Sunday, August 30, 2015
Friday, August 28, 2015
Aug 26: voted best restaurant in Montevideo
Only 20% of Uruguayans eat here. Most are outsiders like Brazilians or rest of the world.
When I looked on Google for an Indian restaurant, this place came up: Tandory. It is a good Indian name I would imagine. In America if I were to go to a restaurant name Tandory and discover no Indian food there, I would wonder why they named the restaurant Tandory. This is another example of a Uruguayan cultural difference.
I asked the waitress why. She said because it is an exotic name and the food there is relatively exotic to Uruguayan standards (picture Asado and mash potatos). Actually the food there was a fusion multiethnic menu.
Aug 25: local restaurant
where weekly ex-pat meetings are held. Restaurant meals are around $12 USD for an Executive plate special. For example, you might get a soup appetizer, glass of house wine, a main plate (ie raviolis) and desert.
Aug 25: original British Hospital
The newer version lurks behind. My guess is that the Uruguayans named the private hospital as the British Hosp because it is the best care available, as opposed to the public hospitals that most everyone else goes.
Aug 25: British Hospital
Here is a cultural nuance. The name of places v. what is actually there. The Uruguayans have the British Hospital. There is not one Brit who works there from what I could tell. There might be an odd person who speaks English. I went to the British Hospital twice: once for a dermatology appt and once for a bad case of bronchitis. Only the doctors spoke some English.
Of the 5 weeks I have been in Uruguay, I have been ill 3 of those weeks so far. I still havent fully recovered from the bronchitis going on week #3.
Aug 24: Agricola Mercado brewery
I had a couple pints of beer with these 4th year med students celebrating after taking end of semester tests.
Aug 24: Agricola Mercado
What use to be a huge ag market, was renovated into a kind of upscale indoor mall
Thursday, August 27, 2015
Aug 24: my place 3rd from the top
There is a lone window along the concrete face which is my room. Also I am the only location with a balcony.
The building is an old casino hotel built in the 50s. Many of the rooms have been renovated. However the common areas leaves me with the sense of exploring an old WW2 pillbox with decaying concrete mortar and rusted metal sticking out.
Aug 22 In search of coffee...
Notice just about everything is in English. This is the exception. I curse the fact I run around a city like a heroin junky trying to find an excellent quality cup of java.
23 Aug Buenos Aires, Argentina
A cold winter morning in search of a cup of coffee. I found this place not far from where my hotel was in San Telmo. Note the US like name "Coffee Town." It says a lot in those two words. For example, if you truly want excellent quality coffee like the Americans drink, come here. For the several hours hanging out here, I saw only some Americans from NYC buy anything.
I spoke with the owner while enjoying an excellent cortado cafe. He said that for the most part, Argentines wont pay more for his coffee (ie$3 or so). I would say that is true for most Americans. I really got the sense his coffee was the only game in BA. Like he said, I have yet to find anything comparable in Montevideo. As a Brazilian banker explained it to me, all of the excellent quality robusta beans are sold to exclusive coffee shops in the US. So the South Americans drink the low quality beans.
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
July 7-20: a close relative to my Sprinter van
Someone was living in it as I saw it here for three days straight. Luckily they were high enough up Montjuic that the heat was less of an issue.
July 7-20: Archery at Castel Montjuic
This seemed to be a regular event here on my daily walks to the top of Montjuic.
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