- Cordoba is young. Very, very young. I heard someone float the number of 50,000 college students, and Wikipedia confirms it's even more extreme - about 100,000 students out of a population of 1,300,000. Honestly, it felt even more lopsided towards the youth, as my hostel was in Nueva Cordoba, a few blocks away from the huge university campuses.
- As a result, there are a ton of people with dogs (awesome!) and quite a few dogs on the streets (disappointing!). However, many of them seem cared for - I might be optimistic, but perhaps some of those dogs roam the streets and go to their homes at night? I'm not sure how to explain it otherwise.
- A ton of gyms. The amount of gyms I saw reminded me of Starbucks in Manhattan.
- It's even cheaper than Buenos Aires. You can get a very nice lunch for 50-60 pesos, which are around $4-5 (depending on the exchange rate).
- The nightlife is great - there's a high number of bars, clubs, and everything in between. However, I didn't really enjoy it much. More on that later.
- The museums! There was a very cool modern arts museum, with two collections that did some very fun things with texture: one involved arts created from small, rough strings, and another from something that looked vaguely similar to play-dough. The museum of fine arts was good for another nice stroll, as well as the two huge cathedrals. I guess it's a sign I'm growing old: I'm starting to enjoy museums, and go on my own volition.
Other than Cordoba itself, I took two day (or half-day) trips. The first was to Alta Gracia, a village about an hour away, mostly famous for a historical museum in what used to be a huge Jesuit monastery. It wasn't all that exciting, but still somewhat interesting to see, and they preserved plenty of the tools, furniture, and texts that used to be there. The second day trip was far cooler - it was a to a small village called La Cumbrecita. The village is essentially an alpine village, akin to what you'd see in Germany or Austria, but in the middle of Argentina. Obviously they have their own brewery, as well as restaurants named Engel and Helmut. It's a very pretty place to walk around in - there are a few waterfalls and small ponds, and should you ever spend a few days there, plenty of longer hikes to be taken as well.
Introspective: Although I had three nights in Cordoba, I didn't go out even once. I could blame it on the fact I was tired (and certainly I was, especially on the first night - as nice as the night buses are, they don't compare to a real bed), but that'd be cheating. I found a great hostel in Cordoba (Tango Hostel), as it was both recommended by my hostel in Buenos Aires and by HostelWorld. It was clean, the staff and volunteers (more guests/workers actually, but for the lack of a better term...) were very friendly and helpful, the location was great, and it felt good.
For better or worse, it was also a very small hostel. Most of the crowd was of the loud European type, and while they were very friendly (even if a lot of what they did was to smoke), I didn't really enjoy their company too much. I guess it just didn't click. However, I also didn't try very hard. One night I just missed them going to play bowling and drink (which frankly, sounds like a great time), and I didn't bother to ask where they are and join, and instead cooked dinner with some other guests and went to sleep. Another night I returned late from my trip to La Cumbrecita, and instead of joining the massive group going out I fucked around on my phone a bit and went to sleep.
Here's what I'm going to try and do differently: I'll try harder to get to know the people I'm staying with (even those of whom who aren't gorgeous blondes). I'll make an effort to go out when a group from the hostel goes, as usually once I'm out it's a lot more fun. All else fails, I'll ask around for a nice bar, and go drink a beer by myself and see if I meet people there. I imagine going out while couchsurfing will also feel very different - but we'll see about that once I give it a shot.
(Oh, and I'm aware how terrible the title is. Absolutely accepting suggestions for a better one)
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