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Published: April 16th 2009
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And if you tolerate this then your children will be next. Sorry, couldn't resist. By the way, I've been sneaking in song references into my titles for a while now. If you're bored, why not try and find them all. A prize for anyone who gets them all. Oh, and for the smart Alec that says Las Ramblas are in Barcelona... well they're in Montevideo too. I've a picture that proves it.
I spent all of the Easter weekend in Montevideo, as with Uruguay being a Catholic country, it all goes a little crazy, with buses and hostels all booked up. Therefore, I decided to stay put. To be honest, 4 days here was a little bit too long. Don't get me wrong, its not a bad city at all, its just well... it's not a particularly interesting city either.
As per usual, my first day I headed out to see the city centre. First port of call was the Mercado del Puerto, where I'd heard that there were loads of stalls selling all kinds of food. Now, I'd imagined street food, cheap and cheerful, and I suspect that s what it was back in the day. Now, its
Montevideo
He can't even put down his mate while fishing all got rather trendy, and the little barbeques have been replaced by fashionable and expensive restaurants. I left disappointed and hungry.
From there, I meandered back through the Ciudad Vieja and City Centre towards my hostel in the suburb of Pocitos, stopping here and there, without ever really being wowed by anything. I did get a guy walk up to me right on a busy street in front of a policeman offering me weed, which amused me a bit. You won't be surprised to hear I said no thanks. But that was it really, hmm.
And so thats why I took to wandering Las Ramblas without real intent. Las Ramblas are the seaside roads that meander their way around Montevideo, and they're pretty scenic, but to be honest, the beaches (well the ones I saw anyway) didn't look that enticing. But I enjoyed watching the fisherman trying to catch their tea. They didn't seem to be having much luck, but I reckon thats because they were paying more attention to their mate (the drink that is, not their friends). They're even crazier for the mate here than in Argentina, and its a genuine rarity to walk past someone
in the street that isn't clutching a thermos flask and mate. That is perfectly normal here, but I reckon if I was to walk around in the street in England holding a teapot I'd be in the loony bin before my cuppa was cool enough to drink. I might try it though, it sounds like a good idea (the tea on the move, not the loony bin!)
So, when I'd got bored of watching people drink mate while pretending to be fishing, I fell back on football. I saw 2 games over the course of the weekend, Peñarol vs Juventud and Nacional vs Montevideo Wanderers. The intensity isn't quite the same in Uruguay, especially in the case of the Peñarol game, where they used a 75,000 seater stadium to accomodate the 15,000 of us that turned up. Still, they kept my mind occupied. I was also amused to find that right next to the Centenario are 2 other tiny grounds, which host Premier League football. As the Centenario is so huge, if you're bored with the game in there, you can lean over the sides and watch one of the other games. Cashback!
The other undoubted highlight of
my time in Montevideo was the barbeque that my hostel put on one night. Now, even in Argentina, they would usually provide some form of salad etc to accompany the meat. Here, it was seen as a waste of money that could be used much better by buying more meat. The only slight concession was that there was a little bit of bread lying around. Now thats my kind of BBQ!
I was quite glad when the Easter weekend was over, I'd had my fill of Montevideo (but not Easter Eggs sadly), next stop Punta del Este.
Stewart
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