How Was Your Very First Day In Argentina?

[Gringoboy]

Talking of food, me having steak, egg and chips (French fries to our American cousins) was something that helped me keep going through the torture of 15 hours on that plane.
Boy did it taste good.

 

[ajoknoblauch]

Talking of food, me having steak, egg and chips (French fries to our American cousins) was something that helped me keep going through the torture of 15 hours on that plane.
Boy did it taste good.

"Freedom fries" to Bushites and Teabaggers.

 

[argsteve]

It was 2005... My dad and I had decided to take a trip he has recently retired and I was doing medical temp travel so we could fit in a month trip.....we had never really taken time or spent much time together.... so this was a first... a father- son trip....

I remember the LONG plane flight but being very excited since i really did not know what to expect.... looking back I was quite stupid I figured it would be a lot more like mexico... and the phrase "paris of south america".....I didnt know what that meant.....haha

We rented an apartment for a month in palermo... and the most memorable thing on the first day was the first meal..... we were dead after a long flight but still thought we should eat something.. we walked into a pizza pasta place at 2pm....

My dad who knew Spanish much better than I .... so the waiter walked up.. and said 30 words to us........ me and my dad looked at each other and realized we are in trouble!!!!.. We did not understand one word he said.... it was all italian to us.....
we pointed- mumbled and ordered and I figured well the steaks are what people talk about so I ordered that even though it was a pizza place.... my dad ordered some pasta and was telling me you arent going to get a good steak in a pizza place.. etc etc....

well his pasta arrived and looked very good... and then MY steak "bife de lomo" it was the size of the plate... and maybe the most beautiful steak i had ever seen....
my dad was like oh my goodness we both just paused with amazement .... and he never ordered pasta again the rest of the trip!!......
I hate to remember just food " that first argentina steak" as my first day here
but it was quite the thing to remember..... my dad who always complains...loved it all-- the steaks.. the empanadas the bakeries and for sure the cheap wine...
He would tell me ..son you will never get steaks like this again so eat them while you can.....and we did!!!...that was 2005
it was an amazing month.... of course this was also helped by how cheap everything was at the time....

My dad and I continued to wander seeing the city for that month....eating steaks and drinking wine and bonding and talking more in that month than we had in my whole life.....
Maybe that is why I came back and some part of why I am still here.... I still look at those days with my dad laughing, talking, eating steaks and drinking wine as the best times I ever had with my dad!!

 

[Aleina Dee]

The year was 2000 . My boss had asked me to " just swing by " Buenos Aires as our largest client had offices there. On the hoof on the spur of the moment Ieft Mexico ,no real planning. After all there is a hotel at every airport,cost be hanged ,the boss was paying. Arrived at Ezeiza around 10 pm , looking for the sign for HIlton Sheraton or a courtesy phone for a local hotel. Wrongggg ! I finally approached the info desk asking timidly that I had arrived without reservation and would there be a hotel near. Confused and pitying looks . No, the nearest hotel was in the capital or I could get a B &B recommended that was local and that they would call me a taxi,not to worry. To this day i do not know what made me trust them but it was a gut feeling and told them that the B &B was fine. Well ,the B& B sent a cab I got in and was taken to what I presumed was a suburb ( I now know it was Ezeiza) I was dropped off in front of an ordinary single story house .No sooner had the taxi arrived the door was opened with great gusto and a lady in night gown and robe billowing out behind her came flying down the garden path, enveloping me in the mother of all hugs welcoming me and showing me into the house. She proceeded to tell me that I had my own house with its own pileta, which she repeated and repeated,leaving me wondering why sinks are such a big thing in Argentina.
A couple of minutes later things became clearer when we passed the pool and she said something about me being the only user.... I could barely follow the Italian err I mean Spanish.

Don't read on unless you want to know about the next two days,too

Well, I spent the night in a cabaña by the pool and the next day the same taxi driver good as gold turned up and drove me into the city. I don't remember much of the trip, how we got into the city but do remember that we passed a large villa. On the taxistas recommendation I took a room in a hotel on 9 de Julio. .I,finally relaxed and ready for my business meeting the next day. So I wandered about the city aimlessly no idea where I went, but it was well off the beaten track, ended up looking into local life at a Coto and was quite confused if I was being shown dollars or pesos for a mate cup so ended up not buying it. On the way back I took a taxi telling the driver my hotel on the 9 de Julio. However I was now in shopping mood and when I spotted a marroquineria with a mini leather briefcase I had been looking for I told the driver to stop now. Well now was NOW and the guy would have passed the emergency stop part of a British driving test with flying colours. I apologised explaining that I had not meant exactly now but when convenient. He explained that if a lady says now then it was the gentlemanly thing to do and that being married he fully understood how important shopping was. :lol: I also remember being grateful for all the airconditing in stores as it was December and there was a heatwave.

On my arrival back at the hotel I told the receptionist that I would need a taxi to this address handing him my bosses mail. He looked horrified, explaining to me that this address was not Buenos Aires capital but provincia and that he could not allow me to take a taxi as it would be too far, too expensive and maybe unsafe. He said that he would hire a limo . My heart sank at the idea of having to explain my business expense for a limo to my boss but as he had sent a lone female without much prep I felt he kind of deserved it.

