Month: February 2010

You don’t have to be signed in anymore to comment, unless I get bombarded with Spam again I’ll keep it this way

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So I booked my Amtrak tickets to Memphis, and now putting it into my calendar I realise that I now only have a bit more than 24 hours in Chicago. Its ok, because I really want to hang out with Genie. I’m going to have to cut back on the list of things I wanted to do in Chicago though. Ben Folds is playing that night in Chicago. I’m uncertain if I should buy a ticket. I mean I do adore his music, but the tickets are quite expensive and I have no plans sorted properly yet.

The other slightly small issue is that the train gets back to Chicago at 9am on the Tuesday, I fly out to New York at 11:10am. Google Maps tells me that it only takes 24 minutes by car to get from one to the other, but that’s probably hopeful and I will be on public transport. The question is…. will I make it to the airport with enough time to spare for check in?

I will have to find my luggage at Union Station, catch some transport to the airport, find the counter where I’m meant to be, check my bags in, and then stop freaking out about missing my plane.

Check in at O’Hare closes 40 minutes before flights too.

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http://xkcd.com/112/

to the smell of someone burning their dinner
to the noise of traffic
to the taste of a cup of tea
to the feeling of cold feet
to the sight of the city lights.
and to the music of Ben Folds.
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Watching the sun set against the Andes

Eating home-made hummus with toasted olive break sticks

Drinking Papaya nectar

Listening to the Sleepy Age Red Bull Sessions on the stereo (for some reason the only CD I brought with me?)

Writing letters (very therapeutic) to people who will freak out about my mental health when they read them.

Waiting for Cristi to get back from Peru.

Barefoot, but wearing long pants and a hoodie. (Weird considering that its still around 25 degrees outside)

Noisy main avenue, too many buses, taxis and cars, occasionally drowning out the music.

I would like another 1 ltr of beer I think.

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when all you want is a hot shower, but you can’t figure out the gas hot water system here to turn it on. Read more →

So Joff just left Santiago. His flight has departed and I am in the apartment alone. The internet access is patchy at best. I’m glad its working this evening, or I’m not too sure how I’d entertain myself. Joff and I spent most of the last few nights watching the entire of the catalog of Never Mind the Buzzcocks which Hollan put on my hard drive.

I’m just going to put some highlights down of the last few days in Santiago via ripping off Joff’s photos… (I always figure its only worth one of us taking a camera on these day trips)

This is the beer that came with lunch yesterday it was $2000 pesos, that for those playing at home is around $6NZD.

This is the cathedral in Plaza de Armas. We ducked in on our way to see some other stuff… it’s pretty impressively large inside.

This is the info person on the segway. Joff and I lol’d

My arm, Metro Train. I love this Santiago Metro, such an efficient and clean form of transport.

Me at Santa Lucia. It’s one of my favourite places in Santiago.

Santa Lucia

Joff at the top of Santa Lucia

Me at the top of Santa Lucia

Joff with Pedro De Valdivia. (the founder of Chile, we’re staying on his street, and there are statues of him everywhere)

Joff at San Cristóbal Hill… which ended up being a several hour walk down the other side.

This is my impressed face

Joff was really keen to find the playground as we had photos there as children.

I’m going to miss Joff, in spite of our occasional short tempers with each other over the last couple of days, he was a good travel companion. I know he’s happy to go home and back to the easier life of work/money and party times in Melbourne.

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I wrote postcards to people, I also wrote some letters very late at night. I apologise to those people if I ever decide to send the letters.

If you leave me a comment I will try and send a postcard to you also. Read more →

Chile is in some crazy musical time warp. Read more →

So its now day 2 ½ in Santiago… half day, because we spent half a day traveling to Santiago. Cristina was called for work to Peru for the week so we’ve been hanging out in her apartment without her. The internet isn’t working, we’ve tried everything we can from our end and have now come to the conclusion that its all at the ISP end, of course though, we cannot ring them. I don’t think calling and saying; “hey, do any of you guys speak really good English to solve our problem with an internet connection that’s not even ours?” is going to work well.

Thankfully though, Cable TV is working fine. This means we pass a lot of time watching movies in English with subtitles in Spanish. Surprisingly this is actually quite helpful for learning the language.

Yesterday, after much convincing I dragged Joseph into Santiago city.
The funny thing is we both like a different style of traveling. Joseph likes things to be organised, there to be a plan of sorts. Like knowing what you’re going to do and where you’re going, and how you’ll get there. I figure out I’ll learn how to do something while I do it. So today Joff was just frustrated with doing things my way.
So we went down to the main avenue that intersects Pedro de Valdivia and jumped on what I guessed was the right bus to get into town. When we tried to pay the driver he informed us we could only travel on the bus with a “tarjeta”. On observation we noticed everyone was using a card with the word Bip! On the front. The driver let us take the free ride into the city, where I directed Joff to get off at the stop after Univesidad Catolica, which I assumed to be Santa Lucia. So we wandered around the bottom of Santa Lucia hill, and looked for somewhere to purchase one of these Bip! Cards. Joseph also decides at this point that he wants to purchase the Lonely Planet guide to Chile as it will stop him being stressed out by my travel style. Its funny because I’m a crazy planning kind of person in my normal everyday life. Read more →