Friday 3rd May 2013 - today shouldn't be too hard to talk about since we spent the whole day on the sofa hanging and doing our best not to be sick. We slept through breakfast, which didnt matter because we had some before bed, ha. Also wendy said she didnt wake us up for it because she knew we were asleep on the sofa a few hours ago and as she didnt have any postive news about the strikes she let us sleep. We became part of the furniture but we saw so many people, because we were there all day we met just about everyone that's stopping on this floor and spoke to most of them! Greg was upstairs dying most the day I think but me nicki and Jess stayed committed to the sofa. During the day I watched 4 football games from the Argentinian and Brazilian leagues and also a Spanish and Italian game. We watched 2 films; the mummy and funny people. Had 2 takeaways; Chinese and Pizza and watched a fair few friends episodes. I was so comfy all day the sofas seem perfect to cure a hangover. I met Andy an Auzzie from Melbourne, he's a huge sports fan and watched most of the football games with me. He's a teacher and used to live in London. We also met his fiancé Liz. During the day we also met a Norwegian guy who was cool, he was called Christian. Another Auzzie called Jake appeared later on who was another big sports fan. Christian, andy and I stayed up talking about stadium sizes, Argentinian league system and anything football until eventually we all headed to bed.

Saturday 4th May 2013 - it was so nice today to wake up without a hangover and after breakfast we regained our position around the sofa to watch the Spurs vs Southampton game. Bale scored in the last 5 mins to win the game, no surprise. After this nicki and I decided to make a move. We wanted to walk to San Telmo the oldest neighbourhood in the whole of buenos aires it was a little way but that massive wide road took us most the way and its pretty safe to walk along. We were told we would know when we are there by the cobbled streets which we saw soon enough. There's a lovely in door market that we stumbled across apparently its one of the better places to visit it was pretty exciting. There were huge stands of the most colourful fruit and veg, I mean I don't normally find this that interesting but I found myself photographing vegetables. Ha. It's a huge iron building kind of looks like the old cattle market in Stratford with a high roof and iron work everywhere. The first bit was food with others including meat etc then you get into the jewellery and souvenirs with little handmade bags and clothing. I found a place the sold retro football shirts I didn't buy any buy I enjoyed looking at the premiership team kits from the early 90's etc. My nan bought us a st Christopher necklace which we loved and nicki's chain had broke so we haggled a market stall until we got a price we were willing to pay then he knocked a further 10 peso off the price because we only needed the chain. We fixed this later and it now looks as good as new, we were hoping this would mean our travels would get back on the road as since its been broke we've not travelled. We walked from here to a little shop that sold original boca junior kits they were expensive but I really wanted one. Instead we bought a really cool magnet even if it was way too expensive, but this area is fairly geared up for tourists and famous for its enormous markets. We walked to the main square in San Telmo. Plaza Dozzenge was beautiful. There is a market on all the time and the sun shined down on the tables and chairs in the middle. We decided to sit and order a pitcher of beer because a large mat was lay out for the tango dancers to impress the crowds. We were obviously asked for money to enjoy this luxury but unfortunately didn't have any cash which was awkward. Once suitably tipsy we left as the sun hid behind the trees around this square. Within close walk is a beautiful church with two turret like structures and an iron fence in front we were allowed to venture in sit down and admire the building from inside. We made the walk back a different route as I knew this way would bring us out behind the casa rosada building we had seen before Uruguay. It was now I began wondering if we should have ventured to Montevideo but the weather was so poor and the girl we got the boat back with had assured us she barely saw anything when she visited. When we arrived on the Main Street that our hostel was on we couldn't help but notice the place had become a s*** pit. Beer cans were everywhere literally looked like a festival had gone on and then we saw the main avenue. Thousands upon thousands of people had shut the road off by just walking in the middle of it. Drinking as they marched. It was obvious this was some sort of protest but we weren't sure what. As we took the opportunity to walk just behind and enjoy walking in the middle of this main road we were over taken by a guy riding a scooter with his