So in looking at our travel options we could travel by bus or by train. I was more interested in the bus (air conditioning, nice comfy seats), but Jonathan wanted to travel by train because it was 30 bucks cheaper. He won and we decided to travel by train. Our trip there was quite possibly the most miserable experience of my life. Seriously. I was prepared to be uncomfortable, but this uncomfortable..no. First of all, it was 90 degrees and humid and all of the windows in our area of the train were broken and wouldn't open and the overhead fans inside the train were broken. So it was literally an oven. When we finally arrived, we were soaking wet. Our seats were facing two other people's seats, so we had to share leg space. The girl across from me was the most inconsiderate foot space sharer ever. When she arrived she asked me if I minded if she kept her bag on the floor where our feet go, as opposed to putting it above. I told her that I didn't mind at all. When I told her that I didn't mind I assumed (I was wrong to do so) that she would understand the social rule where everyone gets an equal amount of foot space and if you'd like to use your space for your bag, it's your choice. She completely used up like 80% of all 4 of our foot space, sprawled out while sleeping. At one point she put her feet up on our seat in between Jonathan and I. This was going to far!! Luckily she was sleeping when she did so and my very obvious nudging it off didn't seem as obvious (and i it did, I really don't care). She also kept stepping on my feet when she moved. I was so ready to yell at her and thought over exactly what to say in Spanish, but opted against it because I didn't want to be some obnoxious American chick yelling on the train in Argentina. Oh, and did I mention she smelled? She smelled! She smelled like a dank wet basement that didn't have any fresh air for months. Our train trip back wasn't as bad. Our windows opened and the fans worked. My arm got burns from the sun coming in from the window (you know you're a foreigner when you get a sunburn while inside a train). But needless to say, Jonathan has promised to do something really special with those 30 bucks we saved :). All of the family here laughed at us and told us it would be a good story to think about when we're older, but I'd rather not have this story to tell. haha.
But we had a very nice visit with all of the family there and had a nice time in Mar del Plata as a whole. Here is a picture of all of us having dinner the first night there:
Our first whole day in Mar del Plata we went to the beach. Jonathan had a ball checking out the abundance of thong bikinis, which most of the women my age wore. We did see a 3 year old girl with a thong bikini (so not okay). The beach in Mar del Plata is expansive, taking up the entire coast. Also, the city receives a lot of wind, so we had a ball playing in the huge waves. I hadn't gotten to play in waves that big since I went to Cancun in 7th grade. What was strange about the beach that I had never encountered before were these expansive tents sectioned off into little cabanas for people to rent. I suppose people rent them to get out o the sun, but they are still sitting in the sun and I imagine they must be hot, all on top of each other (you can see some of them in a picture I posted below). But they totally looked like refugee camps and kind of ruined the scenery of the beach. Oh, and one last thing. People drink Mate (hot tea) at the beach??? All of the beach kiosks sell hot water. Why you would want to drink hot tea at the beach is beyond me. I'll stick to Quilmes, Argentina's Budweiser.
Jonathan's shoulders got pretty burnt our first day at the beach. I put sunscreen on his back and he put sunscreen on his chest and I guess we didn't effectively communicate about his shoulders, haha. So the second day there we walked along the coast, went and played some slots at the casino (we lost our 12 bucks within like 15 minutes, shocker right?), played cards in a cafe, and walked around the city center.
Since being here we have met a lot of Jonathan's family (Jonathan is meeting most of them for the first time in his life) and have had really nice visits. We are ready for a break now from the family visits. They sometimes can be a little redundant and awkward, meeting all of them, answering and asking the same questions over and over. So we are now planning a trip to Mendoza (the wine region in Argentina, home of the glorious Malbec. Malbec actually came from French colonists, but Argentina made it famous as it is often used in blending in France whereas here in Argentina it is bottled as a single varietal here), Neuquen Argentina, and Santiago Chile.
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