First Day on the Job

After having to suffer through an entire row to myself on the flight down, I finally made it south to Buenos Aires. After the slightly awkward immigration process - hi! welcome to Buenos Aires. Now pay us $140 and make sure to go to two windows - I exited into the chaos of the arrival terminal. The chaos was pretty much all personal since I had no idea what I was going to do. I spent probably 30 minutes figuring out how to follow the broken-english instructions to get to the hostel. The debate was between a $35 taxi ride or a sketch bus then an even more sketch taxi ride from there. I decided to go with the sketch option.

The bus was any typical limousine style bus, just most buses nowadays probably aren't blasting Christian Rock and ABBA. Jumping straight into spanish mode is something I'm still trying to get used to. Of course, often the first words I think of are Japanese. Go figure. In Japan the first words that come to mind are Spanish. Hopefully I'll get that straightened out over the next 6 months.

I finally made it to this hole-in-the-wall hostel and got the tour from Fabio, the check-in guy. It's a pretty solid hostel - complimentary bfast and wifi, plus a locker, communal bath and bunk that makes me glad I brought a sleeping bag liner. Hey, when you're paying $8 a night you can't expect a whole lot. I was disappointed there was no chocolate waiting on my pillow though.

I dropped my stuff and headed out to explore, since I figured I would pass out if I hung around the hostel. Which would have been pretty boring anyway. I read somewhere that Buenos Aires is known as a "most civilized anthill." That's a pretty good description - it seems like all 12 million people are going everywhere at once. The entire place is one big traffic jam. Rarely there are lines on the road, and where they are they don't matter. People just go where they like. I thought my taxi was going to take out at least 5 motorcyclists on the way to the hostel. Pedestrians don't get a whole lot of leeway either - the drivers here make Philly drivers look like saints.

I made my way to the heart of the city - Plaza de Mayo. There were a few demonstrations going on (I think that's the norm). It has a monument dedicated to the founding of the city way back in the early 16th Century. The 'Pink House' (Casa Rosada, home of the executive branch of gov't) borders one side of the Plaza, with I believe the legislature on another side among other things.

After walking around I had some dinner at a pizza joint right around the corner from the hostel, in the middle of what appears to be Bs. As.' version of Broadway. The place was awesome - you order your pizza, pick it up and eat it at a standup bar in the middle of the room Japanese Ramen Shop-style. Great stuff. Pizza wasn't bad either.

Tomorrow is still up in the air - I might head down to the La Boca barrio, home of the Boca Juniors and some of the most colorful houses anywhere. Day 1 is in the books, and so far it's great.