elbows, sat on it sideways with his girlfriend on the back a can of booze in one hand and a spliff in the other. These were crazy scenes the whole place stank of weed and when we got back to the hostel we were advised by the staff that this was a protest to legalise the drug! We found it crazy that all these people come to drink and smoke weed in the street crippling the traffic in the city for this very reason. Just seemed like an excuse for a piss up on the weekend if you ask me, I mean there's the fact that the whole country is already on strike halting the transport system meaning we still can't get to Mendoza. It seems bizarre the country is strike, protest and march crazy. When we got back we had a little while chilling on the sofas seeing what all our other 'housemates' got upto that day. Andy came up with the idea that we felt like we were in big brother because we were becoming a close group as we were all stuck. We all decided to go out for a meal as we were all together and it was the last weekend, especially for Greg who was already dropping hints that he wanted to go out out. We couldn't find the first restaurant and another was closed or fully booked so me and nicki suggested the same one we went to when we couldn't find chan chans. It didn't disappoint for the second time. Greg speaks really fluent Spanish and lived in Mexico for a long time so he assisted with me ordering. We all went for steak and nicki chose a beef pasta sort of meal which we shared with the steak like usual. The talk was already heading towards going out but we weren't sure of a plan yet. From no where we came up with the idea of buying a massive bottle of vodka as Jess had seen one for 20 peso so 5 each. We each choose different mixers: diet coke, fanta and sprite. Whilst we were in the courtyard drinking Christian joined us, we really wanted him to come out but he was still ill. Then Andy asked if we were going out or had any plans, we were going out I think that was for sure just no real plans. I was so glad of the invite from Andy as it made the night. He told us that around 11:30pm an Argentinian guy he met in Brazil was picking him and Liz up and taking them to a 'locals' favourite club. The guy called Leandro had said andy was welcome to fit more gringos in the car if he wanted. We were going to his sisters house first, so naturally we were excited to visit a locals house party and it was just as crazy as we expected. We all squeezed in and had a great time, a great guy called nico came in with a shed load of energy providing the group with Fernet to intoxicate us all. We played lots of drinking games and obviously as soon as they learnt my name and chanted it I was entirely peer presided into downing the rest of our neat vodka. Not nice! We took some great photos and were even dancing by this stage. Me andy and Leandro had a drinking race for almost neat fernet which I think was my downfall eventually, Andys too. Lots of gringo banter vs the locals but was such a funny night. Eventually it was taxi time, we voted Greg as the 'solo gringo' as he knew Spanish haha. Andy got caught pissing in the street and we finally managed to get to the club. It was like a huge warehouse. Reminded me a bit like the custard factory in Birmingham, like rainbow. It was massive. Really underground sort of scene. They were selling litres of fernet and there was a brass band that I need to find the name off from Leandro as they were so much fun even getting into the crowd to play at points. I'm filling is missing pieces here and cheating because I've seen photos from this night because if truth be told I remember hardly anything. I know I was still drinking as I've seen photos with a beer in hand but I'm pretty sure Greg or andy bought me that as I didn't have the money. Andy threw up in the club and then fell asleep so Liz took him home, good effort if you ask me. Nicki and I left at the same time I know that for sure but can't remember anything else. Actually we must of got a taxi because I remember both ours and Jess's taxi arriving at the hostel at the same time. I remember getting straight into my top bunk bed and feeling satisfied that I had not been sick. But ohhhh god I've spoken too soon. As soon as my head hit the pillow the room was sent into orbit spinning out of control. I panicked and rolled out of bed. Falling the 5 feet from the top bunk onto my face. As I landed on the floor I threw up. Mainly on my clothes below but some on the floor. I crawled out the room and nicki followed she helped me to my feet but I threw up on the wall, then again in the courtyard before finally sticking my head in a toilet. When I finally left the bathroom I found nicki with a mop wiping the walls it was hilarious. I'm pretty sure no staff noticed. But the loud German girl and Christian had woken up from the commotion. Anyway as if nothing had happened I stumbled back to bed to try round 2 of my orbiting pillow. I survived.

