So yes, after the week-or-so spent in Buenos Aires, we made our way to Aeroparque Jorge Newberry to catch our flight to Bariloche! We were planning on taking a bus from BsAs to Bariloche to begin with, but I decided that after travelling for a total of like 30 hours I didn't want to sit on a bus for another 24 even if it would be really awesome to see the scenery! So, a 2 hour plane-ride it was! It was great though, they even gave us snacks and all, SAS is never that generous on short flights!
River Plate Stadium right after take-off!
Buenos Aires from above... This was amazingly mindboggling. The city just kept going, and going, and going all the way to the horizon, there was no end! I mean, I can basically see from one end of my town to the other if I'm in a particular building, but BsAs is just.. Freaking huge!
After landing in Bariloche (tiniest airport ever. It was awesome!) we grabbed a cab to go the the bus station, where we caught a bus to get us to the town where my SO lives. And I mean... THE BUSES! I swear I could buy one just to be able to live in it! I mean, the seats are more comfortable than the airplane ones, you can make them completely flat, they give you a pillow and a blanket, and even have waiters that give you a snack-pack and drinks! I mean, the ride wasn't even 2.5 hours! I love this country because of many things, but man... The buses <3
Finally arrived in my SO's town around 8pm, and it was rainy and grey as hell (turned out to stay that way for 2 weeks of my stay, I came in the middle of the rainy part of summer xD), but I was so psyched to be there I didn't even care xD Finally I got to see his town. What he calls home. I could see all the stores he'd told me about, where he goes shopping everytime I get the message on Skype that says "off to shop for dinner!". The office where he works. The streets he walks. I was finally there, and I could see a part of his life that I didn't really understand until now. There's only so much you can know about a town without actually being there!
And now my nervousness started kicking in. I was meeting his dad and his dad's GF for the first time (his brother was in Canada). Only ever waved to his dad on Skype like once or twice, and I was basically nervous wreck with all the thoughts like "what if I come off as weird? What if they don't like me? What if I don't like them?" and all that jazz. But we got there, and I got to meet his adorable dogs (street dogs, but they decided that Gon's house is home for some reason xD) named La Negra and Perrito (basically The Black One and The Little One. Creative!), and then got to meet the family! His dad is extremely sweet and caring, and I really like him, and it seemed as though he liked me too, thankfully. We had a ton of discussions over the weeks about culture and nature and stuff like that. He even asked if we have polar bears, which I thought was adorable! And no, if anyone else is wondering, Sweden doesn't have polar bears even though that seems to be a common misconception xD
Their house consists of 3 separate buildings, so me and my SO had one, his dad and the GF the main building, and his brother stayed in the garage when he came back from Canada. Their house is like right by the foot of a mountain, facing other mountains, and the sunsets and sunrises were just amazing...
Mountains together with the cat of the house, Mish! View from the yard, the main building is to the right.
The mountain of which Gon's house is located at the bottom of.
So yeah, the first week or so was basically spent just exploring places, and Gon took me to all of the lakes and rivers and stuff that he usually goes to, and because the weather was so bad it was hard getting to some places that we just decided to leave for better days (the only road that's paved is the main one, the rest is dirt so with all the rain basically everything was flooded and ruined xD). But here are some pics!
Main river that flows through town.
Forest walk! Flooded xD
Finishing off with a self-portrait! It took us like 5 tries to get this one, my camera only had a max. setting of 10 seconds, and in that time Gon had to climb down a rock, over a bunch of other rocks, and into the tree. But we made it!
So that marks the end of my 3d part of the trip! Not much special, but it was a very calm and quiet week and I got to see a whole lot of awesome scenery, I mean, the Andes are just amazing!
Next up will be various other little excursions, and a longer road trip to go see dinosaur trees and a volcano, and maybe some of our Christmas and New Years too, we'll see!
Sounds like you had a lot of fun!
Lufthansa and LOT give out snacks on two hour flights, too
It seems that Finland and Sweden are much more a like than I've even realized!