It all began with a very early wake up. After figuring out that the first connecting bus from Congonhas (São Paulo domestic airport) to Guarulhos (Int’l airport) provided by Gol (the airline) isn’t early enough so that you can make it to the 8:00AM flight to Ezeiza which btw doesn’t make any sense, I had to sleep over at a friend’s house in São Paulo who took me around 4:00 AM to get the paid bus from Congonhas. Thanks Sérgio! So I paid the R$31,00 and rode the bus for about 1 hour while it was still dark outside after eating the self claimed "Best hot dog in Brazil" from a stand.
Arriving at Guarulhos early was probably a good idea, no lines at check-in counters, immigration and scan were really fast to go through. Even took a nap on the seats at the boarding gate :-D. As I got into the plane, had a pleasant surprise, I was right after the emergency exit which means more space for the legs and recliner chair so I pretty much slept the whole 2:45 hour flight, waking up only for the questionable sandwich we had for breakfast during the flight.
As I arrived at Buenos Aires got out of the airport and changed some money to Argentinean Pesos, which I recommend only exchanging the exact amount to get to the city as the conversion rate at the airport is REALLY bad, got a R$1,75 rate while at the city you could get up to R$2,05. The good thing as I am always trying to save money especially with transportation, talked with a few locals and met Andrea, a really nice Argentinean girl who helped me to get a bus to the city center for amazing 2 pesos. The ride took me about 1:30 hour, but can’t really complain for how much I paid.
Andrea is a really cool girl, she told me she went once to Brazil to Morro de São Paulo where she met her fiancée who is an Italian and now she’s actually moving over there to start a new life. So, after she helped me find my hostel at Paraguay, 5570 in Palermo, we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.
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| Common Room |
The hostel I stayed at was called Kapake Hostel (www.kapake.com.ar), at the front you can’t really say it is a hostel. Really nice outside look and classy. My reservation was booked properly and they accept both pesos and dollars as payment, which is really cool. Cash only. The girl at the front desk was helpful and showed me around the structure of the hostel, shared bathroom separate for boys and girls, really cool hanging-out area with couches and a big 42” screen and 2 available computers for guest use with high speed internet. They also had a wireless connection throughout the entire hostel, which was pretty good and came in very handy to use with my iPhone. I paid about R$30 for the night with breakfast, sheets, towels and a locker with a padlock included.
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| Room |
I shared a bedroom with 1 Costa-Rican guy who was living at the hostel for 2 months (!) and a Brazilian guy called Gabriel who’s going to appear soon in this story.
Asked the girl at the front desk for some place to eat around that area not too expensive and went to this place about 3 blocks south of there in a corner, can’t really recall the name of the place but it was pretty good. Spent around 30 pesos and had some entrées with bread and butter, a generous plate of pasta with cheese and ham and a 7-UP. Weird enough that’s something I noticed that most places in BsAs only sell Pepsi beverages. My love for Coke would have to be put on hold and I really refuse to drink Pepsi. I know it’s lame but I just can’t do it.
Had some sleep at the hostel and noticed that this guy at the computer was talking Portuguese over the phone with someone. Stopped by and said hi, had some dinner and after a while me and him (who’s Gabriel, the one who I share a room with) tells me that is his birthday! As I already had plans with my good friend Tara I invited him to come along and show him a good time in BsAs. Travel Tip: always have good friends in your destinations, they’re for sure gonna show you a good time in the city :-) Thanks Tara!
Tara was a bit late and we were already having a few Quilmes back at the hostel. Got to say that Quilmes is GREAT, love that beer. Great job there, hermanos ;) So as Tara gave us a call at the hostel we went to this place called Kika Club (Hermanos, 5339, www.kikaclub.com.ar), which is supposed to be really nice on Tuesdays with a party called Hype (www.hype-ba.com).
I have to say that Kika Club was really an awesome night. They have 2 separate rooms divided by a moving wall. On the first room it was playing mainly hiphop music and the second room was closed at the beginning. So we went for a drink and stood on a huge line to get them. Bought two vodka/energetic for 50 pesos, which is pretty ok. Good looking people and really crowded was the situation at that moment.
