Welcome to part 4 and the final blog post for my winter adventures! Our expedition has come to an end and it is time to say goodbye to our new friends and our ship. I have another 5 days before I head back to London, which I am spending 24hrs in Buenos Aires and 48hrs in Paris. The rest is travel time.
Day 19 Disembarkation and Buenos Aires
And we are back in Argentina! We had to be up early because our bus to Ushuaia Airport was picking us up at 6.30am. Ling and I got up at 5.30am to make sure we were ready on time. By 6am, we were bags packed and twiddling our thumbs.
We got a coffee, I took some pictures of the ship and then we just hung out in our cabin, watching the workers on the dock.
We were called down about 6.25am, we headed down the gangway, and then identified our bags to the workers, who then loaded our bags onto the bus. The airport is only 15mins from the dock, which is great, so we were there by 6.45am. The queue for Aerolineas Argentinas was short, which was great. We checked in and dropped our bags. Some people were made to pay for excess baggage, and I was very lucky that I didn’t! My bag was 18.6kg and the limit was 15kg. The baggage fees were only $2,600 ARS (Argentine pesos), which is only about £12. I was happy to pay that, but very glad I didn’t have to!
Sabrina, James and Sabine all went up through security, while Ling and I got a coffee downstairs. It is a very small airport, so the queue for security was short, and fortunately, we didn’t have to remove liquids or electronics from our bags.
We then sat at the departure gates for a few hours until it was time to board. Sabrina, James & Sabine were on the 8.55am flight, while Ling and I were on the 9.55am flight. We just sat, attempted to use the internet, but similar to the ship, the internet in the airport is terrible.
We boarded, along with 7 other people from our ship. We travelled 1.5hrs to a town called Trelew. Here, we did a technical stop, where half the plane disembarked, and new passengers boarded. We then took off and continued our flight to Buenos Aires.
When we arrived in Buenos Aires, we headed straight for the baggage carousels. We saw 2 people from our ship, who flew with a different airline, and had arrived well before us. They were still waiting for their bags! Ours came quickly, then Ling and I went to get a taxi. My hostel was on the way to her hotel, so we were sharing a cab. Here, you have to scan the QR code, book the taxi on the website, then join the taxi queue. We then had to show the driver our booking on the app. Prices are fixed, so with luggage and 2 people, it cost us $2050 ARS. About $10 AUD.
The drive took about 15mins to my hostel. Roads are scary here. No indicators and white lines mean nothing. Turns out, my hostel is on the 2nd and 3rd floor of a building. They have an antique elevator to access it. It is one of those fancy wrought iron cage elevators with the gates to open and close. I checked in, and went to my room and chilled out for a while. I was exhausted!
After charging my phone for a bit, I went out for a walk. I was starving, so I went to a nearby place that sells empanadas. They have 10 different flavours, and they only cost $130 ARS each. I got a cheese & onion, BBQ and a corn one. They were delicious!
I walked around for a while, and found the main shopping street. It is a big pedestrian mall, with loads of shops….however, many of these shops seem to be repeated. The only souvenir store is a place called I Love Gifts. There are maybe 50 of them across the city, and they are all identical. Same for the 24hr convenience stores. There is little variety.
Next I walked down to Plaza de Mayo (a big square), Casa Rosado (pink palace), and then across to the waterfront. There is a Women’s Bridge here, which was very popular with tourists.
I walked along the waterfront for a while. It is filled with restaurants and bars on the sides, with plenty of people sitting outside enjoying the weather. It was hot, by the way. Very, hot! 32oC in fact. As I have spent the last few months in freezing weather, and given the temperature of my trip so far, I didn’t bring summer clothing. Today, I was wearing black jeans, black t-shirt and my black wool shoes. I was roasting!
I walked back to my hostel, via the supermarket, to get some cold water. Back in my room, I showered, and went to bed. I watched a tv episode, surfed social media and relaxed. At 10.30pm, I turned the lights out and went to bed.
Day 20 Buenos Aires to Paris
I woke up several times during the night, but eventually woke up properly at 8.30am. Clearly, I needed the sleep! I slowly packed up my things, and played online for a bit longer. Checkout was 11am, and I had until 6pm to explore, so I didn’t want to leave too early. It was meant to be a warm day again today.
