48h after „Being back“ / Anniversary Journey
I´ve been longing to be back in Argentina for so much time, that I really cried some tears of joy after finally having arrived and reaching my destination for the next weeks, a friends place, a lovely “Altbau” apartment in Palermo.
Got in with the most wonderful summer weather, brilliant sunshine, bright blue sky, perfect temperature. Instead of the 40°C windchill from two days before, it was “only” lovely 20°C.
On my very first exploratory trip by foot (to see if everything was „still there“) I immediately ran into a girlfriend. In a city with 14 million inhabitants! It does not feel like being on vacation, but rather like “being back”. I do not feel like being a tourist but rather like someone who is visiting, though also like I am still living here. Strange feeling, I tell you! I can well imagine to live here again for a few months, like I did so many times before. Feels good.
One moves around in a relatively small part of the big city, a part that is still quite big. I know quite a lot of it, since I am coming here for 10 years now. Specially, when you move around by bike for years, you can pass through a lot of areas. Biking is my preferred means of transportation in Buenos Aires (more about the dangers and annoyances vs. joy and practical advantages later). But I also do “forced marches” on foot, during which my head is permanently rotating, looking for photo opportunities. One cannot take enough shoes for all the different blisters that come up. Maybe socks would help, but “she” is not wearing sneakers in the city.
The biggest change is the way appointments work here. To start with, things take place much later than in Germany, as you can imagine. Hispanic/Latin way of Life. You go out to meet up with friends at 1am, easily. Main cinema shows start around 22h – or at 1am. But you can go to a restaurant at 8pm already (and open the door, haha), luckily, and you find friends to join in that early too. Good thing.
The second difference is that appointments are usually made spontaneously, at most 1 day ahead, and rarely longer in advance. So my appointment calendar is blank & empty still ;). I got to mentally switch to this local system and take it easy, as it all comes naturally and completely unsophisticated. Goes very well with my holiday mood I still have to fully get into.
Today is Sunday, the jetlag did not hit me – which means I am still up at 7am, like every day at home, no matter which weekday. Temperature has gone up a bit, this will be a day I can describe as hot, specially when coming from where it cold with frozen rivers. Nobody is awake yet. I´ll start the day with some supermarket shopping. Open on Sundays.
