Bathroom not quite as bad as I though, the two shower cubicles have locking doors and a microscopic space to change in inside the cubicle but outside the shower curtain. So there is some privacy and protection for your clothes while in the shower. By no means the best shared bathroom I have seen (Loki in La Paz springs to mind as one of the best), but acceptable and at least clean.
On a more crappy note, the bunk bed is low enough even someone my size can't use the lower bunk as a seat, and there's no chair in the room.
19:05. About 5pm went out for a walk along the south bank, probably looking out at the suspiciously sea-like Rio de la Plata. Quite cool and some nice sunset effects.
Afterwards wandered over to some street mentioned in guide book as having lots of bars but because it's Monday and/or it's early it is dead. Had a bit of a wander round Plaza Independencia (which is quite impressive and has one rather striking building) and having a solitary beer outside some beer & pizza place. Will try that street later again, I don't particularly want to be out late tonight but it would be nice to see a little bit of nightlife.
19:50. down at The Shannon, Irish bar on that recommended street - it was shut before. Very quiet and very small but OKish.
20:45. Finished that beer and had a brief wander. The area is pretty dead. Maybe it's just too early but although memory is a treacherous thing I seem to think Santiago and Buenos Aires were not this dead on Mondays. Maybe I'm in the wrong area but I can only go by the guide book. Have come back to The Shannon as the best of a bad lot. Unless I see signs of anything picking up I will have one or two more and then go back to the hostel, try to upload some photos and go to bed. The wi-fi does work so that may tempt me to stay up a bit too late but apart from spinal curvature at least surfing is not unhealthy. :-)
Subject to the difficulty of plugging two wall-wart adapters into one, it does occur to me a UK multi-plug adapter might be a valuable addition to travelling equipment another time. Here, as in other places, there is only one socket and if I had a mult-adaptor I could charge my phone overnight while leaving the laptop with mains power to upload at the same time.
For what it's worth, my limited experience of Montevideo so far suggests it is not as plentifully supplied with flying insects as the platform at Salto bus terminal. I haven't noticed any yet.
It's slightly cool, but OK out. I think I saw a display showing 18C an hour or two ago.
It occurs to me that in just over a week I will be leaving southern hemisphere autumn behind and entering central America where it's probably always hot and then Mexico during northern hemisphere spring/summer.
I 'should' have come out later tonight, but after going back to the hostel to change I wanted to pop out while there was a bit of daylight and didn't want to go back for an hour or two after already spending a couple of hours there before. I guess the next few days with luck I will be out during the day then pop back towards dark and then out again later.
Fingers crossed I will at least be up earlyish tomorrow so I can get a bit of sightseeing in. It seems from a quick scan of the guidebook there are a pleasant number of interesting things to see and, even better, no absolute 'must see' sights.
Oh, I failed to properly reattach the shutter and zoom controls on the camera. No little bits of plastic have obviously broken off, I can only assume it was glued before. I think a judicious use of glue would fix it, but I don't fancy trying that here. I have compromised by sticking the zoom control down with thin strips of duct tape, which fingers crossed is holding the combined control on tolerably well so I shouldn't lose the control pieces, and I can still use the camera just without the optical zoom, which I don't use much anyway, though of course it's nice to have.
21:30. Has got slightly busier tho still very quiet. Two guys are setting up inside so looks like there will be live music. That doesn't guarantee a great night (I remember the very competent but not somehow thrilling live band at Killenny in Buenos Aires) but I will hang around and see how it goes if it's good. Music's funny stuff, sometimes it changes the mood and sometimes not.
Another guy just walked in with what looks like a double bass in a carrying container. That interests me as it raises vague suggestions of jazz. The other two guys have a drum kit and an electric guitar. That could be good but it would be nice if a keyboard player turned up too. :-)
The barmaid is scribbling on the blackboard outside 'Fede Piriz', which I assume to be the name of the band. Maybe this blog entry will be their first web write up if they're playing somewhere this quiet on a Monday night. :-)
It occurs to me to wonder if by making up some nonsense unique word pair I can later find this post on Google for my own geeky gratification. I assume they index all stuff, not just popular stuff. I mawghingly espexded so. :-) And I think this blog site is affiliated to Google if not owned by them, the login credentials are shared with Google Mail...
Well, the barmaid erased 'Piriz' for whatever reason.
It is jazz of some description. Certainly acceptable. Let's see if I can lose myself in the music. :-)
Just been told I have to pay a UYU30 cover charge now, presumably for the music. I don't exactly resent giving the band money, but given I've been here for three beers already it seems a bit of a cheek at the same time.
Sign outside now updated to say 'Fede Cista' (maybe 'Fede Lista' but probably not).
22:10. They played one song and stopped, I assume they will be on properly soon. It was not bad at all. I can't really describe it, as sadly I only like jazz, I am not knowledgeable about it. I have the same problem with classical, and to a lesser extent pop/rock. Probably just because of the limited repertoire of 'stuff I can compare it to', it reminds me a little of the one George Benson CD I have, but the music was a little more 'abstract' to my mind, which I prefer. Any jazzheads reading, as if there is anyone reading, you can fuck off if you are laughing. It's people like you who get jazz a bad reputation. Nothing wrong with being knowledgeable but you don't have to be knowledgeable to like something.