Sunday 5th May 2013 - breakfast was pretty hilarious for starters I think we were all still very drunk but it was so funny for me and andy to talk about are 'sickies' that we pulled and all of us trying to fill in the missing pieces. This day is going to be short however as we literally did nothing but want to vomit and sit still all day must be something in that fernet. We watched Avitar and I got so engrossed in it that I had to watch the Boca vs River plate game highlights later which was 1-1. The game was insane, it was on the news about the crowd, fireworks and smoke being so bad that the second half was delayed by 10 minutes. Fans climb on the fence and literally it looks crazy in the stands. Our Auzzie friend Chris who we went out with last week went to the game and said he spent more time watching the fans than the game. Christian explained how British people created or founded a lot of the big teams out here like newells old boys, boca juniors, river plate etc. We also ordered another pizza from next door it's so handy being next door to that place whilst hungover like this. Also to my fortune Jess had purchased a pizza that she barely touched because she didn't like it so I managed to have that as well so I was in cheese heaven. Andy had earlier that morning came in chanting "footballs coming home" to try and wake me up so I could go to the Tigres football match with him but I didn't have the stamina and was still concentrating on holding breakfast down, also that morning there were a lot of complications with our room and at one point we were told they were full however this was sorted with the lack of our attention as we managed to stay in the same beds. We said our temporary goodbye to Greg as he was leaving for Iguazu falls for a day or so, he was glad to have a chance to get out and leave us wallowing on the sofa haha. Eventually andy came back with a Tigres football hat after they had lost 2-0 to internacional, I had watched the game briefly in the pizza place next door. The only times I actually left the hostel were to get Christian and us a bottle of water and fanta and also I fetched Christians pizza too because he was ill and spent the day with us on the sofa. He knew so much about British history and we spoke about the empire and how it got so big and the reason there's no Italian colonies and chucked in information about the Vikings for good measure, apparently Norwich was founded by Vikings. We watched a crap film called knight and day and then fell asleep on the sofas before we ventured back to our bunk beds still none the wiser as to when these strikes will bloody end!

Monday 6th May 2013 - We were woke up again by this German girl through the night, it's becoming a bit of a habit she comes in and moves all her stuff around at 2 am when she could quite easily carry it outside and sort it out there. We had said our goodbyes last night to andy and liz who had bit the bullet and left this morning on a flight to Mendoza today. We wanted to take a really long walk to make up for our wasted hangover day and if we're still stuck here we should try and see more. We decided to set off to Palermo. We found a small pretty park with wifi and since it was so hot we lay down, listening to some music and nicki facetimed her dad. This long walk took us past Recoleta again and we finally got to see the green parrots in the park, which I was really happy about. After this we crossed a really cool graffiti bridge crossing the main liberator road near the art museum that was closed again like it was last Monday. We walked past an enormous building with huge pillars, it looked like a government building but I'd have to research to find out but it was conveniently located next to the park with the metallic flower. This enormous flower moves throughout the day opening and moving in correspondence to the sun it's the centre piece of a very quiet park. We marched on as still had a lot of ground to cover. Eventually when we were dying of thirst we got to the Japanese botanical gardens which were huge and only 24 peso each. We took some photos of a similar kind of view that we received in Rio's botanical gardens of the carp fish and red bridges (rio was arguably better) and then began our long walk home. Palermo felt like a very well off area and the restaurants, shops and fashion sense of the locals spoke a lot for their wealth. When we eventually made it home are legs were in need of a good sit down, we had already decided to cook for ourselves tonight and after a short rest the receptionist recommended a Chinese supermarket across the road, it was the same place we had bought the vodka from for 20 peso. We purchased an absolute bucket load of enormous colourful lush looking vegetables, some tomato purée and pasta and headed back to cook. Whilst we were cooking we said our long goodbye to Jess and promised to meet up back in England which I hope we do. I think Christian may have wanted us to have a Chinese with him but we really felt the need to cook tonight. The meal we made was alright, probably cooked the pasta too long, probably made the sauce to watery but hey! At least the veg in there was amazing. We purchased a bottle of wine and sat down around the tv with Christian again letting the night become late, fingers crossed for the strikes tomorrow. I'd spoken to the Argentinian we met the other night on Facebook and he said the strikes should end soon whilst also making fun of the gringos poor efforts the other night. Also andy had told me a local from that night was licking my ear, but when the photos were uploaded online it was andy with the tongue in everyone's ear haha.

