Big City Life

I have overcome the initial shock of the big city and now I am starting to discover the good sides of Santiago.

Our apartment is small, but it has everything we need and a great location, plus a rooftop terrace with a sensational view.

When walking through the streets, you immediately notice that there are things being sold everywhere, from shoe soles and screwdrivers to socks, chocolate bars, and barbecue skewers. People manage to earn a living in any way possible and they seem happy doing it. We have often tried to ask for help in broken Spanish to find a place or buy something, and every time people have tried to help us, even though we understood very little. People also talk a lot more with strangers, some Chileans have talked to us for 10 minutes even though they knew we didn't understand anything and could only laugh.

We also explored the nightlife of Santiago. We joined the PubCrawl Santiago for Gabriel's 20th birthday. Pub crawling is sensational, you pay around 15€ at the beginning and get 'All you can drink - beer' for the first hour, and then you move from club to club and get a welcome shot everywhere. But the best thing about pub crawling is getting to know people from all over the world and many other travelers with whom you can exchange experiences. We met many Australians, a Canadian, even an Austrian, and several others. And at the end of the evening, we met a Chilean who even gave us a free city tour the next day.

We visited Cerro Santa Lucia and Cerro San Cristobal, and from both 'hills' we had a sensational view over the city with the beautiful Andes mountains in the background. When we were at Cerro San Cristobal, it was unfortunately very cloudy and we saw more smog than anything else, but this image was also impressive in some way. We had the best spicy waffles I have ever eaten and discovered a really nice café. But the highlight of the day for me was a street band in front of a metro station. You could feel their love for music and their ability to fascinate people, and if you watched them closely, you could see the pure joy of life, which was impressive.

Like in every big city, I don't want to live in Santiago either, but this city has something fascinating and it was definitely worth a visit. Next stop: Wwoofing with Marcelo.