First "Big Girl" trip :D

I'm back in my hometown (hellhole) after spending a week in a big city with my best friend and I'm experiencing some post-trip depression. So, since I can't stop thinking about it and how grateful I am it happened, I decided to make a little blog about it!

We booked an Airbnb in the central area of the city from February 23rd to February 27th, a total of 4 nights. It was a small studio apartment with two beds, a bathroom and even a small outdoor area! We got lucky because it was cheap and very pretty, plus in a safe area. 

At first I was scared because it said it had no AC and, since it's summer, in my hometown we reach heat indexes of up to 50 degrees Celsius BUT, luckily, this city has a colder weather, so there was no need. Just a ceiling fan and we were perfectly fine.

Day 1

We left our hometown in the afternoon of the 22nd. I was already dreading the twelve hour bus ride because I usually get pretty sick while traveling, and I can't stand sitting for too long in the same spot. But I guess being with my best friend made it more tolerable; we talked a lot about our plans and expectations and joked around. 

We arrived to our destination at around 6am, which was kind of a drag because we had to carry like 6 bags the whole morning since we couldn't enter the apartment until 2pm! 

Anyway, we had some breakfast at the bus station and decided to stay there until 10am. Then, we left to walk around the city. There's this BIIIG park we wanted to go to. I had to try not to get in a bad mood because at first we walked the wrong direction, some streets were very steep AND I was carrying like 3 bags and sweating like crazy. 

We made it to the park and sat on a bench. Then we started feeding pigeons some pan con chicharrón (bread with pork rinds) that we bought from a guy in one of the stops during the trip. Soon enough we were surrounded not only by pigeons, but also by parrots, red-crested cardinals and some little black birds whose breed I don't know (blackbird reference?).

Gotta add, I was SHOCKED to see how normalized it is to smoke weed in there. People were just walking down the streets smoking a joint as if it were a cigarette lmao. Not judging though, I was actually jealous </3

At 12pm we decided to get up and make our way to some brunch place we saw on Google Maps. It was an even longer walk, but DEFINETLY worth it. The guy who served us was so nice (he made a joke about the shitload of bags we were carrying, but I can't remember it lol). Anyway, this is what we ordered:

We cut our orders in half and shared. What you see in the glasses is some lemonade with mint and ginger. It was SOOO good. 

At 2pm we decided to order an Uber to the apartment. I was SO glad to take a shower and then a nap, since I only slept like 2 hours in the bus. We planned on sleeping only two hours and leaving the apartment at 4:30 so we'd have more time to explore, but ended up leaving at 6 instead because we overslept lol. 

ALSO! That same day I decided to check the Airbnb thing for some reason, and wanna know what I realized? It said that travelers arriving before check-in time could come in and drop off their bags... Should've read that sooner. Literally wanted to rip my hair off because our morning would've been so much more enjoyable lmao. 

That night we got ready and went to this Korean food place. It was so pretty and the staff were all so nice. We ordered some fried chicken with teriyaki sauce, some kimbaps, kimchi with rice, and some ramen. Once again, we shared everything. I really wanted to try soju so I ordered a strawberry flavored one and my friend got some mango flavored coconut water juice (?). Unfortunately, the kimchi was pretty spicy and it made the alcohol taste of the soju like 10 times worse so I couldn't drink much of it. I thank my friend for wanting to try that coconut water thingy because it was perfect for washing off the spiciness from our mouths. 

Tell me that doesn't look delicious :p

Also, the owner was actually Korean and he was walking around the restaurant teaching people how to properly grab the chopsticks and eat the food! 

After eating we walked a bit and stopped at some plaza. There was this ginormous rat walking around. Didn't bother me because I actually love rats lol, but my friend was scared and we left. 

psa: not that I would actually approach a rat walking around the streets or let it approach me, I'm aware of the health risks </3

Day 2

The next morning we went to a nearby supermarket and bought some bread, butter, rice, milk, coffee, toilet paper, and trash bags. Unfortunately our budget was pretty limited, so we couldn't afford to eat outside three times a day every day. 

We decided to have breakfast and lunch in the apartment, we took a nap and then got ready to leave at like 4pm. 

