Friday the 7th of March 2003- Day 17.
Did nothing before going going directly to bus station (1.30R) from Centro Foz. Nice station. Plenty of room for seating and buses. Even an internet station. The bus is great (double decker). Only 3 seats across (bigger than airline seats) and ten down. You can stretch your body fully. You can recline your seat back and like airlines get pillows, blankets and breakfast in bed. Even got a glass of whiskey before bed. We stopped off for free three course dinner at 9.00pm which had live music. Very nice. Had my own seat up stairs. Even had English Movies on – Watched The Cell with J. Lopez which was visually great but plot poor and Mel Gibson in What Women Want which was poor.
Saturday the 8rd of March 2003- Day 18.
Arrived in Buenos Aires about 9.50am in the morning. Bus journey was a good 15 hours. Checked the net for a place to stay. Checked out the thorn tree on Lonely Planet. Guy recommended a cheap hotel called the OMEGA with cable TV (BBC World Service – yes) and free breakfast for 23R. That’s just 6.50 EURO a night in a nice hotel (well functional) in a nice part of central Buenos Aires. Nice lady even gave me back 3 P back as a discount. Took a 6 P taxi to Hotel. Very chatty taxi guy, and we conversed in German as his English and my Spanish aren’t great. Slept a while and went to a NET cafe to write previous days (see above) account of day. Still a bit sun burnt but improving. Going to walk around and get my bearings. Eat dinner. Will stay in BA for a week or ten days. Might find a good Hostel (not for price but for tours and fun). Maybe get to a BOCA juniors game.
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Buenos Aires – Indepedence Square
Taken of the 8th of March 2003
I liked Buenos Aires the first time I saw it. Big grand building, wide long streets, classy women…
Click on the picture to see it in its original size
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Buenos Aires – A Buenos Aires Bank – Vandalised
Taken of the 8th of March 2003
A Buenos Aires Bank – Many of the City Centre banks have been vandalised and closed down – especially foreign ones like HSBC, Lyodds etc. Indded there were some more explosions in November 2004 in Citibank branches. People lost money in dollar accounts which they were converted by the goverment.
Click on the picture to see it in its original size
First impressions – Buenos Aires is one of the great cities of the World (paris, Ne York). Its shopping street Florida is 20 times longer than Dublins Grafton Street, criss-crossing it are about 15 main streets 20 times longer than O Connell Street. Every thing is vast and big and at first you wonder if you can learn to cope with such a city, but after a bit of walking today its layout become pretty apparent. It also has has a metro system. Things are tough for the people since devaluation, and the peoples savings are depleted. All these great shops, but no one shopping. I have never seen so many net cafes (every fifth or sixth shop has a computer for public net access). Net access is just 1 P (0.30 EURO) PER HOUR. Its about seven euro per hour in Dublin. My luch today – a mineral water, a beer, main course (big portions) and latte was 13 P (3.70 Euro) in a really nice waiter serviced restaurant. The people here still dress very well and are out and about, but they say its going to take 5 or 6 years for the country to recover. See here for a Q & A on Argentinas current problems.