The seemingly evil genius of a cat waited just long enough for us to start drifting off before it once again kicked up it’s a cacophony of displeasure.
We touched down in the tiny airport of Cordoba and had collected our bags within 10 minutes of getting off the plane. We were due to catch a bus into the city as we were trying to save some cash; we also just because we like to experience the local transport.
Unfortunately, the local transport is not always as easy to navigate as it is back home and, after queuing for 20 minutes for a bus, we were told we couldn’t get on because we needed a travel card. When we asked where we got this from, the driver pointed vaguely towards the airport terminal, closed the doors, and drove off.
We did eventually figure out how to buy a ticket and made our way into town.
We navigated the crazy roads to get to our B&B and finally arrived at one of the quirkiest little houses we have ever been to. There was a courtyard, an outdoor kitchen, a balcony and a roof terrace and, best of all, there was a huge fluffy cat! Our host, Nacho, gave us the grand tour and brought us to our bedroom. We stayed here for an hour or so, recovering from our early morning and then we decided that we needed some lunch.
After a few minutes of aimlessly wandering, we happened upon an extensive buffet. For the hefty price of £4 each, we could treat ourselves to an all you can eat, as many courses as you like, lunch. We didn’t need asking twice and headed inside to pile up our plates. The best part came at dessert when we were served up fresh-made dulce de leche crepes. The woman behind the counter seemed determined not to understand my Spanish though, as when I asked for vanilla (vanilla in Spanish) ice cream, I was very nearly given a dollop of apple flavour (Manzana), followed up with the offer of orange (Naranja). I eventually settled for chocolate.
While at lunch we had found an evening walking tour that promised to show us the highlights of the city, and also introduce us to some of the nightlife. We met the mostly German group outside the National Art Museum and headed off on our tour. We were shown several sights of the city, including the Bicentennial park, the huge municipal swimming pool, the Bicentennial cultural centre, which, for some reason had been made to look like a giant skate park. We were then taken to the Cappuccino church and onto the centre of nightlife in Cordoba.
Our final stop on the walking tour was a neighbourhood that seemed exactly like Shoreditch. Güemes is a relatively new area of the city which has come from the city council wanting to clean up some areas around the centre. The whole area was crawling with bars and restaurants, alleyways with popup shops, shipping container bakeries and pretty much anything else that would feel at home in Camden market. Once the tour had ended, and everyone except us tipped horribly, we went off to find ourselves an excellent happy hour deal.
When we had had a few pints and were feeling pleasantly tipsy and relaxed, we strolled back along the canal towards our home while here in Cordoba.
The next morning, hungry for breakfast, we wandered down the road to see what we could find. We stumbled across a cute little cafe which, for about £1 each would furnish us with a couple of delicious pastries, a coffee and some freshly squeezed orange juice. They even gave us little tubs of dulce de leche, much to Martin’s joy! We decided to make this our local for the next few mornings and tucked in.
Our plan for the day was to visit some of the many museums in Cordoba, including the Memorial Museum; dedicated to the time of the most recent dictatorship in Argentina’s history. Sadly, pretty much everything in town was closed for January as just about everyone in Cordoba goes on holiday. We did, however, manage to have a peek at the crypts below the main market street of the city, and we also took in some of the impressive statues around At Martin’s Square, along with the cathedral.
Feeling kind of annoyed that all of our best sight-seeing intentions had been scuppered, we decided to join the locals in one of their most loved activities. We put on our togs (swimming costumes if you haven’t read our previous New Zealand posts) and set off towards the municipal pool. The place was packed and, at 60p each to get in, we didn’t blame them. The water was cool and refreshing, and we had a great couple of hours relaxing and splashing about.
We ended our pool day with an Argentinian delicacy, a churripan. A churripan comprises of a chorizo sausage on crusty bread with pickled veg and chilli sauce; this delicious little treat was a perfect way to top off our day of “living like locals”. It wasn’t, however, enough to satisfy our hunger, so we set off back in the direction of Güemes and in search of some pub food and another local favourite; Fernette Branca and coke.
