I will say Buenos Aires was not as bad as I expected but It was much harder adjusting to city life when being out in the vast spaces of Patagonia for so long. Plus Buenos Aires in general can be a bit overwhelming.

The first day I arrived, I met a few people at the hostel who were venturing into a neighbourhood of BA called La Boca. It is not what you call a tourist friendly hot spot but it’s definitely full of culture. They were going for a last ditch effort to find tickets to one of the football games. River Plate a popular local team was playing. I joined in, knowing La Boca’s infamous reputation I travelled fairly light, with only a few pesos and some ID (no bags, camera and the likes). We got info on what bus to take and more importantly what street/stop to get off. People weren’t exaggerating when they said some streets are no-go zones. We got to the stadium and confirmed what we knew all along…the tickets were sold out. Since Argentinians followed football so religiously I wanted to watch the masses attend mass. Sadly that didn’t happen. So we opted to get a bite to eat and return back to the hostel which was located in the centre ( a few blocks from the world’s largest avenue, 9 de Julio).

I did get a chance to visit San Telmo ( Tango barrio of the city) on a booming Sunday. When the market is in full swing and some of the roads are closed to cars only pedestrians. Luckily the weather was nice and cool that day. That was another thing to get adjusted to, going from cool, windy conditions to hot and humid BA was not a pleasant change at all.

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And as if I wasn’t attracting enough attention alone with the hijab, I went to eat with a few more travelers from the hostels (3 guys from Norway). So you can imagine how that appeared. 3 taller than your average Argentinian, Norwegians with bright blond hair and blazing blue eyes, and me with my hijab. I guess I would stop and stare if I saw such a group strolling through the streets of BA. We had a good laugh about it.

ohh, I met another “Bag” how odd is that. For those not familiar, that is one of several nicknames coined by my dear friend Tina. So there I was chilling at the hostel after a full day of exploring BA when someone calls out hey Bag, so out of reflex I turned to find they were referring to someone else.

All in all I enjoyed my time in BA but during my entire stay there all I could think of going back down south to Patagonia. By the third day I was ready to leave, I purchased my ferry ticket back to Uruguay and headed back to Montevideo.