Cordoba

After 3 1/2 months travelling, getting used to the new environment, pack and unpack our backpackers, organising the next journey etc. we finally have arrived in Cordoba, where we have spent one month. Cordoba is the second largest city in Argentina. Originally we didn't plan to visit this University-Town. However we came here to improve our "castellano" (spanish).

We catched the Bus "Rapido" from Mendoza to Cordoba. This trip really was rapido. Almost an hour earlier we arrived alive at the Hostel "La Casona". www.lacasonahostel.com.ar http://www.lacasonahostel.com.ar/ We had to spend the first night in a dorm again. The following day we checked out some spanish schools and luckely found a independent argentine school in the heart of Cordoba.



We enrolled for a semi privat course for 4 weeks. 3 hours a day doesn't sound much, it was very exhausting though. However it was worth to do it. We improved a lot. We studied past forms an started with a new subject "Subjuntivo". The subjuntive does not excist in english and german neither. This makes it more difficult.

We got used to the "Cordoban" live quickly. Here, dinner starts around 10pm. Afterwards we spent time with chatting (in spanish of course) and playing carts. We already are champions in the games "Chingchong" und "15". Usually we didn't go to bed before 3am.

The "Nationaldrink" in Cordoba is Fernet Branca with CocaCola. We knew this dark and bitter Schnaps from home, but only for "medical" reasons, for stomach ache etc. Argentines drink almost 80% of the entire italian production. We guess about 3/4 of the imported bottles are consumed in Cordoba. Unbelievable, but almost everybody drinks "Fernet con Coca" at every occasion, in the meantime we as well.

We feel comfortable in the Hostel "La Casona". We have our own room with TV (incl. american broadcasts, what a luxury). The owners of the hostel, Carlos and Willy are really nice and helpful. They not only help us with our spanish. Because of Willys heartiness and Carlos excuisit cooking, we felt like at home here. For the delicious Asados (Barbeque), Paella and Milaneses (argentinines Wienerschnitzel) we payed it back with a real Swiss Cheese Fondue. (Sounds familiar for some of you, doesn't it).

We spent some great days here with Martin from Buenos Aires. He invited us to the Pre-Qualification Worldcup-Rally in Cordoba. Over 45,000 people attended this spectacle in the stadion of Cordoba. The following day we left very early for the "real" rally in the sierra. It was incredable how fast the race cars speed through the surrounding mountains of Cordoba. It was awesome.

Soon we are heading north for Salta. We like to thank Willy, Carlos, Martin, Isabel, Karina, Valeria, Mariano for the good time in Cordoba.