Yo Yo from Uruguay
Yo from Uruguay! I am now in Montevideo, Uruguay which is certainly a contrast from Buenos Aires. Much smaller, from what I´ve seen, and I would say poorer. Palm trees line the central squares, and some of the roads in the countryside too.. which I found a bit random! Cows fill the fields, you can see where they got all the meat to make those pies in Fray Bentos.
Live
Today I´m feeling good. Yesterday was quite tiring as I was up until 2AM the night before sorting my bags and finding hostels here on the internet, and then I had an 8 hour bus ride (see travel below). Once I got to the hostel, it was good though. Ok, it´s not as good as the hostel in Buenos Aires, but I met people as soon as I opened the door, and once I´d dumped my stuff, sat down with 4 Brazilians & an Argentine to watch footie - Argentina v Colombia.
After a lot of cheering from the Argentine guy when they won we went to an Irish pub and were drink litre bottles of beer for just over a pound. Muy bien! Thankfully it´s not quite as cold here as Buenos Aires and to be honest today I really don´t need this fleece I´ve got on. Stuff just seems to get cheaper too.. I´ve just been to the Uruguayan version of Pizza Hut and had a pizza and two drinks for one pound, fifty pence!
Listen
Listening has been interesting over past few days, and as with other stuff, has been a thing of contrasts. A selection include: From the incredible noise generated by Buenos Aires traffic, protestors and clubs, to the Montevideo sea front, where all I could hear was the wind. One of the funniest things has to be South American football commentary...
GOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLL ARG-EN-TINA!
very funny. They are very passionate about their football. I´ve also heard the bus engine, the honk of old fashioned truck horns on the motorways of Uruguay (if you can call them that!), the blaring music from a kid´s headphones on the bus, badly dubbed spanish films and sweet sound of a covers band doing High & Dry by Radiohead in an Irish pub in Montevideo - so good, if Thom Yorke leaves Radiohead, this guy could fill in!
Travel
Obviously it´s going to be pretty tough to beat the travel documented in the last post, but there´s been a bit done in the last 5 days. I´ve walked round a fair proportion of central Buenos Aires at all hours of the day and night. Interesting to see a city that truly never sleeps! After meeting some people at the hostel there, we went out from 8 at night til almost 8 the next morning, obviously slightly worse for wear by the morning ;-) Walking around there, also involves a good proportion of getting lost, but at least that way you get to see more of the city!
Then there was the bus to here. Getting the ticket itself turned into a bit of a trek as I headed in completely the wrong direction. Luckily the Porteños of Buenos Aires are darn sight friendlier than your stereotypical Londoner or Parisian, and they pointed me in the right direction (which I understood!). After getting the ticket, I found the short way back on my own via the supermarket and cooked myself a feast of pasta with peppers, onions and tomatoes. The peppers were of a ridiculous size, "giant" wouldn´t be a big enough description!
The next morning I got up for the bus in time, got a taxi, and got on the bus to Montevideo. It was an interesting ride - cows, pampas, slums. They were the main things that stood out! Oh but I can´t forget the border crossing, which was at best confusing, but I got my stamps and thats what matters :) After getting here, I got a taxi to the hostel as I hadn´t a clue where it was and it was getting dark.
Right I´d better be off otherwise I´ll be paying extra! Watch for another post soon. Take care.
Live
Today I´m feeling good. Yesterday was quite tiring as I was up until 2AM the night before sorting my bags and finding hostels here on the internet, and then I had an 8 hour bus ride (see travel below). Once I got to the hostel, it was good though. Ok, it´s not as good as the hostel in Buenos Aires, but I met people as soon as I opened the door, and once I´d dumped my stuff, sat down with 4 Brazilians & an Argentine to watch footie - Argentina v Colombia.
After a lot of cheering from the Argentine guy when they won we went to an Irish pub and were drink litre bottles of beer for just over a pound. Muy bien! Thankfully it´s not quite as cold here as Buenos Aires and to be honest today I really don´t need this fleece I´ve got on. Stuff just seems to get cheaper too.. I´ve just been to the Uruguayan version of Pizza Hut and had a pizza and two drinks for one pound, fifty pence!
Listen
Listening has been interesting over past few days, and as with other stuff, has been a thing of contrasts. A selection include: From the incredible noise generated by Buenos Aires traffic, protestors and clubs, to the Montevideo sea front, where all I could hear was the wind. One of the funniest things has to be South American football commentary...
GOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLL ARG-EN-TINA!
very funny. They are very passionate about their football. I´ve also heard the bus engine, the honk of old fashioned truck horns on the motorways of Uruguay (if you can call them that!), the blaring music from a kid´s headphones on the bus, badly dubbed spanish films and sweet sound of a covers band doing High & Dry by Radiohead in an Irish pub in Montevideo - so good, if Thom Yorke leaves Radiohead, this guy could fill in!
Travel
Obviously it´s going to be pretty tough to beat the travel documented in the last post, but there´s been a bit done in the last 5 days. I´ve walked round a fair proportion of central Buenos Aires at all hours of the day and night. Interesting to see a city that truly never sleeps! After meeting some people at the hostel there, we went out from 8 at night til almost 8 the next morning, obviously slightly worse for wear by the morning ;-) Walking around there, also involves a good proportion of getting lost, but at least that way you get to see more of the city!
Then there was the bus to here. Getting the ticket itself turned into a bit of a trek as I headed in completely the wrong direction. Luckily the Porteños of Buenos Aires are darn sight friendlier than your stereotypical Londoner or Parisian, and they pointed me in the right direction (which I understood!). After getting the ticket, I found the short way back on my own via the supermarket and cooked myself a feast of pasta with peppers, onions and tomatoes. The peppers were of a ridiculous size, "giant" wouldn´t be a big enough description!
The next morning I got up for the bus in time, got a taxi, and got on the bus to Montevideo. It was an interesting ride - cows, pampas, slums. They were the main things that stood out! Oh but I can´t forget the border crossing, which was at best confusing, but I got my stamps and thats what matters :) After getting here, I got a taxi to the hostel as I hadn´t a clue where it was and it was getting dark.
Right I´d better be off otherwise I´ll be paying extra! Watch for another post soon. Take care.
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