As mentioned in my previous blogpost Stephan and Laura
visited us in Montevideo and we invited our new friends, Misha and Quinnen, that
we have met in Colonia to join us on a little city tour.
Left to right: Misha, Laura, Sebastian, Pablo, me, Quinnen and Stephan
The plan was to meet up at 10.30 on Sunday morning to visit
one of the most famous markets of Montevideo called “Feria de Tristan Narvaja”.
But since being late is a very Uruguayan thing to do, Pablo and I decided to
give our friends the whole Uruaguayan experience – and arrived well after 11am.
As it turns out, Sebastian and our German friends Stephan
and Laura were even later so Pablo, Misha, Quinnen and I decided to go on and
walk through the streets of Tristan Narvaja. At this point I should probably
try and give you an idea of what a market in South America looks like but that
is practically impossible. Imagine one main street with many side streets full
of market stands that sell virtually everything. Amongst other things there
were fruits, vegetables, bread, herbs, hygiene products, electronics, toys,
clothing, underwear, jerseys, flags, mate-equipment, antiques, flea-market
finds, flowers, souvenirs, jewelry, bags, shoes, … Anything from practical to
decorative and from normal to extraordinary.
Perfectly stacked everything
After we had crossed the market we decided to wait on
Sebastian, Stephan and Laura and Pablo bought us all a bag of roasted peanuts
from a man with a “nut cart” that was pretty much an oven on wheels. That alone
I didn’t find very uncommon since during winter in Germany they use those to
roast chestnuts. What I did however find odd was the fact that the chimney pipe
was a cardboard roll. Seriously, hombre?! You use cardboard as a chimney? I
mean it’s not like it’s easily flammable or anything…
Fire hazard on wheels
So after a while the others joined us and we headed towards Ciudad
Vieja which is where most of the sights are located. On our way we stopped at
the Intendencia (=town hall) of Montevideo where we visited the Museum of Art
History. Most of it was about Egyptian, Greek and Roman art, which really isn’t
all that new to me. But the basement accommodated an exhibition of
Pre-Colombian and Colonial Art which I found pretty cool. There were lots of
indigenous pieces of art and sculptures and my favorite, a giant stone that
looks like the coin from Pirates of the Caribbean. Better known as “Piedra del
Sol” (=stone of the sun). We also had a lot of fun reenacting the battle scene
that was painted on one of the walls.
Piedra del Sol
Pablo's new pet-dog-thingy
Walk like an Egyptian
Nose picking
Quinnen and I: "This is Sparta!!"
All the others: "Let's just smile at the camera"
Törööö!!
After the museum we went on towards Plaza Independencia,
Plaza Matriz and all the usual tourist sights. I didn’t take all that many
pictures because I had visited those places before and taken pictures. What I
did take a picture of was the “Locks Fountain” which I had passed multiple
times but never really stopped to take pictures of it. Said fountain looks a
bit like the bridges with lots of locks that lovers put on them. However, there
is no river to throw the locks into. The legend says that two lovers that put a
lock with their initials on the fountain they will return to it and live
happily ever after. I really like the idea of that. And I liked the collection
of locks that had built up around the fountain over the years. Old ones, new
ones, colorful ones, simple ones, rusty ones, engraved ones, labeled ones.
Fuente de los Candados - Locks Fountain
Seems like Pablo's eternal love didn't last... ;)
Our friend Albert is quite the jokester
Contrast
After that we had some delicious food at a place with the
very Uruguayan name of “El Gaucho”. And of course the food had to be Somewhat
Uruguayan, so we ordered a “Picada” which is a plate with a variety of more or
less typical Uruguayan foods to try, accompanied with some ravioli and fries
with mushroom sauce. Need I mention that after that we were extremely stuffed
and didn’t think we could ever eat again?
Let the feasting begin!
Yet we made plans to meet up at my place at night in order
to have an Asado. Because that’s what you do on a typical Sunday in Uruguay.
Anyhow we split up so everyone could mind their own business for a while before
the others would meet up to go see Candombe and then come to my house for the
Asado.
And because more people means more fun, we also invited
Sebastian’s roommates who then brought some friends that were also visiting
from Buenos Aires. Then Pablo also brought his sister Lucía and of course my
roommates also joined us and we had a nice big group that barely fit into our tiny living room.
Vamos Tricolor!!
Now who can find the mistake here? Of course you don’t have
BBQs in your living room. Not even in Uruguay. But since it started raining we
decided to cancel our Asado-plans and substituted it with some Chorizos
(=Uruguayan sausages) and Pizza bread which was also very delicious.
After that we all hung out at our place, enjoyed some
conversations and all the usual. And in the end we decided to convert Sebastian
to Nacional-fandom.
Number One Nacional Fan: Sebastian
