Week 3 Buenos Aires

Football
Argentina, you soon find out, is a country that loves football. This week Argentina played Serbia in the world cup series. As the match played out streets were deserted and people crouched round TV sets whereever they could. Even cafes and shopping malls had them specially installed to keep patrons happy. For those unable to get to a TV there were the shops with giant plasma screens which played their part. Each time a goal was scored cries of delight rang out and praise was heaped on the player who scored. In the end Argentina prevailed by the princely number of 6 goals to nil.
Blue and white Argentine flags fluttered everywhere and people took to the streets with their peculiar Argentine jester hats, waving their own flags and chanting Ar-gen-ti-na, Ar-gen-ti-na. Cars hoinked and chaos ensued. Ticker tape streamed from buildings. In the largest Avenue in the world even the cars came to a stop as a crowd milled round the obelisk.

El Subte (the Tube)
This is a good way to travel but be prepared, like the Japanese, to squash yourself in to a carriage at most times. It is luxury to travel on it on a Public Holiday. It runs very efficiently at a flat rate of US25C per journey. You need to anticipate which side of the train you are exiting as there is a short interval (of 45 sec) at each station and you need to negotiate squeezing past a no. of people by saying permiso repeatedly to exit on time. A horn sounds when the doors are about to shut and if you haven´t got out by this point it´s too late. On board cellphones ring and IPods are played as in any city anywhere.
An odd feature of the Tube is that you need to know which entrance to select at a crossroads when there is more than one of them. Each entrance only allows access to the direction you wish to travel. A kind of economy measure when the system was build.