Montevideo

Montevideo

In Montevideo, it naturally rained as if there was no tomorrow. But we are used to it, it's like a welcome greeting for us. We had to wait 20 minutes to get a taxi because everyone takes taxis there. We had to look carefully to find our hostel because it was hidden.

The hostel is the orange one, the entrance door is to the right of the tree. We arrived and it was a really cool hostel, with a lovely atmosphere.

We checked in and went to our room. We had a 4-bed dormitory to ourselves, but there were 2 more guests expected for that room. I went out for a moment to check everything, and when I came back to the room, my roommate was speaking Swiss German. Our roommate was from Valais. It's difficult enough to understand Spanish, and now I have to concentrate even more to understand Walliser German. He was a cool guy who was just traveling for an indefinite period. We quickly realized that we got along well and decided to have dinner together. We went to a traditional Uruguayan restaurant. I didn't know what to expect.

I quickly realized that I really liked it there. We had the best meat since we left home. We got a 450g entrecôte for only CHF 12. In Switzerland, that would easily cost between CHF 50-70. And it was so tender.

Damn, just thinking about it makes my mouth water on the bus. I better continue writing. The next day, we woke up early, had breakfast, and went to the city center for a free walking tour. On our way, I saw a stand with these strange tea cups that everyone was drinking out of every few seconds. I said that I had to try the tea.

At Plaza Independencia, we saw beautiful old buildings. I fell in love with the city there. Everywhere you looked, you saw something with attention to detail. This building used to be the tallest in South America until 1998. Its twin is located in Argentina.

Oh yes, Argentina and Uruguay have an endless rivalry. With everything they have (which is quite similar), each one feels that theirs is better. We quickly noticed this during the free walking tour. Uruguay used to be one big country. We joined the group and waited for the tour to start. Our tour guide greeted us, as usual with a thermos flask under her arm and a tea cup in her hand. She noticed how I was staring at the cup, like a dog looking at a cookie. She asked me if I wanted to try it. Before she could finish the sentence, I already had the straw in my mouth. Just a normal green tea with a few grains to chew on occasionally. I don't know why they make such a big deal about it. But I enjoyed it.

We started walking and went through the old town. It was really beautiful, truly. We learned some interesting things. For example, in Uruguay, there are 3.3 million people, with 1.5 million in Montevideo. Each resident of Uruguay basically has 4 cows. There are 12 million cows in Uruguay. I like cows. She also explained about the statues and monuments of people riding horses, and what the position of the horse's legs means. If the horse has both legs on the ground, the person died a natural death. If one leg is lifted and the other is on the ground, the person was in a war and either died as a result or died a natural death. If the horse is rearing with both legs lifted, the person died in battle. Apparently, this is international. But in Montevideo, one monument has a mistake. The person died a natural death, but the horse has one leg lifted. The Italian artist felt that it had more charm that way, but it's not according to the norm, colleague!

We finished the tour at the harbor, where there was also a meat market. You can imagine, we went there. It looked like an old train station. Inside, there were about 30 small restaurants, each one with a charcoal grill and tons of meat on it.

The hall was filled with a smoky atmosphere and the smell was unbelievable. Yes, I thought I was in heaven. We found a table and ordered lunch. There were guitars being played and people singing everywhere. The atmosphere was really good.

After that, we said goodbye to our friend from Valais, returned to the hostel, and rented bikes. We rode along the coast for about 45 minutes to see the Montevideo sign.

Once we arrived, we wanted to take some photos, but there were 4 retirees who were apparently not very proficient with their smartphones. One of them took a photo, but it turned out bad with the other 3 people standing right in the middle. All 4 of them shook their heads and he tried again. He did this about 15 times. Finally, we were able to take our photo!

On the way back, we wanted to find a nice spot to watch the sunset. We had some time and made a few stops during the 30-minute bike ride. Among other things, we came across a football match with 8-year-old boys, really cute. Further ahead, there were about 50 Indians doing some strange sport that didn't make any sense to us. But it looked like they were having a lot of fun. It was funny to watch.

We found a nice place on a hill and enjoyed a beautiful sunset. Afterward, it got quite cold and we returned to the hostel. We returned the bikes and went out on the street in search of a restaurant. We ended up at an Italian restaurant. I treated myself to a pizza, and Muriel had her favorite risotto.

Back at the hostel, we were quite tired, so we went to bed early. In the morning, we packed our things and went to the bus station. On the bus, a child next to me vomited on the floor, and we got some splashes on our legs. I was glad when we could finally get off the bus. Now we are on the bus to Colonia del Sacramento. It's an old colonial village. We will spend the night there and tomorrow take the ferry to Buenos Aires, which takes 1 hour. Montevideo is really beautiful, we highly recommend it.

See you soon!

Ernesto & Muriel

Next Stop: Colonia del Sacramento