Thanks to
my current hosts Tatjana and Julio I could not just have an awesome welcome and
dinner with a typical chelonian family but Tatjana also showed me the nice
“Barrio” (= district) Las Condes in the east of Santiago. First we had a
wonderful and really delicious breakfast in a cute café close to their appartment. We
had bread, that here always sort of has to be toasted with scrambled egg and mashed
avocado. That was my first time to taste avocado here, that by the way is
called “palta”. It really tasted different than the avocados we have in Europe,
but I’ve been told, that that might be because here they have like 5 different sorts
of avocados here – all tasting differently, but delicious. Hopefully throughout
these 6 months.
 |
| The big building in the middle is the Costanera Center |
Next stop in Las Condes was the Costanera Center which is a
pretty big mall that makes you feel like you never left Europe after all. Still it
was a lot bigger than I’m used to from Germany or the Netherlands and reminded
me a bit of my trip to Moscow (malls are huge there too). Around 4 we had Lunch
– Sushi time – Hell Yes :) Again, avocado is everywhere, which obviously isn’t
a bad thing at all!! My first grocery shopping tour was that night as well. I
already knew Chile wasn’t as cheap as other countries in south America, but
1,50€ for some really basic oat meal is kinda much :/ Luckily I’ll visit a
market soon, which is supposed to be a cheaper option (at least for fruit and vegetables).
 |
| Oftentimes cake here is called by the German word "Kuchen" |
 |
| Biggest chelonian flag in the world |
On my third
day in Santiago I had a look at my room in the barrio Yungay. As Las Condes
is one of the most wealthy parts of Santiago, it was a small shock coming into
a more realistic part of Santiago, where there are some more street dogs, less
glamour and graffiti on many walls. Despite the first little shock, this barrio
(Yungay), counting to one of the oldest parts of Santiago, it is a district
that really can have charm once you get to know more about it.
The guy (Fabian)
currently living in my new room was so nice to show me some parts of the city
like the Central Station and La Moneda – the palace of the president with the
biggest chelonian flag in the world in front of it. On the picture to the left it looks tiny but it seriously was HUGE :D
 |
| Central Station of Santiago (this is a panorama picture thats why cars are cut off) |
 |
| La Moneda |
 |
| Palmtrees can be found everywhere!!! |
That day I
also saw my best friend from Maastricht again, which was so weird. I couldn’t really process,
that this person I know just from Maastricht is here with me at the other end
of the world. Together we went to the barrio Bellavista – a more
touristic yet
not too typically pretty part of Santiago. In the morning the weather
was
really rainy, which is not really common for Santiago because of its
geographical position. But lucky as we were, later that day we had
perfect
weather with some clouds, blue sky and a lot of sun. That moment I
started to
understand what people mean by that the sun here is very different. Due
to the
closer location to the Equator it is a lot stronger which is awesome
when you
have chilly winter temperatures.(probably I'll explain this a bit more
once I had some days at uni and more save information about the city.
 |
| Barrio Bellavista |
 |
| Barrio Bellavista |
Today
(26.07.16) is my third day here in Santiago and the first day that started so
nice! The weather is awesome and today I’m going to explore the city a little
more and hopefully go on some close mountain from where you can see the skyline
so be aware of a bombardment with skyline pictures. To be honest, when I saw
the Andes yesterday for the first time it was really surreal but true what
people say: It’s really beautiful!!!
 |
| It's probably not easy to detect the smok on this one .. |
Only
one thing I still need to get used to is the smok, especially because
the rain was one day ago it is building up again so at the skyline you
can always see a brownish steam above the city.
Thursday
and Friday will be the first introduction days at Uni and I’m really excited
how it will be. More about that in the weekend.
Oh and
hereby a little shoutout for my lovely friends Tatjana and Julio for
being so generous to give me a couche for the first days before I can
move into my own room. (which is also to thank for this amazing views!!!)
 |
| The beautiful Andes (and some smok just above the houses...) |
Muchos Besos,
Leonie
Thanks to
my current hosts Tatjana and Julio I could not just have an awesome welcome and
dinner with a typical chelonian family but Tatjana also showed me the nice
“Barrio” (= district) Las Condes in the east of Santiago. First we had a
wonderful and really delicious breakfast in a cute café close to their appartment. We
had bread, that here always sort of has to be toasted with scrambled egg and mashed
avocado. That was my first time to taste avocado here, that by the way is
called “palta”. It really tasted different than the avocados we have in Europe,
but I’ve been told, that that might be because here they have like 5 different sorts
of avocados here – all tasting differently, but delicious. Hopefully throughout
these 6 months. 
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