September 12 - Buenos Aires

That day I got up pretty late: 6:30, but managed to left the house at 7:30. At the bus station I had to wait for the bus very long (about 30 minutes) so I already thought my bus wouldn't operate on that day... When the bus finally arrived it was crowded and so did the metro. I was late at school but they had just started. Our teacher Alfredo usually didn't show up before 9:10 and so I was just 5 minutes late:-)
No one of our "old group" from the previous week was really motivated that day. Compared to the lessons we had one week ago it wasn't the same anymore. Especially our new German classmate got us on our nerves. She had to make a comment to everything even though it wasn't important at all. Her main point was just saying something...
After classes she and another "girl" from the Netherlands joined us for lunch in our favourite restaurant. It was nice to speak in English again but for Remo, whose English wasn't that good, that lunchbreak must have been boring... I ate "creppes Capresse" again and then I had to hurry to my private class.
At 16:00, after my class, I met Ute and Remo in the common room on the 6th floor and then we walked to that shop where we could buy soccer tickets for the match "Boca Juniors vs Independiente" on upcoming Sunday. We had found out about that shop in a brochure about Argentina which we had gotten from the Southpass-travel agency. As you might read later in the blog, it was very difficult to buy soccer tickets:
Usually only members of the club can go there.
Another option was to buy our tickets at the tourist information, but there they cost 950 pesos or more (but for seats).
Ute had written an email to that shop
(check:
www. juanchofutbol.com.ar
or
tourporbaires@hotmail.com )
and had received an affirmative reply: they still had tickets (or let's say membershipcards) available (these tickets were for the standing area only, but within the real fan-block, so a lot of fun and atmosphere was guaranteed).

We walked to that place whose location was close to Ute's youth hostel. Then we had to knock on the door before a woman let us in. She could only speak Spanish so we tried hard to make ourselves understood.
It was no problem for Remo too to get a ticket (even though he wasn't mentioned in Ute's email). We had to pay 650 Arg$ in cash and got a voucher back. Then we had to choose between several picking-up places. Ute and Remo chose the one in front of that shop and I chose the "closest" one to my location: Palermo subway station.
Then I wanted to know how I would recognize the bus but the shop clerk didn't understand me. Luckily another costumer translated for me. The bus would be an orange school bus and would pick me up just in front of a McDonalds store. I was convinced that I would find it:-)
After our successful shopping we went to Ute's favourite bar that was one of the "protected one's". This means pretty much the same as declaring a historic monument in Germany.
The bar was half a library, had pretty old furniture and a very good atmosphere. We spent there some time, talking and drinking and at 18:45 Remo and I hit the road. On the way back we stopped at a church, went inside and then continued our way back home. We figured out that we had to take the same metro, but his stop was - of course - before mine:-)
Unfortunately I missed the bus by 1 minute and so I had time to enter a 24h shop and look through all the products. I finally bought something to drink, Kinderüberraschung and a deodorant that looked like a cream (never seen it before but I wanted to try it...)
At 21:15 I was back "home" and had dinner with Victoria.
I asked her about taking a taxi in Argentina and was so surprised about her reply:
At school we had learnt that we should always take a radio taxi:
These are taxis that have a sign on the top that says "Radio Taxi". We were told that the safest way was to call the company in advance but that we could also hail a taxi in the streets (as long as it had that sign on the top). We shouldn't get into an unmarked taxi or into one that was stationary at the side of the road waiting for customers.
When I asked Victoria about the exact address I could tell a taxi driver she said she didn't wanna scare me but she would never take a taxi in Argentina...
When I told her about the radio taxis she answered that for her only calling the company in advance (so someone would be responsible) would be a safe option. She also told me that her husband got robbed in a taxi once and several of her friends too. When her husband had hailed a taxi the taxidriver had worked together with some criminals. When the taxi stopped at a traffic light, people got in the taxi: one into the passenger seat and another one next to her husband in the backseat. Then they took all valuables from him and he had to get off the taxi at a place he didn't wanna go....
That story scared me a lot and I decided that I would always try to call the company first or find someone you could call a taxi for me instead....

At 23:00 I went to bed.