Day 1 - Travel to Argentina
In the days leading up to my trip to Argentina,
I started to get very excited. I was somewhat hesitant because I was
traveling by myself and spoke very little Spanish. But, I saw the first
situation as an opportunity to purge my mind of some of the things that had been
occurring in my life. I viewed the second situation as a challenge - one
that would allow me to improve my Spanish through trial-and-error.
I was booked on Delta Air Lines flight 100, nonstop service from Atlanta to Buenos Aires. Since most Latin Americans do not enjoy traveling long distances during the day, the flight was an overnight experience. It was scheduled to depart from Atlanta at 22.30, which meant that I had to work the whole day. I came home to shower and finish packing, which only took me an hour to do. I took advantage of the remaining time to finish making a few mix CDs for the trip, which were rather handy. Fortunately, one of my friends was departing the same night on a business trip, so he gave me a ride to the airport.
I checked in for the flight at the ticket counter. I checked one bag to Buenos Aires, got my boarding pass then proceeded to my gate. Since I hadn't eaten dinner, I dined at one of the airport's fine establishments - Mandarin Express on Concourse E.
Boarding began around 22.10, with BusinessElite and Medallion passengers allowed to get on the plane first. I boarded at 22.21, and it appeared that the flight would be somewhat empty. It had rained most of the day, but had subsided by the evening. Because of the rain, several flights were delayed, which meant there were a significant number of misconnects for the flight. Nevertheless, it was a full flight, as there a number of non-revenue passengers on the plane. Consequently, I wasn't able to spread out for the evening's sleep.
After the dinner service, I was able to get about six hours of restful sleep. I put my earplugs in, eyeshades on and headphones over my ears - all of this allowed me to block out the surrounding noises and sights. I woke up a couple of times, but it was good to walk around and circulate the blood, as I didn't want to get deep vein thrombosis (DVT).
Click here to proceed to Day
2 - Arrival / Balvanera + Caballito or return to the Argentina
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