1) ARRIVING
I left Sao Paolo and came to Bs As on March 8th. After a smooth bus ride from the Ezeiza airport to Barrio Norte, I was greeted by my Couch Surfing host Christophe, a french expat living in Argentina for three and a half years now. His warm welcome has made me feel very comfortable right at the first minute. He is a real gentleman: he cooked a quick meal for me and after that he took me around for a quick tour of the area. He showed me how to get to the subte (subway of Bs As), where the buses are so the i can start exploring the city as fast as i could.
The next day, i had 2 missions: get a new sim card for my cell and visiting several areas in the city for appartment hunting.
Getting a sim card seemed easy but i got ripped off by a nearby jewish reseller of *movistar*, a telephone provider in Argentina. They charged me twice the regular price and on top of it they didn't register my sim card and have told me to go to a Movistar store to register it myself. Not knowing the normal procedure, i went to a Movistar store and asked to register my sim card. At the store, they were all surprised and told me to go back to reseller where i bought it because only them can register my sim card and that will give me a telephone number. Without a registered cell phone number, they can not do anything about it because i don't exist in their customer database.
When i got home and told my hosts about the experience, they were all angry and went back to the store with me to ask for an explanaition. The only explanation that i got was that there were are 2 types of SIM cards, mine happened to be more expensive, which was not true according to MoviStar. But the caviar is: because i was writing with a BLUE pen instead of a BLACK pen, therefore they can not register my form. What a bull shit!
So from that lesson, i have a question: should i trust a jewish reseller?
2) SETTLING IN
My next mission was quite easy on me. Christophe, my host, has refered me to one of his friends that has several appartments to rent in Palermo Viejo. So i contact his friend Jane, a very sweet lady from Singapore, she asked me to have a look at the appartment and after 10 mintutes being there, i rented a cute studio in the courtyard from her. This is my cute studio in Palermo Viejo:
View from the courtyard
Inside the studio
View of the exit
The BBQ
Asado in the backyard
So this is where i am at right now. A very nice residential building but next to us is a construction site. They are building a new condominiums. So every morning at 8 AM, you start hearing the noises. And they work from monday to saturday. Therefore, to be able to sleep through the noises, i HAVE to go out and/or sleep late every night. But that is a different story! :-)
3) La Vida Porteña a la "Auberge Espagnole"
I have met many travelers along the road who have been to Bs As, they all told me that: "believe me, it's SO easy to get comfortable and lazy in Buenos Aires!". Guess what? they are absolutely right! This city is very amazing!
According to Wikipedia, Bs As is the second-largest metropolitan in south america after Sao Paulo with a population of around 13 millions. And this city is divided into 48 districts for administrative purposes! 48 can you imagine? The division was based on catholic parishes but since 1940, the 48 parishes have been regrouped into 15 barrios.
And I live in barrio Palermo Viejo. This barrio has everything that i need. Cool shops, nice restaurants/bistro, fun night clubs, a gym, numerous parks, several subte stations, hundred of buses.... the location is purrrfect! The house that i live in right now is a kind of "Auberge espagnole", it has 9 units and each unit is occupied by one or 2 persons coming from different parts of the world: France, Germany, Holland, Canada, United States, Mexico, Brazil, Morocco, Finland, Sweden and Japan. Most of us are students from exchanges programs or internships, some are here to learn spanish and/or tango, some are "long term" travelers... But no matter what, we all share one thing: the love for this *Alpha World City*.
Diner with Thai food, Mexican mojitos and French cheese deserts
