I hope I can afford this coffee!
Well, I could, but at UYU70 (75 with small tip) it was hardly cheap...
18:50. Well that was quite cool. Watched the sun set over the sea. First time I have seen that happen with a clear horizon (memory says it was cloudy when I did the same thing in Puno) and I was astounded at how 'perceptible' the changes were, how quickly it happened.
Had a bit of a walk round, at least the historical part of town seems very attractive indeed. In some odd ways (perhaps a certain sea-ishness) I am reminded of Punta Arenas, though this is nominally nothing like it. (It's not at all isolated and with all due respect to Punta Arenas it is not a particularly handsome town.) Still, I get that feeling all the same.
Having a second meal just because, well, I can and I vaguely feel like it.
Oh, 'rabas' are squid rings. The menu here is bilingual so I got the translation with no effort.
19:45. Just ordered a post-meal beer. Oddly the menu says 'chopp' and the waitress didn't seem to quibble when I asked for 'chopp', but I have been served with a bottle. I wonder if 'chopp' does not mean 'draught beer' as I had been fairly confidently assuming. Or maybe it does and the word is just being misused here in some way.
It is a touch cool and does feel very autumnal. I think it's mostly when you get in the wind (this was definitely the case in Montevideo during the day yesterday, most of the time it was quite pleasant then you'd suddenly find yourself somewhere particularly windy for some reason and it was a bit cold) but there is not too much breeze here and it is still just slightly nippy.
20:00. Odd. an enormous procession of cars, some with flags I don't recognise, just drove slowly past beeping their horns and with hazard warning lights on. I have no idea what it might be in aid of. There are election posters all over Montevideo and I have seen a few here so it may be related to an election but I am just guessing.
They just came back in the opposite direction. The flag is red, blue and white horizontal stripes. There was a loudspeaker on one of the lead vehicles but I didn't catch any of it except probably the word 'Colonia'.
20:15. A series of English language Michael Jackson covers by some woman who sounds a tiny bit (for want of a better way to describe the style) like Suzanne Vega are playing at this restaurant. They are oddly catchy.
21:20. It's nearly a second Encarnacion. At least there are bar/restaurants on Flores, which is the main street at least in this bit of town, but they are all deserted. OK, it's "only" 21:20 but it's Friday night FFS! Maybe the newer part of town has something but it's just slightly too big a place for me to want to wander over on the offchance.
In sheer desperation I have come to Dunbar, I was going to drink in the cavernous depressing interior but it smells like a school caferia, for want of a better description
My ever helpful guide book doesn't *have* a 'drinking' or 'entertainment' section in the entry for here. The two eating places I noted down superficially don't exist and I am not going back to the hostel to look at the rest of the list of eating places so I can wander round vaguely hoping one will be a half decent bar.
The sense of deadness is just amazing. One restaurant was about full, but apart from lack of space, it did seem very food-oriented (and I've already eaten). Besides, like just about everywhere I've seen, it looked incredibly unwelcoming in some odd way. Places either seem to look like slightly fancy restaurants or be overly harshly lit 'folding table and chair' sort of 'cheap cafe' style.
At least no one claimed this was party central. I am a bit hacked off - it's my ground state of being these days - with the guide book for just silently omitting the drinking and entertainment sections. As I say, maybe in the newer part of town there will be some stuff but as I have no idea from the map I got at the hostel which are the main streets, I'm not wandering around on the offchance, especially given its size.
And when the wind blows it is a bit cold sitting outside. If I'd know the inside stank I might have gone somewhere else.
I suppose I could ask a taxi driver, but it seems a bit vague and I don't want to end up miles away at some horrific nightclub.
There are a few (totally inoffensive) groups of late teen/early 20s hanging around in doorways. Maybe they're just waiting for the nightlife to start, but it hardly looks like a good sign to me.
Just looked up wikitravel on my phone at great expense and it lists no bars at all, though the article looks rather under-developed.
