hills and mountains

At the time I'm writing this post, I've been here exactly two weeks. To be honest, it feels like much longer because so much has happened.

I get along really well with my roommates so far, a Brazilian has joined us. We've already played cards together, and the Argentinians taught us foreigners how to play 'Truco'. I already don't understand most card games in German, and in Spanish it was even more difficult because the cards were naturally different symbols... But after some time, I had (at least in my eyes) understood it.

Last Thursday was my first trip outside of Mendoza. With other exchange students, we went by bus (with the most comfortable seats) to Potrerillos, a small village next to a huge, turquoise lake/dam. Of course, we also went swimming because the water wasn't that cold. Only the wind was cold, but since there was almost no shade, the sun warmed us up again. At some point, we got hungry, and after we had eaten all our emergency supply of cookies, we went in search of the restaurants that were displayed on Google Maps. However, they turned out to be food trucks, but unfortunately, they were all closed. So we bought bread, cheese, and wine at the local, unexposed supermarket and had a nice picnic by the water. In the afternoon, we took the bus back a bit and went to the Thermas de Cacheuta. These are located in a kind of gorge, and they are essentially several pools built like terraces on the mountainside. You can think of it more like an outdoor pool. An outdoor pool with 35-degree hot water. But I really enjoyed it and was able to relax. There were also a few cats in the outdoor pool. Here in Argentina, cats generally roam everywhere, and especially dogs, but they are all very peaceful and lovely.

The Thermas closed at 6 p.m., but our bus wasn't scheduled until 9 p.m. During the waiting time, we wanted to go somewhere to eat, but unfortunately, almost everything was already closed, and the village, where hundreds of bathers were walking around before, was suddenly deserted. In the end, we did find something on the roadside and ate very greasy but excellent Empanadas there. However, there was still a lot of time left until the bus, and we were told that there should still be an earlier one. However, it was so crowded that there was no room even in the aisles. At least we didn't easily fall on the winding mountain roads. We were just happy to come home earlier.

What fascinated me about this trip were the mountains. Compared to Austria, there is much less vegetation, there are brown stones and shrubs everywhere. But around the lake in Potrerillos, you could see the Andes and also the Aconcagua (at least I think so). It was already very impressive to see the mountain peaks above the clouds.

On Saturday, I went out for the first time. Unfortunately, I didn't get to dance because the discos are all outside the city center, and there was a long line at the ones in the center (not surprising here xD). But it was still fun because I met some other exchange students and tried Fernet con Coca for the first time (I used to be more excited, but maybe you have to drink it more often).

On Sunday, I made my second attempt to go dancing. In the evening, we met up with other exchange students to go to a free tango lesson. To our disappointment, it turned out that only four older men were present. I would have still tried it, but it was decided to go out for wine instead. So dancing another time... But the evening was still very fun, there were more than ten exchange students from France, Brazil, Italy, and Germany, and we could share our experiences with each other.

Random fact at the end: You can almost never lock the toilets here, and there is usually no toilet paper, even at the university. At first, it was a bit unusual, but if you remember to bring tissues, it's no problem at all.

Another random fact: I thought as a vegetarian, I wouldn't get very far in Argentina, but so far, it's going pretty well, and there are more vegetarian schnitzels (Milanesas) in the supermarket than in Austria. We should take a page out of their book.

Bye.