Roberto Jeremías Bútler on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 at 8:09am
Well, that was a short trip kids. Yeah, you guessed it, I gave in and came back to Buenos Aires. Don´t say I didn´t give it a chance, I really tried to have a good vacation but it turned out to be complete shit.
I woke up yesterday morning in Colonia, Uruguay and I went to the bus station to buy a ticket for Montevideo. I´m thinking, ok, Colonia may be a small city but Montevideo is the capital city, there´s gotta be some signs of life or something. I got my bus ticket for only 8 bucks, so that was a steal. I walked around Colonia a bit more yesterday morning. I saw some more sights and came to the conclusion that the city is absoultely beautiful, definitely deserves to be on the Unesco World Heritage site list, but not my kind of vacation spot. For vacations some people prefer places that are really calm, where you can relax, sip a few drinks and lay back. Fuck that. I prefer the hustle and bustle of a major metropolitan city where it´s loud, people everwhere, and so much going on. That´s why I don´t really like beach holidays. Anyways, I got the hell out of Colonia and hopped on my bus to Montevideo.
Upon arrival in Montevideo, I noticed that the city was much bigger than I thought. However, something was missing. The people. We rode for miles and miles through the city, lots of buildings, but no people. What the hell? I finally got off the bus and went to the tourist attraction office. From what it seemed like Montevideo was a beautiful city. HE showed me a map with all the beaches and all the attractions and it looked pretty good. However, when I set out into the city on my own, it wasn´t that great. I´m not going to lie, it was pretty dull. I walked for miles and miles with absolute boredom and I thought to myself, "fuck this". I went to the bus station and bought the last ticket out to Buenos Aires to leave at 11:30pm. I can´t live without my Buenos Aires and the dullness of Montevideo definitely didn´t make it any better. This time around, I decided to go to the beach. I walked for miles and when I arrived at the beach, I finally realized where everyone was. There was TONS of people at the beach, the beach was so awesome. I kinda felt like shit for booking my ticket back but at least I had some time to see the city. I chilled at the beach for a while taking loads of pictures, and then I headed off to see the old city.
I arrived at the old city after miles and miles of walking and yes, it was very beautiful. I started to like montevideo a bit more at this point and I began to wonder if I should change my ticket to the next day. My answer came sooner than I thought. I noticed that everything was closed and I kept wondering why. I finally went to a security guard and asked her why everything was closed and she told me that in Uruguay, it was carnival holiday. Everything is closed Monday and Tuesday, even restaurants. Also she informed me that no one is in Montevideo, everyone heads for the coast. I now understood why the city was so damn deserted. I got a bit sad, I shouldve done my research before going. I realized that the city had serious potential, lots of nice buildings and things but there were absoultey no people there. Grrr. Basically I just finished the day out by going around the city, people watching and using the internet in internet cafes. One thing I did notice about Uruguay is that EVERYONE here drinks mate. In Argentina, people drink mate quite a bit, but not as much as Uruguay. People walk down the street with a bag on their shoulder that holds all the mate items and in one hand is the thermos and the other the mate gourd. I would say that out of every 10 Uruguayans that I saw, at least 4 or 5 had were walking with mate gourds sipping and walking. Wild. It´s absolutely nuts.
Anyways, I arrived back to the bus terminal late at night and got on my bus to Buenos Aires. Very uneventful bus ride back into the city, no movie, nothing. The best part about it is that the buses here have full beds so I was able to sleep decently. Also they gave us a meal which was really good, but the drinks were at the front of the bus. At the front, you got a small dixie cup filled with orange juice. For all those who come from America, we know that we like our meals big and our drinks HUGE. I felt like an idiot for continuing to go back up to the front (esp. since i was at the back) and getting drinks, but I seriously could drink the contents in one gulp. The only thing i hate abotu foreign countries are the size of the cups. If they could have Sonic size Route 44 drinks in Europe or Argentina, I´d definitely be one step closer to moving.
So now I´m back in Argentina, sitting at an internet cafe very content. I don´t know what it is about this place that I like so much. I mean, Uruguay is far more safer, stable, cleaner and nicer people but there´s something that attracts me to Baires. When I arrived, I noticed the crazy third world madness surrounding the Retiro bus station and instead of frowning, I just smiled. I felt back at home. Being away has made me realize how much I love this place and I´m going to live the next 4 days out to the max. Eat as much steak as possible, walk around as much as I can, take loads of pictures, dance until 8 or 9 am and drink as much mate as my body will allow. Today I´m going to go walking around the city and catch a tango show hopefully. I made a list of things I needed to do before I left argentina and catching a tango show is the only thing thats left (Except sending postcards, but if you know me, you know that its very rare to get a postcard from me). Acutally, I crossed of one other thing this morning too. My goal was to see a waiter delivering a small cup of coffee from the restaurant to a house. In Buenos Aires you can get ANYTHING delivered to your home, ANYTHING, from movies to empanadas to cold beer. I always heard that you could get one individual coffee delivered, like a small espresso but I didnt believe it. I finally saw a guy this morning making a delivery with the smallest cup on the biggest tray. Awesome. Definitely crossed that off my list. Now where´s my tango?
