Friday 06 May 2016, Buenos Aires – Argentina 

We had such a great flight over – the plane was maybe 1/3 full and we were seated in economy (one lucky person got upgraded), but three of us happened to spy three empty Sky Couch rows in front of us, and made a beeline for them before take off. I was a little sceptical about Sky Couch – I couldn’t imagine how it could be worth paying $400 extra, per sector of travel… I am totally convinced now. It is the poor man’s business class – I slept like a baby. Obviously the shorter you are the more comfortable, and I’m winning there! The ride was pretty smooth, the food was good and the flight attendants were funny – a couple of hours before descent there was a loud “wakey wakey” over the PA System. Though at one stage I woke to a flight attendant over me reaching out to close my window shade with what looked like a shoe horn… Waking up to remember you’re on a plane is much worse when you’re not expecting an Argentinian man to be leaning close to your face with what looks like a weapon. 

After getting through immigration it was about 6pm and dark outside, which was a weird feeling having left New Zealand in the dark, and we began our hour-ish journey into the area we are staying at the moment, Palermo Hollywood. The first thing I noticed (besides the shacks – there are 10 million people in Buenos Aires!!!) was that in the outer areas there are SO many beautiful, old, grand buildings that have been absolutely vandalised with graffiti! Beautiful ornate finishings, balconies, stunning wrought iron doors, and led light Windows. The city streets are tree lined, and it could just be so pretty. Incredibly sad!! 

As we got closer to Palermo the shops started to look a bit more flash (more brands etc) and the graffiti got less and less. We pulled up to our hotel, Hotel Clasico on Costa Rica Street (in Hollywood haha, try sending mail here without a postcode!), and it is AMAZING!! Screams my name. I believe it is an independent hotel, but I will research into that. Very quirky and boutique – I’m looking forward to trying their very cool looking restaurant in the morning.

Because we didn’t want to wake up and then pretty much go to bed again, we went out for dinner (it is almost 1am as I write this) and went to a local restaurant four blocks away – this was a real local restaurant, the menus were in Spanish only and the waitress did not understand a word of English A few people accidentally ordered 500g steak (that were meant to be shared) or fish instead of steak but it was all so cheap that it didn’t really matter, and the meat was delicious! It was quiet when we arrived but buzzing by the time we left at 11pm. 

I’m off to get a good nights sleep now.. We’ll see how that goes. 

❤ Laus