My parents and brother left for the US of A on the 29th of December, and I was very sad to see them go. Although I'm "independent" now, I still like having them around. We got on particularly well this trip, perhaps because we were all aware that we only had 19 days to spend together, and none of us wanted to spend that time arguing. Also because we weren't together long enough to really get on each other's nerves!
We got to the airport and waited for them to check in...and waited and waited and waited, drank a cup of coffee, figured out the equation for cold fusion, waited some more, and 45 minutes later they were done. The people behind them in the queue (which was half the length of the airport by that stage, and Ezeiza is no tin shed) actually applauded as they finished. I shed a tear or two as they went through the door to the departure gates but I got over it pretty quickly - within half an hour I was already planning all the sightseeing I was going to do now that they were gone.
The 30th my aunt, uncle, two cousins and I left for Ostende, another beach holiday (yaaaaaaaaay). I can't explain how good all the sun exposure felt after so many months in Ireland. You don't even realise how depressing it is until you see sunshine and remember what normality feels like. I love Dublin to bits, but the weather could certainly use some improvement.
The idea of this holiday (for me) was to finally relax from all the Christmas madness (lots of flopping on the beach involved) and get in some proper conversations. Plus to spend New Year's Eve by the beach, which is a totally cool idea. No matter how hard you try and how great your party is, you just can't beat Mother Nature, which (to me at least) is a simultaneously depressing and uplifting idea. We stayed at the "Viejo Hostel Ostende", a totally historic hotel which can claim that Antoine de Saint-Exupery, the author of "The Little Prince" once stayed there. It has its own restaurant by the beach, and the architecture of the hotel itself is lovely.
I immediately began working on my first trip objective (flopping lazily on the beach) with gusto. We did little over the next days other than sleep, eat, flop on the beach and talk, puncuated by small dips in the ocean (watch out for the jellyfish). The 31st we ate a delicious dinner at the hotel, then headed down to the beach for champagne at midnight, which was magical. The Argentines have a tradition of making hot-air-balloon type things out of paper, which are beautiful to see when they work, and funny to see when they hold on to them too long and they burn up close to the ground. We all danced together, put on silly hats, and generally had a good time, until about 02:00 when Maru and I (under strict instructions from my cousin Anita's husband Daniel) went clubbing in nearby Pinamar.
First port of call was the main corner in Pinamar, waiting for one of the guys with discount cards to take notice of us. This was more difficult than it sounds given that there were probably more people there at 02:00 than there were at 14:00 the previous day. We stood there like stunned mullets for some minutes before we realised we'd have a better success rate with less clothes on. Off with our jackets therefore, and as we suspected, with a little cleavage the process became significantly easier. Almost within seconds a hottie with brown curly hair gave us cards for a club called Ku. Off we trotted therefore to Ku, which was huge - five different dance floors all playing different music. We danced the night away and I did some international relations work with a Peruvian cutie - learning to get along with people from different countries is important for world peace and international harmony and all that stuff, right? Maru and I got back to the hotel about 06:00 and fell directly into bed.
The next day involved yet more flopping around on the beach, and for dinner we went to nearby Mar de las Pampas, where another aunt and uncle, cousin, his wife and her parents were staying. It was great seeing them again. First of all Maru, Caro (my cousin Gus's wife) and I went for a good long walk along the beach. This was a good idea taking into consideration the volume and fat content of food consumed over the Christmas/New Year period, and the mountain of food we were about to eat. We excercised our bodies, but mainly our mouths, for a good hour. After, Maru and I stayed on the beach for a bit more chatting before heading back to the food mountain (a parrillada, which is basically an oh-so-yummy meat fest). The night was balmy, the conversation was tranquil, we just basically took things easy until it was time to go home. Every time I have to say goodbye to someone for the last time it breaks my heart a little, but at least this time I know it won't be so long before I come back, now that I can get to Baires under my own steam. And it's basically on my way home from Europe! Ahem, well, kind of. But close enough.
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