Sadly, by the time we reached Güemes, we had missed happy hour. That didn’t stop us from ordering our preferred beverage, though. Fernette Branca con cola tastes like what I imagine jaeger and coke tastes like. There is a lot of herbiness involved, and it is undoubtedly an acquired taste. Once you acquire it, however, it’s quite pleasant. We were feeling junk food on this day, so we ordered ourselves a portion of cheesy chips to share and sat back to enjoy our drinks.
Once we had had our fill, we wandered on to another bar. This one was down a particularly dodgy looking alleyway. We were greeted by some amiable servers who quickly recommend the large rum and coke for me. Martin chose to go back to beer. Little did I know that the “large”, which I expected to be en par with a double from back home, would be an entire pint of rum and coke. By the time we left this bar, I was feeling particularly pleased with myself.
The following day we had booked a Gaucho experience day, which you can read about in a separate post. Otherwise, I can see you all getting way too bored to read this all in one hit. Here’s a sneak preview though…
Once we got back from our epic, truly amazing and very exciting day out (yup, you have to read it now, right?), We spent the evening in, recovering from all the excitement. We had two days left in Cordoba and no idea what to do with them. When we landed at the airport, we had seen signs for the Cordoba Rock Festival. Sadly, we had missed out on being able to attend this by arriving three weeks early. On an off chance, we decided to look it up and, to our excitement, discovered that there was another festival going on outside of Cordoba for the entirety of this week.
We did a little research on how to reach the festival, ticket prices and tried to understand more of what it would entail. Information on Cordoba Folk Festival is surprisingly hard to find! We did feel like we had got enough information together to give it a go though so we went to bed happy with our plan for the next day.
At 4 am the sound of yowling rudely awoke us. We immediately realised that it was the next-door neighbours’ cat and assumed that it was shouting at us through the open window. Martin stumbled out of bed and hurriedly closed the window, immediately trapping the heat in the room but hopefully salvaging the rest of our sleep. We were not so fortunate.
The seemingly evil genius of a cat waited just long enough for us to start drifting off before it once again kicked up it’s a cacophony of displeasure. This time the sound was coming from my side of the room and, having reached my hand down, I discovered that she was sitting at the head of the bed looking up at me and demanding food, or love, or attention. I snatched her up and bundled her out of the window, shutting it once again behind her. An almost immediate wave of regret followed this as she was a very cute and cuddly kitty, and maybe she just wanted snuggles?
We slept in the next morning and, when we finally dragged ourselves out of bed, it was nearly lunchtime. We spent an hour or so in the room sorting out some admin and writing excellent blog posts for our dedicated readers before heading out for some food. There was a cute looking restaurant not too far from our place. Martin got a salad, and I got a Milanese, which slightly perplexed the waiter (with no sides, which further confused him). We ordered a bottle of wine, and we were not surprised by the barrage of questions that followed.
One thing about Argentina, which I’m not sure I’ve mentioned before, is that nothing is simple. You cannot order from a menu and expect that to be the end of the conversation. There is always at least 2 minutes of follow up, delivered in rapid Spanish, completely ignoring the often blank and sometimes panicked look on our faces as they plough on and on. I understand that maybe they are explaining a better deal, or that something else on the menu may be a better fit, but that didn’t make it any less stressful!
We finished our food and wine and headed back to the flat to get ready for the evening. Unfortunately, you will have to read about in a separate post because, as you may have noticed, this one is dragging on a little.
Since we didn’t arrive home until 4 am, and the fact that Nacho is an absolute babe, we were able to keep our room until we had to leave for the bus station that evening. We made the most of the lazy day by heading to the two remaining attractions we had left to try to get into the city; the Jesuit Block and the Industry Museum.
Incredibly, both of these attractions were open! Sadly, however, they were also both a bit naff. The Jesuit Block was probably the most disappointing, but only a tiny section of it was open. Cordoba was a city dedicated to monkhood before they were all forced out in the early 20th century, and this exciting piece of the cities history was just not available to the public on our visit.
The Industry Museum was full of Argentinian made bumph. From cars to telephones to vacuum cleaners, it was a large room full of a lot of stuff and not a lot of information. When we finished wandering around, we walked back through the city to our hotel. We stopped off at the shopping centre to pick up some bits and grab some lunch. There was an entire paradilla (meat restaurant) in the food court, and we tucked into some delicious, cheap steak before heading back to collect our bags.
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