We went back to the huge park we were in the first day and decided to explore it a bit more. We realized it had this big lagoon and decided to sit on a bench next to it.

We saw some ducks (I think) and a turtle taking a nap in the sun :D

Right next to us there was this old man selling antique second-hand objects in a stand. He had SO many beautiful things. 

We stayed there for some good 20 minutes. He also had a bunch of old vinyls and discs but, unfortunately, none of my music taste.

He had this BEAUTIFUL heart-shaped silver trinket box, which you can actually see in the picture. I immediately fell in love with it and bought it. He sold it to me at a VERY cheap price because it was used (duh) and it was missing the velvet inside. The man said it must've been from sometime between the 60s and the 80s. He could very well be lying, but I choose to believe him. Plus, it does look pretty old. Here's a better picture of it after I polished it:  

I'm thinking of buying some red or black velvet and glue it to its inside myself :)

I also bought one of the analog cameras he had because they were very cheap. We actually took some pictures of the trip with it, but we didn't use the whole roll and I gotta take it somewhere where they can develop the photos. 

Later that day we strolled along the pedestrian street. I found a shop that sold vinyls and records and bought The Bends, by Radiohead. Then we walked around some more and found a big library. We went inside and I found out that it also had a music section and found two discs at an INSANELY cheap price. One of them was "The Beach Boys With The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra" at only 4,000 argentine pesos, and the other one was "George Harrison" by George Harrison at only 6,100 argentine pesos (almost went crazy when I realized I found it at such a cheap price, George my beloved). Now, in the shithole I live in there is not a SINGLE place to buy any physical media, so my only solution is online shopping, and the price of almost all the discs starts at AT LEAST 20,000 pesos, and they can go up to over 100,000, so you can see that when I say cheap I mean CHEAP. For example, the Radiohead one was 22,000 if I remember correctly.

At night we decided to try a Chinese restaurant. It was so beautifully decorated, and the inside was FILLED with those lucky cat statues. Unlike the Korean restaurant, there were no actual Chinese people working in the establishment (you could see into the kitchen). Regardless, the food was delicious. 

I had some teriyaki chicken with a side of chow mein. I don't remember the name of the food my best friend ordered (sorry), but it was some spicy chicken with rice and vegetables. 

It was sososo good but we couldn't finish it all, so we had to ask the leftovers to go. They also gave us one of those fortune cookies each. Mine said "Don't let problems derail you from your path" :)

Day 3

We once again had breakfast and lunch in the apartment. We left pretty early in the afternoon, sometime around 3pm. Walking around, we came across this BEAUTIFUL church, which unfortunately was closed, so we couldn't see the inside. Now, I'm not a religious person, but I LOVE religious architecture. Here's a bunch of pictures of it:

Gosh look at all those details... I could stare at it for hours. I bet the inside was even more astonishing. 

We kept walking around the central area, and since it's the end of the season, the vast majority of clothing stores were having clearance sales, so we walked into a few. I personally couldn't find anything (plus it was hot and I was sweaty and would've hated trying on clothes), but my friend tried on a bunch.

Later on we went into the shopping centre and walked around its three floors. There was another library in there which also had a music section, and I found a John Lennon cd on discount! Only 8,400 pesos. It was "Lennon Legend: The Very Best of John Lennon". My friend bought a romance book, can't remember the name, but I think it was a popular book on TikTok.

There was a Havanna cafe in the shopping and we stopped to have something to eat and drink. We were so hungry I didn't even get to take a picture lol, but I remember I ordered a cappuccino and ham and cheese toasties :p

Before leaving I bought a box of alfajores from a store to bring as a gift to my aunt and uncle :D

We once again went to the pedestrian street and encountered this guy selling handcrafted jewelry. He stopped us and started talking to us. Because of our accent he noticed we weren't from there, and then he went on a very spiritual rant about how money and material stuff are useless. My best friend and I ended up buying each a necklace with an amethyst in it, and he thanked us a lot because now he had the money to buy himself a beer lmao. He was very chill and kind.

We went back to the apartment at night and for dinner we had the Chinese food leftovers. 

Day 4

It was the coldest day of all, as it didn't get above 20 degrees Celsius. Or, at least, cold for us, since we're used to extreme heat. 

