The headline’s a bit of an exageration because our bus did stop for dinner and to San Ignacio for a bit of sightseeing. Still, it took us about 23 hours to arrive in Puerto Iguazú.
I’m writing this post on the lower bunk bed in a 10-person dorm in a hostel. There is mould on the wall and the ensuite bathroom looks a bit iffy. My complaints stop here.
Yesternight, we boarded the bus at about 7:30pm and off we went. While I was terrified of being on the party bus, there were seats in the lower deck where there was less partying so I enjoyed quite a lot of sleep.
At about midnight, the bus stop at a rest stop for about an hour. It was very very cold outside.
Argentinian rest stop
It seemed to me that there were almost 100 people in the rest stop restaurant. It was the beginning of the super long weekend and service at the place seemed really slow.
You first have to queue up at the first line to get a receipt for your food. Then join the super long queue for food and wait for the food to be cooked. Then you find a table.
Thank goodness I bought a ham and cheese sandwich from Buenos Aires so I didn’t have to join the crazy queue.
While waiting to go back on the bus, I enjoyed seeing my breath come out in white wisps although I couldn’t catch it on camera.
Back on the bus, I settled down into my seat, pluggged my ears, covered myself with my Emirates blanket and fell into deep sleep. ZZZZzzz.
Ready for any long-distance bus rides
The Next Day…
It was about 7:30am when I woke up. The bus was passing by fields dotted with what I first thought were boulders. Later I found more “boulders” and these had legs. Hey, they are cows!
I kept imagining how tasty the cows would be but there was no steak around to pacify my stomach.
Our next stop was a petrol station with its 2 cubicles in the ladies’ and a hot water dispenser for mate lovers of Argentina.
Warm water dispenser for mate lovers
Then it was a long long long bus ride to San Ignacio.
Ruins of San Ignacio Miní
Unfortunately, it was raining when we got to San Ignacio. I changed to my flip flops so I would not end up with wet socks and shoes.
San Ignacio model
You can read more about San Ignacio Mini on Wikipedia because I didn’t really understand the Spanish-speaking guide. It was the first time I’ve seen a Christian construction built from red earth, a nice change from the usual stone stuff I’ve seen in Europe.
San Ignacio Miní in the rain
San Ignacio Miní sculpture
After the guided tour, we walked in the drizzle to a tourist restaurant. Along the way, there were a lot of souvenir stalls.
Souvenir stalls at San Ignacio
After lunch, it was a long bus ride to our hostel in Puerto Iguazu. The rain did not stop.
It’s now 8:21pm and my dorm mates are playing Spanish songs loudly. At least the songs are nice. I’m now thinking if I should head out for dinner because I don’t think it’s covered in our tour package.
This morning, I woke up at 6:00am to get ready for my appointment at the US embassy for my visa application interview. It was really painful waking up at that hour to brush my teeth in the cold air.
As with yesterday, I took a cab. The driver took a detour but we reached even faster than the cab yesterday.
My appointment slot was the earlier at 7:00am. About 20 people were already queuing outside (and not including those already in), waiting for the multiple checks.
Standing outside in the dark, I could see my breath when I breathe out. It was really really cold.
Anyway, let me tell you more about the different queues and checks at the US embassy:
The first check was outside of the embassy gate. Our passports and a form were checked. Then, we stood in another line next to the first one.
The second line is to queue for the X-ray machine and metal detector. Afterwards, there is a third line before the proper building. Here, we give the fingerprints of four of our fingers, either the left or the right, depending on which the lady behind the counter wants.
Finally, we go to the inside of the building where the air is heated. Here, we are told to sit in chairs to wait for our turn to queue.
When I first reached the room, I noticed that there was only two counters that were open. TWO! There was about 50 people inside the room but only 2 counters?
I decided to stop worrying and begin reading the only book I bought. I actually finished reading Mafalda while I was waiting. Of course I only understood about 20% of the content but I finally finished reading one of the books I’ve bought.
Mafalda
After I finished my book, I read all of the fliers within my eyesight for about 5 times and kept my mind blank.
Then I noticed that there was 3 counters. Later, that turned into 5 and it was my turn to queue.
My counter was 9 and I had a young man who interviewed me. He asked a lot of questions about my travel plans, my previous trip to the US, what my father and mother do for a living and so on.