According to wikitravel you can go up the lighthouse, which sounds cool, though wt also claimed you can go up that tower in Montevideo, which you can't (I will edit the article to fix it once I get round to it). I don't know what my printed guide says, I didn't look at the general 'sights' section in detail as I didn't get here in time for it to be worth it.
I am half wondering if four days here is far too much. My hostel private room is costing about 40 quid a night (as opposed to 10 tonight in the dormitory) but I may see how it goes the next day or two and perhaps waste one or even two of those already-(will-have-been)-paid-for nights and take the time in Buenos Aires instead. Annoying but if it is dull in the evening and I've done all the regular sightseeing there may be no point wasting time here just because I've already wasted money on the hostel. (Sunk cost fallacy, anyone?)
Probably as it's the same chain, the hostel does have a board showing their activities each day of the week in reception. I don't know if they actually take place - it didn't seem that busy when I was there earlier - but I should have a look tomorrow, not so much with a view to doing them as group activities as to see if any bars or areas of the city are mentioned so I can investigate them on my own.
Honestly, right now it feels like, I don't know, I'm in Skegness in January, in terms of that sense of desolation.
The thought crosses my mind that I could ask one of my few fellow customers if there are any good bars here. But apart from a slight shyness (not quite the right word), I guess if they knew anywhere better why the fuck would they be here in the first place? Maybe I am assuming everyone is like me, but to my mind this place isn't even pleasant in the way a quiet drink in an out of the way London pub is going to be preferable to drinking in a heaving West End or City bar to some people at some times. I just cannot imagine why anyone would want to drink here unless they had no choice or were a masochist. Or maybe if they lived very close and it was convenient. But the other bar/restaurant places are a few minutes' walk from here so I can't see that having much force.
It is frankly unpleasant sitting outside. I could go in but I feel a certain stubborn pride preventing me, not to mention that annoying smell, and I think the atmosphere in there is even more depressing than it is out here on the street. I may neck this beer and go sit inside in some overly pretentious and dead pseudo-restaurant type bar instead.
I'm rambling too much but I'm bored. I don't particularly want a party or to meet anyone, it would just be nice to be somewhere where maybe even five or ten people are having a drink and there's a little bit of background music.
Maybe it (the city, not this bar as such) will pick up in an hour or so but I am not overly convinced. I could just go back to the hostel but partly because I'm in a dormitory and partly because my laptop battery is dead so I can't even just surf on the terrace it doesn't appeal. I couldn't go to sleep this early either even if I wanted to.
22:15. Just paid up and come for a slash before I go. There is a squash court in the back!
22:25. As I left I saw a group of oldish people playing cards and a chess board set out on a table. (Marco Antonio Solis was performing 'Si no te hubieras ido' live quietly on a TV.) The few voices echoed in the cavernous space. I doubt it *is* a community centre, but it has that horrible atmosphere I mentally associate with such. Pack it out and replace Marco with Big Brother and you'd not be far off my mental vision of 1984's community centres.
I walked into some other place up the road, stood there for five seconds and walked out. There were two customers eating and four musicians at the bar I'd seen playing in the window earlier. The tables all had wine glasses with napkins stuffed in them, which to my mind is *not* appropriate for a drinking venue (which it obviously isn't, primarily), and the staff at the bar stared at me in a vaguely owl-like way.
I am now at Bar Beltran (I have seen all these places several times already on my circuit of the street and slightly off it seeking somewhere half decent) and it's only slightly less hellish. It does not smell and it is not too cavernously echoey, but it is deserted. There are four other customers (two couples) who are dining - it's so quiet I could hear the chink of cutlery as the nearest couple were eating earlier - and at least three staff. There is very quiet restauranty music playing.
They have just given me a presumably 'free' bar snack of five olvies and about seven small chunks of cheese.
I feel like I've died and gone to purgatory (not hell, that would be Encarnacion).
