En Route

Today, the 17th of January, Los Tres Amigos are airborne! And yes, I pretty much mean we are physically aloft for almost the entire day (blahhh...).

Our day began upon waking at 3:30am after only 5 hours of sleep (that's cumulative between the three of us, by the way), and I'm very proud to say we were completely and efficiently packed and waiting downstairs at precisely 4:30 for the van which we had previously arranged to take us to the airport at that time. After only 3 or so calls to the car company, we were eventually picked up and crammed into our third minivan of the trip so far at 5am (I mean, who really wants to be early to the airport for a 10 hour flight?)!

Speaking of minivans, I guess I should sum up the previous week of glorious relaxation and... Well, no, actually I mean the 7 days prior in which we:

- rented a 10ft. Budget truck only to pick up what was most likely a 24ft because they always seem to mysteriously never actually have the size truck you "reserve" at these places...
- ate our last Crepes Parisiennes avec Tara (tear!)
- packed up our entire apartment in under 24 hours




- completed a successful cleaning and walk-through a month prior to our actual lease end date which hopefully results in a full security deposit refund plus a return of the last months rent pro-rated upon the arrival of a new tenant (fingers crossed!)
- "moved home" to Mercersburg at midnight where we unloaded all our junk into the garage in record time, crashed and then woke in time to return the truck at 8:30am

... And that was all on the first day!

The next three days were spent neatly moving boxes and stuff to the basement in hopes of keeping the garage clear(-ish) and sorting through a few final boxes, files and drawers that had become catch-alls in the last frantic minutes of "packing," all while simultaneously sorting and packing our gear, clothing and bikes for our trip! To say the house looked like a hurricane had hit would be an understatement (we love you, Mom!!!)!




On the 14th we woke up early and hit the road (only an hour behind schedule) in Jake's aunt's minivan, affectionately named Bertha, Birtha, or Birth-Control years ago and still chugging along with well over 200k miles after a recent check-up at the mechanics. Unfortunately the indignity must have finally been too much for the old girl, and she gave up her higher gears a mile outside of Frederick. Thank goodness for downhills because we mostly coasted our way to a stop in front of the house. A tow truck was called and we bid the fair lady Adieu, not knowing if it would be the last time we saw her. A second fancy (working) minivan was secured via Enterprise and we were off to Baltimore after spending only slightly longer (2 hours) in Frederick than originally planned.





The rest of the trip went swimmingly: simultaneously picked Jay up in Baltimore and dropped our wonderful, undemonlike cat off with Trevor, Jake's younger brother, grabbed a bite to eat at The Daily Grind in Fell's Point and headed up I-95 to visit Jake's spritely 85 year old grandmother in New Jersey for a night of food, food, and more food consisting of authentic Czech veal goulash and bread dumplings followed by open faced Czech sandwiches followed by more sandwiches, some football and bed at 10pm. :)

After a hearty breakfast we said goodbye and headed into Brooklyn to stay with Jake's cousin Matt for the day and a half left before our flight out of JFK. We explored Fort Green Park, checked out the Manhattan skyline and had a delicious lunch at a funky French bistro called Chez Oskar on Dekalb Street.





We had a full day on Monday to explore and do what we want, so we made the most of it, meeting friends we hadn't seen since studying in Prague together for some delicious arepas in Williamsburg at Caracas Arepas Bar, went climbing at Brooklyn Boulders, which is huge, intricate, laid-back and busy (on a holiday, at least)! And to cap the night off, we enjoyed a fantastic meal at another cousin's home; thank you Adam and Alyssia!

We called it an early night and headed back to Matt's to get some rest before catching our early ride to the airport, but still didn't get into bed until 12:30 (Jake) and 2:15 (Kate and Jay) so maybe an all-nighter would have been better... We were up and moving by 3:45 and arrived at JFK at about 5:30, but our 7:25am flight didn't end up boarding until 8 (with no mention made of it's lateness, unless it was only announced in Portuguese). Finally though, we were on our way!

Jake and I are disgustingly jealous of the fact that Jay managed to sleep for the entirety of his first 10-hour flight (waking solely for meals gracias del nariz). We disembarked in a rainy but warm Sao Paulo on the runway and were shuttled into a confused, hectic terminal where we tried to stay out of the way until we could be shuttled back out to our next and final flight.





Upon arrival in Buenos Aires (2am local, midnight back home) we made our way through customs only to be confronted by an unexpected $140 entry fee :( but the welcome site of our bike boxes cheered us up despite their rough appearance. We promptly hopped on for an inaugural south american "ride" as seen above, bottom right.

The only thing further to note is how awesome the hostel we'd booked has turned out to be! 24-hour reception greeted us despite thinking we would arrive the next day, showed us to our room and tried to find us something to eat from the "free" box of odds and ends in the communal kitchen. We declined the pasta and cracked open our duty free bottle of dark Bacardi for some "thank God we finally made it" rum and cokes! Then it was time for sweet, sweet sleeeeeeep.

Zzzzzzzzz........