Peace,
Rob
I woke up yesterday morning in Colonia, Uruguay and I went to the bus station to buy a ticket for Montevideo. I´m thinking, ok, Colonia may be a small city but Montevideo is the capital city, there´s gotta be some signs of life or something. I got my bus ticket for only 8 bucks, so that was a steal. I walked around Colonia a bit more yesterday morning. I saw some more sights and came to the conclusion that the city is absoultely beautiful, definitely deserves to be on the Unesco World Heritage site list, but not my kind of vacation spot. For vacations some people prefer places that are really calm, where you can relax, sip a few drinks and lay back. Fuck that. I prefer the hustle and bustle of a major metropolitan city where it´s loud, people everwhere, and so much going on. That´s why I don´t really like beach holidays. Anyways, I got the hell out of Colonia and hopped on my bus to Montevideo.
Upon arrival in Montevideo, I noticed that the city was much bigger than I thought. However, something was missing. The people. We rode for miles and miles through the city, lots of buildings, but no people. What the hell? I finally got off the bus and went to the tourist attraction office. From what it seemed like Montevideo was a beautiful city. HE showed me a map with all the beaches and all the attractions and it looked pretty good. However, when I set out into the city on my own, it wasn´t that great. I´m not going to lie, it was pretty dull. I walked for miles and miles with absolute boredom and I thought to myself, "fuck this". I went to the bus station and bought the last ticket out to Buenos Aires to leave at 11:30pm. I can´t live without my Buenos Aires and the dullness of Montevideo definitely didn´t make it any better. This time around, I decided to go to the beach. I walked for miles and when I arrived at the beach, I finally realized where everyone was. There was TONS of people at the beach, the beach was so awesome. I kinda felt like shit for booking my ticket back but at least I had some time to see the city. I chilled at the beach for a while taking loads of pictures, and then I headed off to see the old city.
I arrived at the old city after miles and miles of walking and yes, it was very beautiful. I started to like montevideo a bit more at this point and I began to wonder if I should change my ticket to the next day. My answer came sooner than I thought. I noticed that everything was closed and I kept wondering why. I finally went to a security guard and asked her why everything was closed and she told me that in Uruguay, it was carnival holiday. Everything is closed Monday and Tuesday, even restaurants. Also she informed me that no one is in Montevideo, everyone heads for the coast. I now understood why the city was so damn deserted. I got a bit sad, I shouldve done my research before going. I realized that the city had serious potential, lots of nice buildings and things but there were absoultey no people there. Grrr. Basically I just finished the day out by going around the city, people watching and using the internet in internet cafes. One thing I did notice about Uruguay is that EVERYONE here drinks mate. In Argentina, people drink mate quite a bit, but not as much as Uruguay. People walk down the street with a bag on their shoulder that holds all the mate items and in one hand is the thermos and the other the mate gourd. I would say that out of every 10 Uruguayans that I saw, at least 4 or 5 had were walking with mate gourds sipping and walking. Wild. It´s absolutely nuts.
Anyways, I arrived back to the bus terminal late at night and got on my bus to Buenos Aires. Very uneventful bus ride back into the city, no movie, nothing. The best part about it is that the buses here have full beds so I was able to sleep decently. Also they gave us a meal which was really good, but the drinks were at the front of the bus. At the front, you got a small dixie cup filled with orange juice. For all those who come from America, we know that we like our meals big and our drinks HUGE. I felt like an idiot for continuing to go back up to the front (esp. since i was at the back) and getting drinks, but I seriously could drink the contents in one gulp. The only thing i hate abotu foreign countries are the size of the cups. If they could have Sonic size Route 44 drinks in Europe or Argentina, I´d definitely be one step closer to moving.
So now I´m back in Argentina, sitting at an internet cafe very content. I don´t know what it is about this place that I like so much. I mean, Uruguay is far more safer, stable, cleaner and nicer people but there´s something that attracts me to Baires. When I arrived, I noticed the crazy third world madness surrounding the Retiro bus station and instead of frowning, I just smiled. I felt back at home. Being away has made me realize how much I love this place and I´m going to live the next 4 days out to the max. Eat as much steak as possible, walk around as much as I can, take loads of pictures, dance until 8 or 9 am and drink as much mate as my body will allow. Today I´m going to go walking around the city and catch a tango show hopefully. I made a list of things I needed to do before I left argentina and catching a tango show is the only thing thats left (Except sending postcards, but if you know me, you know that its very rare to get a postcard from me). Acutally, I crossed of one other thing this morning too. My goal was to see a waiter delivering a small cup of coffee from the restaurant to a house. In Buenos Aires you can get ANYTHING delivered to your home, ANYTHING, from movies to empanadas to cold beer. I always heard that you could get one individual coffee delivered, like a small espresso but I didnt believe it. I finally saw a guy this morning making a delivery with the smallest cup on the biggest tray. Awesome. Definitely crossed that off my list. Now where´s my tango?
Peace,
Rob
No comments:
Post a Comment