Down at Britannia Pub, as recommended by the guide book. It's bigger than it superficially appears, maybe 30 or 40 people here. Not particularly rammed though.
Lots of British (and Irish) 'memorabilia' stuff on the walls etc, though it has a sort of narrow courtyard in the middle. There is a City of London crest in a frame which I am pleased to say is pleasantly familiar without stirring up huge wellings of nostalgic longing. :-)
Heard some people talking English at the bar but far from clear they were native speakers. Bar is small and the staff don't seem overly matey so I doubt I shall perch myself there.
Got up about 9:30, a bit of an effort despite not drinking yesterday and going to bed about half past midnight/one. Didn't help I had finished my 2l bottle of fizzy lemon drink on the bus and had nothing else, not wanting to trust the tap water.
Absolutely no problem at reception, I am keeping the same room for three days. They were oddly anxious for a printout of my expedia voucher, there was no printer in the business centre (guy at reception said it was bust when I mentioned this), so at his suggestion I printed it to a PDF and gave it them to print on a USB stick.
Went out for a wander. Seriously thirst and could not find a proper cafe/restaurant, just little counters in the street and tiny hole-in-the-wall sort of places with chalked menus selling snacky stuff like empanadas. Got quite arsey about it to be honest.
In the end I bought a bottle of some obscure local flavour of Fanta to try it (something like Guarana, but I am not sure that's what it was) and to quench my thirst. I then found a barely passable restaurant and had a tolerable steak and slightly depressing rice salad. (My limited restaurant observations suggest this is the first place I've been on the continent where chips are not everyday food items.)
I then ended up walking the length of Av. Espana, half looking for some museum I had seen in the guide book but forgotten to note the number of, and half as something to do. So I saw quite a bit of the city, though not any particularly lively bits. I was knackered by the time I got back to the hotel about 6pm, I walked a minimum of 10km as I was 5km from the hotel in a straight line when I turned the GPS on to help me walk back. Had a rest and a surf and came out about 7:45.
Near the centre (insofar as I know where that is, I think I am getting a clue but it was not that obvious earlier) there is a disused train station. Inside is a single carriage at one of the platforms, you can't go in, it just sits there. (Well, to be fair, there was a side entrance which was open but it was far from clear you were allowed to go in. I just peered in and took a couple of photos.) The track runs out of the station into the road and in most places has been tarmaced over, but in a few places the rails show through. A bit odd. There were some other carriages and an old train at the side of the road as presumably some sort of exhibits.
Oh, I never found the museum but no big deal. I may go tomorrow depending on what else presents itself.
I can't say I've an immediate liking for the place as I had in Santiago but the city does have a certain charm. Nearly all the buildings I've seen were either very modern and OK or even stylish (not many of those) or vaguely colonial looking and either well maintained or run down and grubby, the latter predominating. If they discover massive oil reserves and get rich, the place could be restored up to something incredibly handsome.
(I don't think they have oil, though I could be wrong. I seem to recall my guide book says the country has the largest natural fresh water reserves in the world. I wonder if I have forgotten the word 'underground' or something, as I can't help suspecting some freshwater lakes must be larger. But maybe not.)
It's a bit sucky being a pedestrian here. Loads of junctions and crossroads have traffic lights but few have pedestrian signals, so you end up standing there not daring to cross in front of stationary traffic as you don't know how long you've got. Most of the time I end up waiting until the traffic has started moving and I've seen it stop so I know I've got time.
They also seem to go for two-way streets a lot, which I am not so used to these days. Most streets seem to be almost exclusively one-way in South America. I nearly got run over by a motorbike on a quietish street through not realising.
The traffic is nothing like that near the bridge in Ciudad del Este, though, thank fk.
It's warm but not intolerable during the day. I saw signs saying 24-28C. Bit cooler now with a slight breeze but pretty pleasant. I expect it gets moderately hellish in mid-summer. Despite that I still see ads (eg for beer) which trade on summer as a good thing. Maybe it's the beer=refreshing idea, I can't remember if I saw stuff with less direct connections advertised as 'summery'.
"Last train to London" (ELO?) playing now. Not heard this in a while.
20:40. Just ordered second small chopp. The woman asked if I wanted small and so I asked if they did large, if I understood correctly, and I think I did, you get this or a 1.5 litre pitcher. I might drink that much but somehow ordering that much is just pushing it. :-)
Reading Pierce Egan's "Real Life in London" on my phone and while parts are a touch dull, the stuff about various scams is fascinating. The same sort of stuff I've read about in books about modern scams (the pigeon drop being the one I am currently encountering, although Egan doesn't call it that of course).
22:15. Well this is quite cool. Met a Korean-Paraguayan guy called Daniel (apparently a common name in Paraguay, he said it to me in the English way but it is pronounced differently in Spanish of course) who speaks excellent English and knows more European/English history than I do. We spoke mostly in English but he kindly offered to chat to me a bit in Spanish to help me improve. He is here with his girlfriend who is from Encarnacion but worked in England (in Caterham and Oxted) for a few years. I was speaking mostly with him so I think it was a bit intrusive, but he seemed/seems cool about it. (He started talking to me, I naturally didn't butt in on them.) He is talking to her now hence me writing this but still, I much prefer this kind of accidental encounter to trying to meet people deliberately.
They both recommended visiting some Jesuit ruins near (30km from) Encarnacion so although I have some doubts about my ability to get out there, I may use my 'spare day' from not overnighting in Ciudad del Este to stay two nights in Encarnacion and try to visit them during the day there that will give me.