I don't think I'm too much of a blinkered British-style drinker. I've found congenial places (and not only mock-British ones) in lots of towns and cities. Even in Montevideo, the non-mock-Irish bars on that street were at least on the right lines. Buenos Aires had its pseudo-Camden bars in Palermo and its street culture bars nearer my flat. Santiago had Pio Nono and elsewhere perfectly acceptable slightly more upmarket bars. Punta Arenas had proper bars which while feeling pub-ish in some ways were definitely not Brit-clone bars. There were those 'rock' sort of bars in Puno, Peru. Etc. And outside this trip, I've had decent nights out in Madrid and Seville.
I have to assume/hope there is something in the newer part of town. Wikitravel at least says most of the stuff in general is in the historical part, but the article may have been written by people who get up at 8, see the sights and go to bed at 9 after a meal. Not that the professional printed guide book, aimed at backpackers who presumably have some interest in this kind of thing, seems to offer much help either.
I am sat here just feeling dull as fuck. I am not tired but something about the situation is dragging me down.
Oh, one of the couples is leaving. So we're now at parity on staff-customers. And this place just doesn't give the impression it will pick up later.
Maybe people here pop over to Buenos Aires for nightlife, but I doubt it - it's an hour on a fast boat, and while it might be commutable I doubt you'd be wanting to do it for a night out (even assuming boats or coaches run late enough for it to be possible).
22:50. I fear I will be the only person left soon. I am not sure I want to leave, assuming I feel it's worth having another beer, as I may not find anywhere open. On the other hand, I don't want to be screwing the staff by being the last customer.
I half hope that I get woken up at 3 or 4am by someone coming into my dormitory. I can ask them in the morning where the hell they found to occupy themselves til that late.
23:05. The other couple have departed. I shall have to neck this beer and pay up and see what other options might possibly present themselves. I suspect it's Hobson's choice and I will get to choose between going to bed or going to bed.
23:10. Great. Just as I nearly finish unpleasurably necking the beer two more people come in. (I have a vague suspicion this place is part of a nearby hotel.) But still, I don't know what to do. I could get another beer here but to be honest the whole night has been such a joyless wasteland that I am disinclined to stay for the hell of it. On the other hand, it is just slightly too early to go back to the hostel somehow and if I don't stay here I don't know if there will be anywhere else.
OK, sod it. I will get one more here if they'll let me then back to the hostel. I don't know whether I hope to find a major party going on when I get back there or not, though I doubt I will. Then I think tomorrow I shall try to sightsee during the day and towards evening (before sunset) try to wander in the direction of the 'new town' and see if there's anything promising looking there for tomorrow evening.
A lot more than I normally have there is a certain 'drinking for the sake of it' feeling to tonight. I am not drinking to get drunk, just drinking for the sake of it. I don't often do this. I drink too much but 99% of the time I drink because I'm enjoying myself and 1% of the time because I'm nervous and hope the alcohol wil help. This is neither of those. I guess the most charitable explanation would be that I'm drinking because I hope it will help me to start enjoying myself. Maybe slightly less charitably because I feel I ought to (Friday night, new place, I'm on holiday). Maybe because I don't want to go back to the hostel too early as I can't guarantee privacy as I'm in a dormitory. Probably all of the above to some extent.
Yeah, just ordered another anyway
Haha. Genuinely a bit cheering. Just noticed the pseudo-leather placemats on the table have a McCain (as in 'frozen chips', it looks the same as far as I can remember) logo embossed in one corner (there are two other logos on there). Odd anyway - it's a funny form of advertising or sponsorship - and also slightly at odds with the slightly (if not oppressively so, viewed as a restaurant rather than a bar) classy atmosphere of the place.
23:25. The recent customers just left, I think they just had a coffee, so just me again. I won't dither with this beer - it's not like I'm relaxed and contemplative - but I'm not absolutely necking it either, sod it.
