Unhappy Feet

Hello again. I feel like a right old geek on here, but it´s quite cool to write it all down! The hotel staff probably think the same thing, the PC is in the lobby and I was on here for ages last ngiht (well, that was a long entry!).

I´m totally shattered again today, but surprisingly not from jetlag. I slept so well last night, probably due to the luxury of a proper flat bed rather than all scrunched up in economy class with a travel pillow and a pair of fetching flight socks. The breakfast in the hotel is a total feast - a buffet without limits! I did the cheap thing of stealing some fruit to eat later in the day, and a yoghurt too, then I realised I needed to steal a spoon too. Tomorrow I might go for the toaster. That would be cool in my room!

I was supposed to be meeting Oli at half 10 outside the Palacio de Congresos, the Argentine parliament building. It´s just a short walk from the hotel, and there was a tour scheduled there for 11am... anyway, Oli was really late (he originally claimed it was a traffic jam, but let slip later on that the wee daughter of the family he was staying with wanted to show him all her Barbie dolls and he couldn´t get away!) and totally ran to get in... but he probably shouldn´t have bothered! It was a pretty shambolic tour, conducted in Spanish by a formidable-looking Dueña, and translated loosely by some other woman. However, there was a woman who looked a bit like Cruella de Ville (but dressed in leopardskin) who kept chipping in with her own "facts" about the parliament, and some arguments ensued between her and the official guide! We saw the main chamber, which was really amazing, and then another chamber which is topped with a beautiful domed ceiling. But then the tour was cut short with no real explanation (probably something to do with Cruella!) and we were left feeling a bit disappointed! At least it was free.

After that, Oli decided to go off to the stadium of the team that Maradona used to play for - it´s in an area renowned for being dodgy, so I elected not to join him! He did say later that at one point he thought his luck was out, when a guy approached him and said "amigo!" in a threatening voice... but he was just asking for the time. Good story, though! I went on a walking tour of the central area, and walked MILES. I saw lots of the main sights in the centre and got lots of exercise! At one point, I walked up a very narrow pedestrian street that was packed with people. It was mental! I´m not going up there again! It was really interesting just walking around, I got a really good feel of the city through the sounds and smells, as well as just looking around. The place seems to be pretty safe, I didn´t feel on edge in the way that I expected. I learned as well that you need to just keep walking, no one at all says "excuse me" here or steps out of your way! Also, the traffic can still drive across zebra crossings when the green man is on, and they don´t take any prisoners. Apparently 7 people die here on the roads every day, and that really is no surprise. It´s also incredibly polluted, the sky was hazy all day and it was quite hard to breathe by the time I was heading home.

Oli and I met up again at 3.30 in the Plaza de Mayo - this is the time that the Madres de Plaza de Mayo (see yesterday!) start their campaign walk. This was something that I´m really glad I´ve seen. I first heard about it when I was at school, aged about 13 or 14, and we were reading a book in Spanish about the Dirty War in Argentina, called "Retorno a la Libertad". It´s funny, I don´t remember much about the story, but I do remember the teacher telling us about the Madres and what their protest meant. At the time, it all seemed very far away and somehow unimportant - something that had nothing to do with me. It´s funny how things turn out! The women were very old, in their 80s probably, and incredibly dignified. They marched slowly round the square holding placards with pictures of missing people - they are still demanding answers from the government about their loved ones. They wore matching headscarves and the real veterans at the front carried a banner calling for the redistribution of world wealth. Apparently they now also use their platform to campaign for other humanitarian causes. I was quite moved by it all. There was quite a crowd gathered to see them, and everyone fell respectfully silent as they passed.

After that we headed for a walk around the barrio - there is a building rumoured to have gained its pink hue from a coat of bovine blood among other curiosities. We stumbled into the grounds of an impressive building, which, on closer inspection, had a tank and a collection of armed guards outside. After realising that they all seemed to be looking at us in a none-too-friendly manner, we hotfooted it out the gate! There was a huge monument to the country´s dead of the Falklands War too - at this point we really felt unwelcome!

We had a look down at the port, which is like all docklands areas with its urban regeneration and posh warehouse conversions. Very swish, apart from the incongrous additions of a TGI Friday´s and a Hooters! Oliver fancied a cocktail but I refused to patronise either establishment!

Cocktails drunk, we went our separate ways. I thought I only had a few blocks to walk to get back to the road that led to my hotel, but after walking for a good half hour I realised I was in fact very much further south than I had anticipated! I was really hungry too, but didn´t want to stop until I was somewhere I knew. I walked for an hour and a half in the end and was almost on my knees!

Being alone in the big city is cool, but I have no intention of staying in my hotel room all night watching crazy local TV (although this morning I did watch Argentine MTV, which played American songs with Spanish subtitles. I finally found out what Dave Grohl is actually saying in "the Best of You"!), so I took myself off the cinema again. I picked Die Hard 4.0 - which in Spanish is titled "Hard to Kill". I think that´s maybe a better title! It was 2 hours of gratuitous ultraviolence with a thin and barely believable plot, an unlikely techie loser sidekick/hero-in-waiting and plenty of exploding flyovers, and therefore totally ridiculous. I loved it!

I think that´s enough for one night. The hotel door is open and I can smell the car fumes coming in. My throat has just about closed up here! Tomorrow I´m off to Posadas on the Paraguay border to start my placement proper. In for a penny.... Hasta mañana!