Thursday

I woke up this morning really full. I wasn't sure why, until I remembered yesterday. I had so much steak last night! Good thing it was amazing steak, or else I would have really regretted it.

Today, I had to catch a ride to Colonia del Sacramento. This took an hour, during which I read some of the book I had taken along: Tierra de Nadie (No Man's Land), written by Juan Carlos Onetti. It's a really good book about the history of Uruguay; I like it.

We stopped right next to Portón de Campo, the City Gate that led into the city, of course. It looked really cool, what with it's wooden drawbridge and giant archway. Through it, I could see a peaceful, calm, and pretty town. Sadly, it also looked a bit poor in some areas. I really hate seeing anyone that's poor. I feel like if we all contributed and shared, then no one would have to be poor. A very hippie-istic approach, but I honestly think it's true.


Well, we crossed the drawbridge, and walked right into the beautiful city. The first thing I noticed was the stone streets, versus paved. It really gave the city an olden times feeling. I liked it. I decided to learn about the city's history, and found a museum called the Municipal Museum. It had a bunch of stuff about the city's past, along with a ton of artifacts and treasures found over the years. When I left about an hour later (after taking a tour and looking around in the gift shop), I noticed a sign at the front that I hadn't seen before. It said that the whole museum had been rebuilt by the Spanish in 1835; they called it Casa del Almirante Brown.

When it was rebuilt, a second floor was added and said to be the house of Admiral Brown, though there are no records showing that Admiral Brown actually owned it. Now, that floor is a paleontology room (each room is dedicated to a specific purpose).

It was a cool museum and I'm clad that I went to it, but I had to go get dinner at that time. So I went to a nice restaurant I found and ordered my dish. This time, I tried (and almost succeeded) to order my food in Spanish. Sadly, I got please (por favor) mixed up with why (por qué). So there I was, trying to say please and only saying why. I'm sure the waitress was thoroughly confused before I realized that qué means what, which brought me to the conclusion that I had been saying why the whole time.

Finally, I got my dish, ate, and left. I had to get to sleep as soon as possible because tomorrow I had to catch a flight to Tacuarembó, which would take about two hours. It left at 8:00, and I wanted to be well rested and ready to go by then!