Excuse the long blog hiatus. The end of 2014 was crazy for me, and 2015 started off on the same foot. I then went back to South Africa for 4 weeks, and Brazil for a few days (more on both those trips coming…). After the break, I’m back in Buenos Aires, mi querido, with a bit of homesickness and some readjustment shock. But, I am happy to be here and to continue exploring Argentina and South America, and improve my Spanish.
My return to Buenos Aires has been a bit chaotic, very busy, and lacking in sleep (as is normal for my life here).
It hasn’t been easy at all times. There’s nothing like going home to make you remember how much you miss your family and friends. Plus the shock of going back to work after being away for 5 weeks took a while to get used to. Then one friend’s life crisis, made me examine my own life here, and future plans and decisions, which resulted in some extra stress.
But through all of that, it has been a good homecoming. Buenos Aires is an easy city to love, and being back has reminded me of why I love this place. I’ve also realised that it isn’t quite done with me yet, nor have I become satiated with it yet.
Things I love about being back in BA
My apartment. Coming home to my bed and making myself at home again was a great feeling. But it’s really the view I love the most. I arrived back at night, and walked in to the sight of the twinkling lights of the city from the windows. Since then, I have taken many moments to stand on the balcony, soaking in the sounds of the city, enjoying the familiar skyline and watching the sun sink, and the stars rise.
One small weird pleasure for me in this city is taking taxis. Inevitably I take them late at night, and my accented Spanish usually starts a conversation. Late night taxi conversations give me a great space to practice my Spanish and have involved some weird encounters and topics of conversation. I’m also just amazed at the backgrounds of drivers. When I landed back in the city, I took the Tienda Leon bus, which is a shuttle that brings you back from the airport (a good 45 minutes outside of the city centre) to their station, and has a cheap shared drop-off taxi service. This was my first real Spanish in five weeks (minus a couple of short conversations in Brazil, where I relied on my Spanish to make up for my complete lack of Portuguese). The driver was from Spain, although his parents were Argentine. He had recently moved out here and was loving the change, and sure he would never move back to Europe. Here we were, from two totally different backgrounds, drawn to the city by different reasons, chatting freely about our mutual love for the place, and our similar experiences here.
Buenos Aires is full of spontaneous moments that make it interesting. Sitting on the couch at 8pm and getting a text from a friend to try out a newly discovered wrap joint, leading to 3 bus rides and an adventure in the rain, all for the love of good food. It is a quick beer leading to an evening of Brazilian food and drinks on a friend’s balcony. Picnics in the park, listening to the Teatro Colón’s orchestra perform, while drinking wine, followed by sneaky wine drinking in Palermo’s most buzzing plaza, whilst people watching bachelorette games and drunk people, tourists and locals.
Its venturing to the park to read on a bench, surrounded by nature and birds despite being in the middle of the city. Or seeking refuge in a French café, enjoying a coffee and croissant and a book, on my own and perfectly content.
And of course, one of the best parts of returning has been reuniting with friends and rediscovering the incredible network I’ve built up here, which is the reason the city feels like home. From tacos and tequila nights, to fried chicken dinners, coffee and bagel brunches, bus rides, partying all night and watching the sun rise over the river with some crazy friends, celebrations, music festivals, conversations over wine, and evenings of games and party tricks, to those deep and meaningful conversations that you have with only your closest friends, indicating just how deeply friendships can develop in such a short time.
Life has been non-stop since I’ve been back, and doesn’t like it is slowing down anytime soon. In between it all, I’ll try to carve time to sit and write (since at the end of the day, this blog is really a space for me to keep my memories of my travels and to provide an outlet to write and regurgitate my thoughts without worrying too much about SEO, the audience, click-through rates etc etc). In the meantime, I’ll be living my life in Buenos Aires, seeking as many weird and wonderful experiences as I can in this city while I’m still here.
Nix Travels 