For the last weekend of September, my classmates Holly, Charlotte and I took a plane across the to the other side of the Andes to Buenos Aires, Argentina.

We arrived in Buenos Aires in the evening after a turbulent flight. The thunder and lightning reminded me of the scene in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows when the Order of the Phoenix were transporting Harry to the Burrow. Once we arrived at Ezeiza Airport, we took a taxi to our hostel which was located in the Palermo District of Buenos Aires. The hostel was nice and was more like as all the rooms were privates and breakfast was free. After we arrived, we went to a bar and restaurant in Palermo where I pint of beer was an amazing $70 Argentinean Pesos (£1.50/$2.00 USD)!

The next morning we were woken up by one of the heaviest storms I have ever seen in my life. It was a humid day with thunder and lightning and the rain bouncing off the pavements. Our first trip of the day was to the ticket office to buy our tickets to the Argentina vs New Zealand rugby match. After drying off, we then went to the Evita Museum where we learned about the life of former Argentinean President Eva Perón.

Later, we took a trip on the metro to the El Ateneo, the biggest bookshop in the world. As well as the sheer number of books, the architecture in the building was grand as the building was once a theatre. Some of the artwork on the ceiling resembled that of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Before going to the rugby match, we went for a pizza at one of Buenos Aires’ many pizzerias. Pizza in Buenos Aires has a very good reputation as a result of high Italian immigration to Argentina and to this day the majority of Argentineans have at least one Italian ancestor. After enjoying the pizza went to a 45- minute bus trip to Liniers to watch the rugby.

The next morning we went a tour round some of the main sights in Buenos Aires. Thanks to the amazing public transport and SUBE cards that you can use between people, we were able to see quite a few things in one day. Our first port of call was the Sunday market at San Telmo, which had various articles such as souvenirs, antiques and sports merchandise. Afterwards, we took the metro to the La Boca, a colourful neighbourhood decorated with murals and home of Boca Juniors, one of the most successful South American football teams with ex-players including Diego Maradona. We witnessed first hand the religiosity of Argentinean football when due to Boca Juniors playing at home, the whole neighbourhood went into shut-down so everyone could attend the match at La Bombonera.

We then went to Plaza de Mayo which lies next to La Casa Rosada, the residence of the President of Argentina. The square is often a flashpoint where demonstrations take place and crowds also gather to listen to the president.

In the evening, we went to a restaurant to try some local Argentinean steaks. At the restaurant we went to, we got a discount as we arrived early and if promised to vacate the table by eight o’clock. However, we had to wait a while for the food to come out so as a result, the staff made up for the delay by allowing us to stay for as long as we liked and by giving us free champagne and lollipops! The steaks and wine we had were amazing and the steaks were an enormous 700g!

Going to Buenos Aires was an amazing experience and it was such a fascinating and charming city. I will definitely add it to the list of places to return to in the future. I even picked up the Argentinean accent I liked it so much!