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Published: November 11th 2008
Cafe con Leche
Yes, that´s what I call a coffee :-)
(big enough for me ;-)Well, finally I arrived in Montevideo. It was quite a long flight (11,5 hours) and I could just sleep a little bit. The service of Iberia is not to be compared with Edihad ... although not more expensive, at Edihad you had your own touch-screen and a choice of about 30 different movies (parts of them very actual!), footrest ... well ... but I did survive ;-)
Went to the tourist-info and got some map of the town and info with which buses to go there. She also explained me some places to see in Uruguay. Then I checked my mail and had an mail from Nicolas (my CS-hoster) with an describtion how to get to his place. At the airport there seemed to have arrived also some football-players, because there have been fans waiting and television was also there. I went to ask the bus driver, if he´s going near Nicolas place, but before answering he closed the door and went on ... well, so I finally realized, that I´m in the bus to the center and not to Nicolas place, but, who cares?
When arrived in downtown, I first repacked my backpag, so that I just have
La playa
This is the beach near the place I stay at the moment - nice, isn´t it? one big bag. But this is now really heavy (about 20kg - took some additional books with me ;-). I walked about 3-4 kilometers this day with the bag ... this is nothing I will do again ... its just to heavy ... need to get rid of some things, or just organize my way of transport in some other way, because this is not acceptable. Well, nevertheless had a good lunch and coffee and finally managed to take the correct bus at the station Tres Cruzes. ¨Talked¨with an guy (in spanish ;-) who works in Florida, did come at the moment from Argentina, where his brother lives and now visits his parents here in Montevideo. He helped me to find the correct station to get off from the bus, because this is really not easy ... no info, nothing ... you just have to know ...
Finally I arrived at Nicolas place. A really friendly guy and I just had to relax a little bit. Then I went to the beach near by and had a walk at the ramblas. Was a really nice day for my first visit. I was really tired and went to bed.
Montevideo 1
Different building ... The next day (4.11.) I got up at about 11. Today is my birthday! I´m going to celebrate it in Montevideo! Wow, that sounds good! :-) I went for a walk on the beach, in dirrection of the city-center. Its a very hot (about 30 degrees) day (and I forgot my sunscreen - that reminds me to Astrid: Sunscreen would be it - do you remember? ;-) As it was already 12 and I didn´t have breakfast, I tried to find a place to eat, but I was at a place with not very much restaurants near by ... but near the Museo Juan Zorrilla de San Martin I saw 2 people sitting in a bar. Of course the light was turned off and it seemed closed, but that didn´t bother me (nothing stops me, when I´m hungry ;-). So I aksed for something to eat and they told me, that they only open for eating at 7 in the evening. But that didn´t stop me, so I asked if it is okay to get something to drink and they agreed. Finally I was speaking with the guest there (mix of ´spanish´and english ;-), who seemed to be familiar with
Christmas
Oh yes, it´s already Christmas-time at the shopping-center! the owner. And when I told them, that I´m from Austria, have just arrived and want to travel through all of Uruguay, the offered me some Pasta! Very friendly! They also told me about interesting things to see in Uruguay and although I still miss lots of words in spanish (guess, I should not have been that lazy ;-), but it´s okay), we had a quite good ´conversation´. Only my ´cafe con leche´ was understood as ´te con leche´, maybe because I´m from Europe and they know that the British are doing this? :-) But nevertheless, it was really nice and very friendly from them and I enjoyed it very much.
So I continued my walk and had a look at the lighthouse and the parks of Montevideo. I bought myself an ice-cream (my birthday-cake ;-) and a guy started to talk with me, in a speed, I hardly could understand a single word. So I told him, that I just speak and understand a little bit of Spanish. That didn´t bother him, he sayed something like, that´s okay and continued to talk and talk and talk ... Well, to be honest, it seemed to me, he was homeless.
As far as I could understand, he told me that the social situation at the moment is not very good and that he is unemployed, even he had studied some technical thing. Then he told me that when I continue this way, the cemetry will come up next and then downtown and something about the tourist-police. But I could just understand one tenth of what he said ...
On my way I saw the different faces of the town. Nice buildings also, as some poor areas. It seems to me, that poor and ´rich´ are very ´close together´ here. Means, that you just have to take one side-street and you can have a completely different part of the town and standard of living. The center with the Plaza Independencia and the Av. 18 de Julio is of course very touristic and here you have nice, clean streets. But also there, you can find both sides. For example at Plaza Independencia there was a family sitting at an park-bank and drinking mate. They didn´t look very poor, but when the child (about 7 year old girl) spotted my camera, she was asking me for money ... somehow strange.