When the interview ended, the official said he was giving me a 10-year tourist visa for the US. What a great surprise! I was expecting a US$160 transit visa but it turned into a 10-year visa. Woo!
Then I hurried to the bus station to catch the bus. I had a class to catch and I have to check out before I go to class.
I managed to reach the hostel at about 9:05am. Everything I had was about packed so I just stuffed them into the cupboard before telling the receptionist that I was checking out.
I reached class a little late and spent most of my time forcing my eyelids to stay open. The lack of sleep feels like being drunk as I was talking louder than usual.
When class ended, I had a strange feeling in my chest. Was it sadness? Anyway, I couldn’t tell.
Lunch was again empanadas. I headed back to the hostel and like an illegal squatter, used their ameninities and finish writing this post.
I’m joining a tour group to Iguazu Falls, up in the north-east of Argentina. It’s supposed to be a really gorgeous place. I’ve packed my mosquito repellent so I think I’ll do fine.
Unfortunately, since my passport is still with the US embassy, I will not be able to go to the Brazil part of Iguazu or even to Paraguay. I’m quite sad about that but you win some, you lose some.
I really hope I have internet all the way so I can complain to update you about the party tour bus.
PS Last night, I cut my hair at the back of my head with a razor because it was growing into a mini mullet. Urgh.
In the morning, I woke up at 6:15am to get ready for my visa application to the United States. I need to have 2 visits to the US’s office and embassy.
Today’s visit was only to get my photo and my finger prints taken. I took a cab to the application center because I did not want to get up extra early to take the public transport there.
The process was very quick. I queued with the rest of the people, had my application form stamped and was asked a few questions about my transit.
I was seated at the “special” area because I cannot speak enough Spanish. At the photo taking counter, I was asked a few more questions and was given a bobby pins so I can pin up my hair for the photo.
And it was done. I took the subway back to the hostel because I wasn’t as rich to take a cab both ways.
The subway wasn’t very crowded and I managed to return to the hostel at 8:00am, in time for breakfast.
Classes sped by as we crammed our minds with reflexive verbs and vocabulary for telling the time. Soon it was lunch and I had Chinese food again.
School trip to the cemetery
Our school trip today was to Recoleta, specifically the cemetery. The place is so gorgeous that I do not mind visiting again.
In Recoleta CemeteryMausoleums in Recoleta CemeteryTree of lifeRoca? Roco?
We had some questions which we needed to ask passerbys for answers.
Our teachers stopped one lady in oversized sunglasses who resembled a frazzled Anna Wintour. Wintour was haughty in her answers, saying that for her, the most famous person in the cemetery was her family.
Excuse me.
Another gentleman with his wife were more than helpful with their answers, showering us Level 1.3s with lots and lots of words. Thank you kind sire.
After the CCA, I head back to the hostel to pack my bag. I’m heading to Iguazu Falls tomorrow evening with a tour group. The group will leave on Wednesday evening and reaching Buenos Aires on Monday.
Updates on the blog might be paused if I cannot get good internet or if I am driven mad by the party tour bus. I am deathly afraid of parties.
There is a long weekend this week in Argentina. Our school will also be closed from Thursday to Sunday. To replace our lessons, we were required to come to school one hour earlier.
One hour earlier sounds easy. Just 60 minutes earlier than the usual routine, right?
Well, my usual routine is waking up 2 hours before class and taking my time with my breakfast and reading. However, I couldn’t bear waking up at 7am when the sky was still dark and the air cold so I woke up at 7:30am.
The sky was still dark and the air cold. I was sure I had woken up some of my roommates when I fumbled with taking my things for the shower and for school.
We had a new teacher and a new classmate from Holland. Our 4-hour class was great since we got to talk a lot but all the new information needs time to be absorbed. Let me give that 2 years.
Trip to Cafe Tortoni
Inside of Cafe Tortoni
Our after school activity today was a trip to the oldest cafe in Buenos Aires–Cafe Tortoni. Before heading there, we sat in class and listened to a Tango song about the cafe and the famous people who visited there.
Cafe Tortoni menu
We were supposed to ask the waiters questions about the cafe when we reach there. I managed to ask only for the Wi-Fi password because I’m such a noob. Boo hoo.
Still, we learnt that the cafe’s entrance wasn’t at Avenida de Mayo as the road wasn’t built when the cafe first opened. Instead, the back of the cafe was the entrance.
The cafe is pretty. One part of the ceiling had stained glass while the walls are decorated with donated paintings.