We had breakfast in the apartment and for lunch we ordered some sushi. I LOVE sushi, I'm so happy every time I travel somewhere and I get to eat it, because where I live no place sells it </3.

We saw on Google Maps this cafe called "Pink Café" in which, as the name says it, everything is pink. We got ready and left at around 4 pm. Shortly after leaving the apartment it began to drizzle. 

We explored some more, and I saw another record shop in maps. It legitimately took us like 30 minutes to find it, it was basically hidden. Anyway, after finding it we went inside and I bought an Eric Clapton vinyl for my dad, "Journeyman". It was pretty expensive, but I really wanted to give him something and there aren't many things my dad likes besides music. 

After this we went straight to the cafe. We arrived completely SOAKED because it suddenly started pouring. 

The place was SO PRETTY. Everything was pink and the girls that worked there were all so nice. 

I had another cappuccino with some more ham and cheese toasties lmao. Except these ones came with nachos and some sauce. That pink thing my friend got to drink is a submarine with pink milk and white chocolate. For those who don't know, a submarine is an Argentinian drink commonly served in cafes, which basically consists of a cup of hot milk in which you submerge a bar of chocolate and stir it until it dissolves (I like not stirring it much so then I have all the melted chocolate at the bottom lol). 

There were many more things in the menu that were completely pink, like foods and stuff, but everything else was too expensive and, since it was our second to last day, we didn't have much money left </3. 

After we finished eating, we realized we could pay some extra for a ceramic piece of our choice, and the place would give you a total of 5 acrylic colors to paint it as you wished! They even gave you varnish after you finished painting.

(it won't let me upload the damn picture)

I chose a cup with a heart-shaped handle. I did some pink strawberry design, and once I came back I gifted it to my mum :). My friend picked a small plant pot, and she painted some grass and lavenders. They both ended up looking really pretty! Unfortunately, the pictures of the finished pieces were taken in the analog camera which, as I said, still need to be developed. 

Day 5

We had to get up early to pack our things, since we had to be out of the apartment by 11am. The problem was that now we had even more bags and our bus didn't leave until 5:30pm. I texted the Airbnb owner asking if we could leave our bags (since in the app it said we could), but he said some new guests were arriving at 12pm and the cleaners were arriving at 11am. 

We called an uber to take us to the place where we were having breakfast, because obviously we weren't walking. It was SO uncomfortable, and we were really upset because we wanted to enjoy our lasts hours there. 

Once in the cafe, we started googling places where we could leave luggage. We found one not that far away that charged 22,400 pesos for three bags. We couldn't pay any more than that, so we were like "ok, it's better than nothing." After finishing breakfast we attempted to walk to the place, but after like two blocks we had to call an Uber lmao. 

We went in and said we were coming back for the stuff at 5, AND GUESS WHAT. One of the guys there was like, "don't you wanna leave those other bags too?", and I said "but we only paid for three," to which he answered "meh, don't worry about it." He was a LIFE SAVIOUR. We ended up with only our backpacks and me with a plastic back where I had the vinyl and discs. 

We happily wandered around. My best friend finally managed to find a gift for her boyfriend (a t-shirt that was on discount) and I found one for my mom. She really likes spiritual stuff, so I bought this ceramic Buddha thingy. I don't know what it's called, but basically you put a candle inside and on top you can pour a bit of water with a preferred essence and it works as some sort of diffuser. 

We had lunch at a nearby cheap place. Classic milanesa con puré :p.

By 4pm we were at the bus station. We went into a cafe and I ordered a cup of black coffee. It was just so we could charge our phones before the trip (I had like 10% and the USB ports in the bus didn't work properly for me).

AND THENNNN we got on the bus at 5:20 and the fun ended :(

I might actually move to this city after graduating college. I LOVED IT, and the weather is so nice too. It SNOWS during winter, and I love cold weather. 

Anyway, this is all! I know I said "little blog" in the beginning, but got carried away lmao. 

Might edit the appearance of this blog entry once I figure out how to do it. Or I might not, idk. 

If you read all this: You made me happy and I love you. 

Have a great day/night! :D