for learning a lot (luckily it is not as bad as I expected: I was able to communicate for everything I needed until now, and the people here are incredibly patient with me, but their slang is very different from European Spanish, and they’re the first people I met that think Swedish girls are not beautiful, because they mostly have blond hair ).

Well, I think this is more or less all that’s worth telling it. I slowly start getting used to the Argentine every day life: for instance, I’m already addicted to “tomar Mate“. And in Tandil there is a beautiful fitness trail around the lake where I’ll regularly be jogging and exercising…. so long, more to come soon, hopefully with some photos!