This is just a post for me to use later in case I lose my laptop (let’s hope that doesn’t happen :)

Some experiences we had in Buenos Aires really convinced me again that it really (really!) is a small world. Besides the interesting mathematical properties, a small world always takes you by surprise and gets a smile on your face just thinking about it.

Here our three examples in a single week!

• Before leaving for the trip, I went on a long-overdue weekend trip to Madrid to meet my friends from BEST there. Perhaps it’s the least of the small-world experience, but it turned out they were also heading for Argentina and right during our stay there! We met up for dinner and later again for coffee in Buenos Aires, just to show that distances only exist in our head. (picture below :)
• For the third car we were about to buy (the first one didn’t go through because of some differences, the second one was sold while we were on the plane :/ ) we had a good contact with a Tsjech couple on their way to Buenos Aires. However, on a camping a few days before they sold it to some German couple :( Anyway, guess who turned up in our AirBnB to stay in the second room a few days later. Yup, the same Tsjech couple, who actually parked the van in front as they were doing the paperwork a few days later. In a 14 million souls big city, that makes a small world and some irony too.
• And for the best one: While ordering lunch in a small bar in San Telmo, numblessly watching football on TV, a girl walked by and I couldn’t stop myself from yelling: “Lisa!”. She was a girl who spent a year or so in my class in high school. Appartently she was spending some months in Argentina and we talked for like 2 minutes (which is more than we did in the whole of high school ;). She was more surprised that I recognized her than that she walked into the same little bar at the other side of the globe where I was waiting for my crappy hamburger. Interesting…

Finally got a picture gallery up and running. Together with Facebook comments, Andrea should be happy now :)

Allright, and now for them stories :)

I tried to have Ana write a bit here, but this post just shows my power of conviction.

…

I’ll just start myself then :) First impressions, in no perticular order:

• After having lived in Madrid, Hong Kong, New York (and Antwerp!), Buenos Aires feels like the biggest city I’ve ever been too. It’s really HUGE. You think you can walk just a few blocks to something that looks just close on the map, and it takes you more than 30minutes.
• People are super friendly here. Really, it’s much faster and agreeable to ask directions or information than looking it up. Just stand for 5 seconds looking confused (and looking like tourists, which we do :) and someone will come up to you asking if they can help. Nice friendly people.
• Supermarkets here are weird. We went the first night to a big carrefour (like the hypermarkets in Belgium) and yes, it’s big, but they’re just stacking shelves with the same basic products. They have less of a selection than in our little proxy Delhaize from Antwerp (definitely less vegetables). And the queue ran for the whole length of the thing and around the corner. Never did I have to wait that long (more than half an hour) to pay. Not that is was a busy evening or anything. Nope, they had like 12 cash registers open, but oh my god do they work slow!
• In a closed (non-convertible) money system, you’ve got to improvise. We took some dollars in the country and exchanged them in various places: with our AirBnB landlord (worst rate), in an antique shop (good rate) and a few times in avenida Florida, a shopping street half of the people standing around are mumbling “cambio” when you pass (variable rates). I guess it makes it more fun than using a credit card :P
• It’s all happening at the zoo (but more on that in a separate post, I hope).
• They like their meat! Yes, I got a plate so full of meat (and only meat, of course) that even I couldn’t eat. And it’s all yummy.
• Here a window cleaner really is a dangerous profession.

I guess by now you’re figuring out that I am backdating some of this stuff. We’re currently in Uruguay (13th), but as a sort of logbook for later I’ll be cheating with the dates. Consufing, right?

Well, here we are just arriving in Buenos Aires after a long fligth. I’ve got some catching up to do with the blog, so this is just the picture.

Stories are soon to follow :)