I heard about a project to build a sustainable community (Comunidad Hogar German Frers) on couchsurfing. I arranged with one of the project founders to go and help them out for a few days. The project is in a place called Baradero which is about two hours from Buenos Aires.
I decided to take the train and got to the train station about 45 minutes before the train was due to leave. There were a few different train stations all beside each other, after trying a few I eventually found the correct one and found the correct counter to buy the ticket I needed. But they would not sell me a ticket, I know the Spanish for why so I said that, it was a bit pointless as I still don't know any Spanish so I didn't understand his reason. I concluded it was full as there is only one train per day.
The bus station was nearby so I went there and got a ticket. I had an hour to wait before the bus so I found the correct platform and decided I'd wait there listening to my iPod. 3:00pm, 3:15pm, 3:30pm and still no bus. I knew the final destination of the bus and it was never displayed on the list of departures. Eventually I asked someone if they spoke English (I know this much in Spanish) and they said 'un poco' which is a little. So I showed them my ticket and they said bus not arrived yet. So I waited and eventually at 3:45pm the bus appeared on the departures monitor and soon afterwards it arrived.
2 hours later I was in Baradero. I tried calling the guys who I'd been talking to on email to get them to collect me but I couldn't get in touch with them. So I got a taxi, luckily I was prepared for this and know how to say my destination in Spanish. Baradero is quite a small town and after driving for about 2 minutes the road disappeared and we were driving on a dirt track, eventually we came to a junction with a main road.
Here I saw the sign for la comunidad. I paid the taxi driver, got my luggage and was greeted in Spanish by lots of people. The guys who I'd been talking to that spoke English were away and not due back for another hour. Next week I'm going to start learning Spanish.
I decided to take the train and got to the train station about 45 minutes before the train was due to leave. There were a few different train stations all beside each other, after trying a few I eventually found the correct one and found the correct counter to buy the ticket I needed. But they would not sell me a ticket, I know the Spanish for why so I said that, it was a bit pointless as I still don't know any Spanish so I didn't understand his reason. I concluded it was full as there is only one train per day.
The bus station was nearby so I went there and got a ticket. I had an hour to wait before the bus so I found the correct platform and decided I'd wait there listening to my iPod. 3:00pm, 3:15pm, 3:30pm and still no bus. I knew the final destination of the bus and it was never displayed on the list of departures. Eventually I asked someone if they spoke English (I know this much in Spanish) and they said 'un poco' which is a little. So I showed them my ticket and they said bus not arrived yet. So I waited and eventually at 3:45pm the bus appeared on the departures monitor and soon afterwards it arrived.
2 hours later I was in Baradero. I tried calling the guys who I'd been talking to on email to get them to collect me but I couldn't get in touch with them. So I got a taxi, luckily I was prepared for this and know how to say my destination in Spanish. Baradero is quite a small town and after driving for about 2 minutes the road disappeared and we were driving on a dirt track, eventually we came to a junction with a main road.
Here I saw the sign for la comunidad. I paid the taxi driver, got my luggage and was greeted in Spanish by lots of people. The guys who I'd been talking to that spoke English were away and not due back for another hour. Next week I'm going to start learning Spanish.
I think you'll like Spanish.
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