Bernie's Espanol

February 17th, Buenos Aires Argentina

We said goodbye to our hostel on Belgrano street and the lovely owner and his girlfriend (who were so nice - he drove Bernie to the supermarket and even drove us to a bar and back home). We've moved into a huge party hostel called Milhouse Hipo, it's big and feels like a hotel except for the many youngsters sitting at the bar at 1 pm and we have wristbands! We checked in and saw our Indian friend at the bar with his bags ready to leave South America. Once he saw us, he insisted we have goodbye 'bloodshots' with him and obviously this went on for an hour and a half! Until he ran out of taxi money and everyone at the bar was yelling for him to leave or he'd miss his flight. And the bartender told us she would not serve us any more shots! It's always sad to say goodbye, even if you've not known each other long; but I think travelers form some sort of camaraderie that can't be explained.

After that distraction, we continued on our lunch mission to find a Korean restaurant. I will say that at this point, I am so starved for anything that's not pure meat and has some spices! This continent is probably the only one devoid of Indians, but I think we should come here in droves bringing the gift of spice and curry with us! In Mendoza we met a lovely girl on holiday from Buenos Aires who has never eaten Indian food. I was flabbergasted!

Anyway, we're on our mission except by now its 4 pm and I'm pretty sure the kitchen is shut but Bernie can't stop talking about how much he wants to eat bibimbap and I love bibimbap so we walk in the hot sun for about 30 minutes without the address or map. Bernie keeps asking people on the street for this Korean restaurant but they cannot understand what he's saying.

Finally I manage to steal some wifi and we look up the restaurant and street name. As we continue on, Bernie asks a newspaper vendor: "donde esta calle Junin?" -Where is road Junin - and the guy says "Que?" - What? So Bernie yells louder and slower and the guy's like "no entiendo" - I don't understand. But our Bernie is persistent, "Cayee Whooonin" he shouts pronouncing the words carefully. Still the guy can't understand. And then I repeat, calle Junin and the guy says, "ahhh calle Junin" and points us in the direction. It was hilarious because it's now an ongoing joke that no matter what Bernie says, no matter how perfect the grammer and pronunciation, they don't understand. And then I say the exact same thing and not only do they understand immediately, but they praise my good Spanish! I tried to trick Bernie into speaking so I could secretly record him for the blog but he wouldn't fall for it.

Anyway, we finally did find the restaurant but it was obviously shut by then so we had to eat at Burger King! It would not be so bad except that we are both so obsessed with Tripadvisor and know the best restaurants, but never end up there!

Later in the evening we decided to go for a highly recommended drum show and thought we'd try the metro. It's actually very good and easy to work out but unfortunately we reached late so we walked around Plaza Italia and saw the super posh apartment buildings in Recoletta. We walked a lot today. Back at the hostel, a huge party had begun, it was so big and happening that people off of the street were begging to get in. Funnily enough, for all the times we've looked for a good party, tonight neither of us were in the mood. So we went out for a quick midnight steak, as one does when they are in Buenos Aires and it's time to hit the sack.