Finally
I was to tired to walk anymore, so I took a taxi for the way home, which are quite cheap here. All in all, I guess, I was walking about 12-15 kilometers this day - pretty much. I had a look at my mail and got lots of birthday-greetings - thank you all! I talked to my parents via Skype (in fact I did wake them up, because it was already 11 pm in Austria ...). In the evening Nicolas and I went to downtown to meet some friends. We´ve been at a nice pub with live-comedians (but I was not able to understand them ;-). But it was a very nice evening and I got some new infos from the people we met there (a girl from Italy and a guy from Montevideo - all very nice), about what to do/see in Uruguay. At home I finally realized, that I got sun-burned ... but not bad ;-)
Today (5.11.) I´ve not been doing very much - no need to! :-) Just relaxed and went to an Internet-cafe to write my travel-blog. I also did some planning about the route and marked interesting points on my map. Went to
Hungry?
Hihi, yes, that´s what I call a good meal! :-) The portions in this country seem to be slightly bigger ... ;-)
(mind the salad) an nice restaurant for breakfast and bought a street-map and a travel-guide of Uruguay (in spanish of course!) - so this will be a challenge for me, but it was not really easy to even get one single guide of Uruguay. It seems, like there do not really exist some. But finally I found one and it is quite detailed. In the evening we went to an bar in downtown and met some friends there. Those are really very nice and friendly guys too - I tried to speak some spanish and the rest we did in english ;-) They also gave me tips what to see - very good. There was live-music at the bar, this was also really nice.
I will leave Nicolas place today (6.11.) because, I dont want to stress out his hospitality ;-) He´s really a nice guy and very helpful. Whenever you come to Montevideo and want to meet interesting people, just visit him! Found some new place at an friends place from Nicolas and will meet some other CS-people today and tomorrow - so lot´s to do! :-) Went for lunch with Nicolas and his working-colleagues - ate a Chivito (typical food
Montevideo 4
Garden of the Museo Juan Zorrilla de San Martin of Uruguay ;-) - really good. Finally I packed my things and went to the flat of another Couchsurfer. The funny thing is, I contacted him on my own via Couchsurfing and now it turns out, that my next hoster is a friend of my current hoster, Nicolas! They even lived for some years together! Funny! :-) I went to Nachos place with my heavy back-bag (20kg - I´ve added some books). He´s also a really nice guy. In the evening I went to meet another contact from CouchSurfing (Laura) for dinner. First we had problems to meet, because I mixed up the times and was there much too early, but we finally managed to meet and it was a really great evening. I will for sure stay at her place within the next days, because she´s a really interesting person.
On Friday I went to see the palacio legislativo. For lunch I had a "Milanesa", not knowing exactly what this is - now I know, that this is a "Schnitzel" ;-) After that I had a look at the Mausoleo at the Placa Independencia and the historical museum and the museum of Torres Garcia and finally to the
Montevideo 5
Entrance to the Museo Juan Zorrilla de San Martin Parque Batlle. At Nachos place some friends did come and they played a strategic card-game - interesting. Went to meet Paolo (another CouchSurfing-contact) the next day at the harbour-market. We had lunch there - very good! Then we went by car along the coast of Uruguay to Chuy, a city at the border to Brazil. We also crossed the border to Brazil and had dinner there - so I´ve been to Brazil too! :-)
At Sunday (09.11.) I went with Nacho and his girlfriend to a very big flea-market near by, that takes place every Sunday. This is really huge! I bought a small bag for me, because my second bag is a little bit to big. I use it for my daily excursions :-) Then we went home and had a Tortilla - really good. I called Laura to ask when to meet and we agreed, that I come to her place in the afternoon. So I took a bus and asked the bus driver to tell me, when to get off, but he didn´t really understand, so I asked another guest and although she really spoke very fast, I could finally understand, that she is getting off
Montevideo 6
Yes, I even found some piece of home (Zillerthal) here ;-) the bus 1km before my bus-stop and she even teached me, how to recognize the signs with the km on the side of the street, so I could tell, when to get off the bus. At the bus station Laura was already waiting for an hour and we walked home. She has really a very nice house and in the back of the garden a small building, where I can sleep - so I even have my privacy - wow! Some friends of her did come this evening, we watched the movie "the secret" and I drank my first mate! Really good! :-) And then one friend of her played the guitar and we sang songs till late in the evening - it was really great! At her home she has 7 dogs and 2 cats - I really like that (as some of you know, that I really like dogs ;-).
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Anca
non-member comment
Wow!
Wow Martin, Your life is so exciting! You did in 9 days in South America much more than I did in 10 months since I came to Barcelona.. Well done! Sounds like you have a lot of fun and I am sure now that you will win the contest and be fluent in Spanish much faster than I will. All the best! Have fun ;) Anca