We slept in Thursday morning because we knew we had a long day ahead and not much to do in Buenos Aires and a long flight home. We met at 10 AM in the lobby to go to breakfast. We went back to Galerias Pacifico Shopping Mall (I just found an advertisement for it in the map I'm using to retrace our steps). The choices for pastries and coffee were almost overwhelming. I got a coffee drink with three small pastries at one of the cafes. Since they don't celebrate Thanksgiving there none of realize that it was an American holiday.
After breakfast, we went back to the hotel to check out and then have our bags stored by the concierge (that is a hard word to spell, I tells you). We then planned our last day in Buenos Aires.
The night before Karen and Lorie used the Internet to find the exact address of the El Zanjon house that we had read about but could not find two days ago. Rather than walking, we finally used the subway. There was a subway station one block from the hotel. We bought one-way tickets which were only 1.25 Pesos, which is very cheap. The subway stop was still some distance from the house, so after arriving back in the San Telmo district, we still had more walking, and it was very sunny and warm outside. We found the house, but were told to come back in 50 minutes for the English speaking tour.
So with more time to kill, we wandered the street of this colorful neighborhood. This place was part of a "walking tour", and there were signs posted in front of notable houses and buildings. One house was listed as the smallest house in the city. You could walk right by and not even notice the house or even realize it was not part of the buildings on either side if it weren't for tourist map and the house was painted in a different color. The problem we ran into, is because the streets are lined with tall buildings, it was hard to get good photos of the best looking buildings. The best place for a photos would have been on the roof of the building across the street, which of course was not possible.
So after 50 minutes of walking we made it back to our destination of the day. They promptly let us in at 2 PM. There was a small issue with admission because we were running low on Pesos and they didn't know the exact exchange rate on US dollars. But we ended up paying $12 each for the one hour guided tour. There were only eight people on this tour, which was nice. The tour guide spoke good English and had a unique accent. She did a great job of making the tour interesting. She explained how this old, run-down building was bought by a person who had plans to turn it into a shop, but soon realized that there was a maze of underground rooms and old stone walls that were used to block off a branch of a river running through the house. Once we walked downstairs she told us we could not take any more photos because they wanted to preserve the mystique of the house, meaning you have to come visit it to appreciate it, not just look at someone else's photos.
Besides guided tours, this house can also be rented for parties. It is actually set up for Tango dancing where they turn off all the lights and then start the music and turn on the disco balls. That would be interesting to experience. But not on this trip. Once our hour was up we departed and continued our walking tour of the neighborhood.
There were museums in the area, but they all seemed to be closed. So we looked at the map and found the nearest subway station was back at May Square. So for the third time we were back at the site of the protests. None today, luckily. The subway line we took to get back to Florida Street was, I think, the oldest subway in the city, which used original subway cars or something. I did not get a photo of the cars. We somehow lucked-out and got onto an express line, which bypassed all stops but the one we needed to transfer on. The next subway took us to a stop near Florida Street, where we planned to go back to the same mall for lunch. There were so many choices it took me longer to decide where to eat than to actually eat. This turned out to be our Thanksgiving dinner. Not the typical Thanksgiving dinner, but just as good because it was with family.
Once we were done eating we basically sat and did nothing. There was not enough time to make anymore trips within the city, and too much time before going to the airport. Finally we decided just to go back to the hotel and arrange for a ride to the airport. Turns out that this was a good idea because it took over 30 minutes to get a non-taxi/non-shuttle to show up. The car was rather small, but fit all our luggage plus us. I sat in the passenger seat. Our driver began by taking the surface streets, and just like the taxi drivers, cut in and out of the lanes and did his best to get in front of slow cars and busses. Once we got on the expressway, traffic was moving slow. So he exited the expressway and did his best to explain why. Turns out he is from Russia and does not speak much, if any English, but we understood what he was telling us about how there were two ways to get to the airport.