After checking out, I went back to the empanada place and got another 3. Today I had ham & cheese, chicken and cheeseburger flavours. They were all good.
I walked to the Obelisk, which is famous all over the world as the place where the Argentinians partied up a storm after the world cup win. I continued walking to the Teatro Colon, a famous old theatre. I took pictures of the outside and kept going to my next stop.
That next stop was the El Ateneo Grand Splendid bookstore. It is a huge bookstore in a very old theatre. It currently has the title of the second most beautiful bookstore in the world. It was very beautiful.
Next on my list was the Recoleta Cemetery. This apparently has famous dead people in it, but people I don’t know who they are, so meaningless to me. It was roasty toasty by this stage. Just before the cemetery is a shopping mall, so I went inside for some air conditioning.
A short walk and I got to the cemetery. It is a very popular place, and what I didn’t research, was that you had to buy tickets to go in. Never been to a cemetery that requires paid entry!
I sat in the shade of a big tree for a bit, then decided to look at tickets for the big yellow hop on hop off bus. I stood in the queue for a long time, but the 2 ladies at the front of the queue, were booking multiple products that they sell. A group of older Americans were behind me, and they were complaining non-stop. My goodness, I couldn’t believe how openly rude they were being. Eventually, they left the queue and so did I. I decided to take a taxi to La Boca instead as it would be cheaper and faster.
It took about 20 mins and cost me $1500 ARS. Not bad. He dropped me at Caminito, which is a neighbourhood with brightly coloured buildings. It was also extremely busy. Busiest place I have been in the city! The buildings are so colourful, and there are so many decorations on the buildings. I walked around for a bit, then found a store selling dulce de leche. I bought a jar to take home, as well as some Argentinian biscuits, one biscuit to eat now, and a small bottle of dulce de leche liqueur to take home. They also gave me a taste of the alcohol, it was so delicious! You could drink the entire bottle so easily!
Then I walked to La Boca, which is a famous neighbourhood. I saw the big stadium for the junior football team and walked for a few more blocks. I didn’t really see much of interest, so I found a taxi, and took that to San Telmo. Another neighbourhood, this one closer to my hostel, and a little more touristy. La Boca is not a place to be at night.
I walked around for a bit, then got an iced coffee from a shop selling dulce de leche. I tried all the tasters, which were delicious.
In the end, I decided to get a drink and go back to my hostel. I sat and hung out until 4.15pm, using the wifi, then went out to get dinner. I wanted to try an Argentinian steak, and I found a place that had affordable one, and an excellent rating. I got seated upstairs, and then left completely alone. The service was terrible! One table wanted to order, and had to go get a waitress to attend to them. The table next to me wanted to pay, so grabbed that waitress and then were really kind and told them I needed a menu. They could see I was a tourist, clearly! Some of the steakhouses are very expensive, but this one was much cheaper. I got the bife de lomo (filet mignon steak) with fries. It was about 450g worth of steak, and cost just $2300 ARS. That is about $12 AUD. Cheap!! It came relatively quickly, and it was delicious. They don’t serve sauces with is, but it didn’t need it.
After paying, I headed back to my hostel, collected my bags, changed my clothes, repacked to include the alcohol & dulce de leche, and then waited for my transfer. He was early, which was great.
The drive to the airport can take between 40-120 minutes, depending on traffic, and today, we were lucky with traffic. I was at the airport in no time! My driver spoke pretty good English, so we were able to have a conversation, which was nice and made the time pass quickly.
I got to the airport 4hrs early, and I was very glad for that. I did the bag drop, then went to find security & immigration. The security queues took forever. By the time I got through x-ray screening, it had been an hour since I arrived. Another 40mins and I was finally through immigration. I wandered around the terminal for a bit, then went to my gate and sat down. I found some Aussie powerpoints (Argentinian powerpoints are weird. The ones in the hostel take many different plugs and these ones are actually Australian). I plugged in my laptop and phone, and then set about finishing my blog from yesterday and today.
We boarded on time, which was great, but departed a bit late as we had to sit in the take-off queue for a while. We didn’t have any free seats in our row, so that kind of sucked. The lady at bag drop had said that the middle was currently still free, but in the 4hrs since then, a guy got allocated to it. Lucky the Air France planes are comfortable.
