The grass is greener on the other side...

Argentina has a new president, Cristina Kirchner. She's the wife of the former president and she won with 40% of the votes (and the runner-up had only 23%). Unlike Lassi ;) I won't get into the politics now, anyone who's interested to learn more, I'm sure you can find the information from the internet.. The elections were held last sunday and because of that everywhere was closed on saturday night and so we decided to head to Montevideo, Uruguay, for the weekend.
Montevideo surprised me in many ways. All weekend we had faboulous weather (so good that me and Nanna almost burnt ourselves the first morning, after we fell asleep at the terrace of our hostel. I got really strange tanlines from my bag and necklace..)

We spent the weekend wandering around Montevideo and I loved to be back by the sea. The sea is what I miss most in Buenos Aires. You could notice the difference right away, it was so much easier to breathe, with the fresh sea air and barely no pollution. The city was really pretty and it had a small town feel, even though it's the same size as Helsinki. (Well maybe Helsinki will feel like a village after living in BA) The Ciudad Vieja, that all the guide books recommend, was bit of a disapointment, it was very dodgy and scruffy, nothing compared to the Old Towns of Stockholm or Tallinn.
Both nights we went out for a meal and both times we were really impressed with everything. Service, ambiance, food.. everything was perfect. Both of them reach my Top 3 restaurant experiences! I tasted the best steak ever.. I'd been told that it's in Argentina, but apparently it's in Uruguay.

And I'd been told some other false infomation as well.. They say that the best looking men are in Argentina (or maybe it's actually just the argentinans who say that..) but they are in Uruguay! Every guy there was gorgeuos. And they're really sweet, not arrogant and macho like the Argentinans.. Oh, if only I'd known better before I decided where to move in South America ;)
It was a really nice weekend and I think we saw and did lots in 2 days. On sunday we went to see the sunset and the park and seaside was full of friends and families gathering together, drinking mate. At the park we were lucky to catch a samba schools reharsal/show and it's amazing how well they dance. After that I had my scariest rollercoaster ride ever. The ride itself wasn't that scary, but it was the quality of the rollercoaster that made us scream all the way through.
Lonely Planet calls Uruguay the hidden gem of South America and I totally agree. We were all very pleased with our weekend get-away and we were constantly pointing out the great things there. I'd love to go back, travel up the coast, see more of it and maybe get to know an Uruguayn on the way.. :)

My blog didn't let me sign in last week and that's why I couldn't write anything but I'll write more later on this week to fill you in with all the latest happenings here in BA. I had funny feeling this morning when we got back, even though we were so impressed with Uruguay, I felt really happy to be back in BA and it felt like coming back home..