I do have a preference for piano-based jazz - I remember seeing Brian Kellock on a whim at Henry's in Edinburgh when I spent a weekend up there and that was fantastic. But then the same weekend some woman whose name I sadly don't remember did a night of Julie London songs and that was brilliant in a different way.
Just my luck to stumble across live jazz in a country where you can't smoke indoors. :-)
I hope they start again/properly soon, I am pretty sober but I've had enough that if I'm not careful I will go overboard to see the gig out. But then, I am here to have fun and I like this serendipitous (sp?) stuff.
23:00. They played three or four songs and have stopped again. To my unsophisticated ear they are pretty good, and the last song before the break was pretty 'involving'. I found my thoughts drifting all over the place, that may be the beer in part, but I find good music often does that.
I saw a leaflet at the bar advertising some gigs earlier, there is something tomorrow but probably not to my taste. I missed by a week or two (if I understood my quick read correctly) Piazzolla's grandson performing some of his grandfather's music. I would have gone to that if I could. I know Piazzolla only through Horacio Icasto's jazz version of 'Maria de Buenos Aires', but I do love that, and I think it would have been interesting at least and possibly great.
I have been a bit lax in terms of looking around for live music so far, in hindsight. But I still have two months and god knows what's available in Panama, and I am sure Mexico extends beyond Mariachi. Though I may well try to visit all my old Mexican haunts (there being only three and I have six weeks) and it would be cool to be back at El Parian in Tlaquepaque for a bit of Mariachi, if I can contain myself from singing along to "El Rey". :-)
00:15. I think they've finished. There is acceptable live-sounding music coming from a bar down the road but I think I will somewhat unwisely have one more here and go home. I can enjoy the live music as well outside this bar as where it's being played. :-)
Overall, the group tonight was pretty good. A hell of a better night that it looked like it was going to be.
I am about 850m from the hostel by GPS and I have a map as well, I think I will walk when I do go back.
Anyway, being slightly drunk, I have pseudo-profound thoughts to think :-) so I will stop writing this crap for a bit.
00:35. I interrupt my meditations to record I just got a beer. Quite a few people outside but a bit dead inside, so I asked if they were still open. I got some incomprehensible and slightly hacked off sounding spiel which implied they are open but shutting soon. Will I ever master the art of understanding random statements fully? Still, one more will be adequate, so sorted, respect due. :-)
01:00. In a slightly but not too odd burst of 'fuck it' I have come to this busyish bar (El Pony Pisador!) up the road. It sucks and I had big language difficulties (probably in part due to the noise) getting a beer but all serene. I suspect this will be the last and it's all experience. Much busier than The Shannon ever was. Despite sucking more. Just like London really. :-)
Live music here, is sort of cool yet has that slightly wanky club atmosphere. I shouldn't be here but fuck it. It's not totally uncool. And it is impressively busy for a Monday night. Clearly my main problem earlier was out too soon. Yet ultimately it was cool as I enjoyed the jazz at The Shannon more than I'd have enjoyed being here two or three hours earlier.
There are people dancing but mostly women dancing with each other. The live music is vaguely Latin pop.
I shouldn't be here but as I always say, it's experience and that is allegedly cheap at any price. Twenty four hours ago I was stood by a main road in the middle of nowhere near Concordia on the Argentinia-Uruguay border, now I am down a pseudo-club in Montevideo. Life is full of contrasts.
I feel like a latter-day Bob Tallyho without his Tom Dashall. :-)
01:30. Live band just quit, probably for good. Shit probably-RnB on now. I am not too drunk (but definitely a bit drunk) but could do with a piss but don't want to leave my beer unattended.
01:40, I located the bogs (upstairs) and by virtue of taking my beer to just outside the door I retained it. Now outside where it is quite busy but not so noisy. I feel I am at that stage where I'm a bit pissed but not too blatantly so. In a purely conversational way I am flirting with the idea of chatting to someone, but everyone is in groups and as per my level of estimated drunkenness I don't think it's prudent. Unless I suddenly have a burst of drunken bravado or someone talks to me I think I will keep to myself and maybe return tomorrow to pursue my investigation of Real Life in Montevideo. Besides, the observer sees most of the game. :-) At the same time, I am also at that point where I feel getting up super early tomorrow is a goner so I may as well have another beer. We'll see.
01:55. Nearly finished my first beer here. Really not feeling it, I am sort of pleasantly pissed but the atmosphere while non-threatening (very much so) is not propitious for chat and I don't really think I want another. Will probably go in ten minutes after finishing this. May well return more soberly another night to see how it goes but since it is a pseudo-club I don't think it's very likely I'll ever end up in a friendly conversation here. Could still be an interesting experience to be here lateish and relatively sober though. But tonight ain't that. If I was loving the music for its own sake it might be different, but it's merely borderline acceptable.
To give myself credit, I am a bit tired but considering I had at most six hours broken sleep on the bus and dragged myself out of bed at 10:30am Sunday, there's clearly life in the old dog yet. This may be shortening the life in the old dog, of course.
02:20. Just got back. Hostel is deader than A-line flares with pockets in the knees (pace Red Dwarf). I guess all the bright young things are down at El Pony Pisado, or asleep. This old dog laughs in their faces and smacks them in the gut with his decaying liver. :-) Now to set the laptop on upload and to bed...
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