So the next morning a newish Mercedes awaited me , took me to where I wanted, waited for me and drove me back, cost 100 dollars .I could not believe how cheap it was ,the taxi driver could not believe my timid question as to whether it would be ok for him to accept dollars instead of pesos as I had not had time to change to pesos yet. Between hoots of laughter he filled me in on the way of life here. The next day I left but ever since the city´s spell never left me.

 

[Jaredberryman]

At age 21, I traveled with there of my friends. We had a long flight and a stopover in Brazil, so when we arrived I was pretty exhausted. A friend of ours came to pick us up (American) in a Renault Kangoo, chatting along the way with us about our flight. I was so tired I missed most of it. On the way from Ezeiza, I was surprised at how small and compact everything looked (I am from Texas and this was only the third country I had ever been too). The lanes, the cars, the new sights, and the new sounds were all like information overload. I'm sure many of you know what I'm talking about. I might have dozed off in the car.

When we got to our destination, there was a van waiting for us to take us somewhere in a nice place in Provincia (still don't recall where) for the retreat. An Argentine with one eye pointing the other way like Nestor grabbed our bags from the Renault Kangoo and our American friend told us to get on the bus.

I looked for a comfortable seat with no one else in it, as they were narrow and the prospect of riding another hour or two scrunched up in a ball (I am tall) was not attractive. Some people were on the bus waiting, but I walked to a an empty seat that seemed like it might be okay. After putting my backpack in the seat and relaxed, I realized that I had sat in front of two women. I turned around to introduce myself out of politeness, only to find that the first woman I was about to talk to was a beautiful young woman with long, curly midnight black hair, olive skin, and a beautiful dark eyes. I remember telling myself, "If this is what women here look like, the men are very fortunate!" Little did I know that I would marry her four years later.

 

[GS_Dirtboy]

Was convinced to come to BA by my brother and sister. First stop was Rio, then Iguazu, then BA. I really had no idea what to expect except that I thought South America was 3rd world, mostly jungle. Arrived in BA and was pretty shocked at how beautiful the city was. Unloaded our bags in the hotel, went for a walk along Avenida Florida, and immediately met the woman for whom I would move permanently to BA and marry 2 years later.

You just never know what a day will have in store for you.

 

[John.St]

How did you get here?
What were you expecting?
Were there any defining moments during those first few hours before your first light refreshment?

The year was 2002. September. A couple of months before frenchie, it seems

Arrived late at night, about 07:00 I guess, in EZE after some 17 or 18 hours flight, including a stop in Frankfurt or Madrid or London or somewhere. It's all in a days work.

What was I expecting? Streets, houses, traffic and people. The usual in country no. 21 or 22 (or was it 23?), town no. 200 or thereabouts.

I went straight to the taxidriver who held a piece of cardboard with my (almost correctly spelled) name on it.

In the taxi I told him - in perfectly pronounced Castellano (Spanish version) - that we were going to '(H)otel Callao' in 'Avenida Callao'.

The taxista gave me an astonished look, eyes as large as teacups, and asked "¿dónde?"
"Hotel Callao en Avenida Callao." - "¡No conosco!" - I showed him my printed reservation, and he shone up and said "¡otel Sjasjao en avenida Sjasjao!"

"Sjasjao"? don't they speak Spanish in Argentina. (No, they don't. They not only think they do, but they also call their weird language 'Castellano' instead of 'Argentino')

Installed in one of the circular rooms in the hotel's turret, I headed out into town, to find a large number of well dressed people and an equally large number of people, who looked as if they came directly from an extermination camp, who were begging for food, and who fought over the trash cans outside restaurants at night.

Early next morning (about 10:30) the traffic noise was overwhelming, especially some darn cop at the corner, who unfortunately possessed a whistle. Breakfast in the corner café across the street: café y 2 medialunas, 2.50 pesos.

I remember driving in a taxi from Callao to an exhibition somewhere in Banfield or Lomas de Zamora, paying what it cost to enter a taxi at home - and the taxista was happy to be called back from microcentro to pick me up, again for the same amount, no extras.

After my first stay in BsAs, and although I also had many positive experiences, like tango in the streets, good ice cream, and excellent (and extremely economico) dinners in rest. Chiquilin in Sarmiento, I have never since felt any urge to visit the city, although I have been to BsAs 3 or 4 times since, as briefly as possible. I love the provinces, OTOH.

 

[John.St]

You'd never seen a cockroach before? What world do you hail from and how do I move there?

Except for Hotel Canada in Istanbul (they had plenty & surplus to give away), I have never seen a cucaracha in all my life - not even in the collection of Latin American countries, I have visited.

 

[Gringoboy]

This is weird because ever since this was raised here, we've had an invasion of the buggers and some of them fly.
I have a totally irrational fear of them.

 

[Noruega]

I turned around to introduce myself out of politeness, only to find that the first woman I was about to talk to was a beautiful young woman with long, curly midnight black hair, olive skin, and a beautiful dark eyes. I remember telling myself, "If this is what women here look like, the men are very fortunate!" Little did I know that I would marry her four years later.

... and immediately met the woman for whom I would move permanently to BA and marry 2 years later.

I can't believe that both of you met your future wives on the day of arrival! How cool is that.