palermo and back

my first good morning in south america. i slept very well and i somehow begin to enjoy the feeling of having no obligations, no schedule waiting for me, no projects to finish. i have pure time in my hands. beatrice and i are preparing pancakes and orange juice. and now the good thing: dulce de leche. it’s milk caramel. with the consistency of nutella. and you can put it on anything you want. i hear that south americans grow up on that. and everybody loves it. with this new feeling for time i am heading out towards palermo and recoleta. …

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exploring san telmo

beatrice and kragen are back in their apartment and i am on my way to one of the things a tourist should do while in buenos aires: exploring san telmo. that’s at least what the lonely planet says. of course without public transportation. i want to see something in between. san telmo is an old and cozy neighborhood (a barrio) in the southwest of buenos aires. i love the old colonial houses, the cool shops and small restaurants. buenos aires feels like an old european city to me. i think i could also be in madrid or barcelona. i end …

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raúl alfonsín

5 minutes after arriving at beatrice’s and kragen’s apartment, i am already on the way to congresso, where the dead body of former argentine president raúl alfonsín lies in state. he died yesterday of cancer. he was already very old. long lines are in front of the congresso and this line goes to a sidestreet and wraps at least 5 times when we into it. it’s hot and the sun shines. people around us are very upset, clap their hands and scream „alfonsín, alfonsín!“. kragen tells me the story of alfonsín. he was also called „padre de la democracia“ – …

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bienvenido!

i oversleep the flight over buenos aires. the little bump of the landing wakes me up. great! i already missed something. backpacker rule #3: keep your eyes open everytime! the first thing i do in a new country is always to check their sanitary facilities. your never know… pretty much ok, i can say. unfortunately i am now the last one in line for immigration. the whole hockey equipe is in front of me. baggage claim: i unwrap my beautiful grey-yellow arcteryx backpack from its travelbag (this backpack will actually look like never used after this three months, it’s only …

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flying to buenos aires

i like flying. so i am looking forward to flying out to buenos aires. check-in, security, everything is smooth. from all the american airlines, delta is my favourite one. i actually don’t know why. i think the have the prettiest logo of all of them. i see common (the rapper) walking by. i arrive in atlanta and the first thing that i pay attention to is „many more obese people here…“ i find out that i have tmobile coverage (not so at jfk) and do some life essential twitter and facebook updates. not sure what backpacking was before without that… …

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leaving

ok. i wake up at 6! AM to go to the main post office and check that package thing. i am short before a nervous breakdown when the friendly woman tells me that i just have to go to another post office and pick it up. bad thing: this one doesn’t open before 10, exactly when i have to leave for the airport. so: back home, final packing, shredding some pounds of my whole luggage (matching backpack, daypack, camera bag and sneakers !!! – everything in grey tones and yellow!). i leave at 9.30 AM with what feels like the heaviest backpack/daypack …

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day before leaving

ok. this is the last day before my departure and i am soon getting mad. so much stuff to prepare and so many things to do before i leave. luckily i have some hours to relax at „zum schneider“ with dominika and bettina. after that i had to figure out how to find a lost package within the us postal system of manhattan when you have no pick up note from your postman. everything within the next 12 hours, of which 8 hours are nightly. i have to bring the package down to buenos aires to my couchsurfing host. good …

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polls, polls, polls

ok. i added a polls widget to the sidebar. below the flickr pics. i don’t know how to put anything above the flickr pics. 🙁 i will have a poll every now and then when i want to ask you something about my travels. so please participate. your vote matters 😉 thx, verena.

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buying a backpack

i thought it might be a good idea to start my travelblog already when doing the preparations. i went to paragon tonight for the second time. they close at 8 so i don’t have much time after work to go through all the backpacks. honestly, i think gigasport (the biggest sport store in graz) has a wider range of products than paragon in manhattan. not sure if new yorkers don’t do sports and hiking, but the choice is limited. it’s not that i want the fanciest backpack ever, but it should be good quality and i want to look at …

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