From Bulgaria to Buenos Aires
From “To Chile and Back—A Journey to Indescribable Natural Beauty”
MORE ABOUT THE ITINERARY AND HOW MUCH IT COST US IN TOTAL—CHECK IT OUT HERE.
Flight with Wizz? Yes, but with Ryan
Our South American journey began on 25.11.2018 with an early Ryanair flight from Sofia Airport Terminal 2 to Rome Chiampino. At first I had booked tickets with WizzAir for this route, but a month before the trip the airline decided that they would suspend their winter flights to Rome, which put me in a very unpleasant situation. Even with the return of the money, the rest of the flight options to Rome were significantly more expensive and we had to get tickets to Rome not so advantageous, in my understanding, namely - about 42 euros per person just for the Sofia-Rome direction. Thank God there were no delays, strikes and canceled flights for known and unknown reasons and our flight from Sofia to Rome took place according to the schedule.
Ryan's baggage policy
From 01.11.2018, new hand luggage regulations were entered at Ryanair, according to which one passenger is allowed to carry only one small hand luggage for free. If someone wants to take large hand luggage with them, they will have to pay an additional 8-12 euros (it depends on the flight and the destination) for a priority boarding, which, in addition to allowing them to get on the plane first, but also to get a second larger bag.
Our luggage for our upcoming 16-day trip to South America consisted of 2 small backpacks and 1 significantly larger backpack. No suitcases.
That's why we bought only 1 priorities so that we could get the big backpack. At the airport gate, we had to take some other clothes off the luggage and get nice to get the luggage to the size. This is the first time we are doing this number, but although all other airlines allow us a larger baggage size, it was completely normal to take this trick.
Like my page on FACEBOOK to be the first to hear about new travel stories and great deals!
Transfer to Rome and Stop in Amsterdam
Rome has two airports - Chiampino (this is the airport for the lower budget airlines) and Fiumicino. Our flight from Sofia landed on Chiampino in the morning, and our next flight to Chile was in the afternoon from Fuimicino. We compacted the time between the two flights, sewing the backpack, which broke on the first flight and had to be re-sewn several times after that. Needle and thread necessarily in the luggage, even if it is handheld 🙂 I always carry and here it comes into use. According to Uncle Google (my best friend in preparing each trip), it turned out that there was no direct transfer from one airport to the other and had to first get from one airport to Rome's Central Station and from there take another bus to the other airport. That's what we did.
There are several bus companies that run both routes (Ciampino Airport to Rome and back; Fuimicino Airport to Rome and back) and in this travelogue I will only mention the most popular ones and they are:
Sit Bus Shuttle – www.sitbusshuttle.com
TerraVision –www.terravision.eu
In this case, we used Teravision - pleasant buses, they run according to schedule and on time. The good thing about them is that tickets are very easy to buy online and are not valid for a certain time of boarding the bus. The most important thing is to use the tickets on the specific day or in case of delay - at the latest on the first departure the next day. Also, up to 2 hours before departure, the dates can be changed in advance without paying a fee for this.
In Amsterdam, we had a very short stop within 1 hour and 15 minutes, during which time we had to cross a large part of the airport and find where our next flight to Buenos Aires will depart. I love huge planes! The flight from Amsterdam to Buenos Aires took off at 20:55. And landed in Buenos at 6:45 as the full duration of the flight was a full 13 hours and 40 minutes! It was run by Air France and the food this time was abundant, only as if the water was spared because of unknowns reasons for me. It was just the two of us in line for three and we could easily spread.
buenos dias, Argentina!
Approaching the airport of Buenos Aires, we were already on the plane to fill out a declaration of whether we were importing goods and money above the permitted minimum. We filled them in, but we never found out where and to whom we had to give this declaration and in general we didn't give it to anyone at the airport 🙂 We were a little under stress all day if we wouldn't have any problems after that, but thank God we didn't have any.
So, in Buenos Aires we had a long stop of 9 hours and 25 minutes, during which time we intended to go for a walk to the city. Excluding travel time to and from the airport, as well as the fact that we have to be 1-2 hours earlier before our next flight, we actually had no more than 4-5 hours to explore the Argentine capital.
From Ministro Pistarini Airport to Buenos Aires
There are several options for getting from the airport to the center of Buenos Aires, with the following options:
– with city bus number 8 or number 51, which is the cheapest and, accordingly, the most time-consuming option. The ticket is USD 2 and the airport can be reached in an hour and a half from the airport.
