Frazier Blog

I am burying the bad in the middle. One to make your read it all and because that is the order in which my day went. As usual please excuse any typo’s. Part of me wants to not post this story but hey that would take away all the fun and honesty.

Off the plane and through customs. Very easy save the 150 dollar fee they impose. That being said it mirrors the charge that we place on their citizens with a visa. What goes around comes around, or so they say……

After exiting customs I took the advice of my hostel and my buddy Riley and got correct bus transfer to my hostel. Cheaper that a taxi and faster than the public bus.

Being up for 24 hours was taking its toll on me. As the bus left the airport I soon fell asleep. I would wake up and fall back asleep. Even thought the girl next to me looked perfectly nice I made sure to keep my brand new camera close between my legs. I honestly felt a little sick as we inched closer to the city center. After about a 30 minute nap I woke up and felt much better. The combo of a nap and a limon-lime soda worked well.

I started to chat with the girl/woman/person next to me. She is a flight attendant for TAM airlines and is from brazil. She gave me some advice and we soon arrived at the central station. From there I had a minibus transfer to my hostel.

Hostel is very nice. Small and friendly. I unpacked a bit and was given advice to take defensa into town and just walk around. I got my camera ready, put on sunscreen and started walking.

I felt as if If I had entered a city that took part of paris and blended it with NY. It reminded me of the musical in the heights. I was clearly in the barrio.

I started snapping photos and loved the results I was getting. Having the 35 mm prime lens really allowed me to have some fun. Especially with some fruit in a market. I realized I was hungry and started looking for the right cafe. I kept zig zagging down side streets trying to find something not 100% turisicto. One caught my eye and the menu was espanol y no americanos. Bueno. I spoke only Spanish to the waitress, however I think she over estimated my Spanish ability. I was unsure of what I ended up ordering but the words sounded good and it was what she pointed to after I asked her what her favorite was.

Turns out I order stuffed bell peppers. Amazing. Once again my new camera setup captured a crisp image. I could see the individual specks of rice and detail on the peppers. It tasted as good as it looked. The salsa on the side only made it better. I had fun people watching as I filled my stomach. I sat there a bit and then left.

I headed towards the plaza de mayo and snapped a few more pictures as I went. I thought about how much fun I am going to have learning how the most out of this camera.

As I entered the area near the square there was a big white building with lots of graffiti on it. The images perfectly stenciled intrigued me. I stopped to admire them. I then saw a solid building that I soon realized was a church.

The doors were wide open so I walked in. I wanted to start snapping photos right away but I held back. I walked towards a pew and knelt down to pray. As I prayed I thanked God for safe travels and for the ability to be able to travel. As I looked up I started thinking about how I wanted to take some photos of the church. I went to grab my camera and it was not there. WHAT?? I thought I must have put my bag on top of it. I lifted my bag and still no camera. I started to panic. I stood up and started looking for the thief. No one stood out. The people behind me appeared to have seen the whole thing but said nothing as it happened ( or they were part of the whole scheme they cursorily left at the same time I did). They said it was a tall blonde man. I ran out of the church and tried to find a man matching this description. No tall man existed. However, my eye did catch a man who started running as soon as I emerged from the church. I gave chase. As I reached the busy street the light changed and a wall of cars impeded my path. Ahhh. I was not willing to play frogger to maybe get my camera back. Still in a panic I approached a police officer and explained I has been robbed, he looked ready to jump into action, but I had no idea who we were looking for. As my panic level decreased, I became angry at myself and the thief and began to plan. Thoughts of stupidity, anger, frustration, stupidly,and insurance entered my mind. I asked the police officer where I could file a police report. Not because I expected any thing to happen but because I was/am pretty sure I need one to make a claim with my credit card company(everything should be covered). I ran back into the church and business was carrying on a usual. I looked around and nothing. I started my trek to the police station and warned a couple people walking in that there were thieves inside.

At the police station I began to explain what had happen. My Spanish was not good enough for them so they wait for an English speaking officer to be available. After he heard what had happened he let me know to wait. To make a LONG story short, after waiting 2.5 hours an officer helped me make my statement. It took literally 5 minutes. I could have done it in Spanish if I knew it was going to be that short. That would have cut 1.5 hours of my wait. While I was waiting there were several other people who were victims of petty crime. I felt bad for the local who had her cell phone stolen on her birthday. Yikes. Police report in hand I started my walk back my hostel to drop off stuff and head to dinner. Walking back I just kept kicking myself for being so dumb. I had not read as many warnings about petty crime in Buenos Aires as I had for Europe. But still I should have known better than to set my camera at side. O well. As I walked back I prayed that I could move on.

The hostel I am staying at has GREAT staff. Friendly and helpful with good recommendations for activities. The woman at the front could tell I was not happy and asked how my day went. She gave me a hug after I explained. I then told her I wanted a giant steak and glass of wine. She recommend a place five blocks away and off I went.

While the place did have an english menu, the grill in the front slowly cooking the meat drew me in. I ordered around 8:30pm and the restaurant was practically empty. Made me a little nervous about the place. My food came out and the restaurant started filling up. By 9:15 the place was packed. People were not kidding Argentina eats late.

I noticed there was another single traveler sitting across the restaurant. Since I had made it back to the hostel later than expected I missed any opportunity for a group outing. After finishing my meal and noticing that she didn’t have any join her I thought “what’s the worse that could happen” and headed over.

She was welcoming and we started it talking and sharing travel stories. Turns out Hannah was here for a month learning Spanish and volunteering to help teach English. Always fun making a new friend. We ordered dessert and continued chatting. She mentioned she was heading out to try and watch some tango. We left the restaurant and found our I intended location. While it was open there was no tango scheduled for that evening. We tried another one,and while it had tango,it has already started and was far too expensive. New strategy go grab a drink. We enjoyed exploring two different bars and then called it a night. I need to go to bed and she needed to call her family/bf. I walked her to her bus stop and then walked back to my hostel.

Once I got within a block of my hotel I was ready to pass out. Not only had I been traveling for 24 hours I had then had a very very full day, with a fun evening to cap it off. When I got in bed two people started snoring. I thought about ruffling through my stuff but decided I would do that if I could not fall asleep within five minutes. I put my head down, thanked God for save travels and was ready to go to sl………………….