For dinner, I had chicken, mash and zucchini, which was good. I took a travel sickness pill after dinner and after a movie, I was able to fall asleep. It wasn’t good sleep, it was massively disrupted sleep, but it was better than nothing. I managed to doze on/off for 5hrs, which is good for me. Then I watched another 2 movies, had breakfast and we landed on time.
Day 21 Paris
This means I am back in Paris and in the northern hemisphere!
After disembarking, we did the normal immigration queues (which had no queues) and went to collect the bags. I got the RER B train back to Gare du Nord, and 2hrs after landing, I was back at my hostel.
I was exhausted and hungry, so I went downstairs to the inhouse Belushi’s Bar and got a burger. It was good! Then I went back to my room, had a shower, then went and watched tv shows in bed. By 9.10pm, I was falling asleep, so I packed everything away and went to sleep.
Day 22 Paris
I woke up fairly early, but given I was asleep just after 9am, that was to be expected. I stayed in bed for hours, being lazy and watching tv. At 10am, I got up and got ready to head out. I decided to see a number of sights, some of which I had already seen, some of which I hadn’t. Plus, I had some food stops to do as well!
My first stop was a place called Pierre Hermé, which has some of the best macarons in Paris apparently. They had lots of outlets in the city, some of which are cafes, some of which are stores. There was a queue outside, so I joined it. My favourite French dessert is the pink macaron with raspberries and a cream filling. I got one of those, and 4 macarons. Macarons are very expensive! I wanted to get an 8-pack, but they were €30! I’m not sure how their pricing works, but I got 4 macarons, and she charged me €10. I got a chocolate passionfruit, raspberry & rose, vanilla and crème brulee. I wanted to get a strawberry croissant too but they didn’t sell them. Turns out that is the difference between the stores and cafes. The cafes sell coffee & croissants too. I ate the croissants as I walked and they were delicious.
Next I went to the Louvre. I had been before, but decided to get another photo of the glass pyramids. The queue to get into the museum was huge! Glad I had no intention of going inside.
From here, I decided to go across the river to another Pierre Hermé to see if they have croissants. Nope, they had sold out of the strawberry ones! Bummer!
I continued walking to the Luxembourg Gardens, to see the Medici Fountain. It looked nice in the pictures. Today, as it is winter and the trees are bare, it looked less pretty, but still ok. I took some pictures of course.
I decided to take the local bus to the Eiffel Tower. I bought a bus ticket on the bus, which cost €2.50, and it was a 26min trip. I got off at Champ de Mars and walked to the Eiffel Tower. All the grassed areas have been fenced off, and there is a lot of construction/renovation being done in the area and on the tower itself. It is hard to get a nice picture when there is a lot of construction around.
I walked along the river for a while, which was nice, and found a third Pierre Hermé. Fortunately, this one had 1 strawberry croissant left! Finally! It was delicious! It is a normal croissant, with a vanilla and strawberry filling inside, and some icing on top.
Next on my list was the Arc de Triomphe and Champs-Élysées. Both places I had been before, so I mostly just wanted to walk around. If you didn’t know, Champs-Élysées is a huge street filled with huge shops.
I walked the length of the street to Place de la Concorde. From here, I went to Ladurée, which is a famous macaron shop. They have outlets everywhere, including other countries. Again, they were expensive, so I only got 4. Chocolate, strawberry, coffee and blackcurrant.
Just around the corner is the Maille shop. Maille is my favourite brand of Dijon mustard, so I wanted to see what they had. The variety they have is quite broad. So many flavours of Dijon mustards! Parmesan & basil, fig & coriander, blue cheese etc. I bought a honey mustard and a mango vinegar.
By now, I had walked over 15km and my legs were getting tired so I decided to head back to my hostel. Just near the hostel is an O’Taco shop so I picked up a taco on my way back. I sat in the lobby and ate it. The taco was delicious! I chose minced beef, bacon, caramelised onion, raclette cheese, BBQ sauce and mayo. As a standard, they always have fries in them as well. So good!
Back at the hostel, I just stayed in my room and chilled out. I sorted out my blog posts, talked to one of the females in my room (the only one who speaks English I think) and relaxed.
