I'm sure we've all been held up by protestors here and there over the years here, blocking intersections and such, causing nuisances and in some cases real problems.
Myself, I've been caught in enough while driving in the city, for sure. I've also been lucky enough to get caught in the farmers' protests a few years ago (2010?) while driving back from Asuncion and delayed a number of hours as big farm trucks blocked off the only highway that runs from the far north to BA without going through Entre Rios (a much farther trip) on the way back.
Tonight was a new one for me.
We went to the Village cinemas late this afternoon while we were out walking around and doing some shopping, in order to buy some tickets for a movie this evening. It was about 5:30 that we bought the tickets, for a 7:40 movie. After bought the tickets, we mosied on over to the Hard Rock for a bit to eat while we waited. Of course, while there, we missed the lunch and dinner crowd and were looking forward to a relatively quiet (for the Hard Rock, anyway) meal, when the live entertainment came on to the stage and began setting up and adjusting their sound equipment for the show at around 9:00. I was a bit frustrated because after about half an hour of tuning and testing, they played a set and it was pretty bad. Guitar did alright on rhythm but sucked at solos, the singer shouted but didn't have a very good voice and the songs were music from old favorites with new words (like ZZ Tops' Tush! Ah, they ruined it!)
I was glad to get out of there. We walked up to the Village Shopping center and were surprised to find a drummer and flag corp group going at it in the lobby where you buy tickets, on the ground floor. Quite obnoxious. We were still a bit early, so we went upstairs and did a little window shopping. I was actually getting a little concerned because even on the third floor, away from the middle where they were centered below, inside a store, we could still hear them quite loudly. I figured we might have a problem hearing the movie, even in the sound-proofed theaters, they were so loud!
Well, sure enough, we try to go down to the ground floor level and find that the last set of escalators have been changed from going down, to going up, so no one would be able to get down to the lobby (didn't realize why they'd changed it at that moment). So we went outside and walked around to the front, where there is now a crowd of people standing in front, apparently watching the demonstrators (as we now realized they were). There is a barricade and they aren't letting anyone enter.
So the demonstrators occupied the lobby, caused so much noise and chaos that the movie theaters closed down for the night. I had to push through the crowd to get to the front and talk the security guard into letting me pass so I could at least get a refund.
There were a lot of pissed off people there.
Welcome to Buenos Aires.
I never will understand what demonstrators who do things like this think they are accomplishing. I didn't even bother to find out what they were protesting because the whole scene ticked me off so much. It's like when I got held up for hours trying to come back from Asuncion in 2010. The protestors end up pissing off the very people who I would think they would want behind them in support, but who wants to support a bunch of idiots who have no regard for anyone else? They don't seem to get listened to, they just cause problems.
Myself, I've been caught in enough while driving in the city, for sure. I've also been lucky enough to get caught in the farmers' protests a few years ago (2010?) while driving back from Asuncion and delayed a number of hours as big farm trucks blocked off the only highway that runs from the far north to BA without going through Entre Rios (a much farther trip) on the way back.
Tonight was a new one for me.
We went to the Village cinemas late this afternoon while we were out walking around and doing some shopping, in order to buy some tickets for a movie this evening. It was about 5:30 that we bought the tickets, for a 7:40 movie. After bought the tickets, we mosied on over to the Hard Rock for a bit to eat while we waited. Of course, while there, we missed the lunch and dinner crowd and were looking forward to a relatively quiet (for the Hard Rock, anyway) meal, when the live entertainment came on to the stage and began setting up and adjusting their sound equipment for the show at around 9:00. I was a bit frustrated because after about half an hour of tuning and testing, they played a set and it was pretty bad. Guitar did alright on rhythm but sucked at solos, the singer shouted but didn't have a very good voice and the songs were music from old favorites with new words (like ZZ Tops' Tush! Ah, they ruined it!)
I was glad to get out of there. We walked up to the Village Shopping center and were surprised to find a drummer and flag corp group going at it in the lobby where you buy tickets, on the ground floor. Quite obnoxious. We were still a bit early, so we went upstairs and did a little window shopping. I was actually getting a little concerned because even on the third floor, away from the middle where they were centered below, inside a store, we could still hear them quite loudly. I figured we might have a problem hearing the movie, even in the sound-proofed theaters, they were so loud!
Well, sure enough, we try to go down to the ground floor level and find that the last set of escalators have been changed from going down, to going up, so no one would be able to get down to the lobby (didn't realize why they'd changed it at that moment). So we went outside and walked around to the front, where there is now a crowd of people standing in front, apparently watching the demonstrators (as we now realized they were). There is a barricade and they aren't letting anyone enter.
So the demonstrators occupied the lobby, caused so much noise and chaos that the movie theaters closed down for the night. I had to push through the crowd to get to the front and talk the security guard into letting me pass so I could at least get a refund.
There were a lot of pissed off people there.
Welcome to Buenos Aires.
I never will understand what demonstrators who do things like this think they are accomplishing. I didn't even bother to find out what they were protesting because the whole scene ticked me off so much. It's like when I got held up for hours trying to come back from Asuncion in 2010. The protestors end up pissing off the very people who I would think they would want behind them in support, but who wants to support a bunch of idiots who have no regard for anyone else? They don't seem to get listened to, they just cause problems.