Wine & Weirdness — Molly Wanders

Córdoba is weird as shit. This college town teeming with young people has tapped into my inner indie-punk and I’m loving it. We have thrown it way back to the 90s (enter: extreme platform shoes, DVD rental stores, and roller-skates) - I even whipped out the bell-bottoms and Volcom tee last weekend. We arrived in Córdoba with the expectation of relaxing and regrouping before Buenos Aires and then Europe where I might die from an overload of activities, but I’ve been incredibly surprised by all that this town has to offer.

For one, there’s a huge, seemingly post-apocalyptic park with a flowerless rose-garden (probably due to the winter season, but still creepy), a field of massive Olympic rings (we think?), a run-down carousel and deserted fun-park, a pond with broken bridges and radioactive sludge (which people still paddle-boat in), and a graffiti-streaked skate park that begs the question: “Remember that Disney movie, Brink?” There are palm trees, eucalyptus trees and pine trees all next to each other, pigeons pecking at scraps alongside bright green parakeets, and then you stumble into a random oasis of a bar, complete with black kittens that bug you to feed them. After our first park excursion, we walked straight into the remnants of a massive, city-wide protest and strange political artwork taped to a fence. It’s all so weird it makes me smile.

Being somewhat of an artsy town, we heard about this experience where you listen to music in complete darkness, so, naturally, we had to check it out. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into other than a local friend (aptly deemed, The Unicorn) texting me “bless you” right before, almost causing us to bail. It turned out to be one of the cooler things I’ve experienced this year, and I’ve now gone twice. The first show was Pink Floyd where we watched an upbeat British documentary before listening to The Division Bell in pitch black and Dolby surround sound. When I say we were in complete darkness, I mean that you couldn't see your hand two inches from your face, the doors don't open to let anyone in or out, and you essentially experience full blindness. Being completely immersed in music while having your other senses deprived is borderline life changing. My mind wandered during each tune change and I let my thoughts take me where they wanted. They lit incense halfway through to add to the ‘meditation', and after being in that room for 66 minutes, I couldn’t stop saying, “Whoa.” So I went back for more. This weekend I got a last minute spot at the Radiohead show. Listening to Radiohead’s, In Rainbows in darkness and high-def surround sound was just as awesome as you’re thinking it was. This time the intro documentary was glitchy and dark, kind of like Radiohead. The music that followed left me speechless.

Anyway, back to weird and quirky Córdoba, whom I love so dearly. Did I mention this city shuts down completely between 3-6pm every day so people can siesta (or watch futbol)? Yesterday we ventured out to have lunch and walk around, but the stores and streets were all deserted. #PostApocalypseTown. Luckily we had the creepy park to walk around in until the artisanal market popped up at 6. There were a lot of hippies and dreadlocks at the market, which I found hilariously appropriate. At every turn in Córdoba, you find something weird and it just makes you laugh. Oh yeah, like the fact that I have a shower-toilet (apparently this is very European)? My bathroom is all one room, one drain, and the shower head comes out of the wall spraying in the direction of the toilet. This is probably very hard to conceptualize, so I’ll move on. But here's a washing machine in in the kitchen where a dishwasher would be:

We've had countless dinner parties, potlucks and bake-offs (or grilled quesoffs). I learned how to make empanadas and mix up sustainable/green cocktails from a hipster barista at a place called Apartamento (because it's actually an old apartment building turned bar). Mate is the drink of choice in Córdoba because the coffee is horrendous. The contraption they drink this lose tea from looks more like something you would smoke out of, but I’m hoping to bring back a set because I’m totally into it now.

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April seemed like a weird month for a lot of people. Now we’re mostly all back together after 30 days of constant side-trips and #growthzones, aside from the four we lost. It still doesn’t feel real that these individuals are gone; they were all unique pieces of this group who will never be replaced. One of the four who left the group was a past roommate of mine and contributed to some of my fondest and funniest memories on Remote Year so far. He will be sorely, sorely missed.

The theme of this month is wine and weirdness, at least for me. The real Meraki theme of the month is ‘home,’ which I guess is because people are starting to feel a little homesick. It’s strange, but this city feels the most home to me. It’s small, it’s quaint, it’s quirky, and unique. The wine is cheap and we’re finally getting our taste of autumn weather (soon to be winter in BA). I will say that I’m super excited for my quick stopover in Raleigh before taking on the next 6 months of my journey across the pond. Mainly to unload all my winter clothes and alpaca gear I’ve picked up along the way and replace them with sour patch kids and goldfish, but also to recharge myself with family and friends. I’ve heard how important it is to go home at least once during RY, so I’m going to make the most of it. First thing on my to-do list: Chick-Fil-A and Sephora. See ya in about a month Ruff-Raleigh!

More to come on Argentina. Thursday we leave for Mendoza, the Napa of Argentina, to get a bougier perspective on this beautiful country. And drink lots of wine.