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Sunday, 13 March 2022

My First Weeks in Santiago

It's been nearly three weeks since I moved back to Santiago de Chile, and it's been a very busy time so far! Life here is completely different to the life I was living in Wiltshire, but mostly in a good way. And although things haven't exactly gone 100 percent smoothly (my suitcase went missing for over four days, and finding an apartment to rent is proving to be a difficult process), overall, I'm really happy to be back here.

Of course, the best thing is that I'm with Claudio again, after over a year of not being able to see each other in person due to the pandemic. And it's also been great to see his family again (we're actually staying with them until we're successful with our apartment search). 

In other news, I was happy to finally get started with my new job this week, and it's mostly going well so far.

Another interesting thing that happened this week was that we went to the inauguration of President Boric. We waited on Alameda avenue (the main street in Santiago) for his car to go past on its way to La Moneda palace, and he waved at us as he went past! It was really interesting and memorable to be part of such a historic event.

Finally, even though we've had a lot of things to do since I arrived here, we've had time to explore both new and familiar places around the city, and we've even been on a trip to visit some beaches we hadn't been to before (I'll be writing about that soon!) Santiago looks quite different to how it looked last time I was here - there's a lot of graffiti all over the buildings and monuments in the historic centre, due to all of the political upheaval that's taken place in Chile over the last couple of years. Some of it is interesting street art, but most of it is just ugly-looking scribbles. But it's still really nice to be back here and seeing some of my favourite places again!

Here are some highlights!


Old Favourites



























New Discoveries

Iglesia de la Divina Providencia

It was quite a grey evening by the time we passed by this church, but I took a picture of it anyway, as I think it looks very Latin American, and quite different to the churches in England and the rest of Europe.




Parque O'Higgins

We had actually been here before, but this time we went to the Chinese garden for the first time, which was a very pretty place to look around.










Parque Mahuida

A couple of months ago, I read an article about this park, which said that Andean mountain cats had recently been spotted there! But they are shy creatures, and unsurprisingly, we didn't see any during our visit there. However, we did meet an adorable little tabby cat, who immediately wanted to be our friend! And we also had a great time sliding down the mountains on the Rodelbahn toboggan ride, and completing a short trekking route up to a nature reserve.










Barrio Yungay

I wanted to visit this particular neighbourhood because of its colourful houses, and it definitely didn't disappoint. Being there reminded me of images I've seen of Havana.


















Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes

This is a place I'd always thought I should visit during my Year Abroad, but I never got round to going. Now we've finally been, I would definitely recommend it. For starters, entry is free! And it has a varied collection of paintings, sculptures and other more unusual works of arts, so it's a great place to spend a couple of hours. The museum's building is also very beautiful, both inside and out, though it's looking a bit worse for wear at the moment.




Castillo Forestal

This is actually a restaurant, but it also makes an interesting sight to see, as you don't expect to find a French château in the middle of a park in Chile!




English Emporio

This is a totally British shop located in the Vitacura district of Santiago, so going there reminded me a lot of home! We bought some Paddington Bear marmalade, and I'm sure we'll be back to buy some more stuff in the near future.




Vitacura

One evening, we went for a walk along the Mapocho River in Vitacura. The water there is a lot cleaner than it is the city centre, and you have great views of Cerro Manquehue. (I still can't believe that I actually climbed it once!)







Cafés and Restaurants

During my first two weeks here, we were staying in a hostel which had a pretty unpleasant kitchen, so we ended up having to eat out a lot. It wasn't always easy to find somewhere vegan friendly, but we managed to discover some great places...


Sapiens

This café in Barrio Italia is 100% vegan and has some very tasty (and healthy) cakes and hot drinks.




Emporio la Rosa

This ice-cream café next to Parque Forestal is actually where Claudio and I had our first date nearly four years ago, so it was really nice to go back there again!




Wonderland Café

Wonderland Café is a great place to check out if you like Alice in Wonderland, tea, and all things English! Not only is the food really good, but there is also plenty of interesting décor, and even a gift shop.






El Mundo de Dalí Cat Café

The cats seemed quite sleepy and a bit hot and bothered compared to the last time we visited, but it was still so nice to see them all again and to eat some very tasty vegan food, including a version of the traditional Chilean dish pastel de choclo.











Café Forestal

This is a nice café we found near our hostel with plenty of healthy and vegan options.





Primal Food Chile

This is another completely vegan restaurant, which has four locations in Santiago. It has huge portions and so many options that choosing just one was quite hard!




It's been a big change to finally move here, but overall it's been a very positive one so far. There's definitely a lot more going on for me now than there was one month ago! And although I'm looking forward to when we're set up in our own apartment, I'm gradually starting to feel more settled into a routine here.

