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Other entries in Buenos Aires

futbol!

finally got to BA despite the booked buses. damn argentinians on holiday - I had to reserve my seat 3 days in advance. this is almost impossible for me these days - to plan ahead. yikes.

true confession, I felt a little culture shock going from mountains to city life. especially here - we bused in on an elevated highway with buildings as far as you could see. it reminded me of bangkok - the apartments even have the same black, moldy drip marks down the sides. I'm definitely not in wilderness anymore.

but man is it great ot be here. city life and sounds for me feel like a wall you are constantly pushing into. walk down the street trying to have a conversation while buses, honking, traffic, deisel fumes, grit try to get in the way. you decide to win over these distractions and just yell even louder. there's no point getting frustrated. it's agressive. I like it.

I met up with Juergen - nice to have a friend waiting in the city. my first day we went to la boca - half touristic, half dangerous (but he's an imposing german so I felt plenty safe :). we saw the infamous painted corrugated metal buildings - in one block, just imagine a color, look around and you will find it. and the infamous tango dancers. an excellent modern art museum. and stared into the super dirty, bubbling, brown bay. for lunch, we walked 4 blocks away from touristic-central to take our meal price down from $24 pesos to $9 for steak. so far my diet subsists of steak and potatoes and red wine. and of course I'm not running any more. I'm in trouble here...

after la boca, juergen knew of a futbol match across town. we hop the subte, take a cab, start walking to the stadium. we see cops in riot gear and guess the info is right that yes, there's a game today. the stadium is named after maradona - the most famous player in argentina. the game was amzing. we ended up in standing room only with the visiting team. picked a spot on the side to avoid whatever justified the cops being there. the fans for each side never stopped singing and chanting - they each had percussion sections and when it was really important to make noise, they'd jump up and down. I noticed our visiting team section was surrounded by a 4m high chain fence and barbed wire. basically we were in a cage.

TP was thrown onto the field, a few bottles. juergen said in germany this would stop the game. here, no one noticed and a player eventually would thrown the bottles to the side lines. this was my first futbol match ever! I'd say I'm hooked if it wasn't a little dangerous to go to them. in the end, no one scored, but as I was told, it was still a "good game" because whatever side you were cheering for for sure outplayed the other side.

not sure how long I'll stay in BA, but at least through the weekend. just changed to a pretty cool hostel: www.chillhouse.com.ar.

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