Day 23 Paris to London
Yet again, I slept terribly. Took hours for me to fall asleep. In the end I had to get the headphones & out my audio book on. Should have done it earlier! I was asleep before the 30min time was up. I woke up at 7.30am when one of the girls in the dorm got up and made noise. I stayed in bed watching tv episodes until 10am. Check out was 11am so I had plenty of time to relax. I packed, checked out then headed out for breakfast.
Right outside the hostel on the main road was tape barriers and police and peyote walking on the road. I had heard commotion earlier and apparently it was still going. My destination was an Instagrammable Cafe (their words) for a delicious brunch. I followed the protestors for a bit, then as I was crossing a road, there was a huge bang like a gunshot. Scared the absolute crap out of me! There was a huge crowd chanting up ahead, yelling, talking in megaphones, waving flags etc. I had no idea what was Bakelite, but I did see a memorial on the side of the road with some female pictures & flowers. They were not speaking English and I could not make anything out from their signs & flags. They were blocking the entire intersection that I needed to cross. I tried to get through but it was impossible. There was green smoke spreading across the crowds and I started to feel unsafe. I made the decision to turn around and find some other streets to try and get to the café. I had to go several blocks to get away from them & back to the main road. As I kept walking, the road was lined with around 30 police vans & riot squad trucks, as well as police & emergency motorbikes. I wasn’t sure how convergence I should be at this stage. I was away from the protest by a couple of blocks now but the high police presence was making me uneasy.
I reached the café & surprise surprise, there was a queue to get in. Who would have though a brunch place would be busy on a Saturday morning at 11am? I joined the queue and waited. Whilst waiting, 4 separate groups of heavily armed police, with a lot of body armour, walked past. The French people in the queue didn't even look twice! This did make me more anxious, but I couldn't hear the protest so I tried to think about my breakfast.
After almost an hour in the queue, I got a seat at the bench. I ordered an exotic eggs Benny (brioche, eggs, avocado, beef bacon & a curry hollandaise), fresh OJ and a rose latte. The food came quicker than the drinks! It was very good, although the brioche was very thick so very filling. The rose latte was unique. It was a bit like Turkish delight, but also like drinking potpourri.
I was finished my meal quicker than I was waiting in line outside! I headed back towards the hostel & thankfully the protest had moved on. Many of the police vehicles were still there though.
I stopped at a bakery on the way back and got a Nutella croissant, another raspberry macaron & a strawberry tart. Treasures to take home!
I went back to the hostel and chilled for half an hour until it was time to go to the train station. Luckily, the train station is only a 5min walk. The signs for the Eurostar are easy to follow and when I got upstairs, they use all e-gates, which is great! In London, it is all manual by humans in booths. We passed through the France and then the UK e-gates, and joined the security queue. This took longer. Fortunately it isn't like the airport; nothing has to come out of the bags. You just dump them on the conveyor belt, go through the body scanners & collect on the other side. The terminal is nicer than the London one. I found a spot near my gate and stood to wait. 30mins before departure, they let us board. I really wanted to get on early to make sure my suitcase can get on the bag racks. Turns out I was the first one to put luggage on the rack in my coach. Winning! I found my seat quickly and settled in for the 2hr trip.
The train departed exactly on time, which is awesome. It’s a 2hr trip back to London, then another 35mins to get home. I am really looking forward to getting home now. My own bed, good shower, clean clothes, bring it on!
The past 23 days have been amazing, and Antarctica was most definitely the highlight. Strasbourg & Colmar are beautiful at Christmas, all decked out in decos, lights etc. If you are heading to Europe for Christmas, I recommend a day or 2 in these towns for their markets.
I barely scratched the surface of Argentina and I'm planning on doing a big South American trip in July/August. However, Antarctica in a breathtaking & incredible place to visit, and accessing it from Argentina is the best way. Do yourself a favour and save up for a trip to the bottom of the world. You won't regret it! And definitely consider G Adventures as the company. Highly ethical, ecofriendly & suitable for all ages, they are an excellent choice. And while you're in Ushuaia, be sure to include a few days to Ushuaia itself. You can hike the mountains, lakes & forests, visit glaciers, see the end of the world national park & walk amongst penguins.
Antarctica is now my favourite destination on the planet, closely followed by my Central American trip.
I hope you have enjoyed reading about my winter adventures! No future trips booked at this stage, but ideas are in the works so stay tuned for my next adventure!
Don't forget to check out all my photos on Facebook!