We took the ferry from Buenos Aires to Colonia de Sacramento in Uruguay and from there headed to Uruguay's capital, Montevideo.
When we walked into our £7 a night hostel we thought we had entered a 5 star hotel. Previously a private six bed mansion with two kitchens, swimming pool, roof terrace and music room, this was nothing like the hostels we had stayed in previously (take note Favela Chic!). Our bathroom was bigger than most of the rooms we've stayed in and it even had a jacuzzi bath, his and hers sink and huge walk-in shower. Everything was larger than life, even the receptionist's boobs!
We headed straight out towards Macardo del Puerto, a indoor market famous for its steak bars (parrillas). Both of us wandered round in awe at the incredible amount of meat on display and sat ourselves down at the busiest bar (always a good sign!) Naturally we ordered a juicy rump steak, with grilled veggies and chips and watched our lunch being cooked over the wood burner in front of us.
With full tummies we decided to check out the Montevideo Carnival Museum... We'd heard that carnival is a pretty big deal in Uruguay, but unfortunately we'd missed it by a few months! We thought this was the next best thing, full of weird and whacky costumes, photos and artwork.
Montevideo is a really interesting city, full of beautiful old buildings that have been left to become dilapidated, next to huge ugly tower blocks. It felt as if it was stuck in time, even the postcards were gathering dust with graphics fresh from the 80s!
One of the 'things to do' was a tour of the recently renovated Teatre Solis, Uruguay's oldest theatre. Our guide was great and mentioned that the tickets for shows are really cheap (£4.50) to enable everyone to go. After the tour we went straight to the ticket desk and bought two tickets for that evening's performance, the Montevideo Philharmonic Orchestra.
Neither of us had been to see a philharmonic orchestra before, but we were blown away. A perfect (cultured) way to end our trip in Montevideo!
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