From the moment I exited the front door of the apartment, I decided to do it the backpacking way, this means walking and utilizing public means of transport to largest extent possible. So, after being treated with an astronomically sized ice cream from my favourite place, I started the journey by a walk to the subway station, which would take me to the train station of Constitucion, where all the trains south depart from.
Walking with a backpack through the, by now, very well known neighbourhoods in Buenos Aires, made me feel like a turist again, reminding me of the first days of arriving to Argentina. The same feeling of expectation I had back then, for everything that was lying ahead of me, appeared again and this was of course a good sign.
The train station hallI arrived to the Constitucion train station almost an hour before train departure. So I had, some time to look around. I knew beforehand that this area wasn't the safest one in Buenos Aires, so, gringo as I am, I was on guard. However, I couldn't resist from taking out my camera and photographying the beautiful train station building. I bet it's designers imagined a more gloriuos destiny for the building than it has now; surrounded by highway and other buildings not as near beautiful as this pearl.
The train arrivingThe train
One thing that still surprises me is the Portenos (citizens of BuenosAires) queuing discipline; in this big city, people perfectly stay in line at bus stations, in supermarkets and in this case, also train stations. I was tempted to follow my instinct and subtilly move to the front of the line, avoiding any potentially discouring eye contact, but I guess living one year in a city assimilates you.
Interior of the trainAt 23.10, without any announcement, the lights in the train coupe were shut down and it became completely dark. As we were in the middle of endless Pampas, The only light to be spotted was from the stars and of course, mobile phones. Probably many cows out there, digesting the kilograms of grass eaten during the day. The Argentine pampas is an enormous grassland , almost as big as Sweden and Italy together, provides fresh grass all year round, which makes the Argentine beef so tender and tasty. When the spaniards first came to Argentina, in order to colonize it, they brought cows but colonization turned out harder than expected and many settlements were abondoned and the cows were left behind. Having few natural enemies, with rich food supply, the cows rapidly increased in number. The Argentinian similarity to cowboys, Gauchos, would back in the days suppose to be feeding on such cows - just catching them in the wild.
The station
Arriving to Bahia Blanca
After a 14 hours (did I mention bumpy) ride, I finally arrived to Bahia Blanca. I managed to get some sleep, even if it was interrupted from time to time by the carriage basically "jumping" on the tracks. The railway isn't prioritized in Argentina, and many railway tracks are taken out of service due to unprofitability and hence poor maintenance. At the time of the second world war, Argentina had 47000km of railroad, today only 34000km (source: wikipedia). This is a pity, because given the large distances, a modern railway system would make the transport of people and goods more eficient. Now, the main main for overland transport for people are buses - I am testing that tonight and I have great expectations.
But first, I will stroll around in Bahia Blanca.
Translation: Lounge for women only
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