Sunny Rosario

Between my stay in Buenos Aires and Córdoba (where I currently am) I spent a few days in Rosario. I travelled up there on an El Rosarino bus, Ejectivo class which is the lap of luxury! But more about the buses later. Rosario sounded like it would be a really fun place to visit from the write up in my guidebook and I have to say, it was a lovely town. However, although I'm in South America during peak season, being the summer, it does mean that the universities are closed and seemingly most of the theatres too, so the buzzy vibe that these establishments bring to a place is somewhat missing at the moment.

I arrived in Rosario in the early evening and took a cab to my hostel. In the three cities I've been to so far in Argentina, they all have systems similar to Oyster for the buses where you charge up a card and then touch in on the bus to deduct the fare. It would be amazing if this system were joined up so that the same card worked in all cities, but sadly it's not, so you need a different card in each place. At the point I arrived I really couldn't bring myself to figure out how to buy the card and so took the easy route of getting a cab! This is one of my frustrations with Rough Guides/Lonely Planets as they tell you what you need to ride the bus i.e. The card, but not necessarily how you go about acquiring it! (In Buenos Aires, Seb translated and helped us buy it but I didn't have a Seb in Rosario!). 

Anyway, I arrived in the hostel and was met by Laura (who was super friendly and helpful and actually lent me her card whilst I was there) and then I went off for my usual recce and to get dinner. I had a great first impression of Rosario, again the architecture was lovely and although parts were a little run down, it was a real mix of old and new, I liked this picture which shows this well.

The architecture was beautiful with a lot of the buildings having embellishments that reminded me of some of the buildings I saw in Eastern Europe and at the top I could see roof terraces that looked perfect for chilling in with a glass of vino tinto!

Dinner sadly was a little disappointing as the quality:price ratio was similarly disproportionate as in Bs.As. 

Anyway, Saturday dawned bright and sunny and so I popped back to the bus station to get my ticket to Córdoba, then headed back into town for the walking tour that was advertised in my guidebook on Saturdays, at 11.30am, meeting outside the Congress building. It's a fairly recent guidebook but sadly, this information appears to be out of date as I was literally the only person there - not even a guide turned up! Fortunately I was close to the river and being a lover of water, decided to go for a mooch along there instead. It was a lovely walk with an amazing view.

There were lots of people out running, although I genuinely don't know how given the temperature! As an aside, Rosario seems to have a disproportionately large number of gyms for the size of the place, on a par with shoe shops (there are so many shoe shops out here I cannot work out how they all stay in business!). There was also this group of artists drawing the town...

...and there were skateboarders out practising their tricks. There is quite a lot of regeneration of the riverside so it was a lovely walk. You can see how hot it was as even this dog was trying to find whatever shade he could!

At the end I treated myself to a cold drink and a snack at this lovely cafe.

From here, I then headed back to the hostel where I wrote my previous post on Buenos Aires and then in the evening went for dinner at another of the restaurants recommended by my Rough Guide; again, nothing worth writing about!

To the north of Rosario, there are beaches along the banks of the river and so on Sunday I decided to go and check them out.

You may remember that I'm not a fan of sand but I figured that it was worth a look and so I got the bus the 6 km north of the town. It was a really fun atmosphere up there but it was so super hot, even with my factor 50 and hat I knew I wasn't going to survive for very long! However, I had a really nice walk along the river front...

...and then stopped for a bite to eat and cold drink before taking a slow trip back into town. Despite slathering on the sun cream I managed to burn a 2cm triangular section of my shoulder where my rucksack I think had rubbed the cream off, but given the temperature, which I would guess was around 35 degrees, I figured I'd come off lightly, there were some lobsters on show that day for sure!

That evening I had a relaxing beer in the hostel and watched 'The Devil Wears Prada' dubbed in Spanish. I was hoping that given I know the movie I might understand some of what they were saying, but sadly not... 🙄

On Monday evening (well really Tuesday morning as it was at 1.30am) I was getting the bus to Córdoba, so I paid the extra for a late checkout and then went for a mooch around the town. As fab as my travel trousers are, out here they are still very hot and so I decided to buy some cotton trousers. Given that everyone wears them I thought it would be easy, but sadly not, and I ended up wth the most bizarre pair that weirdly will go with every colour top I have out here! Here they are!

After making my purchase I headed back to the hostel, trying, but failing, to not get hot and sweaty given the bus journey and knowing that although I was due to arrive around 9am I wouldn't be able to check in to my hostel and get cleaned up until around 2pm. I sat and read my book and then had a lovely chat with Eric, who was from Brazil and worked in the hostel about placed to visit in Argentina, which he'd been travelling round for a month. He spoke brilliant English having lived in Southwark for 6 months but also spoke Chinese (due to a 2 year joint degree between his Braziian University and Beijing University) plus Spanish, Portuguese, some Italian and Arabic - impressive!

From there, I headed to the bus station to travel up to Córdoba where I am now. Stop 2: Rosario, done!

So the buses. There are three different classes of buses out here: Ejectivo, Cama and Semi-Cama. Ejectivo are the super posh ones where the seats are over-sized and go flat to become beds. Cama are also larger seats an recline deeply but don't go fully flat. Cama tend to be narrower seats and only partially recline. On a long journey it's nice to be Ejectivo, particularly if it's a night journey and you can ride the bus rather than pay for a bed in a hostel! However, I was Cama from Rosario to Córdoba and I managed to get some sleep which is rare for me when traveling so goes to show how good they are! This is a picture inside my Ejectivo bus including the snack box I was given.

I could almost but not quite fully stretch my legs which gives you some idea of the leg room between the seats.

And so I'm now in Córdoba, which I'll tell you about in a few days. I do have some very sad news though. I have had to say farewell to my lovely red shoes. Not sure if it's because they got wet, because of the waterproofer I used on them or just that I have amazingly smelly feet but they absolutely hummed and despite trying to wash them, they have had to go to the shoe box in the sky 😢. They have been replaced by a new pair of Salomons (the only shop I could find!) that are still very pretty 😊

 
but definitely don't go with the trousers!!