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Recently I noticed the map on the front page of my site doesn�t show exactly where I�ve been thus far, only the places from which I write a blog. Therefore, you may think I�ve had a nice relaxing time of it....which is not entirely untrue, but the fact of the matter is that I haven�t really had time to settle in any particular place of late. Consequently it dawned on me at the start of the week that I�ll have to accept that most of the places I�ve been I can�t say I�ll know fully and as a result of this, I have decided that I shall view all of them only as tasters for places I might want to revisit in the future.
At the beginning of the week, I took a plane down from Brazil to Uruguay - in fact, as a side note, on the very same route that, I heard late last night, bore witness to a pretty terrible plane crash, so I�m feeling very fortunate - where, though I no longer have Tess, I felt relieved at being able to communicate more like a human. Yes, I�ve now swapped �obrigado� for �gracias� and am back in the Spanish-speaking world folks. I was even able to practise more constantly in Montevideo, where a Chilean I met insisted we communicate using Spanish only. This was a test for me, for which coming through it made me feel that my A Levels weren�t completely a waste of time, but since, having met the multilingual people I have, it has been reiterated to me - not that I wasn�t aware anyway - how easy British people have it in the world linguistically. Uruguay, by the way, is a great place, where the people are some of the friendliest I�ve met yet - and most normal i.e. you�ll never get a strange look from a Uruguayan unless you walk around with a monkey on a lead.
Having left Montevideo after a couple of nights and having found the city, though definitely not to any displeasure, one of the quietest capital cities I think I have ever been to, I decided that I would make my way to Argentina, first by bus to the tiny, though very beautiful town of Colonia del Sacramento, and then via a short ferry across the Rio de la Plata here to Buenos Aires. Before getting here, I�d been told many good things about this city, about its attractive buildings, party hostels, and raging nightlife, and some not so good - an American I met in Montevideo couldn�t berate it enough for its dirty streets and unfriendly people - and I have found it, apart from the last thing, to be all of these things. Perhaps most pleasingly, however, is that, strolling around its grand streets as I was today, not once did I get lost. Unfortunately, the same could not be said by me about Sao Paulo�s endless roads and steep hills, but just as I noted before, I�ve come to realise two nights in one big city may not be long enough to say �I like it` or `I don�t like it`. Of course, it is also sometimes the people which makes the place great, and this you can never account for or choose.
I think it�s been a week since I left the others all the way back in Rio. It seems like such a long time ago, but I can�t deny that I don�t mind that feeling. On the other hand, as comes inevitably with travel, I can�t believe how quickly time moves while I�m away. I�m over half way in my route, and I�m reminded more of things that only exist in the real world, like work, every day.
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