Cafe Tortoni
Still, I find a cafe most useful when the coffee is large and I can read for an hour without being disturbed.
After our trip to cafe, it was free time. I headed to Carrefour, where the security guard knows me by sight, to buy something for the night’s dinner.
That something turned out to be a midsized cabbage. All the other leafy greens were either rotting or looking fresh and expensive in a plastic bags.
Unfortunately, the cabbage was really tough. I’ve sliced it into small slices but it tasted like chewing through paper.
Terrible cabbage.
The vegetable also lacked the usual sweetness I find in cabbages. Are winter vegetables exceptionally bad?
The night was spent drinking more honey lemon to prevent any cold that might want to visit.
The night has become really cold, my fingers are numb as I type in the kitchen. I hope I am able to find the remote control later so I can turn up the heater in my room.
Oh, I have a bunk mate now. Hope that my climbing in and out of bed won’t wake her up in the middle of the night. (Actually, deep down I hope she moves out sooner than I do.)
I finally managed to pass the Candy Crush level that I was stuck for about 2 months. This morning, I was stuck at another level and I left the hostel for school a bit later. In the process, I forgot to put on a jacket and was assaulted by the bitter winter wind.
The last day of class for the week was a bit more relaxed. Even though I do not feel “TGIF!”, it’s great to take a break so I can catch up on my revisions.
[Memo to self, memorize numbers, important verb conjugations and write a few lines of composition during the weekend.]
After school activity today was a visit to the Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires. I’ve not visited any museums in Buenos Aires, which is strange since I love museums.
In front of MALBA is a system with lights of three different colors. I thought that it was just some fancy art installation in front of the museums.
Macarena, you know her from previousschool trips, explained that the lights show if there are too many cars on the road.
MALBA traffic lights
When we were going into the exhibition, there was a bit of confusion at the ticket counter. The museum insisted that all of us needed to have student IDs to pay student price even though there was a school letter. Out of spite, I did use my *wink* student ID *wink* and the price was 16 pesos (32 pesos for full price).
Interestingly, those with “Samsung Smartphones” can get two tickets for the price of one. It’s because Samsung’s one of the sponsors, or something. This was the one of the times I wish I own a Samsung instead of an Apple.
Art Moderno
Since the museum is about Latin American art, all the pieces were modern looking. This contrasted with the museums in Europe where many of the works were around the Renaissance period.
Even though the works were modern, some of them were dated from 1926 so we can’t really call them modern.
A modern installation: Rotting potatoes
Macarena asked us to tell what we thought the paintings were about. I’m glad to report that I was able to talk about the paintings in more words than gestures.
Out of all the works, I was most impressed with Diego Rivera’s Retrato de Ramón Gómez de la Serna (Portrait of Ramón Gómez de la Serna). Even though Ramón Gómez is a good guy, I felt the potrait showed something like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
Diego Rivera, Retrato de Ramón Gómez de la Serna (Portrait of Ramón Gómez de la Serna),
Diego’s partner Frida is also exhibited.
I call this piece: Frida behind glass
My most favorite piece was this cheerful work: Rafael Barrada’s Quiosco de Canaletas (Kiosk in Canaletas). There’s something about the blue that catches my attention.
Rafael Barrada’s Quiosco de Canaletas (Kiosk in Canaletas)
I stayed on to look around at the museum while some of the others left. I was disappointed to find that only the first floor was exhibiting while the rest were closed.
Back to the hostel
Luckily, there was Wi-Fi at the museum and I found the route back to the hostel. I spotted a bus stop with buses going to Plaza Constitution. What I didn’t realize until I got down at Constitution was that I needed to go to Congressio, not Constitution.
When I arrived at the wrong destination, I had to walk back about 20 blocks to get back to the hostel. The sky was almost dark when I reached my elevator at about 6pm.
Dinner was a satisfying porridge of potato soup with spinach. The hostel mate who gave me rice yesterday gave me a whole bowl of leftover rice which I dumped into my soup.
I have a bad photo of my porridge so I’ll leave it to your imagination.
So what’s the next best thing? Cooking my own steak.
Wednesday and Thursdays are cheap meat days at the nearby Carrefour. They gave me a discount coupon with a value 30% of the price of the meat I bought today. I guess this means I’ll have steak again soon with the coupon.
Cooking steak in a hostel kitchen is easy
When I bought the meat, the three pieces in the A$20 (S$5) pack didn’t look that much. But it looked a lot bigger as I seasoned them with salt. A dorm mate even asked, “Are you having all three now?” Indeed, I am.
I cooked them in batches since the frying pan was a little too tiny to host all three of the meat. They turned out medium rare and were bleeding profusely when I sat them for 10 minutes.
Eating steak in a hostel kitchen is even easier
While it was great stuffing my face with steak, the cut that I bought wasn’t that tasty. (Do you think I’ll admit that my cooking is bad. Of course not.)
Next time, I’ll buy a better cut and see how it goes.
Until next meal!
Have you cooked in a hostel before? What’s your best dish?
Today was one of the most uneventful day of my time in Buenos Aires. The school didn’t have any after school activities and I had to finish my transit visa application for the US.
Even though it was the third day of Spanish class, it felt like I’ve been doing this for a long time. It’s probably because having 3-hour lessons at a go isn’t very healthy but time does fly when we’re in class.
After class, I popped into one of the supposed “All-You-Can-Eat” places. It turned out to be a Chinese place and sold food by weight.
I picked some of the lighter food: chicken parts with less bones, squid and fried rice. This whole plastic bowl of food was for A$22 (~S$5.50).
It’s not that cheap when compared to Chinese food back home. But here in Argentina where a cheap steak meal would set you back A$45, it’s kind of a miracle that you can find something filling at this price.
Chinese food in Buenos Aires
The side dishes were quite alright and were quite authentic Chinese cooking. However, the fried rice was a little on the tough side. Maybe Argentinians are more used to not fully cooked rice.
After lunch, I continued filling in the online form for my US visa. There were pages and pages of spaces to fill in. My page kept logging itself out, claiming I had not saved the form for 20 minutes. I had to clear my cache before everything went back to normal.
After I had done the online form, there was still payment of my US$160 visa fee. It was either a choice of paying by cash at the branches of two different banks or paying by credit card.
The only catch for the credit card payment was that it required a 20% charge on top of the transaction due to some rule set by the Argentinian government.
So that makes paying by cash the only option for me. By the time I was done, it was past 3:30pm. I hurriedly packed my things, hoping that I could find one of the Rapigogo branches and pay my fee fast.
Off to pay my visa fee
I set the bank on my Google Map and went off to find it. I assumed that it would be a large bank but it turned out to be something that was smaller than a post office.
At that time, I didn’t have the A$880+ on me. I was terrified of being robbed so I didn’t want to withdraw money before I know where the bank was.
Unfortunately, all the ATMs I went to that were near the Rapigogo branch couldn’t give me the money I want. I decided that I would make the payment tomorrow.
On my way back, I got a few groceries from Carrefour, including two cans of cheap corn in cream. The can turned out to be a hell lot more cream than corn.
Dinner was still brocolli soup but with a can of terrible corn. I also learned the hard way that I should not wash pasta before cooking it. (I assumed it was like rice and need a good rinse.)
This morning, I had my first taste of dulce de leche. I had been avoiding it because it came in a box that didn’t look very sanitary.
But I decided to give it a try after Macarena said a restaurant serves very good dulce de leche pasty.
Dulce de leche is a jam-like substance that is muddy brown but tastes of milky caramel. It’s quite nice as a bread spread but between you and I, kaya is much better.
Class went well, we learned how to talk about the weather which is very useful as small talk.
La Boca
Same as yesterday, there was an after-school activity. Today’s event was a trip to La Boca.
Our guide was still Macarena. This time, we were given a sheet of paper with explanation of different important sites in La Boca. The whole sheet was in Spanish. Gulp.
Macarena was around to help with deciphering the sheet. It’s good that I didn’t visit La Boca on my own because I wouldn’t have known the significance of important buildings.
We started at the pier. The water was muddy and didn’t smell so good. On the pavement, there were chalk-drawn games.
One of the games was this box jumping game. Back in Malaysia, we call it 跳飞机(Translation: Jumping from [or is it on] airplanes).
There was also a gigantic tic tac toe which requires people to stand in the little circles. It reminded me of Hogwart’s gigantic chess pieces.
Our tour involved walking into one small lane, being stopped by touts to go sit in their coffee shops, looking at tango shows for tourists and lots of listening.
One surprising thing was that one of the coffee place touts managed to figure out where I was from. It started out with the usual calls of “Ni hao. Annyeong hasseyo” which I ignore.
