Argentina Really Does Have a lot of Germans

At 9:00am, the alarm came early after our night out, but we had places to go and people to see. With all of us skipping breakfast and me having a fateful glass of water that I was assured was safe, we were out the door by 10:00am. Needless to say, everyone was a little glassy eyed and sleepy. Now, I haven’t stayed up that late since I lived in Brussels in 2003 (I am more of a 10:30pm-6:30am type of guy most nights), but they handled it remarkably well.

Our next stop was a small village of German immigrants called General Belgrano. Last night I mentioned that I would like to try more Argentinean beers, and this particular village is the home of Argentinean brewing. The drive was gorgeous, passing lakes and hills, and true to its description General Belgrano was a Germanic town. Everything was done up in a Bavarian sort of way, and there were definitely more blond people there than in Mendoza.

We each had a beer at the Viejo Munich brewery, where we all had a “negro” beer (meaning a dark beer, generally a bock style) that tasted alright but was not of import caliber. After finishing our beer and splitting a cheese plate we were off. Next stop, Cordoba.

Cordoba is an old colonial city in the middle of the country and is generally considered Argentina’s second city (after Buenos Aires) due to its one million inhabitants and seven universities. Once they dropped me off I immediately fell asleep and woke up only to shower and have some dinner before heading back to bed.

The guys were going out again and hoped that I would join them, but there was just no way. Two hours of sleep is just not enough to keep me going for another long night!

I woke up bright and early and spent the day exploring the city. Among the colonial buildings from the 1600s and the skyscrapers is a city filled with all sorts of people. Young and old, students, professionals, and retirees; I even saw a couple of horse-drawn carts in the traffic. It is a beautiful city, and I always love seeing that little bit of old Europe in the new world with colonial cathedrals and castles. Yes, the new world has castles!

Some of the highlights were the couple church services in the old cathedrals that I was able to attend and the huge open air market in the evening. The market was comprised of artisans and local shoppers. I was able to find a really cool leather shoulder bag that was hand made by the seller, Juan, and it was less than $100 US, not too bad!

Tomorrow will be more exploring and hopefully finding a suit for our wedding. Since the meetings wrapped up I have had some time to play, and it feels good to unwind a bit.