Córdoba - tours, empanadas, cameras and queens

Waiting for us at the end of our luxurious Full-Cama bus ride was a queue to wait for the little man who wanted you to tip him for opening a single door to a taxi whilst not bothering to help you in with your your two 100+ litre bags, guitars or daypacks...what service. A dash down some sidestreets got us to our hostel early enough to have to sit around waiting for people to check out of their rooms, after which we got to wander around what was open in town on a Saturday afternoon...nothing! Luckily I had thought to use a couple of the morning hours whilst waiting around to check out a few essential things such as the best ever empanada shop on the main square and a few public buildings (mainly churches with weddings going-on).

By the afternoon there was nothing barr McDonalds and a few ice cream shops remaining open. And then we stumbled across "a very unique and memorable experience" - riding an old London double decker bus around the sights of Córdoba. This wee tour whisked us past some beautiful old buildings and some not so aesthetically pleasing 1960's-designed parks...oh and the tallest building in Córdoba which was also born in that decade of tasteful architecture. The parks, the zoo and the university were all interesting to see from a distance and our bus was constantly cheered and waved on its way by the locals! Cool atmosphere.

One particularly beautiful stop was at a church designed in zebra-stripe, located just behind the facade of the old women's prison. The bicolores (just like the ice-creams) reaching to the roof created a really impressive effect, though it seemed the build quality had been slightly undermined by some cowboys who had constructed the upper alter partially out of fibreboard!

The bus dropped us back at the cathedral, which we had a quick look inside, once again being greeted by lavish, gaudy catholic gold, though still not on the scale of Mexico. That night we hit some of Córdoba's nightspots with three Aussie guys and a German girl from the hostel. After some confusion as to where the empanada shop was we'd visited earlier, resulting in me wandering in completely the wrong direction in search of food, I eventually got my fill and after a few bevvies and a chat with some random Argentine basketball players we made it to one of this party-towns best nightspots...back opposite the old women's prison!

It seems it was probably a favourite with the guys for the same reasons Cheeky Monkey is back at Pikon - scantily clad women shaking it for all they're worth on stage!! Practically every local guy had his camera-phone out recording the moment for the bank. Nice.

Next day was Sunday...so believe it or not there was even less going on again. Due to the previous night we'd also managed to oversleep enough so that the next morning didn't really happen. Fortunately our German friend informed us of one place which was actually open - the shopping centre - woohoo :-s. Martin and I have surely spent more time in shopping centres on this world trip than all the time we have spent in them before travelling combined...but at least we have an excuse - they have cinemas! Having just missed the showing of Blood Diamonds we managed to get in to see Deja Vu which was really cool (well it has cool gadgets) apart from the ending - give us a pen, paper and ten minutes and we'll write you a better one.

The morning after was particularly fun - having set out into town to buy a few T-Shirts, I got as far as buying one before getting squished in the onslaught of keen shoppers around Área Peatonal and losing my camera to some lucky opportunist. Chasing around trying to find the correct police office to report stolen property turned out to be a bit of a challenge for my Spanish vocabulary but I got there after going a fair few blocks out of my way. Completely randomly three sisters (guys but that's exactly how they described themselves) from our hostel turned up whilst I was waiting to go in and explain what had happened and get my report. Had it not been that I was standing in a police station some joking around involving words such as culo (arse) and too many references to me might have scared me a little. The panic on their faces when I read one of their texts out aloud (which mentioned ***) was enough to confirm my worries but it did at least seem to all be in jest. The conversation was a little difficult seeing as they spoke less English than I spoke Spanish, but the guy who worked at the hostel asked me what had happened, getting all the details and then went in and relayed it to the officer.

Next stop was the bus station. After sorting out tickets and lots of random Spanish chat (fortunately we'd now moved off the posterior topic) it was time for one of the sisters to leave. This involved me getting grabbed firmly by both shoulders and kissed on the cheek...maybe I'm just British but that came as unexpected! Then it transpired that the bus was late so he thought he'd walk with us all back in the direction of the hostel for a minute. When it was time for him to go for the second time the same thing happened again. The second time it was less alarming though still a bit strange. The other two then helped me look for cameras around town...necessary as Martin and I were off up to Iguasu falls that night. We ended up shopping like girls - coming back to the first shop as it the W50 at the shop by our hostel was cheaper than the W30 in any other shop - bargain!

Next I ended up wandering around with the one guy who was left finding a phone he was looking for and then we both got some food at a little restaurant called Johnny B-Goodes! Cool name, awesome food. By that point I was feeling massively tired having had to speak only in Spanish for the past 5 hours, and then we swung-by their flat on the way back. Six people were squeezed into a three bedroom flat. Apart from the sleeping arrangements though the place was alright, if a bit small for six, and it had some more of those funky old-style lifts with the mesh doors for extra cool rating.

Getting back to our hostel it was time to grab food for the bus, reassure the worried receptionist that all was not lost as I'd uploaded my photos the previous day and enlist the help of some local girls we'd met earlier to try to get the correct photos from rafting. Still no luck :-(. One massively busy day but fortunately it was to be followed once again by luxurious cama seats on our bus to Iguasu Falls!