Suddenly, the guy said, “Malaysia.” I stopped in my tracks, turned to him to give him a thumbs up and a “Muy bien!”
He proceeded to explain why he said Malaysia. “No ‘ni hao’. No ‘annyeong’. No ‘konnichiwa’. Is Malaysia.”
OK. That’s a good deduction, I suppose.
Bit of history of La Boca
I’m terrible at recounting history so if you want a proper version, Wikitravel La Boca will be great help.
La Boca used to be the living area of immigrants who found work at the shipyard. They built their houses using left over materials from the boats. The colorful walls were the result of using leftover paint from ship.
Writers and painted moved to La Boca, probably because it was rustic, and the place became a bohemian place.
From what I saw now, La Boca is mainly touristic. It’s a nice place to take photos that say, “Hey, I’ve been to Buenos Aires!”
After La Boca, we took a bus back to the main city area.
At night, I went to a tango show. I’ll tell you more in a separate post.
Would you paint the walls of your house like how they do in La Boca?
One of my goals for South America is to get my Spanish up to conversational level so I signed up for a week of class here in Buenos Aires.
I believe I searched for my school using Foursquare. I really do not like walking in the cold so I figured that my school should be very near where I stay.
Luckily, there was a school on Foursquare. I checked out the place, paid a deposit and became of of their students.
The school is literally opposite my hostel. I only have to go over a crossing to get there. Wonderful.
YQ goes to school
First day of class
My class was small, with only 3 students. Our teacher is Felisitas, who’s younger than I am. Actually, I’m the oldest in class and the youngest is a 19 year old. (NINETEEN!)
Our class started with lessons in the middle of nowhere. We were asked to read a passage on our photocopied textbook (or really just sheets).
I realized that I’ve forgotten almost everything. I don’t remember how to conjugate verbs “to be”, “to have”, to anything, actually. I even have to count on my fingers to get to number 9 which means I probably have to use my toes when counting to 19.
Still it was quite fun, although I do not look forward to memorizing all those new words I learned. Blergh.
After school, one of my classmates brought us to the pizzeria below my hostel for empanadas.
Empanadas are curry puff-like pastries, only it’s much much better. I’m not a big fan of curry puffs because I find them boring. But empanadas are totally different.
The size is about 2 times larger than a regular curry puff. This means more filling. My chicken-filled empanada was bursting with chicken. I fell faint remembering how good it was. I’ll get you a good photo one day.
Tour of the avenue
Our school organizes after-school activities. Today, it was a tour of Avenida de Mayo with Ms Macarena (I am not kidding).
It was less of a tour and more like one hour of intense intermediate Spanish listening lesson.
Ms Macarena spoke at full speed Argentinian (lots of “sh” replacing the usual “y” sounds). I could catch about 20 percent of what Ms M said and was too confused to ask about parts I didn’t understand.
After the tour, I headed to Carrefour for groceries. I am finally cooking, after two months of travelling!
I was planning to make tomato soup but at the supermarket, the tomatos were expensive and half of them look like they were rotting.
Broccoli was much cheaper so that ended up on my menu. I also tossed in a packet of small pasta called Fideos Semolados Ave Maria.
Fideos Semolados
In the first floor kitchen, I manage to make my very first dish: Broccoli soup with pasta.
Based on the other half of broccoli, I’ll be having the same thing tomorrow but maybe I’ll throw in an egg or two.
YQ made brocolli soup
Do you cook when you travel? What’s your secret recipe?
I don’t really have any plans for Buenos Aires. My main goal here is to learn enough Spanish to venture out into the wild wild South America.
So for today, I listened to the advice of someone on Instagram and decided to check out San Telmo Sunday flea market. A Google Map search told me that it was within a walking distance of 2.4km.
It was drizzling slightly when I walked out of the hostel building. The street was empty except for a few people and some taxis.
As I walked down the road, I realized that I was the only person carrying an umbrella. Other people were walking in the rain or standing in a shade.
It was a bit unnerving walking down the long stretch of road and not seeing another umbrella even though the rain was enough to soak into my clothes.
I thought that maybe Buenos Airesians (?) do not believe in umbrella. But umbrella is not a religion, how can you not believe in it?
Finally, when I turned into Ave Indepencia, I saw another umbrella. I could only see the white beard of the person carrying the umbrella.
