Going to Colonia in Uruguay


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Published: March 30th 2011
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Next morning we got up and decided to go and check out the new shopping centre that is very close to the house, but it didnt have the things we needed so we walked then all the way to Montevideo Shopping and ate some late lunch, we also bumped into Matias´s girlfriend who we´d met at the wedding. We went for a bit of a shop in Tienda Inglesa and bought my first pair of Alpargatas! And printed some photos to send to people and to give to Abuela Susana. All of our business done, we had icecream and walked home again. We bought a beer on the way home and drank it with Quela and Tato, we chilled out in the backyard, I fixed up the gift we had got for Abuela Susana, a double photo frame from artesanos and we´d printed a photo of us and a photo of Seb and Bianca to put in the frames, and since we´d bought a skipping rope for me to exercise with, I did that... its a winnie the pooh one and even has a skip counter on it! We had delicious asado beef for dinner, cooked on the proper wood fuelled cooker. I got a bit ill that evening, dont know why, so went to bed early.
Next morning (tuesday) we got up and went to visit Abuela Susana at the home, she had just finished gymnasio and was a bit tired, but we chatted and at snack food that we´d bought. We gave her the gift and she loved it! We joined her for lunch (the food there is pretty good, its not really a nursing home, more like a hotel with medical staff) then said goodbye at about 2 as we had to finish packing things into a bag and go and catch a bus to Colonia that afternoon. We took a cab to Tres Cruces, the bus station, bought our tickets and waited the hour till our bus left, we went looking in the shops upstairs of the terminal and had some La Cigale icecream. The bus trip was about 3 hours, we watched tv programs on our laptop the whole way so it went very fast! We arrived and walked to a hostel Dario knew about on the main street, Hostal Colonial, next door to a La Pasiva. We got a room, dumped our stuff then walked to Pibe and Perla´s house (the parents of Mabel who we´d met in Montevideo, they have a house here too). They had another great uncle of Dario´s and a few friends visiting. We watched the sunset, as their back balcony looks out over the river across to Argentina. Later we ordered pizza from the restaurant next door and ate dinner together. Dario and I left at 9.30 or so and walked around the lovely old section of Colonia, many buildings (including Pibe´s house) are over 150 years old at least. We had some great icecream and walked back to our hostel for the night... where unfortunately the wifi wasnt working... so I updated my blog writing as I was 2 weeks behind 😊
Next morning we woke to find it was raining very hard and quite chilly (a big change as it had been swelteringly hot, even at 6pm the day before). We got up and had our included breakfast which was just bread rolls and coffee (cheap as! since we´re paying $35 a night here Id expected more) and found the internet still didnt work, so watched tv while we decided what to do for the day. We went for a walk in the rain to the market a few streets away where a relative of Dario´s usually works, but she wasnt there. Since Dario was wearing our only poncho and I was getting wet, we then went to buy an umbrella for me, which kept blowing inside out in the wind! We walked around to the gates of the old town and then around the rambla in the rain. We decided we were hungry after all the walking and went to Mercosur on the main road to have chivitos pan, basically a huge steak sandwich with bacon, cheese, tomato and lettuce and egg, we got a deal which included fries, a drink and icecream at the end for the same cost as one of the sandwiches! Dario then got a call from his grandmother who is living with 2 of his uncles at the moment in Colonia and one of them, Raul decided to come and meet us. We waited for him, but it wasnt hard as our waiter was run off his feet and our empty plates were still sitting where they had been for 20 minutes. We all ate some icecream when he arrived and chatted away, then we walked to our hostel as Belen, a cousin of Dario´s was meeting us there, then we all walked to Pibe´s house, taking nibblies and drinks with us.
We showed them all a few trip photos and at 6 Raul and the 2 of us left to take the bus to his place a few k´s away to see abuela and carlitos. We took nibblies and drinks too and sat and chatted for about 3 and a half hours while eating alfajores, biscuits and cheese! We walked home with Raul who was walking to a social club right near our hostel then said goodnight.
Next morning was actually sunny! and we met with Raul at 11am to go and visit Abuelo Jose in the Cemetary, he showed us where he was. We bought some flowers and put them there too. At 12 we walked to the house of Susana, great aunt of Dario´s, she lives with her 2 grand daughters who were both out studying all day and her great grand daughter who was at day care. So we had a lovely lunch just the 3 of us and her daughter (mother of the 2 grand daughters) dropped by to say hi which was great. We ate way too much but had a lovely time. From there we walked back to the hostel and grabbed some of the free bikes available, the 2 best ones available... most are in bad shape. And rode down the Rambla in Colonia, 5k´s along the river, was very nice! We saw the old bull fighting ring which is falling apart and then got a call from Walberto, cousin of Dario and we rode back to town to meet him and his mother at an ice creamery. We sat and chatted until the sun started setting (and ate some great ice cream!) and we got a bit cold so organised to have dinner later. We returned the bikes, had some time for showers and for just chilling out and then went to meet Walberto and the family (Marta and their kids Belen and David) to have great pizza for dinner at 10pm. It got pretty late and David needed to go to school the next morning, so we said goodnight and Belen joined us with her boyfriend to have ice cream and a coffee and a chat until 1am.
Next morning was cold again and we´d organised to go shopping with Belen, so we met up at 11 and went for a wander around town, then to the Feria (Permanent Market) where her mother works and found some nice things there. We had lunch together in La Pasiva and then she had to go to work. We watched a match, Uruguay against Estonia on the tv until we had to leave to catch our bus back to Montevideo. Raul had very nicely walked to the terminal to meet us and say a brief goodbye... brief only because we arrived at 4 and managed to get tickets for the bus that leaves at 4. The bus ride was really warm, the aircon didnt work and the windows werent open. But we got back to Montevideo and walked the 40 minutes back to the house to collapse and chat with Tato and Quela.

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