I wouldn't be totally surprised if I end up having the dormitory to myself. Someone might have arrived after 5pm but it seems a bit unlikely. I don't care much either way and given I didn't do it to meet people this time I am happy if I do. I do wonder if I've been paying over the odds all this time. Especially for twin rooms. What are the chances if I booked one bed in a twin room (which you can do on hostelworld, and I assume they are not entitled to plonk you in a dormitory if you booked for a twin room) that someone else would book one bed in a twin room and be 'chummed' on me? I should maybe try that somewhere if I get the chance. I'd rather sleep in a dormitory than with one total stranger, but on the other hand anyone else booking a single bed in a twin room might be someone like me - I perhaps naively assume most people would book a dormitory or both beds in a twin room. Perhaps an interesting experiment if nothing else and if I do end up sharing with a stranger it's not the
end of the world.
Truth, though it kill me. There may be one or possibly two (the staff-customer distinction is far from clear) blokes drinking at the bar. Once again, the fact they are here suggests there is nowhere better. Though this place is less foul than the other, if even deader, and maybe they are matey with the staff. Though I think I recognise staff mates when I see them and that guy or those guys don't seem to have that quality. Regardless, it is very dead and I am off to the hostel and probably to bed now. I believe the hostel has 24h access though to be frank that seems a little excessive given then limited opportunities for dissipation apparently afforded by the city.
00:10. Well this is weird. When I paid I asked the guy if there was a bar round here which had people. He said yes, disappeared and scribbled something on the back of a card which he said would get me in free to some club 'two blocks down on the left'. He omitted to mention the name.
About three blocks down I spotted two youngish women at the side of the road and asked if there was a club nearby. A little bit of confusion but they said there was (I asked the name BUT FORGOT, sigh) but it was a bit early! I waffled in bad Spanish about having just come from Montevideo and how people were out there at 11 and expressed my surprise. (I mean, yes, if you must, have clubs start late. But surely there should be a pre-club bar scene. For example, Buenos Aires, where clubs allegedly start at two, but you can at least drink somewhere non-desolate til then.) Anyway, they said it was one block back. I think I have found it (I wish I could remember the name they said) and am stood outside 'tr3s/cu4tro' but the door is firmly bolted. There is a sign round the corner saying (on some nights at least) women get in free til 2. So surely you might expect it to be open at midnight.
I am not that pissed and would sort of like to make a night of it, at the same time a club was not what I had in mind. I may loiter a few minutes then just go home.
Oh, my memory says today (well, yesterday) is St George's Day. So maybe it's appropriate to be passing it with a total lack of celebration. :-)
Harping back to the earlier theme, I have not seen huge quantities of (as I said, inoffensive) young people on the street, but surely either there is a market for pre-club drinks which is untapped and/or the young people would select some otherwise dead bar and effectively turn it into the pre-club venue?
I expressed a purely social hope I would see them at the club, by the way.
I am genuinely stunned by this. The late start with nothing before it freaks me out. At least BA, London and Seville have in common the fact there is an active bar scene til whatever hour the local clubs start. (I have not been to a club in BA or Seville, but from guide books and/or talking to people I know that is the case.)
00:25. Happening (unusally) to have my MP3 player on me, I am going to lurk briefly and chill out to Half Man Half Biscuit for a bit and risk them wanting my pod. :-) But if nothing shows up soon it's just that bit too cold and I'm not that desperate I shall call it a night and if nothing better turns up I will return tomorrow night at 1am or something.
I am singing. Come get me, the lone English tourist. "Car crime's low, the gun crime's lower". :-)
00:40. This is tedious. I checked the signs again and Fri 23rd is one of the nights women get in free before 2. I assume they mean tonight not technically before 2am on Fri 23rd. I am not that desperate but as I do want to see the nightlife (and in a way it would be good to 'get it out of the way'), I think I will loiter in this doorway I have found out of the wind til 1am and if they're still not open will give up.
