Medio y Medio me gusta...

I started the day in some confusion, as whatever its other merits, El Viajero's breakfast setup wasn't very well-organised. After that, I just chilled out for a bit, finishing my book from the previous day's travels (I'm ashamed to admit to actually quite enjoying a Jeffrey Archer novel....) and then going for a wander around town. I was somewhat distressed to be unable to find anywhere showing the 6 Nations rugby games as even the Irish pubs in town weren't open at lunchtime, so I instead headed over to the Mercado del Puerto, the Port Market, which is these days packed with seafood restaurants. There I treated myself to swordfish, baked sweet potato, salad and a couple of glasses of Medio y Medio (literally "half-and-half"), a mixture of still and sparkling white wine which is a speciality of Uruguay, and of Montevideo in particular. I also got some practice in on my Spanish, chatting with a psychoanalyst from Buenos Aires and his daughter who were sat next to me at the restaurant's bar, which gave me a bit more confidence that I could hold down some kind of reasonable conversation that did not revolve around restaurant menus, hostel reservations, bus tickets or the facilities at an internet cafe (my 4 principal areas of expertise in Spanish to this point...).

Feeling properly full after this, I went for a stroll arond the Ciudad Vieja, the old town, and along part of the Malecon, the seawall promenade facing the river. Once I headed back over to the area near my hostel, I watched a few songs being played by a Blues band in the Plaza de la Constitucion. Very bizarre to have them belting these tunes out in Southern US English, and then on finishing they swapped back to Latino Spanish to talk to the crowd. After that I headed back to the hostel, where I ended up having a chat and a beer up on one of the balconies with Wanda, another of the receptionists, and a couple of Norwegian girls embarked on a surfing tour of South America, until it was time for the asado.

The Asado is another manifestation of the great South American BBQ tradition, and quite a lot of the hostels here have them. In this case, the cooking was done on a brick oven-style setup on the roof terrace, which was also where we ate. I was joined in this by my Norwegian friends from earlier, as well as a couple of Americans, a German guy and an Argentine lass. All very happy and civilised, and it was interesting from talking to the Yanks how much the Obama factor has made them feel more welcome when travelling than a few years ago. After food, Rob (one of the Americans) and I popped into town for a couple of drinks out on the pavement tables by the main bar area. However, once he decided to go on for a night out dancing, I made my apologies and headed back to my bunk.