Next I'll be writing all about our first beach trip of the year, and after that I plan to write semi-regular updates about life in Chile and our travel adventures. I've already been putting together some exciting ideas for trips both near and far that we could take over the coming months. So watch this space!

Friday, 18 February 2022

London: Part Seven (Goodbye England!)

Just a short post this time, as I'm getting ready to move to Chile within the next couple of days!!! At the start of this week, I still didn't know if I would get the visa in time to travel at the end of this week, but on Tuesday I found out the visa had been approved, and then yesterday I went up to London to collect it at last. So I've got a lot to pack up and sort out at the moment!

After collecting my visa, I had a few hours to do my last bit of sightseeing in London (and in the UK, for that matter) for the foreseeable future. I had wanted to go to see the prime meridian at Greenwich, but I wasn't sure I quite had enough time to get there and back without missing my train, so I decided to spend the afternoon seeing my favourite part of the city, which is the area around Tower Bridge and the Tower of London.

I took the Uber Boat from Westminster, and it was definitely a more scenic and entertaining way to travel, compared to just going by tube. It allowed me to see some other famous sites along the way, including St Paul's Cathedral and the London Eye.

After arriving at Tower Pier, I enjoyed having a walk around the area, even though it was an extremely windy day, which made walking across the bridge feel a bit scary! It was great to see the iconic old and new buildings on both sides of the river, and it reminded me why I love London as a city. I hope that maybe I'll have the opportunity to live there one day!














I also saw a few sights that were new to me, or that I'd only seen from a distance, including St Katharine Docks...




...All Hallows-by-the-Tower church, which was reminiscent of the churches in Stockholm...




...St Dunstan-in-the-East church, which was mostly destroyed during the Second World War, and is now a public garden with quite an exotic vibe...







...the Walkie-Talkie...




...and the Monument to the Great Fire of London.




I really enjoyed my day in London, and I know I'll be back to see more sights there at some point in the future.

But over the coming months I'll be exploring a completely different part of the world! There's going to be a lot to do when I arrive in Chile, but I hope to do some travelling around the country fairly soon, and some travelling in other South American countries in the near future. I probably won't have time to blog as regularly as I've done over the last couple of years, but I'll give updates when I can!

I'm really excited to finally begin this next chapter of my life, which at times I thought would never happen. Hopefully, everything will go to plan, and it will be a year filled with fun and adventures.

See you on the other side! 👋

Read about London: Part One here!

Read about London: Part Two 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 Eight here!

Saturday, 12 February 2022

Country Guide: Uruguay

Name: Uruguay

Continent: South America

Capital (and Largest) City: Montevideo

Language: Spanish

Currency: Uruguayan Peso

Drives on the: Right

Time Zone: Uruguay Standard Time (UTC -3)

Adaptor Types: Type C, Type F and Type L

Description: Uruguay is one of South America's smallest countries and can be found in between Argentina and Brazil. It also has a coastline along the Atlantic Ocean and Río de la Plata. Like its neighbour Argentina, it is famous for football and tango dancing, and it is also often considered to be the most progressive country in Latin America.

Why You Should Visit: Uruguay isn't one of the top Latin American tourist destinations, but I would definitely recommend going there! The UNESCO World Heritage town of Colonia del Sacramento is just a short ferry ride away from Buenos Aires, and is such a picturesque place to spend a day exploring. There are also some great beaches and beautiful green countryside to discover all over the country. And the fact that it's so small compared to most other South American countries makes it easy to get around!

Fun Fact: 95% of the energy used in Uruguay now comes from sustainable sources.


My Blogposts About Uruguay


- An Eventful Day in Uruguay (Montevideo and Colonia del Sacramento)

- UNESCO World Heritage Sites (Colonia del Sacramento)

- Travel Tips: My Ten Favourite Beaches (Colonia del Sacramento)








































Clockwise starting from top left: Parroquia San Francisco de Asís, Montevideo; all other photos taken in Colonia del Sacramento

Check out the rest of my Country Guides here!

Wednesday, 9 February 2022

Lower Moor Nature Reserve

I'm still waiting for updates about my visa application, but I'm hopeful that I'll be able to arrive in Chile on the new date I've chosen, which is in just under two weeks. It's a very stressful situation, and so for a bit of distraction and a change of scenery, my dad and I went for a walk this morning at Lower Moor Nature Reserve, just down the road from us in the Cotswold Water Park. Although it wasn't the sort of travelling I'd imagined myself doing at this point of the year, I enjoyed getting out of the house and being somewhere I hadn't ever visited before.

The nature reserve is a popular place for spotting wildlife, and I was hoping we might get to see some otters or even beavers there (they have recently been reintroduced to the area). However, both animals seem to be quite shy creatures, so the most we got to see of them was a poster of an otter!