I cannot help but wonder why they open so late when limited experience shows the local youth are just on the street til they open. Ah well, cultural diversity. :-)
00:50. Man, this is joyless but I will stick it out til 1am for the experience. If it was pleasantly warm here I might be able to appreciate a certain amount of a 'street loitering culture' but - though it isn't intolerable (though my fingers are a bit numb as I type this) - this is not much fun and I doubt the locals enjoy it.
I am seeing a certain number of young people wandering past (not going down the street to that club). Maybe they're just going home after a night's loitering. :-)
01:15. Well this is odd. I turned up at 1 and the door was shut but there were two doormen outside who said they were opening in a minute. I engaged one in fairly deep conversation (I am moderately chuffed, I kept my end up and understood 75%+). I tried to ask about the weirdness of the opening hours but as far as I understood he just sort of said 'it's the culture'. Nice chap though and it never hurts to get the doormen on side, though wasn't deliberately being cynically manipulative.
With his help (not sure if it was necessary) my card got me in free. It's deserted and the music only started playing as I wrote this paragraph. Very weird but I am not drunk though I need to be careful and it's an experience for sure. Sitting at the bar now and will just read book on my phone and see what happens. If I go home in an hour or two no worries.
I am still deeply freaked out at the local cultural timings and lack of pre-club bars. (The doorman did say that people go to food places - 'confiterias' - beforehand. But they weren't rammed either.)
01:25. For the record, the doorman told me there were three floors (I think, maybe rooms, probably floors). I am not going to try and wander while it's this empty. There are three women at a table in this particular bar area, otherwise no other customers.
But it is still less depressing than 'Dunbar'. :-)
Oh, maybe it's just me, but it is slightly cold in here. Better than being outside of course. I assume it will warm up as time goes on and more people turn up.
As a random observation, there are four plates on the bar with chopped citrus fruit, mostly lemon. I am not sure why. I am vaguely tempted to squeeze a slice of lemon into my beer but I will resist. Maybe they are there for purchasers of bottled beer (though I would have expected lime not lemon were that the case).
Wafflingly randomly to fill time (though I am moderately engrossed in Mark Twain's book on Christian Science) I am not deeply concerned about disturbing the hypothetical other occupants of my dormitory on my return. The room being empty I took the low bed (bunk beds, sigh, though slightly higher and I can sit on my bed without crouching) nearest the door. I can do without cleaning my teeth tonight and if I feel it's necessary I can even sleep in my clothes to minimise the disturbance of undressing. But I still wouldn't be totally surprised if I am the only occupant.
I think it's a bit cold here as it's nearish to the door. But I don't know and it's a pointless observation as I am not moving, they had no change so I haven't paid for my beer yet and lurking at the bar I just may get some chat. (The doorman warned me - I didn't fully understand - about women preying on tourists. Not in a robbing way I think, just exploitative. But I am so paranoid I think I'm safe as long as no force is applied.)
Yeah, the intermittence of the 'colder than it was' feelings strongly suggest it's due to a door opening. Isn't this interesting?
The music in this bit at least doesn't quite suck but is not particularly good. Heavily rhythmic but with some tune. Acceptable but not much to my taste.
Eyeing a drink list on the bar, the prices are reasonable by local standards, for all the fact this is a club. UYU100 for a litre (well, 960ml in practice, but this is a common 'deception' all over, why the beer bottlers don't make true litre bottles I don't know - for that matter, why 620ml bottles? It is neither a round number not an obvious imperial measure. Just maybe it equates to some US non-metric quantity, at a guess. But then, why is a can of coke 330ml in the UK?).
02:10. FWIW, I just paid, and the place while not heaving is now moderately busy. I am feeling a slight touch of drunkenness but not too bad. I don't plan to be out that late anyway.
FWIW, the music is all English-language so far.
