Thoughts from my hotelroom

It is funny how fast one can get used to things. After having travelled on my own for a while and being very happy with that and having a good time, I was quite sceptic about getting company by a friend from Brasilia that came to Buenos Aires to meet me. It took about a day and a half getting to terms with having company, but now, when my friend have left, it feels very empty all of a sudden. It feels boring to be on my own and I don't feel like going out and do anything. Ok, part of the explanation for that can be that it is very cold and windy tonight and I send all my warm clothes with my friend to Brasilia so therefore I really don't feel like going out. Normally, going out in the evenings alone was always the most boring part of travelling alone, but now it feels even worse, but if the sun is shining tomorrow I am sure it will feel better.

Another thing that is strange, ironic and typical is this thing about not being able to shop when one really wants to shop. If I am not supposed to buy anything and especially if I don't really have the money to shop, then I always find a lot of things that I want, but if I really plan to buy something I won't find anything. Like in Cusco. The first day I passed through the markets and saw a lot of things that I liked, but the last day when I still had too many soles that I wanted to get rid of I didn't find a thing that I liked. Yesterday when many shops were closed due to holiday I saw a lot of nice things in the shop windows here in Buenos Aires, but this afternoon when I went out for shopping I found nothing. I did however bought a red leather jacket in the morning. Happy! And I have the whole day tomorrow.

One of the reasons it is difficult to shop here is that it is so completely wrong season for me. All the shops are full of light spring and summer clothes, which feels very strange for me going back to the Swedish autumn and winter in a week. Actually it feels strange even if I consider how it feels here right now. Having spent the last six months in constant sunshine and over 30 degrees, it feels strange to think it is spring, going to summer, when it is 15 degrees, cloudy or even rainy.

I really hope the weather will be better when I come to Rio on Thursday. I so look forward to a couple of days on the beach. If it will be cold and rainy I don't know what I will do, maybe I then go back to Brasilia one day earlier to get all things ready and have more time to say goodbye to people...

Swedish in Buenos Aires

Had a nice day strolling around in Buenos Aires, doing the tourist track strolling through Recoleta, San Telmo with the fair and then La Boca and Caminito. Nice.
Something I didn't expect though was the most common reaction people had on hearing that I come from Sweden. I mean you do get to hear some different things and some more often that others, but here was a very specific for Buenos Aires/Argentina. I don't even remember how many times I have been told the story of how the Boca Juniors got their colours. Apparently they had difficulties choosing colours for the new team and they made the agreement to pick the colours of the flag of the first ship to enter the harbour in the morning and apparently it was a Swedish ship, hence the Boca is since then playing in blue and yellow (gold). I might somehow have heard that story before, but not the way that I remember it, but now I have heard it more times than I can remember..

Bad start

Arrived in Buenos Aires. Not the best start, but I am sure it will get better. By saying not the best it was because the flight here was not great, and the hotel is a big disappointment. Not that I had big expectations but anyway... The thing is there seems to be so many nice hotels in Buenos Aires and the big thing is all the stylish boutique hotels that everyone is talking about. And then there are the areas, everyone told me you should either stay in Palermo, Recoleta or maybe San Telmo. That is also what I was looking for before I booked, but for several different reasons I could not book early and when time was starting to get crusial most of the nice hotels didn't have room for the period I wanted to stay or were really expensive. As I arrived on a Saturday evening most of the hotels could only offer room from Sunday, and somehow if you are only staying for a few days anyway you might not want to have to move. I had also asked our travel agency for suggestions and gotten some that had rooms available, but none of them looked really tempting. However, as time ran out I had to book something so I just sent a mail to the agency asking them to book in one of the suggested hotels. As none of them were in any of the areas I would have liked to stay in I went for the one that seemed best situated from a logistical point of view.
That said I really did not have high expectations when I arrived here, but was anyway disappointed. The hotel is called Dazzler Suites which sounds promising, but I thing the "suit" part only refers to that the room has a small pentry. I must stay this hotel room is one of the most depressing places I have ever stayed in. The floor is covered by some horrible carpet that seems really dirty, the walls are painted in some creemish/yellowish colour but with lot of stains and marks. The "living room" has two horribly ugly once white fake leather chairs, the rest of the furniture is black and of a kind you would normally find in some dorms from the 70:s. There are no paintings or decoration of any kind or anything with some colour. The TV is really old and the remote control doesn't work. There are two narrow beds squeezed into a small bedrom and the bathroom could have needed some renovation a while ago. And the whole place seems to be very loud in the way that you hear a lot from the neighbours, luckily not from the street however. If it wasn't for the fact that I had paid in advancce I would have tried to find another hotel from tomorrow. But hey... more the reason for spending less time at the hotel and more time on town. I hope the hotel will be the only disappointment in Buenos Aires..