Before our trip, basically two things came to my mind when thinking of Uruguay: this scene from the Simpsons (thanks for the link, Johnnz)....
... and, of course, soccer! Uruguay hosted - and won - the first FIFA World Cup in 1930. They also won 20 years later in 1950. So for a brief four year period, Uruguay held two world cup titles more than Germany. Of course this historical error has now been corrected. :-) During last year's world cup for instance, Germany beat Uruguay 3:2.
Anyways, about our trip: last week, we took the ferry from Buenos Aires across the Río de la Plata to Uruguay. Our first stop was...
Colonia del Sacramento
Colonia is the oldest town in Uruguay, it was founded in 1680 by the Portuguese to smuggle goods into Buenos Aires.It was a nice change to walk through the quiet streets and along the beautiful beaches here. Life here definitely goes at a slower pace than in the big city, you could see the locals sitting in front of their houses all day drinking Mate, chatting, and relaxing.
Below's a picture of the many gorgeous beaches, close to the town center. We found a few nice and quiet spots and just watched the ocean for several hours. If you're ever stressed out in your life and need to relax - come here! :-)
In the late afternoon, more people started flocking to the beaches after school or work to spent the rest of their days - presumably they do this all year. Not necessarily the worst place in the world to live...
One of their few tourist attractions other than the old town and the beaches is this old bull fighting arena.
Built in 1910, a total of eight bull fights happened here until they were outlawed in Uruguay in 1912.
Another highlight was our first chivito, a typical Uruguayan food. It's basically a giant meat sandwich with bacon, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, ketchup, mayonnaise, french fries and fried eggs on top, and probably a few other secret ingredients. Hmmmm, "yummy"!
Ok, what else ... palm trees...
... sunsets ...
After two days, it was time to move on. Some of the folks we met in our Spanish school recommended to check out some of the beaches in the less crowded Eastern parts of the country. So we got on a bus, and after a short eight-hour ride along the coast, we arrived in a small town called...
Punta del Diablo
Now, clearly the name of this place should have been a warning, but we wouldn't listen... :-) Seriously, it was totally worth the ride.
The sand dunes were amazing and reminded me (Max) how I loved to run them up and down during family vacations on the island of Sylt in Germany when I was a child. Of course, being a grown-up, I can't do this anymore.
... but most of them were nice and colorful and usually right on the beach.
We stayed at this place, the Hostel de la Viuda, named after the nearby "Playa Viuda" ("the widow's beach"). Easily one of the coolest places we ever stayed at - not only because of the swimming pool in the back yard, but mostly for the extremely nice and relaxed atmosphere. 
One one of the evenings, they set up a typical Argentinian/Uruguayan parrilla (barbecue) and served loads of meat: sausages, chicken, beef and pork. Lots of it. This picture shows Sebastian, one of the guys running the hostel, while serving approximately round four out of ten.We asked the people at our table at one point if there were any vegetarians in Argentina and Uruguay, they laughed and said that there are very, very few. Not very hard to see why...
Oh, and of course the food was awesome!
We stayed at Punta del Diablo for a total of five days. Afterwards we went on to Punta del Este (home of the rich and famous) and to Uruguay's capital, Montevideo - stay tuned for part II. :-)
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