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Time to move again and this time we were really tired. For once the trip was not only done by bus but half of it was done by a ferry. We felt like Finland at the ferry terminal with free alcohol drinks and huge hallway areas while waiting for boarding. We were tired, like I already told, so the trip went super-fast. We slept the whole time except when changing from the ferry to a bus.
We arrived in Montevideo 6.10am and at the bus terminal we had no other options than taking a taxi. Everything went fast and suddenly we were in an old car with an old random guy heading to the hostel. The taxi driver took us to the address we had, but when we arrived there, we saw no signs or the name of the hostel anywhere. Are we in a right place? No idea. The taxi driver stayed with us while we were ringing the bell to get in to the hostel. After some minutes a guy appeared to the balcony and told us that we are in the right place. He came to let us in and our only hope was that he would let us stay there and leave our stuff somewhere.
Unexpected we were offered an empty room for a few hours to sleep. I guess we looked quite terrible and we even woke the owner up, oops. The owner, Luis was really nice to us. We went to sleep and woke up after about four hours, haha. After waking up we got our own dorm, free maps and headed outside to explore the city of Montevideo.
I have to say that already after one hour I loved the city. I don't know where the feeling came from and what the reason was, but Montevideo felt like an amazing city right from the beginning. The hostel was in a really good location, so it didn't take more than 5 minutes and we were already at the biggest sights; Plaza Independencia, important buildings and the main pedestrian street. Even though we got a nice breakfast at the hostel, we decided to sit down, read our bible Lonely Planet and make plans for our stay there.
Montevideo has two parts, the center and the old city. The old city is beautiful, but much poorer and it is not safe at walk there during the nights. There were lot of wall paintings, small shops and at the end of the pedestrian street we found a football station and ended up next to the sea. We walked back to the hostel along the coastline.
In Montevideo walking outside in the evening was safe in the busy areas, like on the main street. We had a great dinner; some steaks and mashed potatoes with Sangria. It was funny how the waiter was saying that we are going to be totally drunk after sharing that one jug. Oh well, the culture differs again. Good times and good food and then it was time to head back to the hostel.
One thing that really stood out at the streets was the culture of drinking maté. Maté is a herbal drink that is made of a plant called yerba and it is most commonly drinked hot. Third of the people were walking on the streets with usually a certain type of cup made of wood and a thermos bottle. They looked funny and you saw that everywhere. The cup is full of maté leafs and you pour more water there all the time. The biggest difference comparing to drinking tea is that the leafs stay in the cup all the time, you add hot water there and drink it with straw made of steel that works as a filter. Maté is drinked in other countries too, but this was the first time we saw it and it was amazingly common. Great culture!
We had no plans for the rest of the evening, maybe just hang out at the hostel. We didn't spend many minutes at the hostel before we were invited to sit down and have some wine with the hostel owners Fran and Luis and a few of their friends. We accepted the invitation and got known with the owners during the next few hours. They also taught us much about Montevideo and the countries near.
In the morning we had a mission, that actually started the day before. Noora needs a haircut. We checked some places the day before and knew already where we were going in the morning. It was a big relief when the girl spoke English the previous day. Things got really exciting and scary when entering the hairdresser. "Hablas ingles?" "No, no"….. Okay, haircut in Spanish then. I was able to explain in Spanish "5 centimeters" and "layers" and after that I was just hoping for the best. At some point I was already terrified when I thought that the hairdresser understood that I want my hair to be 5 centimeters. In the end everything went well and the hair is okay.
After haircut and buying next bus tickets we went to the other side of the city to visit Carnaval museum. On the way there we visited some marketplaces, shops and had a nice small lunch. The sun was shining and there were people everywhere. As a not very touristic place it was surprisingly funny to go from a souvenir shop to another.
Like Lonely Planet suggests we went to try the "menu of the day" deal for the first time. The place was not that special, but the food was nice and we had good time. The prices are so much cheaper everywhere than in Finland.
In the evening we spent some time planning for the next steps of the trip and booking a hostel for Asuncion. For the planning session we wanted to try some Uruguayan wine so we bought the cheapest one from the shop near. We are on budget! Almost the whole hostel was spending time at the common areas at the hostel that evening. The later it got the more people left the hostel to some parties around the city.
Friday night was at the end full of plans and we had fun time. The owners, Luis and Fran and their friends took us to see good places in Montevideo. I have to admit that the places were something that we would have never ended up by ourselves with Maiju. Luis went back to the hostel a bit earlier, and we went to play pool to the next place. Good times! It is always great to have locals to show where to go and what to do.
Montevideo is definitely so far my favorite place. Even though the weather there was quite cold, the city has something that I just fell in love with. I got interested in the country of Uruguay the most during the football world cup 2010. I was a big fan of their team! The people in Montevideo were great, there are not too many tourists and the atmosphere is great. We also picked the best hostel and they helped to make our stay really nice =) I definitely recommend to visit the city!
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