Buenos Aires, Day 1

After nearly 24 hours of traveling, I made it to Buenos Aires! It turns out the night before I left I realized I never paid for my flight to Ushuaia, and my flight was now gone. The second I got off the plane I hauled my 500 pound backpack and broken spanish speaking butt to the Aerolineas Airlines booth and somehow explained the situation to the woman, who graciously got me on the flight with an additional $87 fee.  So 10 minutes into the country, and I dropped $140 on a visa and $287 on a flight to Ushuaia. But, now that Im here its all settled and I can move on. I was so proud of myself, I figured out how to get from the airport to the city, and from the city on one of the 100 buses that show up to the bus station and straight to my hostel with no problems, except a very sore back (note to self = toss anything with weight out before attempting to lift this thing again).

I made friends with 2 guys that were on my airport shuttle who were here from San Fran, 2 Google employees - I think everyone I know works at Google now.  We got lunch, where I learned my next lesson. Just order things on the menu. This is not New York, and attempting to order a salad and add chicken will result in getting a plate of salad, a separate plate with an entire chicken, and a double bill. Ouch. Good thing its cheap here because that would have been annoying if it came out to more than $10!
I spent most of the day wandering around with my first South American friend Charles. We walked down to the pink palace where Evita and the rest of the Perons lived, down to this cute area by the water where I found Freddo, the famous ice cream shop of Buenos Aires. I got dulce de leche ice cream with brownies in it and it was awesome!!! There are 2 other ice cream places I read about that I need to find.  While we were walking I stumbled upon this junkyard filled with metal sculptures and pictures of crazy things like old men peeing. It was the randomest place ever, and I wish I had a clue what it was. I tried to ask someone and they told me it was a railroad museum, which doesnt explain why WallE was there or the urine art.

People are super friendly, I ended up losing my friends and walked to the San Telmo district where theres supposed to be really great restaurants and bars. I sat down to eat at a restaurant and was heartbroken to find out I didnt have wifi. I was sitting and staring into space, and some Argentinian guy named Don San Juan or something along those lines came and sat with me. Turned out he was a friend of the owner and he gave me free wine. I was just happy to have someone to talk to while I ate my eggplant salad (next note to self, only order things on menus that have pictures next to them. I totally thought I was ordering steak.)
I made another friends back at the hostel, a girl named Daniella from Brazil. Im relieved that its easy to meet people and make friends I was worried about that since Ive never traveled alone before with the exception of Israel, which definitely doesnt count.  Tomorrow I have one more day in Buenos Aires, and then its off to Ushuaia!