Personal Blog of Verena Artinger

my first good morning in south america. i slept very well and i somehow begin to enjoy the feeling of having no obligations, no schedule waiting for me, no projects to finish. i have pure time in my hands.

beatrice and i are preparing pancakes and orange juice. and now the good thing: dulce de leche. it’s milk caramel. with the consistency of nutella. and you can put it on anything you want. i hear that south americans grow up on that. and everybody loves it.

with this new feeling for time i am heading out towards palermo and recoleta. the trendy and rich neighborhoods of buenos aires. the sun is shining. i walk by the cementary of recoleta. hundreds of people are here to say goodbye to raúl alfonsín. people are friendly. i am writing my first picture postcards. a habit that continued to grow to a kind of obsession. my plan is to write postcards to my mum from every place i hit during the next three months. it makes her happy. it makes me feel like i am producing memories on paper that travel around the world and wait for me at my mum’s place.

back in new york i set up a steak dinner with aman and alicia, who are vacationing in buenos aires as well. weird. world is really small. MEAT! yes :) i am meeting them in their very trendy penthouse apartment in palermo. you see the difference between backpacking and a nice two week vacation of two new yorkers ;)

alicia has friends in buenos aires. so they are taking us out to a nice place. the group now consists of aman, alicia, maxi, sol, javier and me. sol and javier are a couple. maxi is sol’s brother.

we are ordering steaks. real steaks. how should i describe that? the meat is just perfect. juicy, tender, full of taste. mmmmh. i let the pictures speak here:

after the feast and a very interesting and fast ride through palermo ;) we have good night cocktails in a bar in palermo hollywood. how cool can life get, hmm? i love this travel life :)

beatrice and kragen are back in their apartment and i am on my way to one of the things a tourist should do while in buenos aires: exploring san telmo. that’s at least what the lonely planet says. of course without public transportation. i want to see something in between.

san telmo is an old and cozy neighborhood (a barrio) in the southwest of buenos aires. i love the old colonial houses, the cool shops and small restaurants. buenos aires feels like an old european city to me. i think i could also be in madrid or barcelona.

i end up at plaza dorrégo, the center of san telmo. it’s a big square with tourists and natives hanging out, drinking beer and watching tango dancers. street vendors try to sell the typical tourist stuff. and i know that this is only getting my backpack heavier. no way!

i am already tired and get my coffee and a tostada – my favourite: “schinkenkäsetoast” :)

one the way back to my couchsurfing hosts i end up at the Plaza de la Republica with its huge obelisque. similar to the one in paris. one huge pillar in the center of a traffic circle.

back in the apartment i am doing my traditional email and facebook stuff. and we are finishing the day with an american (?) tradition: playing siedlers. sleeptime is around 2…. wow! what a long day.

5 minutes after arriving at beatrice’s and kragen’s apartment, i am already on the way to congresso, where the dead body of former argentine president raúl alfonsín lies in state.

he died yesterday of cancer. he was already very old. long lines are in front of the congresso and this line goes to a sidestreet and wraps at least 5 times when we into it. it’s hot and the sun shines. people around us are very upset, clap their hands and scream “alfonsín, alfonsín!”.

kragen tells me the story of alfonsín. he was also called “padre de la democracia” – “father of the democracy”, because he was the first president elected after the military dictatorship in the 70s and 80s, when thousands of argentinians just disappeared.
that’s less then 30 years ago, when i was already born. people were caught, tortured and killed because of their political opinion.
i have to admit, i didn’t know about alfonsin before. what we learn in school about south america is very little.

some people approach us. they hear us talking in english and ask why we are lining up to see “their” president. understandable.

after about 3 hours of waiting, we are able to enter the congresso and walk around the open coffin of the former president. it’s weird on one hand to do this as a stranger who has no connection to this man, but i am touched by the honest grief of the people around me.

opposed to the politicans in my country, who have to deal with more or less “trivial” stuff like economy, this guy set a whole nation free from a cruel dictatorship. i am not that emotionally connected to the politicans in my country and i am happy there is no need for this.

it’s just my first day but i have the feeling that south america probably still deal with their very painful history. i am not used to that.

