Montevideo - February 10th

Our second day in Montevideo started with a trip to the football museum.  It was supposed to be a trip to the bus station first to sort out some travel arrangements, but we missed the bus stop and so ended up at the stadium instead.  The stadium is an old concrete bowl of a building, but is very impressive, and as I’ve never been to Wembly (new or old) it is the only world cup final stadium I’ve been in.  The seats however are not impressive, being concrete as well, so I’ll never complain  about the seats in a premiership stadium again. 

The museum was equally impressive, given Uruguay have won two world cups, and two Olympic titles, an amazing achievement for such a small country, but it reminds you how rich a country it was in those days.  Having said that it is still impressive these days with a 4^th in the World Cup and a win in the 2011 South American Cup, both of which are also highlighted.  Given Uruguay is smaller than Ireland in population terms, the FAI could learn something here.

After seeing all the trophies, and making it back to the bus station to sort out travel, we travel on to the top rated restaurant in Montevideo as listed by TripAdvisor.  Unfortunately when we get there it is 15:05 and it has closed for siesta.  In fact finding food outside of regular hours (for Uruguayans) is much harder here than in BA which was much more accommodating to the needs of tourists.  It is also more accommodating to the needs of vegetarians, we are eating much more meat here than before.

The half lunch half dinner is because we are again going to the carnival parade.  Last night it was amateur night at the parade, with local community groups from each of the suburbs performing; tonight it is a more professional parade.  Unlike last night we are standing on the streets all night, and this time after the main section where the parade is filmed for TV.  And we soon learn that being before the TV section is the only place to be, there are now big gaps between each group, leaving the space to be filled by vendors selling things (mostly spray foam) and people walking in the way of your photos.

All in all it wasn’t a great night compared to the previous one, there was one advantage of the professional groups, the women were better looking.  Still we got bored (and tired of standing) even more quickly this time and ended up going back to our hostel and watching the parade on TV in the bar with a beer, sort of like how we prefer to watch the St Patrick’s Day parade. I mention this because I do have to say that compared to that I felt this parade was quite amateurish in its organisation, which for some is part of its charm, but somehow I expected carnival in South America to feel more polished.