For many, Buenos Aires is a destination that beckons with promises of unforgettable experiences and boundless excitement. Yet, as any seasoned traveler or expat knows, not every journey unfolds as expected.
In this post, I delve into two unexpected disappointments that lurked beneath the captivating but complex world of Buenos Aires, while still taking the time to appreciate its glittering surface and beautiful people.
So let me start off with what happened when we went looking for a Sube card. When we got to the city, we knew that we didn't want to spend all our money on cab fare, especially in this pricey Argentine economy. Naturally, we thought about our SUBE card, which is used to pay for bus and subway fares.
We owned a SUBE card from our previous trips to Buenos Aires. Unfortunately, we had left ours at home. So, we went looking for a new card. And let's just say that it was a nightmare to find!
We walked block after block and asked one kiosk owner after another if they had a SUBE card. But every vendor told us that they were sold out. They suggested we try the booths inside the subway stations.
No luck there either!
At this point, we felt like cabs were going to be our only option to get around the city. We had just about given up hope when we found a newspaper stand that had one SUBE card left.
We were so relieved!
Traveling around the city proved to be a lot easier and less expensive with the card. It's too bad that our visit to T.G.I.F. didn't have the same happy ending.
T.G.I.F. was one of our favorite restaurants back in the States. Sadly, Cordoba City doesn't have a T.G.I.F., so the hubs and I always take advantage of the one in Buenos Aires whenever we go on vacation.
Now keep in mind that we had just left the Comic-Con and walked a bunch of blocks to get to Puerto Madero. It was around 8:30 pm and the city was virtually shut down for the night.
To top that off, we only had about an hour and a half before we had to head back to the AirBnb to eat Subway sandwiches with the hubs' friend. So we were pressed for time, stressed and exhausted.
And yet, we needed our T.G.I.F. date to go perfect!
What we weren't counting on was the service or the quality of the food being so bad. Usually, T.G.I.F. has some expensive but very delicious menu options, and the servers are reasonably efficient. But that's not what we experienced during our visit in June.
We started off with appetizers and drinks. The hubs ordered chicken tenders, which ended up looking more like stale chicken nuggets. The server didn't even give him the right sauce he had asked for.
But the tenders weren't quite as bad as the potato skins I had ordered.
Don't let their appearance fool you. These potato skins were old and stale, and the bacon bits were hard and burnt. I almost lost a tooth.
We started with non-alcoholic drinks but planned on ordering some later along with dessert. As I mentioned earlier, we didn't want to get full because we had food waiting for us at home. However, the appetizers were bad, and our server went on a long break and never bothered to check on us. So, we asked another server for the check, paid for our horrible appetizers and drinks, and left.
It's safe to say that we won't ever go back to T.G.I.F. again. Luckily our experience at Sbarro's was a lot nicer. But I'll talk about that in my next post.
