I read that this is a way of life in Argentina.
well the organizing committee of Copa America made sure that the foreigners who came for the tounament to not miss out on this Argentine way of life.
for foreigners, we could buy the tickets on the internet and paid with a credit card and got charged just a small fee (30 pesos, about 7 USD) for each ticket.
we were then offered two choices of how to pick up the tickets in Argentina:
1) to pick up all the tickets in Buenos Aires or
2) to pick up the tickets at each host city.
option 1 was not so good as only one match, the Final, is played in BA. Most of the foreign fans flew into BA international airport and went straight to one of the other 6 host cities.
option 2 - wel if you have 5 matches in 5 cities, you have to pick up your tickets in 5 different locations. if you choose this option, every host city has your ticket for that city already printed out, waiting for you in a nice Mastercard envelop.
I chose option 2.
I got to La Plata in the afternoon of the first match and got an email telling me the ticket location had changed. no problem. I got to this dilapitaded stadium (on the opposite side of the city from where the match was payed) and only had to wait 90 minutes in the cold.
next was San Juan. There were a lot of Chilenos and we had to wait 2 hours but I was with Juan and Ross so we talked futbol and I could go get snacks whie they kept my place in line.
in San Juan, there was only one ticket window with 2 or 3 people working behind it.
Salta was much better. almost. Here the ticket office was inside a big hall. When I got there, there were 2 lines, one long and one short. I asked and found out the long one was for picking up tickets and the short one was for buying them.
with the cheapest ticket costed only 40 pesos (10 USD). I thought about just buying one ticket to avoid the long line. then I found out the short line was to buy a voucher and one still had to join the long line to exchange the voucher for a ticket. I like Argentina.
so I rejoined the long line and luckily, I had a book with me (Borges). but the line was moving quite fast. it seemed that if you had a voucher, it took 5 seconds once you got to the window (and there was only one window)
I waited for about 20 minutes before getting to the window. but since I bought my ticket on the internet with a credit card, they had to look something up on their computer and the connection was slow.
so all the people behind me with vouchers got their tickets and I waited for another 15 minutes with the other foreigners. finally I pleaded with them 'look, my ticket is in one of those envelopes behind you. please give it to me. I am hungry. I want to go to dinner (at 5pm)'
they took pity on a hungry foreigner and gave me the envelop.
next was Mendoza. It was Chile vs Peru and I was hoping the Chilenos had all picked up their tickets as this was the second of 2 games Chile played in Mendoza. I was right. on the day of the match, I went to the suburb of Godoy Cruz and there was no line.
and I got to see another stadium
my luck continued in Cordoba. again here I had to go to a suburb (far from the center and no where near the stadium of the game) and again there was no line. and again I visited another stadium.
tomorrow Argentina vs Uruguay in Santa Fe. Sold out. I still have to go to the University of Santa Fe to pick up my ticket.
I hope my luck continues. but if there is a line, I am ready. I am bringing with me these books.
I got these books free at all the matches. They are literature books about football from writers of different Copa America countries.
only in Argentina one gets free literature book at a football match. amazing.
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