Happy Birthday to Me!!

I wasn’t going to do this – write about my birthday that is. I mean, it is just another day in the life right.

But, I happen to be on an overnight bus on my way to Iguazu Falls and I can’t seem to fall asleep. So I’m going to tell you how I spent my birthday. Feel free to stop reading if you wish, this is not a self indulgent, day at the spa kind of day and I’m not that kind of gal anyway.

I am on another GAdventures (@Gadventures) tour. After spending almost a week in Buenos Aires, I transferred to yet another hotel and I met with my new tour group & leader. The tour leader is Ursula, she is this tiny, bubbly girl, who I think, from our brief conversations has travelled just about everywhere. She came to Canada once for a month to practise her English and stayed for seven. The group seems nice, a young group, mostly from Australia. Although I think that has been the case each time, I am feeling a little old with this group.

We met as a group last night. We received our itinerary for the next week or so and some last minute instructions and then we went on our way for the evening. A few people went off on their own and a small group went out to dinner. I declined the dinner invite – I maybe should have gone, I do have to force myself to do things sometimes. I was having trouble with my e-mail, which was making me a little anxious (I don’t actually have the flight tickets & arrangements to see my friend Jenn for the next leg of this adventure) & I was tired. I just ended up going to an outdoor cafe & playing with this thing I am using to blog with! Still having trouble with the e-mail though.

I woke up this morning to a beautiful summer day in Buenos Aires! It was a little cooler than it has been, yesterday was over 40*! We had to be out of our hotel by 11:00 but we weren’t catching the bus until 7:00. That’s a lot of time to kill. I declined another offer (I know I said I wasn’t going to turn down any opportunities this trip but still) to go to a little fair in one area of the city. I had my heart set on seeing the National Library in Argentina. For those who don’t know, I try to take photos of libraries anyplace I go. I have a tiny collection of photos of libraries around the world. You can’t bring something home from every place, but that is something you can do. I didn’t get the opportunity in Ecuador or Peru so I didn’t want to miss Argentina.

On my way out of the hotel – I was that tourist standing in the doorway studying my map, I met a lady traveling on her own from Antwerp, Belgium. She was leaving on another tour the next day, Patagonia, which I would love to do, btw. Her room wasn’t ready and she didn’t want to walk around on her own so we ended up spending the day wandering around Buenos Aires together.

We went to Puerto Madero, we walked along the water, checked out an old sailing vessel, and of course crossed & took many photos of the Buenos Aires bridge. We went to Plaza de Mayo, saw the government buildings, had a small tour of an art museum and took lots of photos of all the old buildings. Then we went to San Telmo, which was wonderful. It was Sunday so they had their famous antique market. It was pretty great. So much to see. I don’t know if I liked looking at the booths in the market better or the street performers. They are really talented some of them! It was fun. It is also huge. I tried to take a photo of one of the streets, just to see if you could get the idea of how massive it was but of course you can’t tell. Photos don’t always convey the feeling.

I don’t know if I’ve told you this yet but you can often see people doing the Tango on the street here. It’s great! I saw some amazing dancers today. Some of them bring a kind of floor that they put down but not all & some have musicians with them. I took some photos & a short video today of one pair that were particularly good. I did put money in the hat however before I took the photo.

I did buy an empanadas from a vender on the street!

At this point we had been wandering around for about 6 hours. We came back to the hotel, my new friend had to check into her room & I had to get my things out of storage and get ready to catch the bus. It’s a massive bus station in Buenos Aires. I am surprised at how comfy the bus is, I was a little worried about it. Not only do the seats recline, and you have a foot rest but they also served us empanadas! A little like a snack on the airplane. Apart from me not being able to sleep, it’s not too bad.

Our tour leader bought a bottle of wine for my birthday! With some help from the bus driver to open it, as any openers would be packed in cases, everyone sang Happy Birthday & shared a bottle of wine together!! It was wonderful really. We have been invited to a BBQ tomorrow evening so I think that will be a little bit of a birthday celebration as well. So nice.

So, I never did get to the National Library but I did some things I wouldn’t have otherwise done and felt loved. Isn’t that really what birthdays are all about anyway?!