I'm back ;)

Hi guys, I know I took a really long holiday but I’m back now and I’ll do my best to post weekly.

So what has happened since February, hmmm let me think. I've been travelling a lot around the UK because of work, I went to Wales for the first time, a few summer Festivals and went for a weekend to Amsterdam.

At this precise moment, I’m writing to you from the airport waiting area. I still have 4 hours of waiting in this stop over and then 13 hours on a plane. Finally, after 2 years I’m going home, Argentina, to visit my family for 2 weeks.

We have a short trip plan, but don’t worry I’ll tell you all about it later. We are going up north, I've never been there before so I’m really looking forward to it.

There is something else that I have to tell you, I’m not going home alone. After a bit of convincing, one of my friends said yes and he is coming with me.

His name is Rory, he was born in New Jersey but he grew up in London. It’s his first time in South America so he is super excited but at the same scared. Yesterday I had to go to his place and help him pack because he didn't know what to take with him (amateur traveler). He even asked me “how are the roads there?”. Yes, we do have normal road, we do have pavement. He made me laugh, I don’t know what he is expecting but I know he is going to be surprised.

The funniest thing is that I bought my ticket before him, and when he decided to come I got him a ticket with better connections than mine and EVEN CHEAPER, lucky guy. Not only that, he also arrives almost 8 hours before me, so my mum is picking him up. I can’t wait to hear about them meeting tomorrow.

So in the coming posts you are going hear about Argentina, through a first timer’s eyes. I have a feeling that is going to be interesting.

So stay tune and I’ll see you soon J

Molly's first hostel experience =)

I can't remember the first time I went to a hostel but I've always felt comfortable and I thought it was real fun. So today I'm going to tell you guys about my friend Molly's first hostel experience. She wanted to travel, so we went together to Berlin and of course I was going to stay in a hostel, a place that she'd never been before.

But before that, I want to talk about Berlin a little bit more. I've got a few more places that I would like to tell you guys about.


Something else that I liked from this city was that it gives you many options to go on a tour. Yes, you got the traditional bus tours, as well as the walking tours. But you also got a Segway tour, that seems pretty cool I have to admit. You also got the Trabi-safari tour, basically you drive your own Trabi but you go with a group of cars and you follow the guide, who is driving the first car and explaining the sightseeing by radio.

As I said before Berlin is weird, is a strange city (not in a bad way). I saw a guy, hmm how to explain this, skiing in the street. Went to Friedrichshain, the neighbourhood full with graffiti, lots of bars with happy hour until 3 a.m., and found a market where they were selling drawers (not a chest drawer, just single drawers), and family pictures, no idea who buys this things, but I've never seen anything like that. You got photo booths EVERYWHERE, and I think that's awesome =). And for you my vegan, vegetarian friends, there are healthy, organic restaurant wherever you look.

Another thing is the TV Tower, which is 368 meters high, it's a big tower with a kind of disco ball on it. It can be seen from almost everywhere in central Berlin. It was built during the Cold War by Walter Ulbricht, as a symbol of East Berlin. On that sphere you've got a restaurant with an amazing view.

The Neue Wache, Central Memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany for the Victims of War and Dictatorship, is a place you shouldn't miss. Inside of it you'll fin the sculpture of the Mother with Her Dead Son. It's placed under a hole in the roof, so it's affected by rain, snow and every kind of weather. This symbolizes the suffering of the people.

Ok, let's go back to Molly. So when I was checking for a hostel I had to take some things into account. I looked for a hostel with great reviews. One that looked clean and for a dorm with not too many beds (she didn't like the idea of both of us and 6 strangers, so we went for a 6 bed dorm). I wanted her to feel comfortable, so she could have a good first experience.

Molly. She didn't let me take many pictures of her

So we got there,  excellent location, very central. They gave us the key to the room, a really big room for a 6 bed dorm if you ask me. Kitchen was clean, bathrooms and toilets clean ( they clean them twice a day). And we were sharing the room with just one person, the rest of the beds were free. Everything was going great until we meet our roomie, Smokey George (that's the nickname we gave him), a 40 something year old man from Bulgaria that didn't speak English and smoked in the room. A nice guy but almost impossible to understand, he also tried to take pictures of us, creepy.

The next morning was shower time. Waking up, getting up,deciding what to wear in advance, queueing, choosing a shower, hanging everything, making sure nothing falls to the floor or gets wet because the shower curtain doesn't cover everything. This was a challenge, one that she didn't really expect, specially because she got the damaged shower with no pressure LOL.

But I think that wasn't the worst thing. I contacted the hostel before our trip to make sure they provided a blow dryer, and they said they had some. When I went to pick it up at the reception they gave me a toy-size one, that didn't blow anything. It took her AAAAGESSS to dry her hair, at least 30 minutes.
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The second night wasn't that bad, we had a new couple in the room, so Molly felt a little bit better having people her age. And we spent time in the common area playing games with people from all around the world.

By the last night, I think she appreciated it more. She was chatting with people, enjoying the whole hostel experience, with the young people and the older people that you get, with the hippy ones, the drinking ones, the couples and the weird ones of course.

So when we were at the airport I asked her "Did you like it?". she told me she still prefers the Hotel life, she like unpacking EVERYTHING in the room, and a shower where she can put things down without being scared that they are going to fall on a puddle or having to wear flip flops. But she enjoyed the experience of meeting new people and the idea of the common area where everybody hangs out.

So this feels like a win to me. I felt a lot of pressure, I wanted Molly to have a good time, feel comfortable and enjoy one of the things I love the most. I felt the responsibility of taking care of her and making sure everything went smoothly. Hostels are a big part of my trip, I travel on my own so here's where I meet the lovely people that I meet. If I go to a hotel I would feel really lonely and depressed, in hostels I meet people like me, travellers =).

Molly didn't reject the hostel idea, so YAAAAYYYY. And guess what, I'm already planning a new adventure to take her  along ;). So sit tight, because they are more things to come. But guys if you've got any questions, or you want me to help you with anything, just leave a comment and I'll write back to you. See you soon.

Buddy Bears Berlin

Welcome back. As I said in my last post, last week I did a city break to Berlin for 4 days. I've never been to Germany before (country number 22) so, it was  a great experience.

Berlin is a city with a lot of history, WW1, WW2 and the cold war, plus amazing modern architecture, street art and crazy, weird, wild night life.

When I got there I didn't know what to expect. I heard so many people saying "Berlin is amazing, I love it", "Berlin is the city I want to live in", "Is the best place in the world", or "Is my favourite city". I needed to check by myself if it was true.

To be honest, at the beginning I didn't understand what the big deal was, for me it was just like any other big city,but everyday I found a new place, even more beautiful than the day before, and eventually I got what everybody was talking about.

Berlin is a weird city, with a lot of strange things happening. For example on my first day, I was at the park and I saw a guy, jogging, naked. Oh yeah, naked, just swearing trainers and something covering his genitals. Nice welcome Berlin.

You also have the United Buddy Bears, 140 painted bear sculptures that you can find all around the city. The best one that I've seen was in the U.S.A. Embassy, is a Statue of Liberty bear.

I saw some other interesting things. Like the conference bicycle, a 7 seat round bicycle, where one person steers and everybody pedals. Another one was Berlin Horizontal, a bike with a bed mounted on the rear side, so you can enjoy of this amazing place just lying down. How cool is that?

Something else that called my attention was the modern architecture, I was expecting old buildings, like in London or Paris, but what I didn't take into account was that Berlin had to be rebuilt after WW1, WW2 and after the Cold War. So if buildings is your thing you definitely have to come here.


But obviously I went to all the touristic sights. I went to the Brandenburg Gate, a symbol of Berlin, around it you've got a lot of actors dressed like soldier or even some fictional characters, like Luigi and Mario, with whom you can take a picture with.

I was staying close to Check Point Charlie, another MUST on a trip to this place, here you can get your passport stamped, this one was the last check point to fall after the fall of the wall. You always got some "soldiers" you can go take a picture with for the small price of €2.

I went to the East Side Gallery, a 1.3 km long section of the Berlin wall. On it, after the fall of the wall, 105 artists from all around the world painted their massages of freedom. This is probably one of the largest open air galleries on Earth. The sad thing is that they are moving parts of the wall so as to build new things. It was really beautiful, it makes you understand a little bit better what happened back then. It's bad that people didn't respect the artist and painted things on top.

Reichstag building, the Parliament House, is a place that I recommend. It has a dome with an amazing view, you just need to register online and you can get in for free, it also includes an audio guide that explains the buildings around, and as well as history.

There is something that I like doing when I travel. I like going on a tour, it makes me understand better the  places that I'm seeing and learn about the history of the place (I love history).  I usually go with this company, http://www.neweuropetours.eu/, they are in many cities. I've done tours with them in London and Edinburgh as well. Their tours are very informative and entertaining. They offer a free tour around the city, you just tipped them at the end, but I always end up paying for some of the other tours that they offer.


Another remarkable place is Bebelplatz, this is an important place because here is where the Nazis did the burning of the  books, a list of books and manuscripts that they felt were against the German spirit. The memorial of this event is a glass plate on the floor that gives us the view of the empty bookcase (big enough to hold the 20,000 books burnt). You can also find 4 plaques on this square, that read the same quote "Das war ein Vorspiel nur, dort wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen." (in English: "Where they burn books, they will in the end also burn people"). This phrase belongs to Heinrich Heine, a famous German poet, he wrote this in one of his texts in 1823 but you can see how can we easily related to WW2.

This Square is located in a really nice neighbourhood, the Mitte, and it also has many interesting buildings around. Like the State Opera building (rebuilt at least 4 times), the Humboldt University (there are 40 Nobel prize winners affiliated to it), and St. Hedwig's Cathedral (first Catholic church built in Prussia after the Reformation).

I also went to the zoo, I don't usually do this on my trips. The zoo here is one of the biggest in the world, it has species from all around the planet, I even found some animals from back home. I spent 5 hours there, and I didn't go to the Aquarium, so imagine how big it is. I don't usually like zoos, I don't like seeing animals in cages, but here it's different they are kept in like a small habitat, very green and open, but safe at the same time. No one wants a lion jumping on them.

By the end of my trip I started to like the city. There is so much more to Berlin that just a great place to go out (next time I go I'll fill you in with this info), with a wild night life and crazy weird bars and nightclubs. Is a place full of history, a place where they try to cover those horrible years but without forgetting about the victims (you've got memorials everywhere).A place with beautiful art everywhere you look. So next time you want to travel somewhere new and exciting with a little bit of everything, choose Berlin.

Let's set the record straight!

As I said before, I was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina. But after travelling and living abroad I realise that people know very little about it.

First of all, I was impressed about people not knowing where it is located. I know I love geography and I've got a school size map in my room, but seriously what do people learn at school?? Particularly the young people, OMG they've made the funniest comments.

I'm just going to clear up some things that I've heard .

So, let's set the record straight!!!

ARGENTINA IS NOT IN SPAIN: I heard this one too many times. Yes, we do speak Spanish and yes, we were a Spanish colony over 200 years ago, but Argentina is in South America.

ARGENTINA IS NOT IN AFRICA: This was said to my friend when she was moving from the U.SA. to Argentina. I don't know where people get this from, I don't think the name sounds exotic or anything.

ARGENTINA IS NOT A TROPICAL COUNTRY: People have this image in their heads that we are in the Caribbean, with palm trees and pineapples. Not true, we've got 4 seasons (even though global warming keeps changing everything); in summer it can get really hot and in winter it gets really cold. Remember we are one of the southest countries in the world, we've got the Andes, it even snows in some regions.

ARGENTINA DOESN'T HAVE PARADISIAC BEACHES:  I wish this bit was true, but it isn't. The sand is not white and forget about the crystal clear water, not even warm water.
So guys, we all have internet now, Google it, check an updated map. Just do it and don't sound completely clueless.

