Montevideo

I arrived in the capital of Uruguay at night and stayed for 4 days. The hostel was super nice with very friendly and open staff. Actually two people were just starting to work there and we became friends. At night, one of the staff invited us to some private house parties. And so we went dancing and drinking through Montevideo.

In winter it is a rather quite city at weekends and quite cold right now (winter). A lot of colonial architecture is left in the city and it is very pedestrian friendly. Its reputation for being nice and save drives a lot of South Americans into the city. At least that's what the Brazilians in my hostel said :D

I was not super lucky with the weather, but I did some walks to the beach, some parks, the Sunday market. One thing really struck me here. Sunday means Sunday and holidays even more so. I went to the old city center on Constitution Day (Saturday). Since this day has absolutely no cultural significance here (asked people) I expected to have heaps of tourists and locals filling the streets and local cafes. Some tourist were there, but they(we) seemed rather lost in the streets. Everything was shut down like before a big storm. Not a single shop or café was open, apart from some few kiosks outside the center. A holiday/Sunday, religious or not, is a day at which you don´t work. Basta. Fair enough :D

The Sunday Markets

Agencia el Gaucho :D

football is important, it is actually political here

Old Town

The following days, I realized that the lack of open cafes was not really due to the holidays but just due to the lack of coffee culture at all. In the whole town I have found no proper café (apart from one McDonalds!). There is not even Starbucks. Considering how bad the coffee was in Argentina, its probably not a big loss. Instead of coffee people here clearly prefer mate.On top of that. You barely see a group (or pair) of people without either a mate cup or a thermos bottle. When everybody here is drinking mate all the time, how could you even consume coffee as well :D

Here in Uruguay I also had my first asado. The traditional south American barbeque. Beef, blood sausage, chorizo and sweet potato. The main difference to European barbecue is that they use a wood fire next to the grill that is constantly burning. The generated charcoal is then moved under the grid to prepare the meet. That way you A: have a ongoing fire, which is a social thing for the evening and B you constantly generate charcoal and can therefore prepare meet all night (a clear drawback of our European design)

Final conclusion: Montevideo and what I have seen of Uruguay are very nice to hang out, but I believe there is more going on at summer time. Thumbs up :D