Travelling in South America has always been at the top of my list, not only for its extraordinary nature but also because of its many colourful cultures. It’s a trip that many young Israelis do, almost religiously after the army. A trip that I haven’t done in my twenties due to my long term flirtation with the Australian continent, but a one that I wasn’t going to miss out.

I didn’t know much about Argentina before I chose it to be my gateway to South America but one thing I knew, actually two: 1. it’s a Spanish speaking country 2. It was summer in Buenos Aires.
So, my flight got booked and a plan was quickly formed: Spending a month in the Argentinean capital, primarily to learn Spanish. At first I was thinking of sharing an apartment with Spanish speaking people, something which could defiantly help my non-existent Spanish, but then I thought Buenos Aires might be a good place to live on my own for a bit, especially after so many months of moving around.

Paris of South America?

During my search for accommodation I found out many resources nicknaming Buenos as the “Paris of South America”. In reality, B.A looks like a huge concrete jungle with a bit of European personality, a mixture of Bangkok and Paris I would say.
Quite a lot of buildings are, how to say it nicely, unimaginatively designed. It felt like some people just wanted to make quick profit by tearing the old European style houses neighbourhoods and instead building tall condo-apartments as quickly as possible. The “Parisian” architecture, however, still resonate into the present day in some affluent pockets of the city;

The analogy to Paris is, however, a very accurate fit in the similar lifestyle both cities share. Restaurants and coffee shops are crowded with people till the very late hours of the night and it’s quite common to see people dress smartly for dinner and other nightly occasions. Similarly to Europe, nothing really starts until late. Restaurants get filled only around 10-11pm and nightclubs begin to function only at 2-3am.

Adapting

As far as the Argentinean nightlife lifestyle, I had no real difficulties to adapt, especially after spending a summer in Europe & Israel. The best part for me was Buenos Aires dinner scene. Restaurants selection is so wide and inexpensive that it is hard not to have a dine-out experience almost every night. The Argentinean meat is so tasty that even few travellers I’ve met took a break from their vegetarian regime. I remember asking my beautiful Argentinean friend Evelyn if she ever dated a vegetarian guy and her answer was definite and quick: “There is not such a thing in Argentina!”.

This lifestyle setting meant that social circles were quite easily formed. I rented myself a comfortable studio apartment in the trendy suburb of Palermo and within a week I met some of the best people on my trip.

Few culture shock moments however waited for me. Here is a quick list:
- The challenge of finding Pepper in supermarkets.
- The challenge of walking on a flat, even, safe pavement.
- The challenge of finding a seat in a morning/noon/evening subway
- The challenge of kissing a guy goodbye…

Learning Spanish

Perhaps the biggest challenge was to understand the Argentinean Spanish. The Locals speak it like they drive their cars: Very Fast.
Armed with a vocabulary of only few words in Espaniol my only chance was to spend a big chunk of my time learning the language so I registered myself to an intense 3 weeks course.
The course was great; especially the social side of it but too slow for my taste so I’ve added few hours a week of private lessons.
I can honestly say that my trip in Argentina wouldn’t be the same without those few first weeks. I might not speak Spanish very well now but I can understand many conversations which is a big part of experiencing the South American culture.

Few weeks later I felt its time to leave the big city for some fresh mountain air and I decided to head south to the amazing Patagonia.
Write soon
Tal