I really had to pee.

I had eaten a steak and had a small bottle of tannat wine with it. A typical Uruguayan meal. But after walking for a little while the wine wanted out. I was on a main drag I glanced around at every corner in hopes of a large american name brand fast food place. As an american I feel entitled to deposit my urine with large american corporations. But I digress.

I decided a bush was in order. Or a shrub. Or anything mildly private. I really had to pee.

And there it was.



Estación Central General Artigas.


It was built by engineer Luis Andreoni and started operating on June 23, 1897. It became a national monument 1975. It closed March 1st, 2003.

It was a palace.

With my mouth agape I was drawn to it's locked gates, and barred windows. The ground was covered in pigeon droppings and the artifacts of bums gone by. The front of station had piles of litter, reeked of urine (not mine), and had obviously hosted a few night time fires. Historical Monument indeed.

I paced around the sides of the building, looking in every crack or crevice I could find. Often seeing this sign:



Danger of Death it said. I decided I was going to call its bluff. I was determined to get inside.

There were some broken windows, but there was still the problem of the bars.

Finally, after some studying of the locale, I spotted a high fence that had no razor wire.

In my flip-flops (normal uruguayan style) I quickly and as discreetly as one might do so, scaled the fence.

I was in.

It was spectacular.



My imagination immediately went to a time when there were magnificent steam trains filled with passengers waving goodbye to their loved ones standing on the platform. Handkerchiefs waving. Old men sitting about as the do, drinking their drinks gossiping about the pretty young things walking by. As they do.

And then a pigeon flapped.

My imagination took over again. But this time with the story I would tell the police when they found me. In my broken spanish I would explain that I was a photographer? But with my barely functional point-and-click camera I found that story not so believable. Maybe I was lost?

Before I had come up with a good story I was sucked back in by the majesty of what was around me. I thought of the thousands of adventures that had begun and ended where I stood.