This morning I left Colonia and after about 2.5h got to Montevideo.. I am staying in a hostel in the Ciudad Vieja which is the old part of the city... There are some beautiful old buildings and I feel that the city has even more character than Buenos Aires... What a little bit of money could do however to improve this part of town... it could be a major tourist attraction with some reparations... and then ugly signs or shops kill a bit the beautiful style of the building. Unfortunately like in Buenos Aires this appears to be no the best part of town...but once again it is the most beautiful... the centro itself is quite commercial.
It is really weired because there is no one on the streets today. maybe because it is sunday but I didn´t like that part... some interesting looking people you come across glad I didn take much money with me... Whilst in Buenos Aires the male population just pulls the horn here you get quite a bit of hissing and calling words after you hermosa, princesa.... not so nice when you are on your own.. I just tried to stay on the main road. For lunch I went to the Port which is 2 min walk from my hostel.. there are lots of steak places. AMAZING. for like 6 pounds you get a huge fillet. sooooooo good!! simply delishhhhh.
Back in the hostel I met some Argentinians who are here for an art event. One of them hadnt seen the city before either and he had a car so we drove outside the city to the the beaches and the part of town called Pocitos... driving along las Ramblas which is the beach promenade.. nice but unfortunately brown not blue water as it is a river rather than the ocean.. So that was my bit of adventure..
Like in Argentina people don t like dealing with large bank notes.. but a large bank note actually not being worth more than like 10-20 pounds... really weired. At least there is plenty of coins in Uruguay unlike in Argentina. Somebody decided to horde alll the coins and eventually sell them which is why there are hardly any coins in Argentina and everybody holds on to them.. the problem is however that for taking the bus you can only use coins... you see the problem here.. quite a bit of a mission to be able to get hold of change for using the bus.
Tomorrow I am off to Punta del Este which is a big beach resort area.. unfortunately it has not been that summer warm yet but we shall see. hoping to get the bikini out...
