Montevideo

Well, it's official.  I'm done traveling outside of Buenos Aires.  This past weekend my roommate Katia and I took a weekend getaway to lovely and historical Montevideo, Uruguay.  Katia and I had a peaceful weekend seeing sights, sharing in the hostel's chivito dinner Saturday night, and renting bikes and riding along the coast on Sunday before getting on a ferry back across the river to our lovely city.

I wanted to see Montevideo because we had discussed it in my history of tango class as a sort of twin city of Buenos Aires.  My professor continually emphasized that the tango was not argentino, but rioplatense, belonging to both shores of the Rio de la Plata.

And as far as shores go, Uruguay is supposed to have some of the best beaches.  Unfortunately, once again, it looked pretty much like this all weekend:

I mean, I walked on the beach, but it wasn't exactly what I was hoping for.  I guess I've just got to get used to the fact that I lost my summer and I can't get it back.  Spring break, anyone?

I had a little border scare on the way into Uruguay: I forgot to bring along my student residency document and all they had to go on was my expired tourist visa stamp in my passport.  So at 2 a.m., we're stopping at the border (we entered the country on land) and I'm standing there, exhausted, face to face with someone who's telling me that at the very least, I'm going to be fined three hundred pesos.  Thank God for technology: they were able to look me up in the computer system and see that, yes, I had obtained the necessary documents and had simply neglected to bring them along.  Won't make that mistake again!

Now it's just a few papers, a take-home exam, a concert at the Teatro Colon, packing my suitcase, and a relaxing few days of soaking up all I can of Buenos Aires before going home.  Bittersweet.