Jean Reno and Philipp Lahm

Today was a lazy kind of day. Since it had about 25°C / 80°F my roommates and I were headed to the beach. After a short bus ride we arrived at Playa Honda which was the recommendation of Adrien and Eduardo. Because it is already late summer here in Montevideo there won’t be many more sunny days like today and so they said it would be better to go to a beach that is not as central because it won’t be as crowded. And luckily it wasn’t.

Jealous?

Upon arrival Becci and I immediately jumped into the waves and enjoyed the nicely tempered water for a while. After that we were just lazing in the sun for a while, working on our tan. In contrast to all the Uruguayan people and our roommates we are still royally pale. Since it was a sandy white beach I thought we were probably invisible like chameleons because our skin was almost the exact same color as the sand. 

But apparently we weren’t. On the contrary we  were very eye-catching with our lack of melanin and we soon got talked to by a rather odd guy with swim shorts that were way too short. Luckily we can still play the “No comprendo! No hablo mucho español!” card very well and the guy soon left us alone.

Unlike that guy, there was also a man at the bus station who apparently didn’t realize at first glance that we were no locals. While waiting for our bus a man came to us and asked whether or not a certain bus was stopping at this particular bus station. Of course we had no clue and our roommates smilingly gave him an answer.

After we got back from the beach, Becci and I decided we were hungry as wolves. Because our stove ran out of gas yesterday we decided to visit a little Pizza place nearby.

Montevideo is blooming! Snapped this beauty on our way to the Pizza place. 

Shortly after we sat down a waiter came to our table and told us the special. I told him that we didn’t speak Spanish very well and that he was talking a little too fast and so he repeated it more slowly.  We asked for a menu since we didn’t know what food they had in general. Soon after that a guy who spoke Spanish waited on us and tried to explain the whole menu. Apparently we had big questionmarks over our heads and so he simply brought examples of food to our table so we could see and then they even brought us a plate of Fainá (some sort of hearty pancake) and Pizza with Mozzarella to try it. We were amazed at how sincere and generous they were and decided that this earned them a great tip. I am sure there is no place in Germany where they would bring you a plate full of free food to try just because you don’t exactly understand the menu. Way to go, Montevideo!

We decided to have Pizza with Mozzarella which was one of the specials so we got two slices for the price of one. Pretty good deal.

Since we sat at a table by the window we had a great view at a street crossing with a bus stop. We just couldn’t help people watching. 

Waiting on the bus

One of the most amazing persons around was this fella with a guitar who was waiting on a bus. Since the bus took some time to arrive he just started playing his guitar and singing to it. Soon a guy who was hanging around took a piece of cardboard and they started jamming together with the guitar and a makeshift cardboard drum set. We gestured them whether or not it was ok to take pictures and it was, so I won’t keep that sight from you.

Guitar guy and a Jean-Reno-lookalike jamming at the bus station

Later after we had eaten we headed back home and guess who we found on the sidewalk! Philipp Lahm – lying in the dirt. The Uruguayan people are extremely enthusiastic for soccer but apparently they can’t appreciate a great German player like Philipp. Well, I guess we gotta show them next year in Brazil..

Whatcha doing down there, Philipp?