Writing about everything that I
have experienced this past week is pretty much impossible. I have gained so
many new impressions and I don’t think I can fit them all into one blogpost.
Which is why I decided to divide it up a bit; First off, some details about the
trip and the trippers, then the various adventures we had in Mendoza, after that the trip
back with a short stay in Buenos Aires, and last but not least a weekend in
Piriápolis.
And just so you all know that I
am not just vacationing here, I did start with school but since Easter is
really early this year we only had two weeks of school before we went off for
Easter break. Or “Semana Santa” as it is called here. Since that left not a lot
of planning time in advance I spontaneously decided to join four other exchange
students at Universidad Católica on their trip to Mendoza, Argentina.
Namely those were Erin from
Texas, Rachel from Minnesota, Izzie from Georgia and Bridget from Oregon. Now
if you know your states, you might have recognized that I was the only German
within that group of Americans. But I guess I could pass for Kansan if I wanted
to.
Bridget Rachel
Izzie Erin
Now to begin with the planning,
one of the girls who travelled with me, Erin, gave me the details about the buses/ferry
and the hostel. In Argentina it is quite cheap-ish to travel around in overland
buses. That is why we went to Buenos Aires first where there is a pretty big
bus terminal from where you can go practically everywhere in and around
Argentina. And since the cheapest manner to get to Argentina is to go to a
place called Colonia (in Uruguay) first and then take a ferry to Buenos Airesfrom
there, we chose to do it that way. Erin also gave me the name of the hostel they
were staying in, so I could book that as well.
As soon as I had all the details
I started making arrangements. Booking the hostel was easy. No problems there.
But then the website for the overland bus in Argentina didn’t like my credit
card. So I skyped with my mommy and soon thereafter the bus was booked via her
credit card. Problem solved. And finally I had to get me the tickets for the
bus and ferry in Uruguay which was easiest done at the bus terminal “Tres
Cruces” here in Montevideo. But of course that day it rained all day and due to
the lack of an umbrella I decided to reschedule for the next day. That day there
was no rain and Pablo offered to help me buy the tickets. Theoretically that
meant that nothing could go wrong, right? Well, not exactly. The girl at the
counter for the ferry tickets apparently thought I was from “Armenia” instead
of “Alemania”. And apart from the fact that both start and end with an A, I
don’t think they sound alike. Anyway, I didn’t find out about it until I
checked it at home and so I had to go back and have it changed. Which worked out
fine and I didn’t have any problems getting out of and back into the country.
So after that I was all set for
the trip and super excited for school to be out and vacation to be in. Ok, in
between school and vacations I went to see the Uruguay vs. Paraguay soccer
match that I have blogged about earlier but the morning following the game I
finally got to go on my Semana Santa adventure! Which started Saturday morning
at around 11ish at the bus terminal in Montevideo where my four companions and
I got on the bus to Colonia.
Now during the bus ride to
Colonia I didn’t sit by the others because we booked our tickets separately. I
guess there is not a lot to write about that part of the trip. Though I have to
mention one thing: Overland buses in South America are waaaay more comfortable
than the ones we have in Europe! The seats were so comfortable and there was
leg space en masse!
Later, upon arrival in Colonia we
had some coffee and continued to the ferry terminal which was just down the
street from the bus terminal. We went through all the check-in and
leaving-the-country procedures and got on board of the ferry that would take us
to Argentina.
I was pretty excited then until I
wanted to take a picture of Bridget being silly… and almost got a heart attack right
there. I had forgotten the memory card for my camera! In order to even be able
to take lots of pictures I had saved them all onto the computer in the morning
and apparently I had forgotten to take the card out of my computer and put it
back into the camera. Major bummer. I mean what’s a trip when you have a great
camera but can’t use it to document everything?
Luckily Izzie saved my trip right
there because she had brought a spare memory card and was willing to lend it to
me for the trip. For me that meant the world, and for you that means tons of
pictures to look at.
Now, off the ferry, through a
very brief immigration/security check and into two taxis. Because we were five
persons and taxis don’t transport more than four, we had to split up. So
Rachel, Izzie and I went on the first taxi and got a ride through possibly one
of the ugliest parts of Buenos Aires. After a short drive we arrived at the bus
terminal “Retiro” from where our bus to Mendoza would leave, and thought we’d
just wait a couple minutes for the other two to arrive. After all they had
gotten into the taxi right behind ours.
But we waited and waited and
there was no sight of them. So we did some investigation and found that it was
impossible to find the others because the terminal is just so incredibly huge. We
quickly decided to have us some food before the last big part of our journey and
so we went to find a restaurant. And guess who we found on the way! Erin and
Bridget, the two we had lost earlier.
After some food we went back to
the terminal and waited for our bus to come. Nothing too spectacular happened
here. We got on the bus and smart as I am I booked a seat at the top-front of
the bus so I could get a great first view of Mendoza. And a great view I got.
After I slept deeply in my very comfy and spacey seat.
And I woke up just in time to get
a first glance of the Andes and the Mendoza province. I also got to talk to the
guy in the seat next to mine who told me that he is from Mendoza but works as a
marine at Ushuaia in the “Tierra del Fuego” region. In the very south of South
America. The end of the world.
First glance of the Andes... and some dirt on from the bus window.
Said Mendocinian guy was called
Javier and gave me some tips on what to do in Mendoza. Since we hadn’t really
planned out all of our time and were travelling rather spontaneously I figured
that could be quite handy.
And finally after a thirteen-and-a-half
hour busride we got to Mendoza. The destination of our journey.
P.S. There's gonna be more pictures in my next post. Pinky promise!
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