HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Getting my Brazil visa in my hot little hands
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Yep…still got nothing…..
WORD OF THE DAY: Eddie Murphy is back!
HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY TO ALL MY AUSSIE MATES BACK HOME.
Arvo, barney, bizo, bloke, blue, corker, crook, dunny, fair dinkum, fair go, grog, half your luck, lair, loo, mate, middy, mug, pissed, pissed off, plonk, rack off, ripper, schooner, shout, sport, ta, tucker, wowser, yobbo.
Kate and I had all intentions of looking for an Aussie bar in BA and sinking a few drinks in honor of our beautiful country. But after looking around the internet and asking the chick at the Australian Consulate if there was a place where Aussies hung out, it was a big zippo on both fronts. So feeling a little disparaged there was a sign at reception this morning saying any Aussies who want to celebrate to come on down to Fusion (bar downstairs of the hostel), but no time. So that was encouraging and we planned on making a visit sometime in the afternoon. You fellow Aussies need to appreciate the lifestyle and opportunities we have back home. We have enough jobs for people; we have equality, a good life and plenty of food and water (now), well for majority of the population. I’m not saying we don’t have our issues but weighing it all up we really are a lucky country. Make the most of it, there are people all over this world that would give a small fortune, loved ones and goodness knows what else to have the opportunities we have. Had a bad day at work? Be thankful you have a job. Got a bill in the mail? Be glad you have money to pay for it. Got a small cold? Be thankful you have access to a doctor and drugs. Worried about your weight? Be thankful you have had enough food to eat. Got relationship problems – suck it up, that happens worldwide, no matter where or what country you are in. Toughen up people…. Things could always be a lot worse! Australia is an amazing place to live – so never forget that.
HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY xx
We only had two consulates to visit today. The Brazil for a pickup and the Paraguay for a drop off. I couldn’t collect my passport from the Brazil Consulate before 12 noon, so we decided to not set the alarm for this morning and just ‘wake’ up whenever and plan our morning from there. Just to be on the safe side I did set my alarm for 12 noon, in case by some freak of nature we slept though, I didn’t want to miss picking up my passport. Well we didn’t have to fear, I woke at 9am and since we had time on our side and Kate was still snoozing I had a long shower, washed my hair and shaved my legs. Man I feel half human again. I do need to pluck my eyebrows and I rekon I am just about good as new!
We skipped breakfast and headed to the common room to do some internetting and also book 2 tours that we wanted to do while we are here. One was the 3 hour city tour which we have booked for tomorrow and the other one was a day trip to Uruguay on Wednesday. We figured we can’t come all this way and miss out on touching Uruguay, so we have booked a full day tour. It is a fast speed ferry that takes an hour to get there, we get a city tour and lunch included and then we are on the 5pm ferry back to Buenos Aires. We are lucky we have the time to do it, as some of the guys on the truck were keen to also do it, but they only have 3 full days here, so to use one of them up out of BA is a tossup for them on what they will do. But we are happy we have locked it in as apparently it is a popular tour and it fills up quite quickly! So with the next few days sorted out, we hit the streets to drop off our laundry by instructions given by the reception girls, which we followed to a tee and found the laundry with no problems. So after walking around BA with our dirty laundry and dropping it off for collection tonight at 7pm, we found another pedestrian shopping street that had more restaurants than Florida. So we walked through and since we had skipped breakfast we had a midday lunch at Macca’s. I know, I know, but we wanted something quick and it was the first thing we saw. So with some food in our stomachs we headed back to the Brazil Consulate for what we hope was the last time.
It is nice going back to somewhere you have been, you know where you are going and what to do. So after the security check and scan again I was told to stand at window number 5 again for collection. There were 6 people in front of me, but after 15 minutes the 3 people before me were also colleting passports, so she went and got them all at the same time. I now have my BRAZIL visa! Yay, but my worry doesn’t stop there as I am still waiting on hearing back from Zeme and the status of his visa, as he has an appointment tomorrow to lodge his. But we are one step closer with mine. RELEIF CITY.
