Friday, July 11
Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Today's weather: 12░C, Cloudy
 Today is
very usual. It is longer than most other days –
instead of being 24 hours, it is 39 hours long for me.
That’s because my flight from Auckland to Buenos
Aires has crossed the international date line. The time
in Buenos Aires is 15 hours behind New Zealand. So,
although I left Auckland at 8pm on a flight which took
eleven and half hours, I arrived at in Buenos Aires at
4.30pm on the same day – three and a half hours
before I left!
My flight was better than normal. Flights on Aerolineas
Argentinas are usually very crowded and
uncomfortable. But this time, the plane was only
half-full. There were three empty seats next to me so,
after being served dinner and doing a little work on my
laptop computer, I was able to lie down and go to sleep.
I was woken up when breakfast was served a few hours
later.
Buenos Aires is the capital of Argentina. There are 12
million people living here (about one-third of all the
people in Argentina), so it is a very big city. It is
located on a river called Rio de la Plata, or the River
Plate [footnote]
I arrived in Buenos Aires in the early evening. After
checking into my hotel, I went for a walk around town to
have a look at the shops. I was very glad that I brought
my big warm jacket with me because the weather seemed
very cold. There were little wispy clouds in front of my
face sometimes when I breathed. That’s because it's
winter in Argentina. It's in the Southern Hemisphere so
has the same seasons as New Zealand. The other times that
I visited Buenos Aires were during the summertime when it
was over 30░C, so I wasn’t expecting the weather to
be this cold.
Walking around Buenos Aires is very interesting.
Because it is South American it seems exotic and
different from NZ. Everyone speaks Spanish, which makes
talking with people and reading street signs fun and
challenging – but it is also very difficult if you
get lost. There are almost no Japanese cars. The cars are
mostly European models (Peugeots, Renaults, and Fords),
and include a lot of yellow and black taxi cabs. I went
walking in a shopping district called Florida, where
there is a pedestrian mall with lots of other people,
lots of shops and street entertainers. There were people
playing music, dancing the Tango (a famous dance invented
in Buenos Aires), and even one person who painted
themselves white and pretended to be a statue. In the
middle of the street were stalls selling magazines,
postcards, and flowers. It was a Friday night, so there
were many couples and young people out enjoying the
evening despite the cold.
I returned to my hotel at about 10pm, so that I could
get some sleep for the next days’ travelling.
Footnote:
The River Plate is famous because of a
sea-battle in World War II between a German battleship
called the Graf Spee and a New Zealand warship
called HMNZS Achilles (which was serving
with two other ships from the Royal Navy). The German
commander sought refuge for his ship at Montevideo
(across the river from Buenos Aires), but was forced to
sail back out into the Atlantic, where he sunk his own
ship to avoid capture.
 
  
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