02:40. Just wandered into another area after finishing that beer. The music sucks about as much. I ordered a beer at this bar and got a 354ml can for UYU50. Shit value but at least it's not a big commitment. I am not necessarily leaving soon but still. The ceiling fan is working on the dancefloor in this part! I sat by the edge for a few seconds and legged it on grounds of temperature. I hope I am OK but I think it's cold, and I am not normally like that, I suspect I am more of a 'low temperature' guy than the locals normally but facts are facts re how I feel right now. I don't even think this is down to beer, I have never noticed it making me feel cold before and stereotypes at least suggest alcohol superficially has a warming effect.
Taking advantage of the portability of a can of beer I just had a small wander. I can see only two distinct areas. I am now camped out at a table in the area I started in, the music in both rooms is equally acceptable and equally crap and it's at least perceptually warmer here.
It is pretty busy though hardly rammed. If I liked the music more and was in a slightly better mood I think I'd say it was a pretty decent place. I like busy but I do hate rammed.
Oh, the phone battery is down to 26% and experience suggests that's a lie and it will die soon. So any further experiences will be lost to posterity. :-) Unless I do have the room to myself I will not faff charging it tonight so it will have to remain dead til I check into my private room tomorrow...
To satisfy my sense of detail, signs inside the bar say it is 'tr3s/cu4rto'. Presumably in reference to the the 3/4 denomination for a 620ml beer I can never pronounce. I tried 'tres cuarto' earlier and I am sure the waitress echoed 'tres (cq)uatro'. I don't know. Still, the beers are '3/4' on the menus and the sign does says 'tr3s/cu4rto' and I guess I can ask someone about the pronunciation back in the UK.
03:20. For what it's worth the music in the 'second room' is now in Spanish. I am not having a great time to be honest but I will get another small beer from the bar here as I am not that drunk. I just may end up coming here at 1-2am tomorrow but it's not so much fun that I am sure I will, so in some sense (despite having to check out at 11 tomorrow for the room change) I want to give it a go tonight as I may not bother coming back. This is a bit of a shit attitude but it could be worse, at least I'm having a bit of a go and accruing experience, which I understand is cheap at any price. :-)
I keep thinking this is the first club I've been to on the trip. But apart from recolllections of having written this before, which implies another club visit I can't remember, that would be ignoring my with and without people club experiences in La Paz. Nonetheless, this feels a bit novel (if dull, not worth it and I'd rather be in a bar novel :-) )
I just hope the hostel does have 24h reception! And I guess (tho I am not sure it would be worth the effort) it would be interesting to come out here stone cold sober at 1am tomorrow. On the other hand, I don't feel anywhere near drunk enough to wish I was more sober, so maybe it would suck as much or more to come here sober at 1am. If I really wanted I could have another beer or two without being over the edge. As I write that I almost feel I therefore ought to stay and see the night out, but I also really don't want to. It's a bit rank somehow.
03:45. To give the place credit, while (not unreasonably) no one has talked to me, the atmosphere is not unfriendly. I don't feel remotely threatened by anyone. But I think I will finish this one and go home. I am not going to make a conversational sally at anyone, it's too clubby and noisy. Maybe that would be the only reason to come back tomorrow night, if I was practically sober I just might chance a conversation, although really you'd expect me to be more up for that when a bit drunk. Odd but maybe true.
03:50. Just left, leaving a bit of beer behind. I'm not sober but I'm not drunk, I just couldn't see the point of finishing it when I wanted to leave anyway. Fingers crossed I will be up by 11 for the checkout. I suppose at least I can wake up at 10:55 and be more or less OK, if push comes to shove my morning ablutions can wait a couple of hours till I check back in at 2.
04:05. Just got back. Slightly odd getting in but no problem. The guy gave me the key then took it back saying there was one other person in there so it was open. And indeed it was and someone is snoring in the other bed. But a bit odd, the door locks from inside so a) why didn't that person do so? and thus b) why didn't I get the key to unlock and relock the door? Oh well. I don't seem to have woken him or her up undressing and for all the fact it would be better to lock the door I have no major fear my stuff will be nicked, so to sleep...
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