We had booked in at the Tango theme-hotel Mansion Dandi Royal www.dandiroyal.com for three nights to get the right tango- and Buenos Aires-feeling. In the hotel costs a really nice package was included: tango lessons, tango show with dinner, and sightseeing tour around in Buenos Aires. And it really paid off for sure! Dandi Hotel is unique. The atmosphere is unbeatable – a heavy taste of mystic is on your tongue as you enter the Hotel. Sophisticated and elegant are words that rapidly appear to my mind when I think of Dandi. The hotel room is stunning! The walls are all painted by hand - it is a masterpiece! You could use several of hours studying the amazing paintings which take you back to the twenties. As you watch the paintings you really feel you are participating the party on the wall. Of course they have silky gloves, and all of them wear cool hats.
Suddenly the piccolo arrives with our luggage, fruit, flowers and champagne! Is this for real?? We slept comfortably in the queen sized bed that night, until we woke up the next morning at eight sharp to tangomusic coming from hidden loadspeakers!
In Norway we attended a beginner course in tango. During this beginner course we got introduced to the basics of tango. However, it takes a lot of practicing to dance tango – and a lot of patience!
We enjoyed a breathtaking tangoshow at Dandi`s one of the following nights. Through the show we got introduced to the development of the tango from the beginning of the last century and until the tango of today. It was a great show with professional dancers. Some of them came from the streets. After the show, the evening continued with a milonga.
We were lucky to meet the owner of Dandi Royal and the tango legend, Hector Villalba. We interviewed him about the hotel and the tango. It was interesting to talk to him about his rich life. After talking to him we felt we knew more about the soul of tango. We found him very charming, he had lots of funny stories to share. After our conversation I got the opportunity to have a dance with him. It was a little tricky because I am a neck plus a head taller than him, and of course it was very difficult to follow his professional steps.
The apartment which we had reserved, was not longer available. We learned that although you have got a confirmed booked apartment in Argentina, it doesn’t necessarily mean you are 100% sure to get it in the end. When we called the day before to check the practical things and prepare to move in, they didn’t find our booking in their system... After a lot of organizing back and forth, Bjørn Christian found a new, nice apartment in Palermo Hollywood for us. And the apartment and the area turned out to be perfect for us. The apartments were placed in old factory-buildings, actually in silos. Our apartment was brand new, we were the first to move in after it was renovated. But it followed a catch, a lot of things were left to be done. No Internet-access, problems with the toilet, windows couldn’t be safely closed and the closet doors had to be installed. And last, but not least – we couldn’t pay the rent with credit card – we had to withdraw cash to pay it all. The problem was that we could only withdraw 3 x 300 pesos (ca 770 kr) pr day. So we had to collect a bunch of money each day and store it safe under the madras until we had the right amount.
However, we fully enjoyed the days we spent in Dorrego Silos – the area had a gym, a nice restaurant and a quite large and deep (!) swimming pool. Bjørn Christian loved to stay in that pool late and early, and he swam it back and forth – Heaven knows how many times! I rather preferred jogging on the treadmill, I found it better to be a little bored than getting my hair all green by the clorin from the pool…(!!)
Through two weeks we attended Spanish classes at Ibero Spanish School. The classes were from 14:00 to 18:00 every day. The teacher Gonzalo tried to keep our tongues rolling in Spanish sentences – and we ended the program with a bigger vocabulary and many new friends. Some of these interesting and friendly people are to be found in the pictures below. Kerstin, Didi and Mo.
Meared, Christine and Rory. Very friendly and cool people!
We also got to know Mariana and Marcos – a wonderful couple who lived in the silo next to us. Best neighbors we have ever had – we could always count on them. We were lucky to having them around.
During the first weeks of our stay in Buenos Aires it was spring, and the trees were blooming all around. This is of course a beautiful period for most people – but not for me. Past May I really hoped it was one year until the next pollen period, but I was wrong. We got a new spring here in Buenos Aires – two in a year - and I had to go through the pollen season one more time. I am unfortunately very allergic to pollen and on top of it all it was a lot of pollution in the air that we weren’t used to. For some weeks I was in really bad shape, and felt very ill. Some days I had to stay in bed – it was really horrible!
Spring turned to summer, and both Bjørn Christian and I started to feel much better. The days flew, we went to Spanish classes, worked and danced tango in the evenings.
To travel the world is not being on a long vacation. As I have mentioned earlier in the blog it is a lot of organizing, planning and searching to do. And we have experienced that everything is much more difficult to handle from “the other side of the World”. It all takes you so much more time! And with different timezones, Argentina is 4 hours behind Norwegian time, it can be difficult sometimes to reach Norwegian working hours. We need to keep in contact with customers, partners and creditors. We use Skype to call long distance – but we are depended on having a high speed Internet access, otherwise it can be very hard to communicate. During this time we are working on different projects, making documentary and writing articles. Bjørn Christian also works every day on Itim matters. I do the accounting. We have also been applying for visas for China and India here in Buenos Aires – and that is quite a huge project. And just to go to the post office and send some packages takes you about 2-3 hours. Everything takes a lot of time! We also try to catch up with friends and family in Norway. We are very happy to get emails and messengers from people who have us in mind! We actually also have grey days “hverdager” on a world-around-trip and then it helps to get an email from a friend “on the other side of the world”.
Sometimes we miss having our family and friends around. And it`s hard to reduce the frequency of contact on the phone. Fortunately, Bjørn Christian and I get along very well allthough we are around each other twenty-four-seven…We really get under each others skin, we know all weak and strong points – on each other and on our selves - and all of the life aspects gets very clear. We are totally dependent on each other, and we are forced to find good solutions – we can`t just run away – we have to tango just the two of us and be aware so that we follow each others steps.
It can be challenging to see things clear and make the right choice when you are in the middle of unexpected situations, which there are several of on a world-around-trip. We have learned how to let the patience grow and to bless the forgiveness. And last but not least, to send the rest of the Norwegian naivity, which we may have, on the boat. It is unfortunately a cruel world out there, and you have to be aware every step you take. If you accept this fact, and learn how to deal with the challenge you meet in this world, you will – to a much larger extend - appreciate the beauty of it.
It was unbelievable and surrealistic that it was soon Christmas. Outside we had temperatures up to 40 C, we got sunburned and wasn`t supposed to sing Christmas songs. We didn’t have much Christmas-feeling, and decided not to celebrate the way we were used to. For fun we got a little, white Christmas tree at the supermarket. We had a Christmas-budget of 100 kr. The tree helped us a little bit on our way to achieve some Christmas feelings, but understandable it was very hard to get in the right Christmas-mood for us. But when it turned out that Bjørn Christian had brought his “The best of Christmas songs” – cd, and turned on “last Christmas” by Wham, I actually started to get some. Have to admit I longed a little bit home to the “Lutefisk” and the white, heavy snow. In that minute of longing, our 25 pesos white Christmas tree was nothing but stupid. Anyway, half an hour later I fully enjoyed walking in the green grass towards the swimming pool, and actually felt very priviliged….
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