Before heading to San Telmo, I walked along Ave Indepencia, trying to find a Japanese restaurant. I didn’t manage to find it but I did see the Japanese Association in Argentina.
(Later, I found out that the restaurant shared the same address as the association but I still could not find the entrance.)
Japanese Association in Argentina
After the fruitless search, I continued on my way. I turned around the corner and stopped to take a photo.
Suddenly, two boys appear near me. They stopped and one of them sat on the window sill. From the corner of my eye, I saw him holding a bottle of beer.
I felt uneasy. I suspected that they might want to rob me so I looked at the one nearest me in the eyes. I walked off but turned around to see if they were following me. The boy was still sitting but was looking in my direction.
I quickly walked down the streets. Luckily, a lot of people were walking a few roads down. I followed the current of the people and reached San Telmo Market.
The inside of the market wasn’t fascinating. It had different stalls. Some selling antiques, coffee, flowers, clothes, leather everything. One shop sold creepy antique dolls.
San Telmo Market, Buenos Aires
I walked around for about half an hour before I got bored. I thought to myself, “Is this it?”
So I got out of the market and walked right into the real Sunday flea market. Since the rain had only stopped just now, most of the stalls were only starting to set up their wares.
I also discovered the sister restaurant of the Japanese restaurant I wanted to go to. However, the price of A$100 (S$25) for a set meal scared me off and I gave an excuse that I should continue walking.
So I walked. All the way from one end of the market to the other end at Plaza Mayo. Walking on Buenos Aires’ cobbled stone path wasn’t easy. I sometimes trip but manage not to fall.
The wares sold repeated themselves: Woolly clothes, mate cups and straw, leather goods etc.
San Telmo Sunday flea market
I did manage to buy a comic book for Spanish practice.
Mafalda comic
After the long long walk, I headed back to my hostel. On the way, I stopped by SUMO, an ice cream shop recommended by a classmate.
In Argentina, they don’t serve ice cream like you know it. The sizes come in 1/4 kilogram, half a kilogram and a kilogram.
I didn’t realize that and ordered a medium ice cream. It came in a bad tasting waffle but was quite big. I found out that for 3 pesos more, I could have gotten the 1/4 kilogram of ice cream. Now I can only dream of such an ice cream.
Ice cream from San Telmo’s SUMO
After the cold lunch, I finally got back to my hostel. I stayed in and didn’t do much since it was the last day before classes start.
The best and worst meal
For dinner, I was deciding between dinner at the pizzeria downstairs or a nice meal out. In the end, nice meal won because I’ve made up mind to start cooking on Monday.
So off I went to a Tripadvisor recommended steak house. The restaurant only had another table of customer because it was still too early for dinner.
I ordered the smallest steak and rashly added a glass of champagne. We have to enjoy life to the fullest, don’t we?
The champagne was delightful. It wasn’t too dry and the bubbles were popping about. I was down to half a glass when my steak finally came with its expensive serving of thick cut fries.
Argentinian steak is so lovely.
The steak as DE-LI-CIOUS. I ordered it rare, knowing that it is cooked to medium rare here in Argentina. It was very tasty. The best part was the fat which was crispy and oozed of liquid cholesterol.
There was also pools of pink blood leaking but that was comforting because it meant that it wasn’t fully cooked.
While the whole meal was wonderful, almost at the end of my steak, I felt the strangest sensation.
I was feeling quite tipsy since I drank champagne on an empty stomach. Worst thing was, the delicious meat that I had was actually clawing their way up my throat.
Oh dear.
I sat in my chair, staring out of the window at the Carrefour Express opposite. Half of me wanted to pay my bill, run to the supermarket and chug down 1 liters of water. The other half of me knew that I would probably throw up on the corner of the street before I even leave the restaurant.
The blood on the plate made me more nauseous. The whole fragrant grilled meat smell was making me disgusted.
I did the best thing. I ordered a A$16 bottle of non-gassy water.
The water was my saviour. I immediately felt more clear headed and less nauseous. I gratefully took sips of the water and finished the whole bottle.
I couldn’t wait to leave the restaurant since the smell of meat wasn’t helping with my stomach. I paid my bill and walked back slowly, planning my next less-alcoholic menu.
I’m open for suggestions on food to cook in hostel kitchens. If you have any recipes, please share them with me in the comments. Muchas gracias.
YQtravelling 