So from here we tracked the same way we went yesterday to the Paraguay Consulate and got there just before 2pm. After seeing so many people in there yesterday it was a shock to only see a handful of people in the line that had 100 yesterday and our line was longer today, damn it. There was an American couple in front of us getting their visa which they needed before 9pm, as they were catching a bus tonight! Talk about cutting it fine when the consulate closes in an hour, but our Paraguay man was all over it and said no problems we will rush it through for you with all smiles. He really is a gem. He remembered us and welcomed us back, took all our documents and we had a small scary moment when he asked for my airline ticket to show me leaving South America, which I don’t have, to which he replied no problems we will just say you are traveling with Kate on the 30th April and that will solve that. He said I am here to help you visit our country. Oh how I wish all consulates in the world took on that attitude! This guy needs to be cloned. He told us our passports would be ready at 10am tomorrow. Holy schmokes I like the way things work here in Buenos Aires!
So with our morning walking exercise completed we decided to pay for a cab back to Florida and then walk to the cinema’s we had seen in the morning which were closer than the ones we had Goggled. We wanted to see Tower Heist or Sherlock Holmes. Once we got to the ticket window we found out that they were subtitled, but in English and they were Spanish speaking, which Kate and I agreed would have been too much work reading it all, so we stuck with our original plan and caught a taxi to Peurto Maderno and watched the movie in English with Spanish subtitles. It was just like walking into a movie theater back home except for the price. We got a drinks and popcorn package with our tickets that cost us all up 100 pesos (23AUD) for the 2 of us and food. I tell you we are ripped off back home that is for sure. And the popcorn was the proper salty stuff that makes your lips all wrinkly and makes you thirsty as hell after eating a massive box. Nom nom nom nom…..We ended up watching Tower Heist and it was a great movie with Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy and totally worth seeing if you get the chance.
We only had an hour to rest back at the hotel before we had to head back out at 7pm to collect our washing. I got 24 pieces done for 32 pesos (7.50AUD) and it is worth every penny. That is one thing about my time in South America I have only had to hand wash like twice, some underwear, the rest of the time there has been laundry facilities available and it is all cheap. The bonus of not hand washing is your clothes last longer and the clothes I have need to hang on for another 3 months when I get to the States and be able to buy some new non-backpacking clothes and slowly ease myself back in to western society if only for a few months before heading back to Africa.
We had plans of venturing out again for some dinner, but time got away with some of us having a nana nap (Kate) and me trying to catch up on my blogs that 9.30pm rocked around, and we couldn’t be bothered so we changed into our PJ’s and called it a night. It may sound sad, but we actually feel like we are on a holiday here. We don’t have to run around like headless chooks to try and see everything in 2 days, what we are seeing over 10 days the guys only have 3 days to do it. I rekon it can be stressful sometimes as there are things you want to see that you may not have time for and then you have to decide on which one you want to see more. That is the one downside to cruising being in port for only one day, there could be 3 things you want to do but only have time for one. Luckily we aren’t on a cruise. I did see some Princess passengers yesterday and I saw a Costa Representative today at La Boca. Wonder how their forward bookings are looking after one of their ships sank off the coast of Italy a few weeks ago and I believe people died. In this day and age that is really strange. I should look it up and see what actually happened.
As you can guess we didn’t make the Aussie celebrations downstairs after all, but that is okay. We know we live in the lucky country and after travelling the world we really do have a good life in Australia. I got sent 2 photos from Shelly on her new IPhone that she received from Santa, which I am so glad she has now joined the gadget world. But one photo was of the boys and crazy cay kids pulling funny faces in their Aussie Day garb and the other was of the ladies with their sexy Aussie sunglasses at the races somewhere. Geez I miss those times the most, and know that I was thinking of you all today.
HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY FROM BUENOS AIRES xx
No comments:
Post a Comment