– by taxi – the fastest, but also the most expensive option
– Shuttle Bus as the bus companies that perform this route are: Minibus Ezeira, Aerobus or Tienda Leon. The first two bus companies operate during the day from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and the ticket costs USD 8 or 250 Argentine pesos. The third, Tienda Leon, operates around the clock, the ticket costs $12 (310 Argentine) and we chose to move around with them, as the other two companies had not yet started running their courses for the day. Buses leave every 30 minutes, with the end point Madero, where we left our luggage to be stored for a symbolic amount while we are on a tour of the city.
If you also want to get back a portion of what you spent on hotels, flights, or products, register at this link HERE and every new user receives up to a $10 bonus in their account.
Main sights and walk around Buenos Aires
La Recoleta Cemetery, which from an architectural point of view was very interesting to visit, but we didn't have time to see it in person.
La Boca neighborhood and especially Caminito street. This neighborhood is famous for its brightly colored houses, with the Kaminito being the most art street of all the others. It is also an important fact that one of the greatest football legends, namely Maradona, was born and grew up here. Despite the crowds of tourists, however, this neighborhood brings a bad reputation to a not very safe place. Therefore, it is extremely inadvisable for tourists to walk around it. So, we ended up at the Modero Terminal, from where to board a bus to the Caminito, we just had to exchange money.
Just imagine! Who would have thought that on Monday morning at 9:00 a.m., the banks still wouldn’t be open. It turned out that banks in Argentina don’t open until 10:00 a.m., and since we’re so “smart”—we hadn’t exchanged any money either in Bulgaria or at the airport—we didn’t have any Argentine currency, just dollars, so it was impossible to get on any bus. But we don’t give up! In our typical style, we decided that we’d save a few dollars and might even see something interesting along the way, so we set off on foot toward Caminito, which was about 7 km one way—1 hour there, 1 hour back, and time flew by. Once again, we walked along the edge. On the way, we passed Plaza del Alcalde—another important landmark and continued on to La Boca. Our impression of Buenos Aires is that it’s a highly developed city with a distinctly European style, architecture, and infrastructure.
However, as we entered the La Boca neighborhood, we began to see more squalid scenes. When we arrived at Caminito, we were immediately swarmed by dancers who wanted to teach us the tango. After all, Buenos Aires is the birthplace of the tango. A quick tour and some time for photos. There were lots of children around who had come for a walk there with their teachers.
On the way back, we passed through the Stadion Alberto H. Armando, in which Maradona took his first steps in football. The stadium does not have a large area, but on the other hand it has very high and steep stands. I had even recently read about a match between two famous football teams, one of which was Argentinian. This match took place in the Alberto H. Armando stadium in question, as the audience consisted only of supporters of the home team, as if there was also from the opposing team, it would have become quite dangerous. Unfortunately, there was no time left for Antarctica's museum. which I really wanted to visit.
Surprise!
Back with Tienda Leon to the airport where we had to board our last flight to Santiago. We enter the terminal and Surprise! Total commotion. A crowd of people. The monitors light up with captions: Cancelled. We understand that our flight has been canceled, but not why. A search for an answer followed, and in fact the reason for the cancellation of all flights of Argentine airlines is the worst possible, namely - a strike. The bad thing is that in the event of a strike and canceled flight, the airline does not owe any compensation or compensation, nor does it undertake to cover any hotel, food, etc. expenses. There was no Argentine Airlines representative at the airport to talk to.
This flight is part of a single reservation that includes all previous flights from Rome to Santiago, all of which were purchased on the KLM website. I went to the KLM counter several times (in Spanish they call it “KaLeMe,” not “KLM” as in English, and after the flight was canceled, we rightly started calling them “Kale-me” to ask if I was entitled to compensation, since I had booked their flight without caring who operated it, etc. If the flight had been operated by KLM, they would have owed compensation of 600 euros per person according to EU Regulation 261/2004, but in this case, the flight was operated by another airline, and in such cases, they owe nothing and are not liable for anything.
Despite everything, thank God, the “guys” had arranged a flight to Santiago for the next morning at 9:00 a.m., which didn’t completely throw off our plans—we just had to spend the night at the airport instead of in Santiago. The airport itself turned out to be extremely small and very lacking in amenities and entertainment. After all, this is Buenos Aires’ international airport, and we had expected more. There were quite a few people who, like us, spent the night at the airport. At one of the terminal’s restaurants, we had a nicely grilled beef steak and a dessert made of jelly with food coloring.
Go to the next travelogue: Valparaiso - See here
