Off to a New Adventure
Antarctica, 2nd Attempt!
10th - 19th December | 2022
Off I go ... 2nd attempt at travelling to Antarctica with my mum. Unfortunately during winter the flight connections from Faro, Portugal to Köln, Germany are a bit limited, so I spend a whole week in Köln. Not much happening, but at least it felt a bit more like Christmas time with all the Christmas markets around. And this year it was also crispy, mainly below 0C, but blue sky!
And then it was time to get to the airport in Frankfurt; no more PCR testing, passenger location form, etc (see blog #Antarctica). So much has changed here since January 2022! So again re-packing my suitcase as I pulled already out so many clothes during this week. And it was already a challenge to pack back in Portugal as no idea what will expect us on the weather side: Buenos Aires can be hot, and Antarctica can be cold!
The airbus leaving Frankfurt was pretty full and thankfully it was an overnight flight. The time difference will be -4 hours, let's see how much that will jumble me up again!
Once arrived in Buenos Aires, we got pretty fast our suitcases. It took a while to get through passport control, where they take your fingerprints and make a picture.
Upon our arrival, there was already someone picking us up, and about another 30 people. We all would be going on an "expedition" tour of Antarctica. Whilst we were in the air, Argentina won the World Cup, so everybody was in a good mood and happy as the last time was over 30 years ago.
On our way to the hotel, we even passed the training area of the national football team, and it was already full of police and security as they were expecting the "winners" soon. It was planned to have a convoy through the city upon their arrival, so most probably tomorrow. That means the whole of Buenos Aires will be "upside down" and party everywhere.
After we all have done the check-in at the hotel, just about 500m off the Obelisque, we went off on a guided sightseeing tour as it was still too early for our rooms. We went first to the famous area of "La Boca", where the stadium (Bonboneira) of "Club Atlético Boca Juniors" is situated (Diego Maradona played twice for them).
Such a colourful part of town, especially around the pedestrian street "Caminito". You could still see some original houses, where the first settlers lived about 100 years ago.
Also was there a possibility of changing money, as some small exchange stalls give you a much better rate than the bank or official money exchange. As we would be on most of the time on the ship, we wouldn’t need much though. (Currently 01/2022 1US$ = 290ARS).
After some time we all went off to the centre of the city to visit some of the important landmarks such as the famous Plaza de Mayo, the Presidential House (Casa Rosada) and the Cathedral, the origin of the current Pope Franciscus. The next stop would be a visit to the grave of Evita Peron. After that we finally went back to our hotel, where we finally could enter our room; was about time as so tired after so many hours since we left Köln.
In the evening we went downtown trying to get a nice Argentinian steak, but we were not really lucky with our waiter/order. The meat was nice, but it was not what we wanted and expected ... pity!
I think I do not need to tell you that we went to bed pretty early where we had a good night's sleep, as much as possible with all the noise down the street during the night...
In the next blog, I will show you a bit more about Buenos Aires. In the meantime sit back and have a nice glass of Argentinian red wine.
Places | Cities:
GERMANY: Köln
ARGENTINA: Buenos Aires
Currency:
ARS = Argentinian Pesos
1US$ = 290 ARS, also labelled as $
Health issues:
Sore throat turning into a cold.
Special thanks to:
Köln for the fantastic, but crispy, weather.
Football Team of Argentina to win the World Cup 2022, to give our trip a fantastic add-on!