They opened the second room and it was a blast! Really good electronic music dj’s and the vibe was definitely there. One small complaint, I got used to having smoke-free environments and that was not the case in any Argentinean club. Met great people and had lots of fun, the night ended around 4:30 AM for me so I tried to get a cab without any money in my wallet, had to go in to get the money from inside my locker at the hostel so that was kind of a hassle. Eventually I got a really cool cab driver with whom I could practice my Spanish too :-D
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| Bar 6 Lounge |
Wednesday arrived, me and Gabriel who was there for already a week went for a stroll around the neighborhood of Palermo Soho, a really nice atmosphere with small buildings and classy stores. Bought a scarf since it was really cold and had lunch at Bar 6 (Armenia, 1676, www.barseis.com), menu for 50 pesos including drinks in a nice atmosphere.
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| Room at Bulnes Quality Studios |
Moved from the hostel to an actual hotel since my folks and friends were arriving on that day. Now I was staying at Bulnes Quality, a nice apart/hotel located at Bulnes, 1347 that is a nice location in Palermo. Comfortable beds, heating, plasma TV, nice bathrooms and 24 hour reception with good security. The owners are really pleasant people as well and everything was in order with our reservation. The pictures I saw online truly reflect the quality of the rooms so I was really pleased about it. Prices are very reasonable, for a triple room was about USD 77 a day!
Parents arrived, friends arrived, things were gonna be a bit different from now on so I’ll write a kind of list of all the things we did.
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| @ Las Lilas |
Restaurants worth mentioning: Las Lilas (A. M. de Justo 550, www.laslilas.com) probably the best steak I ever ate, good price/quality ratio and excellent service, good idea to make a reservation or you can always wait at the bar with some nice drinks; La Chacra (Av. Córdoba, 941, www.lachacra.com.ar) very good steak with good service too, Ojo de Bife is amazing, kind of expensive thought; Piegari (Posadas, 1042, www.piegari.com.ar) amazing italian food, big plates can serve two, the spaghetti a Bolognese is a must try, good price/quality ratio recommended to do a reservation in advance, if you are a non-smoker ask for a place in that section since all other places are smoking.
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| @ Las Chacras |
Shopping malls: Alto Palermo (Santa Fe, 3253, www.altopalermo.com.ar), Galerias Pacifico (Av Córdoba e Florida, www.progaleriaspacifico.com.ar), Calle Florida and many, many other places. Not really my favourite places, but got to say that things are really cheap.
Parties!
We went to the Buenos Aires Pub Crawl and had a great time. They always leave from a different location and pretty much always it is crowded (www.pubcrawlba.com) check out their website and go there! They take you out with different people from all over the world with free beer and pizza for the first hour, hit 3 different bars with a welcome shot and discount in every one of them and then end the night in a club with free entrance. The price for the whole package is 60 euros and the fun is guaranteed.
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| @ Buenos Aires Pub Crawl |
Lansky (Juncal, 2019, www.lansky.com.ar) kind of bar/lounge with two separate rooms. Fun times and cheap drinks.
Crobar (Marcelo Freyre, S/N, www.crobar.com.ar) big big big club with electronic music and different types of parties depending on the night. The night we went there was awesome! They have two separate rooms and the second room was filled with people from all types and forms of looks. Great fun. Expensive drinks.
Buenos Aires is definitely a place that you have to visit. With its charming streets, non-expensive life style (for foreigners at least) and great restaurants and parties I am sure you will have a good time if you decide to go there. Fall/spring is probably the best period to go, that way the city is filled with people (1/3 of the whole population of Argentina lives in Buenos Aires, around 13 million people) and the weather is not too hot or too cold.
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| @ Fralacio with everyone for a warm-up |
Hasta luego y muchas gracias!
Stefan
Ps.: a quick thanks to everyone who made this trip as fun as possible, my parents, Tara who put up with me for the whole week, her friends, Gabriel, Vinicius, Daniel, my neighbors and everyone else!
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| Me and the family in BsAs ;-) |