Tuesday 7th May 2013 - up we got again with our 'big brother' house mates. Straight into the same routine, sat at our breakfast table with Christian and everything felt normal. But then fanny, whilst cooking our usual scramble eggs, asked if we were leaving today. We replied we intend to as soon as the strikes end. To our joy she announced in the very little English she knew "their finished" we were so happy and it was almost like she was looking forward to giving us that news. We rushed straight to the reception desk to speak to Wendy who told us all the good news about our full refund and the availability for buses tonight! We could finally continue our trip. We stopped our organising whilst Greg left as it was the last time we would see him before his flight to Mexico City and then finally back to New York. But he advised us that he had been accepted onto a course in Boston and wanted to line up our travels so we could meet up again! We arranged to meet in Boston, Massachusetts in August which is cool an we were excited for. After our goodbyes we went back to the desk and booked the bus from Buenos aires to Mendoza to the west at 6pm. This bus was getting us to Mendoza for 8:45am the following day but it actually took longer than this. I had one quick last shower, which was a bit of a nightmare because I snapped the shower head off the shower and it went flying. The rest of the shower I had to take whilst the water just sort of fell out of the wall it was really awkward. Luckily I could turn the water off but I feel really bad because its so close to us leaving I decided to just not tell anyone and since I was having quite a late shower I don't think anyone else went in it afterwards. So sorry Wendy and sorry hostel Estroli, i didnt mean to. We decided to take a last walk around the city before we left so we wandered up to the congress building that was close and we had already visited but it was nice to relax and sit on the grass in front of it. After this we decided to stop off at Starbucks, where the waiter took a shining to nicki. After looking at our skin which was peeling from earlier sun burn we decided to pop to one of the many pharmacies on our road and get some moisturiser. One thorough check of all our belongings later and we were catching a taxi for the 'take 2' of operation get out of buenos aires. We hugged Wendy goodbye and thanked her for all her help. Once at the terminal we went to a desk and the kind lady explained exactly where we should sit and wait. I spoke to an Argentinian English teacher who told me she had the same ticket as me and she would show us which bus to get on although it was very simple and it showed up almost bang on time. Once on the bus we were pretty disappointed with how uncomfy it was however we couldn't argue we had asked Wendy to find the cheapest. We wondered if they would even give us food after putting a film on "crazy stupid love" in Spanish :[ but eventually we received beef which was amazing and the only good thing about the whole journey. I was actually full! I thought we were only going to get the initial rice we received but when I got the hot aluminium dish I was over the moon. I spent the whole journey waking up, feeling sweaty and stressed but hey this is travel after all. All in all we are actually glad that we got stuck in buenos aires, we hadn't properly gone out before but now we had and i feel being stuck there allowed us to really bond with our group make some great friends and see parts of the city we would have missed. Nonetheless, I couldn't wait to get to Mendoza as I had emailed the manager Caroline and she had replied being lovely saying not to worry about the bus strikes and that she still has our old reservation and we don't need to repay the deposit. She also put in the email she would be waiting for us with a glass of wine to welcome us to the land of the sun, mountains and good wine. Bring it on!

- Josh -