ALMOST BEING ROBBED IN MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY

20. April 2011

I only spent a little more than a day in Montevideo and that definitely wasn't the best day of my journey. The hostel was quite noisy and I didn't sleep very well at night. When I woke up it was raining and I didn't feel like walking through town. So, I spent a few hours in the hostel before I decided to check out the town. Beatrice and me took a bus to the Ciudad Vieja (Old town). The buildings were old. And deserted. Almost all stores were closed (if there were any) and there were few people around. We checked out the Mercado del Puerto, which is an old market building that now houses many restaurants with Parilladas (Barbeques) – a lot of meat. Since walking around in the rain wasn't too great we went for a coffee and lunch. It stopped raining and we decided to check out the waterfront. Well, not really beautiful. When walking back towards the city center, a guy on the other side of the street asked what time it is. Beatrice answered and I turned around to see who asked. The guy suddenly ran across the street (the area wasn't very busy), grabbed my purse and tried to take it from me. I fell to the ground and got dragged along a short way. I always carry my bag over my shoulder and it is not easy to take it. And thankfully my bag was strong enough to withstand this attack. When the guy noticed that it wasn't easy to get my bag, he ran off. In the end, nothing happened. I still have all my stuff and I'm fine. But it wasn't fun.
After I really liked Colonia and Punta del Diablo, Montevideo was kind of a disappointment. The city seemed very “gray” and the buildings are a strange mix of old and new but somehow everything seemed to be run down. Well, maybe it was the rain or it just wasn't my day and Montevideo can be a nice place. Just not for me.
In the evening it was time to say farewell to Beatrice - DANKE fuer die gute Zeit und den Wein – and take the plane to Rio de Janeiro to meet Bine. And the Montevideo airport actually was the one place in Montevideo that I liked (and since my flight was delayed for two hours I had time to enjoy it a little longer). Maybe the good engineering by Thornton Tomasetti helped make it a great airport. ;-)