Montevideo, Uruguay

European In Both Look & Feel, A Riot Of 19th-Century Neoclassical Architecture And A Great Place To Enjoy A Steak

”OK so there’s not a whole lot around here that will deter too many for too long, but there’s an unmistakably cool vibe on the straight grid of streets that is the Uruguayan capital, a riot of 19th-Century Neoclassical architecture and one of the best cities on the continent in which to tuck into a steak.”

Image || Plaza Independencia in central Montevideo. September 18, 2015.

Montevideo, Uruguay

As home to nearly half the country’s 3.4 million population, Montevideo is by far the largest city in South America’s second-smallest country. Far from a must-see city, there’s not a whole lot around here that will deter too many for too long, but there’s an unmistakably cool vibe on the straight grid of streets that is the Uruguayan capital, a riot of 19th-Century Neoclassical architecture and one of the best cities on the continent in which to tuck into a steak.

An expensive dish in an expensive city – they even, get this, charge you to sit down and give them your custom. Striplion, my dinner tonight in Mercado del Puerto (Port Market) in Old Town Montevideo. Steak is as Uruguayan as bacon & cabbage is Irish and tucking into a medium rare in Mercado del Puerto is akin to downing a Guinness in Tempe Bar. It’s cliché but you can’t come here and not try it, unless of course you’re vegetarian in which case you’ve probably no business being here. Oh yeah, I couldn’t have my steak without a potato. One baked potato which cost me a shocking €3. Striplion in Mercado del Puerto, Montevideo, Uruguay. September 18, 2015.

Mercado del Puerto, Montevideo, Uruguay. September 18, 2015.

Flags on the streets of Montevideo, Uruguay. September 18, 2015.

Plaza Independencia

Montevideo’s primary plaza slap-bang in the centre of the city, Plaza Independencia radiates out from a central mounted statue of Uruguayan national independence hero José Gervasio Artigas, the centrepiece of the plaza’s underground Artigas Mausoleum where the remains of “the father of Uruguayan nationhood” are guarded. In the distance is one of the plaza’s predominant features, the mammoth 1920s 95-metre-high Palacio Salvo. Originally designed to be a hotel, today it serves a mixed purpose in providing office and private residential space. Plaza Independencia, Montevideo, Uruguay. September 18, 2015.

Be the Orientals as illustrated as they are brave.

– Jose Gervasio Artigas (1746-1850)

‘Orientals’ is a definition of belonging used up to this day referring to those who inhabited the Banda Oriental del Uruguay (the eastern bank of the river Uruguay) which later became the Oriental Republic of Uruguay. – Reproduced from a display in the Visitor Centre in Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay.