I arrived on New Year's Day after a crazy bus ride where the guy next to me wouldn't stop yammering away in Spanish and when he started making me feel uncomfortable with his personal questions ("Why are your fingernails so short?" "What a pretty name you have...so pretty..." "Do you have babies? Are you having any?") I had to be rude and start reading (which I wanted to do anyway). The bus station was a shitshow when I arrived. Because unauthorized taxis have been problematic (read: people got robbed) in the past, you can go to a counter and pay and then you get a slip and wait in line and the taxi driver gets the slip and gets reimbursed. So I waited for an hour in line.
The streets were ghosts. Everything was closed. I arrived in Roma, which I was told was the hot, really hip neighborhood to stay in - and nothing was opened. It was weird. This is the cool neighborhood? I was later told this is because it was New Year's Day. Well, in NYC, New Year's Day means you recover from your night of drinking the night before and you sleep in really in late and then head out to brunch and maybe you do something productive, like pick up some tissues at the drug store or some milk at the health food store.
I headed out for a run - what else to do? It got dark quickly and I began tripping, and I was hungry so I decided to pop into the one cafe I found open with decent prices. They told me they were closing in 10 minutes so I couldn't run further (and I promised Wayne I wouldn't run in the dark here...) so I placed a to go order.
I headed back to my hostel, ate in the common area and played with the hostel kitty.
The streets were quiet but I was aware that this city seemed pretty rad. I couldn't wait for it to open and explode!
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