Advertisement
Published: March 1st 2006
Edit Blog Post
Market in Montevideo
Market in Montevideo I took the ferry from Buenos Aires to Colonia and a bus from Colonia to Montevideo (Both provided by Buquebus). This taken longer than the direct ferry service to Montevideo, but was sufficiently cheaper. The journey was quite pleasant and I arrived at 'Tres Cruces' bus station late afternoon.
Unfortunately the Lonely Planet guide does not show the station, so I had to ask for directions to the center of town. Mixing up 'left' and 'right' in Spanish made this very interesting and funny. Before making my way to the Red Hostel I visited one of the nearby ATMs to withdraw some Uruguayan pesos, and bought a ticket back to Colonia at the bus station.
Staff at the hostel were very friendly, and offered me a free beer for being the first Hungarian guest. The hostel itself was quite lively, even though there were only about fourteen people staying there. The only thing which I didn´t like about the place is that the showers and toilets were in one room. In my dorm there were two others, a girl from Slovenia called Marica and Alan, a guy from Croatia.
I first started talking to Marica. Like me, she was only in
Market in Montevideo 2
Market in Montevideo 2 Uruguay for a few days before returning to Buenos Aires, where she was planning to spend a few months with her Argentinian boyfriend (as well as learning Spanish). I got to know Alan through her, who was at the time very busy organising his programme for the night. Apparently the previous night he went out with his girlfriend (a local from Montevideo) and one of her female friends. He did not seem particularly keen on the other woman, finding her behaviour 'too crazy', but his girlfriend insisted on her joining them which evidently left Alan with mixed feelings.
My arrival and friendliness gave him a brilliant idea, maybe if I went with him I could divert the friend´s attention, and therefore she would cause him less annoyance. The small detail that my Spanish is minimal and her English is non- existent seemed to have escaped him, and also that I wasn´t overly enthusiastic after his vivid description of her random outbursts. But then I didn´t have anything planned for the night (I lost Fabricio´s business card - the Uruguayan I met at the Milhouse), and Alan´s insistence got the better of me.
Over dinner I got to know Alan a
A back steet in old town
A back steet in old town little better. He used to own part of a business in Croatia, but got a bit fed up with his work and decided to travel in South America for a few months instead. He done quite a lot of travelling before (his favourite place being Cuba), and seemed to be very knowledgeable about European history. He´s also fluent in Spanish, Italian, and English.
When we returned to the hostel, Alan was eagerly waiting for his girlfriend to call, after trying to get in touch with her for a while. Instead he got a call from another of his friends, a girl called Carol, and thinking his girlfriend has already gone out (as we got back from dinner late) he arranged to meet up with her and one of her friends. Later of course his girlfriend did phone, and he did his best to explain to her that he´s busy for the evening. What followed was a sequence of hilarious calls from both women, which resulted in us sticking with Alan´s original decision to meet up with Carol (as he has already committed himself).
Carol soon turned up at the hostel, she was a light skinned black girl, very calm and
A closer look
A closer look friendly. Her friend (not so soon) arrived after her, a blonde girl claiming to be a model and dancer, quite flirtatious, reminding me of one of my cousins. Alan seemed to have developed an instant dislike for her, which didn´t surprise me as I found her a bit annoying too. Her hooking up with a guy at a night club (after we paid for her to get in) proved too much for Alan, who wanted the three of us to go to different place and leave the girl behind. Carol however didn´t like the idea, so Alan went off in search of his girlfriend, leaving me in her capable hands. After a while we all went to a different club, and in the morning me and Carol ended up walking on the beach, talking about her plans for the day (it turned out it was her birthday), chatting away in a mix of Spanish and English.
I woke up at two in the afternoon the next day. Alan greeted me in the bar by calling me sleeping beauty, and later we decided to explore the local market and had lunch at a Parilla (BBQ) restaurant. Late in the afternoon I
Ruins without a name
Ruins without a name went to do more sightseeing, and in the evening Alan entertained us by playing the guitar and singing in Spanish. I though he was very good.
Colonia is a beautiful small historical town in the coast of Rio de Plata, the perfect place for couples to spend a romantic weekend. It used to be ruled by the Spanish and Portugese at some point, which is reflected by it´s architecture. I arrived at the local bus station, feeling a bit ill, a consequence of walking around Montevideo at night without a jumper and not sleeping well. I earlier regretted finding a room at a guesthouse instead of a bed at a hostel, but under the circumstances I was really looking forward to having my own room. 'Posada Casa Los Pinos' is not a bad place to stay, my room was a bit basic, but the car speakers fixed in the wall were very amusing. I did a bit of sightseeing both days, though the second day I only emerged from my room after the sun came out in the afternoon. As I was walking around aimlessly I noticed a large number of dogs laying around on the street, enjoying the sunshine,
Ruins without a name 2
Ruins without a name 2 looking very lazy. People also appeared to be taking it very easy, a large number were riding around on their scooters, and many were sitting around fishing. I found my stay in Colonia very relaxing, time seemed to go very slowly in this town.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.076s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0417s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb