#BuenosAires

BUSINESSAND

BACKPACK

One of the things I’m often asked is "How on earth did you get started with all this?”

For as long as I can remember, I've loved to both travel and share my passions, peeves, and points of view with others around me. For the last 5 years I have had the privilege of a job which brings me to interesting corners of the world.

Businessandbackpack is a new project that aims to provide a single home for all the impressions from my travels, both work-related and personal. Explore my site, and enjoy.

Home for a while/ Zuhause auf Zeit

For my two weeks in Buenos Aires I figured I would l have a better chance to learn Spanish fast if I did not live in a hostel but instead with some locals. The language school I first picked out offered host families but I wanted a bit more control over which part of the city I get to live in and so I found Nico and Sabrina's beautiful colonial house in San Telmo. It is an unassuming door but once you follow the stairs up, you stand in a beautiful atrium surrounded on three s

Bye bye Buenos Aires

So the first part (of 5) of my journey is already over. After 2 weeks in and around Buenos Aires, I am now flying to Bolivia. Let’s start by looking back - and that is easily summed up by: I had a fantastic time and am deeply thankful to all my friends who insisted that the place to go for a 2-week-long intensive Spanish course is without a doubt Buenos Aires. So, yes I learned (some) Spanish but I also Danced tango Hit the bars, speak-easies and clubs of Palermo Watched polo

School is out/ Letzter Schultag

I am writing this sitting in the early summer sun on a table on the sidewalk in San Telmo with a nice glass of wine. Not only is this the end of week 2 of my vacation but also I just came back from my last Spanish class. For the last 2 weeks I spent every morning in Escuela Rayuela, the first week taking 4h of group lessons per day and in the second week a daily full of 3h of private lessons. I must say it was very strange to be back at school - and also interesting to see

La Bombonera

On Tuesday I went back to Boca, a quarter in the South of Buenos Aires (I was there last weekend to admire the beautiful colorful houses of the former dock workers - quite touristic but pretty, will try to write a short post about it in the coming days). But this time I was not drawn by the brightly colored homes but rather wanted to visit the home of Boca Juniors, one of the most iconic football clubs in Argentina. Their stadium is called "La Bombonera" because it is shaped

Not quite a marathon/ Nicht ganz ein Marathon

On Sunday I went back to Tigre - if you read the previous entries, you know that I went there to row on Wednesday and could not fail to notice posters around town advertising the “Tigre Maraton”. Marathons are not quite my distance but it turned out that 42km were not actually on offer but the two distances to chose from were 5 and 10km. So of course I picked the latter, registered online and tried unsuccessfully multiple times to pay the entry fee by card and then equally un

More than tango/ Nicht nur Tango

So of course Buenos Aires is know for tango - but there is more to the music scene than that. La Bomba de Tiempo (time bomb) are a very well know percussion group, which have a weekly concert on Mondays where they perform their percussion pieces but to which they also invite special guest. The guests were actually my favorite part as it adds a lot of variety to the music. When we went this Monday, the first guests were three girls with guitars - which gave it a more singer-so

The most beautiful bookstore/ Der schönste Buchladen

Buenos Aires boasts a lot of superlatives - and one I can definitely confirm is that the portenos have one of the most beautiful bookstores in the world. El Ateneo Grand Splendid used to be a theatre before it was turned into a bookstore. Oh all the metaphors - and I was so inspired that I bought a book of shortstories, in Spanish. That is now the challenge for this trip: by the end I want to have read my new book. In Buenos Aires gibt es viele Superlative - und einen kann ic

Rudern in Buenos Aires/ Rowing in Buenos Aires

Nachdem ich diese Jahr schon in Venedig, London, Oslo und Bern gerudert bin konnte ich mit Tigre/ Buenos Aires meiner Ruderweltkarte einen weiteren Ort hinzufügen. Dank einem guten Freund aus München wusste ich vom deutschen Ruderverein Teutonia in Buenos Aires. Ein paar Mail- und WhatsApp-Wechsel später war dann ausgemacht dass ich am Mittwoch nach dem Spanischkurs mit dem Zug raus nach Tigre fahre bzw nach Beccar (ein paar Stationen vor Tigre) wo mich Alejandro der Captain

Tango

A little game - what are your immediate associations when you think of Argentina? Football, steak, wine ... keep going ... yes - tango. I have never danced tango and I am really bad in remembering steps (although my I am not a bad dancer when I get into the swing of things). However, I did not let that deter me and so yesterday evening my housemate Irena and I headed for a night out in one of BA’s milongas. When we walked in, I was blown away. One could not have made this pla

The plan/ Der Plan

Breaking news, I arrived in Buenos Aires. And by now I even sort of have a plan for this trip - although the plan was to not have a plan. Anyways, the plan for the next three months is: 2 weeks in Buenos Aires, exploring the town and learning Spanish 3 weeks probably around northern Argentina and dipping into Bolivia On Dec 3 I will meet up with my friend Thomas in Bariloche and we will spend the next 3 weeks traveling Patagonia (Thomas has volunteered to do the detailed plan

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