[J.] Yesterday evening, right after being back in Buenos Aires from our trip to the Iguazu Waterfalls, we went to the Terminal de Omnibus de Retiro. It seems that due to the lack of a detailed railway network, the best way to get from A to B in Argentina is by taking the bus, so that was what we opted for in order to get to Cordoba.
On our arrival at the bus terminal, I was stunned by its size: really huge compared to all bus terminals I have experienced before. We walked onto the first floor where all the different bus companies are located selling tickets. This first floor seemed to me like an endless alley of ticket stall after ticket stall... Husband had checked out the different vendors, offers and timetables earlier on the internet, so we quickly made our way through to the relevant stall (El Practico). We had heard that it is worth buying the tickets on the same evening as sometimes one can get an upgrade in seat categories for the price of a lower category because the chosen seat category is already sold out and indeed, we were lucky... Yeah! :)
After buying our bus tickets, we still had a bit of time on our hands before the scheduled departure of our bus and because of our empty bellies, we decided to hit the only bigger pizza place within this terminal. The pizza we ordered turned out to be seriously heavy on toppings and added cheese, we did not really manage to finish one and still felt pretty stuffed! ( - And I initially wanted to order two to make sure we are not getting hungry during the 10hour bus ride that was lying ahead of us... Haha, if we would have known!)
While boarding the bus, I noticed that the two couples in front of us secretly tipped the guy who was loading the suitcases onto the bus. Their hand movements were so quick and so experienced, it was actually impressive to watch and easy to miss. Well, because of not having any experience with how such bus trips work and being really attached to our belongings at the same time, we tipped the guy as well. I am not sure if this would have actually been necessary, as a slip of paper with a unique number was attached to each bag and the owner was handed a copy of this. But well, you never know how busy things can get when the bus is unloaded... Anyway, I have been in no worry about our bags during the full length of the bus ride, even though we stopped more than a few times at various bus terminals along the way. And in the end, both our bags were back in our possession once we arrived in Cordoba...
But back to when we just had boarded the bus. Both, husband and I were just in the process of making ourselves comfortable in the seats, when someone started setting us up for dinner. What?! Husband and I were looking at each other like, well, maybe this is going to be a little snack like you get on short-distance flights. We were so wrong!! We were served a full dinner, bigger than you would ever get on any long-distance flight! Hot and cold beverages, soup, salad, quiche, other cold snacks, a hot course, dessert and little crackers. After just having had the richest and biggest pizza ever, I was looking at all of this and could not believe what I was looking at. I was so full already, I would not be able to have even one single bite! - Bleeeeh!
I must admit, that we started packing up parts of this meal as a save-over for the next morning. The food was looking too tempting to just waste the opportunity and return everything untouched... Ah, and in the end we were even served a glass of whiskey. Needless to say, that we bought a whole bottle of whiskey at the bus station just a few minutes ago and re-filled it secretly into one of our water bottles...
We spent the night very relaxed in the comfortable seats, and we more or less could really find some rest over the course of this trip. And we arrived in Cordoba with only a small time-delay compared to the scheduled arrival.
In the meantime...
1) Already looking forward to our next bus trip in about four days' time!
2) Without having seen much of Cordoba yet, this city has a lovely vibe... even though the sun fell a bit short on presenting herself today, but anyway. I liked the architecture of the buildings we passed on our way from the bus terminal to the apartment, there are quite a few green spaces around and everything looks nice and light... and our apartments is really lovely. So more to come, hopefully! :)
On our arrival at the bus terminal, I was stunned by its size: really huge compared to all bus terminals I have experienced before. We walked onto the first floor where all the different bus companies are located selling tickets. This first floor seemed to me like an endless alley of ticket stall after ticket stall... Husband had checked out the different vendors, offers and timetables earlier on the internet, so we quickly made our way through to the relevant stall (El Practico). We had heard that it is worth buying the tickets on the same evening as sometimes one can get an upgrade in seat categories for the price of a lower category because the chosen seat category is already sold out and indeed, we were lucky... Yeah! :)
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| Bus Terminal in Cordoba on our arrival at 6:30 in the morning |
While boarding the bus, I noticed that the two couples in front of us secretly tipped the guy who was loading the suitcases onto the bus. Their hand movements were so quick and so experienced, it was actually impressive to watch and easy to miss. Well, because of not having any experience with how such bus trips work and being really attached to our belongings at the same time, we tipped the guy as well. I am not sure if this would have actually been necessary, as a slip of paper with a unique number was attached to each bag and the owner was handed a copy of this. But well, you never know how busy things can get when the bus is unloaded... Anyway, I have been in no worry about our bags during the full length of the bus ride, even though we stopped more than a few times at various bus terminals along the way. And in the end, both our bags were back in our possession once we arrived in Cordoba...
But back to when we just had boarded the bus. Both, husband and I were just in the process of making ourselves comfortable in the seats, when someone started setting us up for dinner. What?! Husband and I were looking at each other like, well, maybe this is going to be a little snack like you get on short-distance flights. We were so wrong!! We were served a full dinner, bigger than you would ever get on any long-distance flight! Hot and cold beverages, soup, salad, quiche, other cold snacks, a hot course, dessert and little crackers. After just having had the richest and biggest pizza ever, I was looking at all of this and could not believe what I was looking at. I was so full already, I would not be able to have even one single bite! - Bleeeeh!
I must admit, that we started packing up parts of this meal as a save-over for the next morning. The food was looking too tempting to just waste the opportunity and return everything untouched... Ah, and in the end we were even served a glass of whiskey. Needless to say, that we bought a whole bottle of whiskey at the bus station just a few minutes ago and re-filled it secretly into one of our water bottles...
We spent the night very relaxed in the comfortable seats, and we more or less could really find some rest over the course of this trip. And we arrived in Cordoba with only a small time-delay compared to the scheduled arrival.
In the meantime...
1) Already looking forward to our next bus trip in about four days' time!
2) Without having seen much of Cordoba yet, this city has a lovely vibe... even though the sun fell a bit short on presenting herself today, but anyway. I liked the architecture of the buildings we passed on our way from the bus terminal to the apartment, there are quite a few green spaces around and everything looks nice and light... and our apartments is really lovely. So more to come, hopefully! :)
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