Its Christmasssssssssssssssssssssssss!

 Well, not exactly the Christmas that we are used too! No freezing our cute  little behinds off and no Christmas trees... Poor us! However, I think stories of minus 10 degrees and the fact that we are sunning ourselves on the beach may well have made up for the lack of snow. If you take your sunglasses off on the beach, we do indeed have a white (sand) Christmas!

We are maintaining a traditional Christmas as best as we can and managed to buy one of the few turkeys available in Montevideo. We (by "we" - Harriet) considered buying the turkey a huge achievement and failed to realise that you need stuff to cook a turkey. Cue manic dashing on the 23rd to four different supermarkets. Many bus rides and sweat filled taxis later, we very sadly discovered that Uruguay does not have cranberry sauce nor sausage meat. Instead we decided to experiment and bought terrine to stuff the turkey with, and caramelised carrots- known for their sauce like quality-  instead of cranberry sauce. Pure genius! We are now both stuffed, as was the turkey earlier, and currently dying in front of the air conditioning unit which Matthew has put on full blast so we can appreciate the cold that you all going through.

We have had a pretty good day, we bought stockings and Santa being the genius that he is found us all the way in South America! Matt and I also bought some presents for one another and ended up buying each other exactly the same gift - Dulce de Leche Liqour! Turns out that we have similar taste!

Talking of Father Christmas, while at the Brugnini Family Party on Christmas Eve, the Brugnini's and I caught sight of him landing on the roof.!!!! Matt unfortunately did not see him, as he was otherwise occupied - he was very disappointed.

Christmas Eve is the big night here in Uruguay and so we went to the Brugnini family Christmas party, with four generations in one house, it was an amazingly good fun and crazy night! We had an asado and witnessed a hundred million fireworks! Not to mention getting some lovely presents from the family and celebrating 'Papa Noel's' visit ( shame Matt was the only one who missed seeing him!)

WISHING YOU ALL A MERRY CHRISTMAS, TALK SOON!!!!!! (Peace out- Matt's words, not mine!)

The Cerro

Earlier this week we ventured up Montevideo's solitary real hill, it looks insignificant from the city, but once at the top the views were awesome.

The fort on top of the hill.

Ciudad Vieja- Mercado Del Puerto

So we decided after having been in Uruguay for almost 3 weeks we should probably take some pictures of Uruguay. The city as it now is was built by Europeans a couple of hundred years ago and consequently feels like a European city -kind of- especially with the prices.

The old city - Ciudad Vieja - has some beautiful buildings, although at least half of them look like they could fall down at any moment.

Mercado del Puerto was the an old marketplace - but it is now where plump American tourists go to get more plump , we do not stereotype, this is based on empirical evidence, gained through much observation. The building is full of what can only be described as - all be it crudely - barbecues on steroids. You pull up a stool and eat cows - well that's what it feels like. Cows are yummy.

Carrasco

Matt and I have had a pretty busy week at school. Matt is doing pretty well, while my Spanish is being destroyed by gaining a Uruguayan accent and pronunciation. We are doing so "well" though that we have decided to stay on at school for another week. Matt as per usual is doing amazingly- with his natural "flair" for languages, haha!

We have had quite a busy week visiting people and friends of my family in Montevideo but have managed to find time to get out to the edge of the city to a neighbourhood called Carrasco. We spent ages walking along the Rambla to find my house and then to get into the centre of Carrasco. - Where we had a ridiculousy nice meal. num num num!

The house

Playa De Los Ingleses - The beach of the English (no joke, the name of the beach in front of the house)

As per usual, Harriet doing the "Robot"

View from the Rambla

Rundown Hotel

Hola, Como Estas? Me llamo es...

That's correct people, we have started Spanish school! Our first day at school was highly emotional, we were very nearly late and close to turning up without pens and paper due to Matt's need for a good luck ice-cream (which I (being Matt) might add, was a cleverly thought out and good plan). We managed to arrive as the bell rang, Matt with a very cool Burberry notepad (yes he was like the kid with the uncool lunch box). Matt is in a class all on his own due to his special needs. I am in a class which is very dull, half of the people speak good Spanish and the other half are mildly behind. However, I am now learning to pronounce everything like a Uruguayan and so hopefully should stop being laughed at for my Spanish Spanish.

Today was freezing by the way, in fact it was so cold that I had to put my woolly hat on! Expecting snow any day now!

 
Matt and I are adapting to life very well in Pocitos and Matt has bought trainers so that he can now run up and down the beach while I sunbathe. It's quite a nice lifestyle! We are settling into a routine already of beach, lessons, run/sunbathe, steak dinner and maybe a visit or two in between. It's a world away from backpacking, we have to keep reminding ourselves that we are not millionaires!

Montevideo - (FYI That is in Uruguay Samantha!)

Sorry for the lack of updates but Harriet and I had cleverly been working out the best place to move onto from Acuncion. After careful planning and much consideration it was decided that we would take a giant coach to Buenos Aires (22 hours long), then run to the port get on a ferry, cross the river mouth to Colonia (Uruguay) and then hop straight onto a coach to Montevideo.

Upon arriving we decided why not rent a flat for the month, and enrol in Spanish courses, cue much research and phoning and googling. And then we thought we could just settle down in our new flat and relax.

5 days after starting this we have now and only just now been able to sit and rest in our apartment.We also decided to have a grown up dinner and cooked (kind of) steak and had some surprisingly nice wine.

The flat is in Pocitos, which is just out of the centre of the city - next to one of the best beaches. And we can see the Sea (well kind of the sea) from our window. Hopefully tomorrow we may even have time to have a swim, perhaps.

Harriet has continuously lectured  me on Uruguayan steak and its world beating status! I was always a little sceptical. But having just been to the Adams' favourite restaurant in Montevideo - Garcia's, I can confirm these views. The Baby beef (below) was way beyond incredible - I am in love! Also the "family waiter" - Sergio- was still waiting, much to Harriet's (and his) delight.

Harriet also tells me that I must tell you all about her "excellent" Spanish and how useful it has been. I may joke, but it definitely made finding the flat much easier and in fact she is actually quite competent - (yes she is indeed now reading over my shoulder). On Monday I am starting lessons so hopefully - assuming she regresses- I may overtake.

Asuncion

In Asuncion we found civilisation, aka cinemas showing Harry Potter! Quite embarrassingly we found a cinema within a few hours of arriving in the city, very much worth it though.

Stayed at a nice hostel, the only one in Paraguay, loads of nice people and really helpful English speaking staff. Paraguay, it turns out is cheap, we had really good food for virtually nothing! Matt seems guaranteed to find the most expensive option where ever we are in the world though, so ordered the best cut of meat, followed by a two person chocolate fondue (then sulked because it didn't taste like Cadbury's, unfortunately I'm not joking!) This meal probably cost the same as all the rest of the food we had in Paraguay put together. I was just happy to find food which wasn't intestines!

We did some sightseeing in Asuncion and somehow, completely by accident, saw the changing of the guard which only happens once in a blue moon so we were pretty damn impressed with ourselves. We had to bite our tongues hard as the national anthem was out of tune with the trumpets and the marching was very out of time but it was interesting to put it politely.

We also found a market which was AMAZING! More fake trainers than you can possibly imagine intermingled with butchers, fruit stalls, more knock off DVDs and cafes. There was also one stall which had chickens, ducks ( at which point we thought it was a food stall), rabbits, guinea pigs and then newly hatched parrots?! Matt decided that we should buy the parrots and set them free- luckily he was eventually persuaded of the stupidity of this plan!