So travelling is such an awesome things but it defintely has its moments also.
Over the past few days it has had its fair share. Being in Buenos Aires I am absolutely loving it, however my lack of Spanish knowledge is making for some very interesting yet also rewarding times.
First it started with me trying to fly to Buenos Aires. Latam airways told me I was on stand by. Trying to explain to them for an hour that this can’t be possible as I already have a ticket was such a mission. Lucky I was at the airport several hours early cause in the end I ended up with my normal ticket and seat, 1 hour later but hey we got there.
Then it was first day In Buenos Aires, I was lucky this day to meet some lovely Brazilians. A guy and a girl. The guy spoke English very well and the girl good enough to understand. However sometimes I confused her so the lovely Brazilian guy translated to her also so we could communicate.
Now it was the next morning I was booked on a tour to delta, this all was fantastic, then I also realised I am the only English speaking person on the bus, everyone else was from brazil. It makes you feel so stupid when people have to change the language they are speaking just to communicate with you. In transit I’m working on my Spanish from now on. I am at about a 2 year old level and can say words like banos (toilet) and bien (good) as well as the basic hello, please, thank you and el pan (bread), queso (cheese) haha. Lucky there is bread with almost every meal here!! But time to work on learning some sentences!!
Then it was time to leave the hostel, my card decided to stop working as the hostel had entered the number in 3 times in a row wrong. Once again lost in translation. This then meant I needed to go try to find a pay phone, running around blocks to find one where I eventually was shown where it was after going into several stores holding my hand up like a phone. We got there! I now know I could have just said telephono (another word learnt). Except when I got there I didn’t screenshot the Australian number to call and had no internet. Rookie error number 1. That was quickly fixed by using a near by computer. Then we realised the pay phone in the store didn’t call Australian numbers.
So back to the hostel it was. My lovely Brazilian friend said download Skype. Would have been easy except I forgot my password and once again they want to send it to your phone number which is impossible as I have no service. So I decided to make a new email. That was done, Skype was downloaded and now I was like oh dear I need to buy Skype credit. To my luck Skype credit went straight to my Apple account automatically to my Australian credit card. I’m in luck. 1 minute on the phone after close to 2 hour running around and it’s fixed!
Now onto dinner I ran into a guy from the hostel from Ecuador. He speaks no English at all but he came and sat with me and whipped out his phone and introduced himself to me by writing. We chatted through writing on an app for a bit. Technology hey!! But lovely that even though you don’t speak the same language you can still communicate.
Then it was to the airport, as I went for a budget flight, it was Spanish speaking only. A lovely young girl, around 12 years old whipped out her app and was also helping me get where I needed. She also wrote to me and said do not give the people anything. Haha! Looking out for me the lovely Nina (girl). That’s another word I know.
Now I could find the check out, time to go to igazu falls!! Then they tell me I can’t check in anymore as it’s online only for this airline. I’m like I don’t understand. They say you received the info. I say it’s all in Spanish, I can not read it. So they check and to their surprise no English translation was present so the lovely ladies at the desk let me check in. Lesson learnt again just check in online just in case when in South America so you don’t not get on flights.
Ahhh what a day!!! Now to board my flight to Igazu Falls!!! And I can’t wait ✈️
Here is a picture with my new Brazilian friends :-)
@#thebowly88 New friends! Good times! Must be hard ( or funny )not knowing the language!