i oversleep the flight over buenos aires. the little bump of the landing wakes me up. great! i already missed something. backpacker rule #3: keep your eyes open everytime!

the first thing i do in a new country is always to check their sanitary facilities. your never know… pretty much ok, i can say. unfortunately i am now the last one in line for immigration. the whole hockey equipe is in front of me.

baggage claim: i unwrap my beautiful grey-yellow arcteryx backpack from its travelbag (this backpack will actually look like never used after this three months, it’s only allowed to travel with it’s coverbag if not on my back). i get an argentinian tourist passport and a map.

cash: the ATM speaks english. great!
where is the bus? apparently nobody else speaks english here. i try my best: “donde esta la linea ocho??????” backpacker rule #4: learn some basic language skills, or you end up in the pampa!

i figure out where to go and even that i need coins for the bus. so i get a mccafe espresso and change. for 2 pesos i get on the bus #8.
it takes two hours to the city center and approximately 200 different people get on and off the bus. it’s interesting. the people are more or less poor people commuting to work. i am the only non-local.

also interesting: there are tons of dogs on the street and even a few cyclists. like :)

i get off in balvanera and walk to beatrice’s and kragen’s apartment.

i like flying. so i am looking forward to flying out to buenos aires. check-in, security, everything is smooth. from all the american airlines, delta is my favourite one. i actually don’t know why. i think the have the prettiest logo of all of them.

i see common (the rapper) walking by.

i arrive in atlanta and the first thing that i pay attention to is “many more obese people here…” i find out that i have tmobile coverage (not so at jfk) and do some life essential twitter and facebook updates. not sure what backpacking was before without that…

i find my gate and i find a big group of noisy kids in red team outfits sitting in front of it. looks like a hyperactive hockey team is flying to argentina with me.

waiting… boarding… takes for ever, but we are still on time.

there is a weird argentinian dude sitting on my window seat, pretending to sleep so i can’t claim it back. backpacker rule #1 don’t take any sh** from anyone… i get my seat back in a second! haha.

i fall asleep within 5 minutes. i only wake up for food. (backpacker rule #2: get as food when you can, you never now how far away the next meal is!)

ok. i wake up at 6! AM to go to the main post office and check that package thing. i am short before a nervous breakdown when the friendly woman tells me that i just have to go to another post office and pick it up. bad thing: this one doesn’t open before 10, exactly when i have to leave for the airport.

so: back home, final packing, shredding some pounds of my whole luggage (matching backpack, daypack, camera bag and sneakers !!! – everything in grey tones and yellow!). i leave at 9.30 AM with what feels like the heaviest backpack/daypack combination ever… i am at the post office at 10 AM, wait in line new york style and get the package. a digital camera.

off to the airport. happy. everything works like planned.

everything matching, originally uploaded by rena5.

ok. this is the last day before my departure and i am soon getting mad. so much stuff to prepare and so many things to do before i leave. luckily i have some hours to relax at “zum schneider” with dominika and bettina.

after that i had to figure out how to find a lost package within the us postal system of manhattan when you have no pick up note from your postman. everything within the next 12 hours, of which 8 hours are nightly. i have to bring the package down to buenos aires to my couchsurfing host.

good night.

ok. i added a polls widget to the sidebar. below the flickr pics. i don’t know how to put anything above the flickr pics. :(

i will have a poll every now and then when i want to ask you something about my travels.

so please participate. your vote matters ;)

thx, verena.

i thought it might be a good idea to start my travelblog already when doing the preparations. i went to paragon tonight for the second time. they close at 8 so i don’t have much time after work to go through all the backpacks.

honestly, i think gigasport (the biggest sport store in graz) has a wider range of products than paragon in manhattan. not sure if new yorkers don’t do sports and hiking, but the choice is limited. it’s not that i want the fanciest backpack ever, but it should be good quality and i want to look at it without eye pain for more than a year. ok. ok. i want a cool looking backpack.

after trying a few ones, the one bettina recommended me was the most comfortable one. but they only had a ugly color. back at home i found the same one in decent grey for 100 dollars less.  so i have a backpack now, unless it doesn’t ship in time til i leave…

next things: trekking shoes, pants and a daypack for my camera….

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