But fortunately, there was some other wildlife to be seen, including some cute dogs, two gorgeous pigs, two herons in the distance, and two beautiful swans.




And the lakes in general were a scenic place to walk around, although I imagine they would be at their most picturesque during the autumn.










The nature reserve even has a café in a sort of cabin next to one of the lakes. It was completely busy this morning, so we had coffee at home instead, but it would be nice to go back there in the future.




Overall, I enjoyed our little outing to this area filled with nature. Hopefully, my next trip will be to London next week, or even later this week!

Saturday, 5 February 2022

Cotswold Airport

This week, both my parents had their birthdays, and so to celebrate, we went on our first local outdoor outing in several months. We decided to visit Cotswold Airport, a private airport located near the village of Kemble, which is known for being a sort of aeroplane graveyard! Many old commercial planes from all over the world are taken there once they've been taken out of service; at the moment you can find planes from TAP Air Portugal, Air Mauritius, Air France and Jet2 there.

Maybe it sounds a bit strange, but the airport is actually something of a tourist destination. It is open to the public for visits, and it even has an aviation-themed restaurant called AV8. This was where we went yesterday morning for tea and cake. It had been several years since I'd last visited, so it was nice to go back again. I ordered a vegan chocolate cake and an earl grey tea, and both were very tasty. 😊









In addition to all its aviation-themed décor, AV8 also has one of the 80 Gromit statues from the 2013 charity campaign Gromit Unleashed! The statues were originally displayed in various places around Bristol before being auctioned off to raise money for Bristol Children's Hospital.




After our tea and cake, we went outside to take a look at the airport's planes. I suppose it's not often that you get to see planes so close-up, so it was quite a special and unique experience.






By far the biggest and most spectacular plane was a British Airways Boeing 747. It has actually been converted into a "party plane" and can be rented out for events at a cost of £1000 an hour! Obviously, that's more than a little over my budget, but I was very happy to see the plane from the outside and take photos!








To sum up, we all really enjoyed this little trip out to a destination which is a bit different and out of the ordinary. Being there was kind of a reminder of international travel, and it gave me a little bit of that feeling of when you're at the airport, ready to fly to somewhere exciting.

Unfortunately, my own plans to fly somewhere exciting have been delayed yet again. I was supposed to finally be moving back to Chile on Monday 7th February, and if the Cancillería de Chile had done their job and approved my visa within a reasonable amount of time, I would have been able to go on that date. As it is, I'm having to postpone my flight by two weeks, and I just have to pray that everything will be sorted by then.

It's incredibly frustrating, as there's nothing I can do about the situation. Every single phase of this visa application has taken far longer than it should have done, and it feels so unfair. It's been two and a half years that I've been living with my parents since graduation, and over one year since I last saw my boyfriend, and I'm just so tired of waiting and not being able to move on with my life.

But at least I know I'm now so close to the finish line of what has really been quite a battle. I just need one last bit of patience to be able to get through this final stage, and hopefully by the end of this month, I'll be writing here about my adventures in Chile...

Tuesday, 1 February 2022

Country Guide: Sweden

Name: Sweden (in Swedish: Sverige)

Continent: Europe

Capital (and Largest) City: Stockholm

Language: Swedish

Currency: Swedish Krona

Drives on the: Right

Time Zone: Central European Time

Adaptor Types: Type C and Type F

Description: Sweden is the largest country in the Scandinavia region, bordering Norway and Finland. It is famous for its cold, snowy weather, and for its success in the areas of interior design, crime fiction, and music, having produced several Eurovision winners, including ABBA. It is also known for its high standard of living.

Why You Should Visit: In 2020, my boyfriend Claudio and I spontaneously visited Stockholm and had an amazing time. The city is beautiful, especially the historic centre (Gamla stan), and it has plenty of interesting museums to check out, such as Skansen open-air museum, and the Viking Museum. If I go back to Sweden, I would like to see more of the country's natural landscapes, including the glaciers and fjords that Scandinavia is famous for.

Fun Fact: Sweden has more islands than any other country in the world!


My Blogposts About Sweden

Charlotte's Travel Adventures

- London: Day Four + Arriving in Sweden (Stockholm)

- Stockholm: Day One

- Stockholm: Day Two

- Stockholm: Day Three

- Travel Tips: My Top Ten Fairytale Destinations (Stockholm)

Charlotte's Travel Adventures is 5 Years Old! (Stockholm)





















Clockwise starting from top left: a traditional house at Skansen open-air museum, House of Nobility, Stortorget, traditional log cabins at Skansen, Gamla stan (all located in Stockholm)

Check out the rest of my Country Guides here!