Arriving at 2am in Montevideo was less than spectacular. I had no sleep as it was a relatively short journey, five hours if I remember correctly and it was just a short two hours into the fabulously boring labour day that we had then to put up with. The hostel, El Viajero was centrally located in the historical centre of the Uruguayan capital which was good. The hostel on the other hand seemed like it was made with tiny twigs that even the gentlest of touches would have managed to make a sound. I remember learning about the Irish mythological warrior Cuchulain and his band of merry men, Na Fianna, and the strict rules they had to pass to become one of Na Fianna and one of them was to run at full pace through a forest running over the aforementioned smallest of twigs, whilst not breaking one of them nor making a single sound. I'm no mythological warrior, however I do fancy myself as one when I close my eyes at night, but not even the great Setanta, as Cuchulain was also known, would have been able to pass through this hostel and into its dorms without waking every living soul that was asleep in it. Anyways, long story short the rest of the dorm and I fell fast asleep at some stage of the night longing for the boredom of the following day ahead....
Labour day had everything closed, literally everything. I wouldn't be surprised if the hospital had shut its doors and told patients to get sick tomorrow instead, it was ridiculous. The famous food markets in town were closed leaving nothing to see there either and so was the cinema, even though that seemed like it was closed since 1974. All that was left to do was to aimlessly walk up and down the streets, that were closed for business, and hope that there was some corner shop open to sell us some bread as a staple diet to get us through the 24hrs. I suppose this part of the blog is about businesses being closed and me eating so ill continue to rant on until I see fit.
Alas, we found a posh joint down by the closed market that had Uruguayan beef on the menu, Lomo to be precise and a wide selection of vino. So without further a due and nothing else to do, two steaks and a few bottles of your finest wine please and could they be positioned right in front of my mouth while I do due justice to them, thanks very much. This continued for a few hours and then it started to rain so we went back to the twig house to watch a movie to kill a few hours before bed. At this stage it had ready been determined that we would be getting the hell out of here as soon as possible, and that meant the following morning.
Montevideo is a big city that lies beside a murky, boring river that flows into the Atlantic, that's the impression I got but after googling some images for my blog photo the sun does seem to shine there, so maybe I'm a bit biased. It has some nice areas I suppose as do many other big cities but it lacks charm and that's one thing that's needed to draw back the coffers for an extra day or two of a stay here. Uruguay also has a crappy peso and so have to use the US dollar to keep their economy from exploding anytime soon. So if you do happen to find yourself in Uruguay or Montevideo don't forget to have some green on you for your will be lost without them. The banks are also temperamental. Visa works okay there but there brother in arms MasterCard is another story. I don't have one of them but friends I've made along the way have, and the one time you might be in a situation that may need a big credit card firm like MasterCard to work, it doesn't. And so for this reason I believe they should change their slogan, basic transactions-nope, ATMs-nope, paying online in a different country-nope, but for everything else, theirs MasterCard. Two nights in Montevideo and that was enough, you disappointed me but it was now time for your country's countryside to impress me. Roll on the smell of s***e!