God Works in Mysterious Ways OR The Trip to Piriapolis

Okay, so I've put of blogging in a large part because I can't post pictures anywhere. To anything. Stupid computers. But I've decided to go ahead and do it anyway and just post pictures when it finally works again. So here goes......

I took a day trip to Piriapolis with Marissa, Sarah, Tina, and Courtney a couple weekends ago and it was amazing. Sure, we got caught in the rain a couple of times and we ended up hiking about 2 miles out to a castle that we thought was in the city.... But it was all worth it!

It's amazing how liberating it is to plan a trip on your own and have everything turn out just fine. So we don't speak the language and don't really know what we're doing. We bought bus tickets at Tres Cruces from a guy who speaks English (which we found out about half way through the transaction when he finally got tired of our "Spanish"). Then we got up early(ish) Saturday morning and took a 2 hour bus to this wonderful coastal town called Piriapolis. Okay, so it's not technically a coast since it overlooks the Rio de la Plata, but there are beaches and water as far as the eye can see, which totally counts as a beach to me. From that point on, it was a total free day. We had bus tickets for the ride back that night, but until then we had absolutely no obligations. So we walked along the Rambla (think huge sidewalk along the beach) for a while, waiting for lunch places to open. Then we finally gave up and ate at McDonalds. And honestly, it wasn't horrible. As I found in France, the food tastes totally different than it does in the States. Plus, I got dulce de leche ice cream. And by that I mean stole it from Marissa. Yummy!!!

After lunch, we hung out at the Rambla a little more and then hiked along a highway for a ridiculously long time looking for the castle of Piria, who founded the city. I must admit, the hike put me in a bit of a bad mood because I wasn't really expecting it, but once we got to the castle it was totally worth it. Inside, there was this cheesy little museum that had stuff from the original occupant and stuff related to the city. It was actually pretty fun. But the best part was definitely outside. The castle was on a huge plot of land filled with beautiful flowers, palm trees, and fun places to explore. There was a rundown train that I wanted to climb into but didn't because I was afraid it would fall apart. A couple of yards away from the castle, there was an abandoned village that looked about the same age as the castle. It was in obvious disrepair but it was a lot of fun to wander around the wrecked buildings and think about living in the past. For those of you who don't know, I love buildings that are falling apart; I just find something beautiful in it. My absolute favorite part, however, was the quasi-tree house in front of the castle. It was really a little wooden gazebo up off the ground but for some reason it reminded me more of a tree house than anything else, so I've decided to call it the tree house. Okay?

Anyway, we sat in there for a little while resting up for our return journey (which we assumed would be another 2 mile hike back). As we were walking back up the long drive, Courtney's shoe broke, which meant that the hike was almost out of the question. Plus, Tina, Courtney and I really didn't want to walk back anyway. So we try to use the pay phone outside, but we can't figure it out. Apparently, you have to have some sort of card to use pay phones in Uruguay. Who knew? Anyway, we're mentally preparing ourselves for the looong hike back when, miraculously, a bus pulls up!!!! So we run across the street and pay our dollar to ride back into Piriapolis. Let me just say it was the best dollar I've ever spent. Anyway, as we're climbing onto the bus, Courtney starts cracking up. Apparently, she prayed for a bus to come and it did! Weird, huh. I don't think that God answers every single prayer that way, like some sort of cosmic genie. But times like that do remind me that God really listens to our prayers and does take care of us.

Anywho, back to the blow by blow: When we got back to Piriapolis proper we looked for a new pair of shoes for Courtney, which we found fairly quickly and then we ate dinner at La Passiva, which is a Uruguayan chain somewhat comparable to Chili's (except that their menu consists primarily of chivitos and pizza). After La Passiva, we sat on the Rambla for a little while, absorbing the environment and content to just ignore each other for a while. It was a blissful time of aloneness. I loved it. Unfortunately, we did have a bus to catch so we ate some more helado (ice cream) at a local shop and walked back to the bus station. The ride home was uneventful, save for the fact that a woman was standing over me in the aisle for most of the trip, and then we were back to our normal routine.