A big swathe of Smiths/Morrissey tracks while we were talking which was also pretty cool.
The guys at the table next to me have a sort of personal beer tap. A big perspex cylinder full of beer with a tap at the bottom. Never seen anything like that before.
22:30. Daniel and his gf just left after saying goodbye, I hope they didn't feel compelled to leave to get some privacy but I'm sure they didn't.
When I walked over here the streets were pretty deserted. I was slightly alert but (although I suspect such feelings are strictly meaningless) I didn't feel particularly vulnerable. I will try to get a taxi back (it's a twenty minute walk, although it's practically all down one street so getting lost is not an issue) but I am not sure if I will get one on the street too easily.
When I came in they give me a ticket which said 'gaseosa' (soft drink) on it (the doorman said it was happy hour) and I got a blank green one with the last beer. I didn't even try to use the soft drink ticket and I doubt it's valid now even if I wanted to but I do wonder if it was for a free drink or just a discount. Not sure about the green ticket but I am not too bothered, it's not super cheap (5000 guaranis for a probably 350ml beer) but not too expensive either. "Comfortably Numb" playing here (the Pink Floyd version), in general the music is pretty good.
There's a guy sat inside the bar whose face reminds me of Chris Martin somehow. (My mate, the Barcap big cheese, aka Monkeyboy, not the Coldplay singer. I have no idea what the famous Chris Martin looks like...)
Wow, Pink Floyd's "Learning to fly" playing now. The music is almost perfect here. :-)
01:05. Well, wow squared. I was sat there on my own for about ten minutes and the group with the 'dispenser' as I find it's called, the beer cylinder, invited me over. People here seem amazingly friendly. We spoke mostly in Spanish with a bit of English. A gay couple (Javier and Evo) and a woman (Susanna). All Paraguayan. They just left and they are going to meet me at the hotel at 4pm tomorrow. It turns out those tickets I was given (which I had shitloads of once I realised) were raffle tickets and I won 100,000 guaranis of bar credit, so we will come back here tomorrow after they show me around a bit (or whatever is good at 4pm). I am staying for one more because that's the way I am, they said I'd be able to get a taxi outside. They also say it's very safe here and they should know.
Vague plan is to have one more, try not to get up super late (haha, plus I guess after having to get up early today and having to get up early tomorrow for checkout I shouldn't beat myself up if I don't), wander round a bit then meet them.
Lest I be accused of buying their friendship, I bought a sort of round after we'd been talking for a couple of hours and before I won the raffle. But this feels fairly 'genuine' and it's certainly not like they invited me over with a view to profit, it was my unprompted offer to buy the round. I feel bad even writing this paragraph as there's no need but what the hell, I'll let it stand.
Oh, they use the Argentinian 'vos' in Paraguay. Those guys told me 'tu' is equivalent to 'usted' among locals here, obviously foreigners and Spaniards get allowance made.
1:15. Just got a beer. Sat at the bar just for the hell of it. Sign on the wall says they shut at 1:45 during the week, tho 3:30 Fri & Sat. Bit of a shame but probably for the best.
02:56 Plans schmans. I made a conversational sally with a guy at the bar and am now down a quietish karaoke bar booked to sing "El Sol No Regressa". Some woman behind me handed me a paper with a phone number on which I gave to Ruben assuming she knew him and she just talked to me, depressingly incomprehensibly. I think she might be from Encarnacion and I also think she was trying to pick me up, as contrary to all sense as that may be. I wish I understood everything she had said to me but it's a bit noisy. It's all good. I don't have to be up til 4pm.
Am a bit nervous about singing somewhere this dead but just pleasantly drunk enough not to actually be jittering.
04:50. Still here, it's very after hours and the Beegees are playing. I paid for the cab here and the drinks but if my exchange rate is right it's less than ten quid and even if I'm being slightly exploited it's worth it.
05:20. Bit dull now but still here, at this rate not getting up much before 4pm (may try to eat first tho suspect will eat with those guys) so I might as well see the night out. Music is now obscure romanticish Brazilian and Spanish stuff lacking in rhythm and go. Bought another beer which seemed quite pricey and will buy another if appropriate but sod it, it is unless my exchange rate is fucked less than I'd spend for a few in London.
5:45. Another beer ten mins ago, but signs say bar shuts in 5 mins on TV screens.
06:00. I just got back to the hotel. Ruben walked me back at his insistance. It was daylight when we left. That bar was obviously closer to the hotel than Brittania. I am not really drunk, I feel I may have over-egged the pudding when chatting to the bar staff when I bought the last beer but sod it. I've had a pretty good night and even if (and I don't think it's that entirely the case, there was probably a certain genuine element) Ruben took me for a ride, it wasn't expensive.
Oh, that woman sort of talked to Ruben a bit and massaged my ears a bit while I was crooning along to some song. But even if she was coming on to me, I don't have any regrets. There are easy women and then there are women who come on to you with no previous chat when you're not particularly looking your best and have your back to them before they meet you. Maybe my rear profile is Brad Pitt-esque but I doubt it. (And I shall try backing up to women in UK nightclubs when I return to see if that's productive. :-) ) If she was offering anything I can't help suspecting there would be a price, one way or another, under those circumstances.
Anyway, to bed ready to be out at 4pm. I may not see as much of the city in the way I planned but I am here to meet people so I can hardly consider any of this a waste of time.
I am inevitably reminded of Bolougne in Jorrocks' Jaunts and Jollities but I don't think it's really like that. Putting that to one side, Paraguay/Asuncion is a great place to visit.
No comments:
Post a Comment