Hola from Buenos Aires!

So after a long flight from Johannesburg we finally arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina. First reality check...nobody speaks any english!! We somehow managed to find out where our shuttle left from and heade into the city to Hostel Suites Obelisco, our stay for the next 3 nights.

The hostel is nice, somehow got an upgraded room, a lovely twin room complete with nice duvets, soap,shampoo,towels and even a little heater incase we get cold! The only downside is that it is situated on the top floor and the lift, well, the lift scares the crap out of me! It's one of those really old fashioned ones that can fit maximum 3 people in (unless your fat in which case, well your on your own!) and you have to close the door behind you before it will work...really its awful!!

Anyway, so on our first day we headed out into the city, armed with bin bags full of our dirty,grim clothes (literally my entire backpack) and tried to find a laundrette! We found one just a few blocks away, and a nice little lady attempted to help us. First problem: She speaks no english, we speak no spanish! It was a case of 'Hola, clean clothes por favor?' made me laugh and the lady laughed and continued to speak spanish! I emptied my clothes into a basket and the lady looked at me with quite a confused look on her face and again spoke to me in Spanish...I didn't have a clue what she was saying!! Fortunately (I'm not sure how) Vicky decided she was trying to ask us if we wanted to seperate our whites and coloured clothes lol...I guess mum normally does that for me!! but if that was going to make the little old dorris happy then fair enough...my whites already look a funny shade of pink anyway thanks to a new red billabong t-shirt!

Before we left we were given a ticket, and she did stress to us 'este es un billete muy importante!!' and 'no ticket, no clothes!!' ok so that bit I understood so immediately handed the ticket to Vicky!! We've already worked out that any important documents should not be left with me...

After the laundrette we headed ot for lunch. It has become quite obvious that the men here stare ALOT!! but come on, is there really a need to whistle/click/speak wierd spanish to me when clearly I don't know you? It's like been back at home and having the workmen wolf whistle you!! really annoying after a while!!

Anyway, lunch! The whole menu was in Spanish (a few bits were translated) but we successfully managed to order 'dos cokes!' the waiter found us amusing, as did the table of men behind us! what was wrong with 2 cokes?! then I decided to play it safe, I'm sure you cannot go too far wrong with espaguetis boloñesa, after all it is my favourite :-) So lunch was ordered and we sat back and laughed about the laundrette..that was until out of nowhere a weird old guy came over, speaking spanish at me and started picking up my jacket and bag from the floor, pulled up a 3rd chair, tied my bag round it and hung my jacket over the back...ok so he made me feel like a bit of a chav for just putting it on the floor...again this caused a bit of laughter from the guys sat behind us...god knows what he said to me in Spanish! I did manage to say 'Gracias' very impressed with myself! Asking for the bill-yes another challenge but by this point the waiter found us quite comical!

After lunch we headed back to the hostel to try and sort out how we could get to Rio and back before our tour starts. The girls at the hostel were very friendly and sorted this out for us, all we had to do was pay...the next adventure began...

Headed to the cash point just down the road, we only had 30pesos between us (not even enough to pay for our laundry!) so when the cash machine said 'your card card cannot be used at this machine' we sighed and headed off to find another one...same message...and another one...same message...etc etc etc!! we must have tried like 8 cash points...good old natwest and hsbc had blocked our cards!! by this point it was dark and we had taken no note of where we had actually walked...yes we were lost!

Ok so lost in Buenos Aires isn't good when you clearly have no money, you don't speak spanish, you have no phone (well vicky did but her bank had stopped her card so the direct debit top up had stopped, therefore she had no credit!!), all your clothes are at the laundrette, which we now can't even afford to collect and you have to be back at the hostel in like 5mins to meet for the night out we had booked earlier in the day!! Wonderful!! Somehow we made it back (after asking random people for directions-not easy at all when they don't understand you!) we ran into the hostel who then kindly lent us money so we could pick up our clothes, ran to the laundrette got our clothes then ran back to the hostel, dumped them at reception and arrived for our night out late, but better late than never! The night was pants though, we had no money for tea, no money even for a bottle of water! so as soon as the night was over and we could go to be the better lol!! What a rubbish day!!

The next day was so much better :-) hsbc were open, they re-activated my card, we booked our trip to Rio, we booked our evening at the Tango and headed out on a walking tour of the city with a few other people.

We headed to an area known as La Boca, it was really cute and really colourful, loads of small cafes and shops and the sun was shining! Then we continued our walk and stopped for lunch at San Telmo square. This was cool and theres men and women doing the tango as you eat...

In the evening we went to a Tango Dinner Show...it was so cool! and the food was amazing! 3 course dinner with wine, and loads of options to choose from. We both opted for steak for our main...my god like seriously it was huge!! it could have fed at least 4 people!! I ended up leaving quite alot, and then when dessert arrived I was ready to explode!! By the time I get home I am going to be FAT lol!!

So that was our few days in Buenos Aires, our next stop is Mendoza (a 14 hour bus ride from here) where we are going on a mountain excursion (there's actually snow and I have no warm clothes!) and wine tasting yey!! Just my cup of tea!! Time to go buy a bobble hat....