Buenos Aires, Argentina, South America

I got a knock on my door at the hostel this morning and I was pleasantly surprised to see Karin, my Dutch friend. She and her boyfriend Tristan just arrived this morning and they’re spending the next few days here in Buenos Aires before heading back to Holland. It was nice to see Karin, and meet Tristan, and catch up on what she had seen since we last met up. I think the last time we saw each other was in Copacabana, Bolivia, so we’ve seen tons of stuff since then!

After catching up with Karin, I went for a little walk around Palermo, where the hostel is. It’s a nice enough little neighborhood, but nothing too special. I found a big mall to walk around and found that this place has the most western brands of any country since I’ve been in Colombia. They seem to love the American culture here, because most of the stores and restaurants are American chains.

I spent the rest of the day working on my blog again, and just relaxing at the hostel. It’s really nice to just sit around and do nothing sometimes. Especially now that I am looking over my blog entries and pictures from the last month and realizing just how busy I was. This is a very nice change of pace.

I went out for dinner at a place called Carlitos and just had a burger and fries. It was nothing special, but after that I stopped at this little hole-in-the-wall place to get some ice cream. It. Was. Awesome. Apparently there was a big influx of Italians into Argentina in the last 60 years, so ice cream has become one of their specialties. It really shows, because this stuff was delicious. I took the ice cream back to the hostel and watched Cincinnati beat the Broncos to ensure that the Patriots have home field advantage throughout the playoffs. What a perfect ending to a nice relaxing day!