Córdoba

Fourth of July weekend, I told Stacey that I felt like going to Córdoba, Argentina. For only $100 round trip on an 8-hour bus, we could have the opportunity to be the second biggest city in Argentina.

Comparison: how many people can fly to the United States, live in New York City for a few months, and have the opportunity to visit Los Angeles for $100 round trip? Exactly. So since I'm at a place in my life where I can act on my hyper trip and party-planning skills and just do something like this, I did :).

Just two days before we left, we booked the only hostel that had room both Friday and Saturday and headed over to the Retiro train station to buy bus tickets. I looked up a list of things to do in Córdoba, wrote it in a notebook so I didn't have to bring my laptop, and left.

This was our first overnight bus experience, so we booked "semi-cama" tickets, that would put us in Córdoba on Friday morning after leaving Thursday night. Semi-cama means semi-bed, and this label could not more accurately describe what the seat is. It's a typical Coach bus seat, but a long footrest that reaches the seat reclines to create a "semi-bed." Your whole body is supported, but it's still not that comfortable because you're not laying down.

We woke up in Córdoba and got some cafe con leche and medialunas for breakfast, since we couldn't yet check into our hostel. The town itself felt like a smaller version of Buenos Aires, but a bigger version of Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, so pretty decent-sized. We had a touristy day and conquered Córdoba capital all of Friday.

Plaza San Martín

me, Stacey, Lauren & Armeen in front

of the Catedral on Plaza San Martín

The inside of Catedral

Plaza San Martín: Fountain, the Catedral, Cabildo

Dirty War Museum: an actual location of the camps where

people were detained. We got a guided tour in Spanish

since we were extranjeros that explained the history.

Universidad Nacional de Córdoba:

The first university in Buenos Aires

Their "quad"

Stopping at the biggest Art Museum there

The four of us in the glass box

Looking like a TV show advertisement

In addition to these, we also got to see the Plaza del Buen Pastor, Parque Saramiento, Plaza Intendencia, Plaza España, a large amount of the "Facultades," schools for each major (derecho=law, etc), a Copa América Concert, and more! If that wasn't crazy enough, we heard at the end of the day that there was a 9 de julio (like their 4th of July) parade and had to go, but had already bought tickets to Villa General Belgrano in the morning.

We used our Spanish correspondence skills and changed out bus tickets to VGB, and changed our bus back to Buenos Aires to Saturday overnight instead of Sunday day in order to save time and avoid paying an overpriced hostel due to Copa América (Fútbol tournament) popularity.

After some Milka McFlurrys for dinner (not kidding--McDonalds IS one of the only restaurants here that has toilet paper), we got back to the hostel and got ready for bed in our stereotypical hostel environment. Stacey and I always laugh because there are so many things in South America that, as she describes, "are exactly what you would picture them to be." This was one of them. Our first roommate was a Spanish teacher from San Francisco who was supposedly traveling Argentina with a friend, but his friend stayed in a hostel because he's "that kind of guy."

Our 2nd roommate didn't enter until later, but was a younger guy from Buenos Aires moving to Córdoba. After some quick but intense questioning: I got out of him that he was from BA and hated his lifestyle and family there so he was moving to Córdoba to start over and change his life. After this heartwarming conversation, he left but his friends periodically came into our unlocked room (yay for unreputable hostels) and looked for him all night. Sketch much? #HostelBehavior

We arose early to get a good spot at the 9 de julio parade (#TKM). We even got free Argentina flags, and Córdoba province flags to brag about their province while everyone was there for Copa América.

Stacey, Armeen, Lauren and I with our flags

The parade time was set at 10 a.m., so of course it didn't start until 11. After the governor of Córdoba and the army did some ceremonies, various ethnic groups marched in very detailed costumes. Here is just one example!

It was cool because many countries were represented- Mexico, Brazil, Paraguay, etc. We watched the desfile/parade for about an hour and a half and then had to go catch our bus to Villa General Belgrano. We were stopped by some new friends on the way to the bus station. That was Córdoba!

These Paraguay soccer fans asked to take a

picture WITH us, South American friendliness!