A taxi from the transit station deposited us on Avenida de Mayo outside Milhouse, our home for the next few days. Room 307 was where the party was at! Rosie, Ellie and I checked in and met our roomies - Beth and Claire. For our first evening, we made our way to Palermo to meet up with Margot, Brendan and Rodrigo and a host of others. Ellie and Rosie knew them from elsewhere in South America. They were a really nice bunch, bar Margot who proceeded to spike everyones drinks with 96% proof Bolivian miners spirits. We all got relatively sozzled and ended up heading out to one bar but the Argentinians in the group conspired against us and we ended up in a very latino club called Pagana. Despite our abduction, the night was amazing. We danced salsa and everyone had an amazing time. The Argentine way of life is bizarre, clubs don't open until 2A.M. and stay open until the very early hours, it must be said that the people of Buenos Aires do look tired! We finished the night in search of food. Job done and we head to bed.

The following day started slowly. Rosie, Ellie and I again hunted for food which we ate whilst watching the "Bicentenario" Parade, celebrating 200 years of Argentinian independence from Spain. Partial nudity seems to be another big part of Argentinian culture, some of the womens outfits were beyond revealing! Rendezvous with the guys and we head out for a steak dinner...when in Rome. Good food, good wine and good company put me in - well, a good mood. We head back to the hostel for some drinks and later in the evening we head out for "Amerika", Buenos Aires largest gay club with all you can drink! It was a strange affair, the Argentine love for nudity shone through. An interesting night passed in which we managed to all get lost!

Slightly worse for wear, the following day was spent exploring San Telmo. A quaint area home to an antiques market and cobbled streets where tango music filled the air. En route home we got mixed up in another parade with people in traditonal dress surrounding us. Rain meant we had a desperate sprint for the hostel and the day was ended with noodles we ordered in, happy days! My hostel was fast filling up with familiar faces, the Hong Kong girls I had met in Mendoza had arrived.

The next day was another day of culture, different culture but culture nonetheless. We head out to "Estadio River Plate" where Argentina were to play Canada in their final match before the World Cup. Having passed through more security than Terminal 5 and bought a host of Argentinian clobber, we took a seat in the tourist stand. On a hunt for facepaints to really get in the spirit, we head into the locals stand where the party was at...naturally that's where we stayed. The match didn't start for what seemed like an eternity but we were distracted with a marching band, a trio of bombers flying over head and insane amounts of blue and white confetti. The game itself was fairly dull according to those who actually follow football but we loved it, we were dancing and singing with the crowd for the entirity of the match. Argentina did completely trounce Canada 5-0 but for me it was more "Goooooools" which was way more fun! Following the match, they literally tried to blow the stadium to pieces. There were crazy fireworks that seemed never ending! A fun day was had by all. The evening was wiled away with a Milhouse party.

The crazy Argentinian lifestyle exacted it's reveng upon me the following day and the day was lost to bed. Arrival of Jess, a friend from secondary school was extremely welcome, it is such a nice thing to see old faces every now and again just to bring some grounding to life on the road. I think it's easy to forget so much of what is waiting back home whilst travelling, the people in your life become so transient and seeing old faces brings things back into perspective. We had a catch up, grabbed some food and went out partying. We were all extremely gutted that we missed the closing fireworks for 200 years of independence. From what we heard (from the other side of the city!!), the football fireworks would have paled in comparison. A very American mentality, celebrate your country by blowing a piece of it up!

I'm actually in love with Buenos Aires, it's fast becomming one of my favourite cities, I'd recommend it to everyone!