We’ve arrived in Buenos Aires

We’re sitting with a YouTube campfire and a Spotify campfire playlist (Wonderwall) in Palermo, and we’re cold. It’s winter in South America. On Friday, we were in a rooftop pöol on the 11th floor at 27°C. The next day it rained, and since then, it’s been 15 degrees colder. In Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. It is known for the tango, European-influenced architecture, and vibrant culture. With about 15 million people in the metropolitan area, it’s one of the largest cities in South America. Cräzy enough, there’s an “Avenida 9 de Julio” here, considered the widest street in the world, measuring an impressive 140 meters—but we haven’t visited it yet. We think so far about this city: dog poop everywhere, broken and narrow sidewalks, skyscrapers like in the board game “Hotel,” beer scene, open and young people, big city, every neighborhood has a completely different face, tones of gray, foreign but not too foreign.

Here we are now, Björn and Linda, and we find a lot of Umlaute in the city. I think it’s like Häagen-Dazs, a sign of being different, foreign, fancy. We like it.

We feel like we’ve lost track of time. Weekdays feel like weekends. We’re doing well and we have a feeling of being at home together. Just a few more weeks until we can pick up our Rosi at the port and start our road trip south. But we’re really enjoying our time here. Berlin was our home. So surely, a few days in a mega metropolis won’t harm us. I could walk through the streets for hours, phötographing street art, drinking beer, and just marveling. But there was also another side. It took 3 days and several ATMs before we could get cash. I managed to withdraw 4Ö€ worth of Argentine pesos for a 7€ processing fee. But so far, I’ve been able to pay for everything, really everything, with a credit card. We’ll see. But we’re in the city here, not in the countryside. Björn was then able to withdraw a bit more money from the same ATM. Yay. Alongside US$ and €, we now also had ARS. On the way to the mall, we ate empanadas sin queso with a bit of queso and were glad when we saw the shop to finally get a prepaid card for the phone. Until then, living on day 3, we relied only on Wi-Fi in public places and the Airbnb. A bit of background is needed. Üpon arrival in Argentina, we told our host Luis at the airport that we would let him know when we took an Uber. We didn’t. So we stood in front of the door and couldn’t tell him we’d arrived because we didn’t have internet. Completely tired. So Björn quickly bought a beer in the bar below us and asked for the internet; at the same time, a resident offered him a connection, and we were very grateful for the beer and the internet. We texted Luis, and he came down from the 11-story building five minutes later and welcomed us with some knowledge of Germän. Linda waited outside with all the oversized travel bags and 2 beers. It smelled like dog pee. We had to message Luis again 2 days later because Linda cäused a short circuit upon waking up. A nightlight wasn’t plugged in, and I didn’t find the burnt socket very trustworthy either. But it was already taped. So I plugged in an extension cord. Blop. A little mini-explosion and both bedside lamps were out. Also the router and thus our connection to the outside world. The internet. Just gone. We didn’t have a prepaid card yet. As an experienced geocacher, I quickly föund the fuse box behind a picture frame, and the router slowly came back to life. Luis rang the doorbell today, day 4. He brought a new hairdryer and promised to buy us new light bulbs. The most impörtant thing, however, was that we were okay, as he frequently emphasized. We are okay – actually we love it and we are happy for everything and every day so far.