A few days in wonderful Santiago

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Santiago de Chile! As a tourist city, you run out of thing to do quickly but I love it here and could very easily see myself living here in the future.

On the first day, Sarah and I just went for a walk to and a look around the shops. I couldn't help but buy a pair of skinny jeans and a panda t-shirt which made me feel more like myself. I'm really missing my clothes! Everything I packed was so plain and boring. I know for next time to just pack the clothes I like!

In the evening, some of the group went to dinner and then out to Bella Vista- the bar/club area. The whole street was full of people and a crazy group of people banging drums and singing in the street.

We went to a bar/club (no idea what it was called but it was opposite the Irish bar), had some drinks and waited for it to turn into a club which played bizarre slow trance. You couldn't really dance to it although Sarah and I gave it our best shot, totally embarrassing the rest of the group. Then we got a bit bored and left.

The next morning, we all went to buy lunch and take it to the park ( Cerro Santa Lucia) which was beautiful. It had fountains and old buildings and to you had to climb up lots of stairs to get there but were rewarded with a fantastic view of the city for your efforts.

A few people did a wine tasting session with cheese to make up for not being able to afford the expensive vineyards. I lazed around in the Sun whilst others played cards. It was a nice lazy day and the last day of some people's tour so it was quite sad too.

In the evening, we went to go eat at a 'cheap' pasta restaurant which turned out to be the most expensive pasta restaurant any of us had ever seen so we all shut our menus and left for easy food food at the Irish bar (oh dear.)

After dinner, we were supposed to be going to a salsa place but it wasn't open so someone suggested we head back to the rubbish place we went to the night before (why??) but luckily it was full so we went to a cocktail bar instead.

Apparently, I'd promised to drink a cocktail (don't remember this) so I had a strawberry colada which was disgusting and I secretly managed to give most of it away without people noticing (sorry Mike, if you're reading this.)

Spent the night mostly talking to people from another tour group and dancing a little and didn't realise that it was 5am when we left! Time flies...

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The next day, Sarah left the tour (sad times) and I got a new room mate, Tamsin who turned out to be one of my most favourite people in the world

Molly and Imet Vikki (awesome girl) for the first time and we all went back up to the park to chill. Love that park!

Came back to meet my new group and go for dinner but I was so tired I didn't last long and was in bed very early.

It was then my last day in Santiago and we had lots of hours to kill before our night bus at 10.50pm.

Tam and I went for a wander and managed to get lost (me getting lost - who'd have thought?!) but saw some cool old government building which we wouldn't have seen otherwise.

Then we went to have a look at some of the earthquake damage and sat in the Sun in the green space around it. After, we tried to find a market but I'm not sure it was the right one. It was a bit dodgy and had one too many people lacking their front teeth and so we didn't stay for long.

After some more wandering, we went to Cerro San Cristobel. I went up whilst Tamsin waited at the bottom (she'd been up the day before.) I went to see the statue of the Virgin Mary which was huge and then to a little chapel. The views up there were just incredible- you could see over the city for miles and it was such a clear, sunny day. I just sat up there for ages thinking about things and went back down to meet Tam and go for a pizza and were joined by the lovely Amy and Vikki.

It was sad to leave Santiago and if I wasn't on a tour, I would have stayed longer. Pretty sure I'll be back...

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