Not sure for what reasons, I didn’t have a good night sleep. Woke up before sunrise, I watched the window brightening up gradually. The Sun rose at 7:05 this morning. By 7:20 I couldn’t stay in bed any longer. I got up and looked out the window. The letters of Montevideo were glowing in the warm early morning sunlight.
“I go downstairs and take some pictures. I’d be right back.” I whispered to my companion who was still half asleep..
Today we randomly decided to explore Ciudad Vieja neighborhood. The taxi dropped us off at Plaza de la Constitución and we felt immediately at home. (Okay, that’s an exaggeration. What I meant to say was that we felt comfortable there.) Because of my refusal to go to a Starbucks, my companion found a small local coffee shop not far from the plaza. We ordered a latte, a cortado, one croissant and a Russian honey cake that the dueño fervently recommended. According to him it takes two days to make this specific cake, and as he claimed, it was absolutely delicious with delicate, subtle flavors.
When we were about to conclude our coffee break, the dueño came to our table and chatted with us. He started by asking us where we were from and what our professions were. When I told him that I used to be a photographer, he brought out his tablet and showed us images of buildings that he has captured within Montevideo. He shared with us his proudest documentations of various magnificent structures and unique features and details of important buildings in the city, including a few videos which I assume were captured with a drone camera. He then shared with us pieces of his experiences in life, which clearly indicated that he basically had been traveling most of his life, for reasons that he did not reveal, until he landed in Montevideo almost two decades ago.
After we paid the bill, he told us that he wanted to show us something. While walking, he pointed at a mural on top of a building and explained briefly about the incredible Montevideo born artist and the museum near by which is named after him. I took a mental note to look him up later.
The building he wanted to show us turned out to be a bookstore that we mentioned to him earlier that we wanted to go. He explained in great detail the significance of it and fun facts that few people would notice. The moment he wanted to bid farewell, my companion asked if he could take a picture of him. He politely declined. I can’t recall exactly what he said. It was something along the lines of “no pictures carry my presence.”
Our coffee break today became an incredibly informative and educational one about Montevideo and the world. We met a person, by coincidence, who was highly knowledgeable about various topics including art. He has such a zeal for life and the world, and he’s somewhat mysterious. Only on the taxi ride back to our hotel, we suddenly realized we don’t even know his name.
PS: the mural on the building is a reproduction of an iconic work by artist Joaquín Torres García, titled Pax In Lucem, which was lost in the fire at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro in 1978.
It’s been cloudy or even drizzling the whole day ever since we arrived in Buenos Aires almost a week ago. This morning we finally woke up with the sun shining through the window. But today was also the day that we’d be leaving for Montevideo, on the only sunny morning we ever had.
At the airport after we checked in, there was barely any announcements in English. We were playing guessing games the whole time at the gate since our Spanish was rather poor. At one point we got nervous because it had passed the scheduled boarding time and there was no explanation from the airline. We weren’t overly concerned since there were plenty other passengers seemed to be waiting for the same flight.
Long story short, eventually we boarded the plane and arrived in Montevideo without much delay. With the blue sky and the sun shining, our second part of the journey has just begun.
Impressive view from our hotel’s balcony. Erected in 1936, this obelisk is located at the Plaza de la República.
We took a train to the north today around noon time. I picked two of the pastries my sister has brought. One was Mung Bean Pastry and the other with curry flavored stuffing.
“Which one would you like?” I asked my mom.
“The one with mung beans then.” she answered without much hesitation.
Watching her slowly and carefully biting into the relatively soft pastry, a wave of unknown sadness filled my heart.
I wonder how much longer she’d be able to travel like this. Or rather, how much long she’d be able to travel at all..
It was still dark and extremely cold when we said goodbye to our friends. When the airplane broke through the clouds, the world underneath was magical..
I hopped on a bus by myself and went to Zürich late afternoon today, hoping for a glimpse of the city. The air was freezing cold and my hands almost went numb. I clicked the shutter without much thought, hoping one of them would turn out okay. It was my last chance capturing Zürich before we say goodbye early tomorrow morning.
That’s life.. Things rarely go as planned. But in the process, beautiful things might just happen. And that’s life as well.
The future is unknowable. It’s an illusion that we have any control over it. However, it is not to say that we should stop dreaming..
Life is a show, and we are all performing our roles.
Our train going back to Zürich stopped at Neuchâtel station briefly. It happened that there were people in front of the window and the lighting was perfect. I grabbed my camera and captured a few images of this passenger, who apparently was waiting for a different train.
