London: Part Two

It is weird to think that I was out and about enjoying the sights of London only a little over a week ago. Now it feels like we're living in a completely different world because of the coronavirus situation. Obviously, these sorts of excursions are off-limits for the foreseeable future, and it'll be a while before I'm back in London again. But it was nice to be able to have a day like that before everything changed.

Like the previous time, the main purpose of my trip was to go to the Chilean Consulate because of my visa application. While I was there I found out that the visa I was applying for has been raised to such an extortionate price that it's no longer really an option for me. So that was a bit of a horrible surprise! (I will now apply for a different type of visa, but it'll probably be some time before I get it.)

After the stress of the morning, doing some sightseeing was the perfect way to take my mind off things. Firstly, I walked through St James's Park like I had done on my previous visit. From there, you can see great views of Buckingham Palace and the London Eye on opposite sides of the lake. The park also has pretty flowers and lots of cute ducks, geese and swans. I even saw a heron!

I walked over to Buckingham Palace, where the changing of the guard was taking place. I have to say, as far as palaces go, it's not the most interesting. The royal palace in Madrid is definitely more beautiful. But maybe I'm biased because I'm fed up of the Windsor family and the way they're treated as superior to everyone else!

On my way to Trafalgar square, I passed a long line of trailers with the words "Movie Makers" on the side and character names attached to the doors! I'm very curious to know what they were filming!

Then a long line of men on horseback came past on their way to the palace, dressed like soldiers from the past. Fun to see, but a little bit silly, in my opinion. Maybe because I don't see the point of still having a "royal" family in the 21st century, when we are supposed to be equal regardless of our background...

Next I went past Admiralty Arch and entered Trafalgar Square, which is always such an impressive sight to see. I couldn't resist taking a photo of one of the iconic London buses!

I then visited St Martin-in-the-Fields, a place that my mum had told me about. It's a church that does a lot of work to help the homeless. In addition to the church part of the building, there's also a restaurant and a big gift shop. I'm not exactly religious, but I found it an interesting place to visit. When I went in, there were two opera singers rehearsing a song, which was nice to listen to.

Next I walked through Leicester Square and passed lots of theatres, which was pretty exciting, speaking as a former theatre kid and someone who still loves musicals. Then I explored Chinatown, which I'd never been to before. I found it such a fascinating place. Even the names of shops like HSBC and Betfred are written in Chinese!

When I came out of Chinatown, I found this Danish café called Ole & Steen, where I had a vegan "cheese" toastie! One of the things I love about London is how there are so many cultures from different parts of the world all in one city. It's so different to where I live!

In the time I had left, I looked at some shops, including a Harry Potter shop! My favourite shop that I visited was the bookshop Foyles, which is an amazing place. It's five floors high and has a huge foreign language section. I had a short browse there before I had to go back to Paddington to catch my train. To be honest, I didn't want to go home! I love being in London and think it would be a great place to live.

A few days later, I was in another famous English city, Oxford, with my family. That was probably the last bit of sightseeing I'll do for quite a while, so I definitely appreciated it. We saw several attractions, including the castle, and I'll be writing about it all next.

Read about London: Part One here!

Read about me and Claudio's trip to London here!

Read about London: Part Four here!

Read about London: Part Five here!

Read about London: Part Six here!

Read about London: Part Seven here!

Read about London: Part Eight here!

A Day at the Beach

One of the best parts of my time in Chile was our trip to three different places on the Chilean coast: Viña del Mar, Reñaca and Concón.

As it was summer when I was there, going to the beach felt kind of obligatory! But although the weather was boiling hot in Santiago, it suddenly became cold and grey as we started to approach Viña. But it was still a nice place to visit! I'd been there once before to do a walking tour during my Year Abroad. However, this time, I discovered parts of the city that were new to me.

The first place we visited was Vergara Pier, in between Playa Acapulco and Playa El Sol. The pier is famous for its large crane, which was built in Leeds!

Then we saw the Casino, which was closed because of the protests.

We went to have lunch in the mall, where the entire population of the city seemed to be! Afterwards, we got back in the car to go to Reñaca, a small town north of Viña. This place is famous for its beach, which is popular for swimming and surfing. It almost looks like it could be in the Caribbean, and even the weather was warmer and sunnier there! We swam in the sea, and although the water was cold, it was a lot of fun. I'd love to go back there and maybe try out a bit of surfing.

Our next stop was Concón, a really interesting city to visit if you like nature. Firstly, we went to Roca Oceánica, a national park which consists of unusual rock formations overlooking the sea.

Then we climbed up the sand dunes! They're really impressive to see, and they look more like a part of North Africa or the Middle East than a part of South America! From the top, you have great views over the city. I'm surprised that they're not better known.

Afterwards, we started to go back in the direction of Santiago and stopped off at Viña again. We walked along Playa del Deporte, a beach that has lots of facilities for playing sports and working out. I'd never seen a beach like that before, and I think it's a really good idea.

By the time we got back into the centre of the city, it was dark already. But that was great for taking photos! At night, Viña looked really glamorous and could almost have been Monte Carlo or Los Angeles. Not that I've been to Los Angeles, but you get the idea!

We saw this cool restaurant, which looks like a ship!

Then we had a look at Castillo Wulff, which was probably my favourite thing in the whole city. When I went to Viña in 2018, I saw it from a distance but didn't have time to look at it closer up, as I didn't want to miss the start of my tour. It's a shame it wasn't included as part of the tour, as it's a real highlight. It's a castle built in a Germanic style, which reminded me of the castle on the water from The Little Mermaid! I really love seeing castles and palaces, and this one definitely ranks among my favourites.

So that concludes my posts about my two weeks in South America. Of course I wish I could have stayed out there, but I'm relieved that I was able to explore freely there and return home without problems before the travel restrictions and flight cancellations really kicked off. 

Since I've been back in the UK, I've had a couple of interesting days out that I'll blog about soon. But soon even visiting other cities for the day might be off limits, so I'm grateful that I've had the chance to travel so much over the last few weeks. Everything's so uncertain at the moment because of the coronavirus, but hopefully the situation won't last too long. All we can do is follow the official advice and be patient...