Rachel was feeling wiped out so while she was having a nap I decided to go for a walk. I'm not really a brave fellow and don't tend to go places I shouldn't, but at the same time, I'm not known for common sense — as I was leaving, half asleep she said to me, “if you get hassled, just say 'No tengo ningn valor como rehn. Nadie me desea.'” I'm not sure what that means. Her Spanish is a lot better than mine. That said, I think I could become fluent within a month of being here; with my French, German, and English there's a surprising amount of overlap.
I was meeting Havve at 21:00, so I knew I had to be back for 7 PM — two hours to do about a 10 km walk if I'm guessing the distances right. Here are a few photos from along the way.
This is the city just before I left for my walk. I still can't get over just how big this place is. I think my only complaint — the level of air pollution — is in part a byproduct of this, along with cars and busses with less smog control than they probably should have. Of course, I live in the most air polluted region on the planet — the lower great lakes basin — so I'm in a bit of a glass house on that one.
Cables are strung everywhere, and as far as I can tell they're “official” since they're fuelling traffic lights and so on. Or I'm seeing them backward, and people are lifting power from the lights.
One of the new condo developments down by the waterfront. Those of you who live in Toronto may find it disconcerting just how familiar this looks. There are a lot of similarities between Canada and Argentina I think… when Rachel was buying shoes yesterday, we mentioned we were from Canada and the sales guy commented as well about how similar Canada, Australia, and Argentina all are.
A really funky little house down by the shore. I can't believe I said “funky”. I wish I'd taken more shots from other angles, it was a very funny building.
Ducks in a canal. On the other side of the palms is the ocean.
I took a wrong turn down what looked like a nice alleyway. When I'd walked about four hundred feet and noticed people suspiciously glaring at me, and then almost tripped over a dead pitbull, I decided I should probably choose an alternate route. I guess it was a little shanty down — sorry to keep drawing Toronto comparisons, but it reminded me of “tent city” that used to be down by the Toronto waterfront.
A modern bridge crossing one of the canals, and a tall ship behind it. The main avatar I've got up right now is a picture I took right in front of that bridge as well.
Come on — you must be seeing the Toronto parallels by now! The waterfront area really was disconcertingly similar in areas. As long as you keep the palm trees out of the shots, I'm sure there are photos one could take that would easily fool Canadians into thinking it was a local photo.
Yes, it's a TGI-FRIDAYS. Aparently those are more common in Argentina than they are up north.
Anyway… I know these travel entries are a little lame (and because of editing them on my laptop, the pictures may not look so great) and I'm not much of a travel writer — really, there's not much ranting involved, and I'm best when my revolutionary fires are ripping my brain to shreds — but I hope some of you are finding it at least marginally interesting.
But really, you've got to do this as well. I dread travelling every time before leaving, but almost always enjoy it once I'm there, and I'm definitely enjoying Buenos Aires so far. There are things you learn about the world that you can not learn by any other method than going out and travelling.
Oh, and while I was gone Rachel kept having dreams that there was something wrong with the clock. As some of you may have clued in to, 21:00 is 9PM, not 7PM, so I rushed back for nothing, and felt a little dumb after Rachel pointed it out — after we'd sat in the lobby for half an hour waiting!
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