How do they do it? Backpackers I mean. How do they travel around for months and not get bored, or tired, or simply fed up with everything that comes with the backpacker lifestyle?
Don´t get me wrong, I envy them (or you, if you are one of them). It sounds amazing and I would love to be able to do it too. But it´s just not for me. This is not a new discovery, some revelation, a new insight in my personality. I´ve known it for years, but in some areas of my life I completely ignore the basics of the trial and error method: if error, then do not repeat.
On the upside, I´ve had some pretty fun, interesting and crazy experiences in the last couple of days.
My birthday for example. The weather on my birthday was the most perfect weather I´d experienced in BsAs so far, the streets were quiet because all the Porteños were at the beach, so there was nothing to stop me from absolutely loving the city. The fact that I was on my way to a spa also helped I guess.
But then I turned a corner and the tranquility was gone: blaring police sirens, people running around and shouting, gun shots, and after that, a dead body. Some burglar was shot by the police. I think he also had a gun and was shooting too. I hope so, because I heard at least six gunshots: a bit harsh if your target is not even armed/shooting back.
Don´t worry, I was at a fairly safe distance and didn´t do anything heroic or dangerous. I did go for a closer look once it was safe though. Does that make me a bad person? I also thought the whole thing was kind of exciting…and these feelings scared me a bit. I mean, someone died!
Luckily I didn´t have to break my head over these complicated things for long: the spa was beckoning. (For those of you that know the city, if you are on Arenales between Riobamba and Callao and see any dark stains on the pavement, it´s probably blood.)
Another crazy thing happened later that same day. After dinner we went out to a club in Palermo. I was standing at the bar just minding my own business when out of nowhere this random guy walked up to me, grabbed my face, and stuck his tongue in my mouth. Ugh!! But wait, the story gets even better: a few hours later, when we were leaving the club, he walked past me and did it again! Clearly the (very angry!) push I´d given him the first time wasn´t enough, so this time, I hit him. Sadly, I don´t think it really hurt all that much. I´m pretty sure he still thought the whole thing was hilarious. I didn´t.
But all in all definitely a birthday to remember!
Saturday I broke a promise I´d made to myself only two weeks earlier, namely to never ever take a long distance bus again. But I have to get to Santiago before the 13th of January and tickets are ridiculously expensive, so I didn´t really have a choice but to bus it, first to Mendoza and then next weekend to Chile. To my relief my trip to Mendoza was the nicest, fastest, easiest bus ride I´ve ever had. The trip was 12 hours and I slept through about 10 of them. Without a sleeping pill.
So now I am in Mendoza. It was my plan to take some more spanish lessons and I did do that this morning. But to say that it was enjoyable……..not really. So not sure if I will continue going.
Right now I am killing time because the shop I need to go to is closed for siesta. Great.
I wanted to write something a bit more profound, but there are screaming children just outside the internet café. Strangely, screaming children do not inspire me that much.
So maybe I will just go for an ice cream instead…
Life is Sweet! 