Jan, the Czech, came home at seven in the morning. They had done all the bars of Asunción and then ended with a bottle of gin at someone’s roof. Damn, he was knife-robbed two days
Jan, the Czech, came home at seven in the morning. They had done all the bars of Asunción and then ended with a bottle of gin at someone’s roof. Damn, he was knife-robbed two days ago, and then taking all these risks! Parts of me wished I was there with them, while other parts was happy with how the night had been. Singing songs at the birthday party, using cellphones as some kind of homemade karaoke, was really fun. And I got the feeling that I made them happy. I can be your birthday Swede if you want!
I forgot the Polish guy’s name, which is sad since he himself knew everything written on Wikipedia. This mastermind is now working as a Polish guide of Kerkyra island west of Greece. If you’re Polish, take the train there and enjoy his knowledge of everything! He’d been to 66 countries. Natalya had been to maybe 34. Paraguay was my 43rd. We all knew exactly how many countries we’d been to. It struck me: maybe only country-counters visit Paraguay. And I wasn’t a country-counter before. It happened when I met Bob Stacy as he entered his own country #100: Serbia. I had to count and now I can’t forget it.
There was a limping lady at the hostel that I really, really liked. She was limping, cleaning, limping, cleaning. She did all my laundry. I tried to refuse, but all Spanish I knew was “Hola” and “Gracias” so I went all “Ehh … hola … gracias” and she cleaned all my clothes, and later hung them and so on. I tried to help her do my job, but too difficult. And the most crazy part was that when I asked the staff something, they gave me answers in Spanish, and I didn’t understand anyone, except for her. She had some kind of “Spanish for Swedish”, full of easy words that were almost the same in English. I started to feel all guilty for travelling the world like some upper-class pig, making poorer people everywhere clean my clothes. I know for a fact, that it was good for her that I came there and spent my money, but still, what if someone told her that she was solely working for country-counters?
I had to write the above on a paper, wrap up 100.000 in it (15 €) and gave it to her before quickly leaving the hotel. It’s funny how she received the paper like the most common thing in the world. Maybe she knew everything about my money plans. Or maybe she thought it was trash to throw. We’ll never know. And I have never ever given money to anyone ever before (since I give 10% to Give Directly, I don’t need to!). But in this case, I don’t know, I just had to. Maybe it was all the limping and tired but friendly smiles.
40 euros gave me a bus ticket to Buenos Aires. We went north, to cross the border there.
Image-wise, Argentina felt like the most boring country in the world. Even Paraguay was nice because they had so much people running around on motorbikes. Two things “spiced up” Argentina: cowboys and fires. Cowboys riding around on horses, looking all cool and Marlboro. And at least two huge grass fires.
But the staff on the bus was super-nice! We even got free food and water. No 17 € lunches here! Not vegetarian but still, quite tasty. Nom nom nom.