Taking the surface streets, or the long way, gave us an opportunity to see parts of the town we had not seen. We went though the poorer sections of town, where we saw playgrounds on rooftops (with no fences to stop children from falling off) and soccer fields in grassy areas between the road, which were cluttered by burned-out cars. Once we got near the exit for the airport, for some reason the driver did not want to follow the signs. He tried to make a left turn against traffic but was stopped by police. He then tried to take a short-cut though a neighborhood but found the street blocked and had to back up the wrong way to find another path. I did not realize that somewhere during this excursion he scraped a parked car. I did notice the speedometer didn't work, which was just as well. We finally got onto the road to the airport and he dropped us of in front the our airline departure area. The ride took about one hour, only 15 minutes more than the ride from the airport to the hotel.
Once in the terminal, we found that there was a line for our specific flight. First they had to find our itinerary which was pre-printed out. Since we all and American Airline priority access, we got to bypass the long line and were taken to the business-class checkin, except for Karen who was already upgraded to business class. That didn't take much time, but we all found out that we had to pay an airport exit fee which was put in place after we bought our tickets last February. This made for one more stop, one of many required to fly internationally into the US. We all got though security without any problems and now waited for our flight departure.
We boarded the plane and almost left on time. One of the two runways were closed so there was about a 15 minute delay. The flight back went through Dallas and took more time than the flight from New York. It was a 10 hour and 30 minute flight. After be fed dinner, I did my best to get relaxed hoping I could sleep. Unfortunately, there was some rough turbulence for the next two hours and I could not relax. I must have fallen asleep after the bumpy ride because then I woke up when the flight attendants came by to serve breakfast. So I must have gotten at least five hours of sleep because we were only 90 minutes for Dallas.
As we approached Dallas, it was still dark at 6:30 AM. We landed on time and exited the plane to go through customs. My sister had a special Global Entry pass which allowed her to use an automated kiosk to clear passport/customs. The line for us regular folks was moving slow. Somewhere along the way I realized that I had a different flight home than my brother and his wife. I was going to arrive in San Diego two hours later than them, and they were my ride home. So I rushed off to their departing terminal to see if I could get on their flight to LA and there was plenty of room. I even got an emergency exit seat. They put me on standby for the flight from LAX to SAN, but there was no guarantee that my luggage would arrive early even if I did. It was on the flight to LAX that I realized I lost my iPod. I was not happy about that. It was due to my carelessness. I never lose anything, except for my mind.
Once at LAX, I watched the standby list with my name listed as number three. The flight was full but I was still hopeful. When the plane boarded, Brad and Lorie got on and I waited. There was room for two more people, so I missed it by one. The next flight left in one hour and I was listed as number one on the standby list. As this fight boarded there was along delay before they started calling standby passengers. I was not happy when three people were given tickets even though MY name was at the top of the list. Just as I stood up to complain, they called my name. All is good.
The quick 25 minute flight to San Diego was, well, quick. I was really hoping that my luggage was there, but it was not. So I had to wait for the next flight, my original flight. Luckily, my brother was waiting for me back at the food court in terminal one. I took the "red bus" there and went to Starbucks and bought one of their special Christmas-time mochas. It was only 1:30 in the afternoon, even though it seemed later. Usually on our overseas trips we leave very early on a Friday or Saturday and get back home very late the same day. At 2 PM we walked to our car in the long-term parking and drove back to the commuter terminal. We timed it perfectly. I walked in, saw my bag had just arrive and walked back out where my brother was waiting for me.
I got home by 2:30 and proceeded to do laundry, go shopping and read my e-mail. By 8PM I was ready for bed. Even though I slept in, I woke up every hour starting at 2 AM. At 6:30 AM I was out of bed and ready for the weekend. I had nothing planned other than relax, and relax I did.
Overall I'd say this was a fun trip. I'd rank Buenos Aires better than Lima, Peru and not as interesting than any historic city in Europe. We have officially decided that next year we are going to Vienna, Austria, with a day trip to Bratislava, Slovakia. Can't wait.
1 comment:
I'd go back to Cuzco, Peru, before I went back to Buenos Aires.
Brad
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