Second, It really annoys me when they use Argentina in the movies but they don't do any research bout it. The stereotype that all Latinos are the same bugs me simply because we are all different, we don't look the same, we don't dress the same and, definitely, we don't sound the same. So many people told me "Mexico and Argentina, same same". No people, we are not, we are in two opposite extremes of Latin America, we just both speak the same language.

But let's go back to what I was trying to point out. These are just some examples used on tv shows and movies.

FRIENDS: There is an episode where Phoebe is singing outside Monica's restaurant, and she says that in Argentina you can buy a human spleen for 50 pesos. It's true, Argentina has been one of the biggest points of transit for the black market since it was a Spanish colony, but I can assure you it's not so easy and it's definitely not so cheap.

HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER: Robin decides to move to Argentina and they show this  kind of hut on the beach, an amazing one by the way, to be honest for me it looks more like a country in Central America. As I said before, we don't have those amazing beaches. To make it worst, she meets Enrique Igleasias. He is Spanish, he doesn't look Argentinian and he definitely doesn't speak like us.

TOO FAST, TOO FURIOUS: The big narco guy in the movie is supposed to be Argentinian. In this case he might look like one (it's a very diverse country, people came from everywhere, we are a mix of everything), but he doesn't dress like one and he doesn't speak like one either.

X-MEN FIRST CLASS: Biggest fail EVER!!! In this movie they show a little cottage in the mountain and it says VILLA GESELL. For the ones  that don't know, that town is one of the biggest beach destinations among locals, so they made a mistake. In my opinion, what they meant was Villa La Angostura, a beautiful town in Patagonia,south region of Argentina, located close to the mountains. But,apart from that, when they are at the bar the men start talking, and they don't sound Argentinian!! Just because we are from Latin America doesn't mean that we all speak the same (I know I said this a lot today, but it's true, ask any other Spanish speaker), we don't all say CABRON or COÑO.

So please Hollywood, PLEASE!!! Do your research before naming a country in your movies. Especially when you choose one you have no idea about.

Next time I'm going to tell you more about my country and the places you MUST visit.

But before I go, I'll leave you some YouTube videos you should check, they are called "Argentina according to Hollywood", they are hilarious, hope you enjoy them.

  I'd also wanted to thank my friend, Nati Riveiro, for helping me with this post, our tv series knowledge was useful after all ;).

Argentina According to Hollywood, part1

Argentina according to Hollywood, part 2

Jump in!! Join me

Since I'm a little girl, as far as I can remember, I always wanted to travel. I wanted to go far far away and explore the world. I remember getting a group of friends and convinced them to travel in a hot air balloon (that, is still on my list), leaving our parents behind. To be fair, I was 4 and I think I saw it in a cartoon or something, but for me it was going to be the biggest adventure. Even nowadays, my friends remember this, and one of them confessed to me, not that long ago, that he use to cry because he didn't want to leave his mum and dad.

But growing up, travel wasn't that easy. I was born in Argentina, I come from a middle class family and I've got 2 sisters, so travelling was something expensive that we couldn't afford. But my parents worked really hard and they tried their best, and they started taking us on holiday to places in Argentina, just for a few days, but that was more than enough. Until one day, when I was 11 we finally went away (ok we went to Uruguay a couple of times). They took us to the USA and Mexico, the first big trip, it was awesome.

After that we went back to normal life until I graduated school and I went backpacking through Europe for a month with my aunt Silvia. That trip change my life, first thing I told my mum when I got off the plane was, "Next time I'm going for longer".

And I did, I studied hard, finished uni, worked a lot, saved as much money as I could and left.
So this is going to be my story, I'm going to try to tell you everything that I know and that I’ve learnt, the good and the bad, give you some advice and show you all this amazing places that you've got out there.

My name is Jimena, I'm 26 years old, I've travelled 21 countries (about to go visit two more in the next couple of months), I've visited over 90 cities, 4 continents and there's no one to stop me now. This is my journey, jump in, join me .