Valparaiso

We set out early to have breakfast and then go explore the highlights of the city center by foot. The first stop was at a hill near the center overlooking the city center with a beautiful hip neighborhood on the way. Overall Santiago has given a very artsy and hip vibe. We stopped at the house of a famous poet, Pablo Neruda.
We thought about walking up but there was the possibility to take a funicular up to the statue of the Virgin Mary. As we had limited time and it was pretty hot already at 10 am in the morning it was a solid choice. The views were pretty good even though a bit of smog in the distance. We walked on top for about half an hour and then took the walkway down. It was pretty well made but quite dusty 😁

From there it was a relaxed half hour stroll to the historic city center with another little hill right across our hotel. There is a little castle, chapel and viewpoint on top all inmidst a beautiful lush green park. But the highlight was a guy on top of the viewpoint carrying his cat on the shoulders 😍 We spent some time getting lost in the labyrinth of little walkways crisscrossing the whole hill.
The rest of the city center had a few nice buildings, especially on the main square. But they were scattered around and most other buildings were either rundown or seemed more like a high security prison. At the main plaza we noticed a banner that said free entry to the national museum. It was pretty hot so we were glad to have a little fresh walk inside which was done in less than half an hour. It handled mostly the more recent history which wasn't that interesting for us. Another part was dedicated to clothing 🤨 Unfortunately climbing the bell tower wouldn't open until two hours later, so we decided to go to the nearby port town of Valparaiso.

We had checked the driving time upfront but just for cars, with the bus it took us almost two hours... So we had only about three hours and the interesting part in the city center was half an hour walk away. The way there was pretty rundown and unimpressive. But when we arrived and made it up the hill we were rewarded with beautiful colourful buildings nestled close to each other. The small passageways are covered in cobblestone and around every corner is a piece of art boosting all colors. We strolled through the streets for more than two hours until we made our way back to the bus terminal with a short stop at a beer house 😁🍺. At the bus terminal I've tried one of the popular completos (a hot dog with a variety of fillings).
The drive back was equally long and we fell asleep several times 😴 Around 09:30pm we had made it back to the hotel 😌 But that wasn't all for today, we scheduled to meet up with a good friend who is from Santiago of Julia from her time as an Au-Pair in Aalen. At 10:30pm we were at the Irish Pub she had suggested for some beers, get to know each other and just to chat. I've talked to her boyfriend, Alejandro, for a while about football. They'll probably come to Germany soon to visit her mother, then they maybe come by in Switzerland to visit us 🥰 We were thrown out of the bar after 2am and took an UBER back where we booked our bus ticket for the next (actually this) day and fell asleep exhausted.Read more