New City, new continent

After 3 months of pretty easy travelling it was time to venture to another world. I won´t deny that I was nervous about flying to South America, akin to the flight to Beijing as I just had no idea what to expect. After Oz we were looking for a totally different place and the challenge of South America but after New Zealand we kind of wanted to stay around for a bit. Tough. A 10 hour flight beckoned. We´d heard Santiago was like somewhere in Europe but I wasn´t for believing them.
This turned out to be the longest day on the trip. We awoke around 8am to return the van in Auckland. Our flight from Auckland was at 18:30 that evening. We landed in Chile 10 hours later at 13:30......the same day!! How tired!? Damn you time zones!
The flight itself was a bit odd. We were sat next to an insane Japanese/American/Russian guy who talked non stop for the first 3 hours. He filled us in on Russian history, his hatred for America and Australia(aswell as Qantas(?)) and continued to bang on about anything and everything. I could barely keep my eyes open! Eventually I gave in and listened to the pretty good music choice Lan Chile had on the plane. After an a couple of hours of Morrissey and a dire animated movie the crazed guy next to us gets his large laptop out, after much effort. He wacks on some Latin music at full belt, most people at this point where asleep. It didn´t take long for some random Chilean to put him in his place. The guy left the plane with us dressed in what looked like a hitman for the mafia outfit, it was soo embarrassing as all the Chileans were cracking their sides at him.
We arrived at our hostel eventually and quickly realised that English is not enough here. My Spanish needs a lot of work but we sorted it all out after a bit of confused broken spanish. Santiago looks a bit dirty and rough. A lot of great looking Spanish colonial buildings but they´ve let them get run down and gritty. However, where our hostel is, the Plaza de Armas(everywhere in South America has a Plaza de Armas for some reason), is pretty good looking. Palm trees and nicely looked after buildings. It´s a great view from the balcony over looking the square too. This is where most political protests take place and everyday someone different has a banner and a microphone protesting over some injustice. We´d read that Chile is close to becoming the first 1st-world country of South America. I think they´ve got a way to go.
Almost straight away we see a tourist get her bag snatched. She was chasing him shouting and some locals tripped the guy up. Quickly a crowd gathered and they dragged the offender to the floor and proceeded to rain down punches and began kicking the guy in the head. Any excuse for a punch up. It seemed the guy had handed off the bag as the tourist never seemed happy. The guy eventually legged it off with his shirt in tatters. Welcome to Santiago. We had no such problems though.
There´s no doubt I stand out here, not many blond guys walking about, so there´s the odd people staring at us but it´s not too bad. It´s not as bad as China for instance. First impressions are that it´ll be much easier than China too, at least I know some of the language!
There´s a great arty sort of area in Santiago that´s full of colourful streets and really good graffiti. Graffiti, when it´s good, really improves the look of the place here as most of the buildings are totally run down. It´s when graffiti is on decent buildings or just tags that I can´t stand it.
Every house seems to be in a different colour and with the sun shining and the huge sight of the massive Andes Mountains in the background it´s a pretty place to stroll.
We ended going up a really steep train ride to a point overlooking the city. It was unbelievable how large Santiago is. Surely there´s more than 6 million people here! And then the snow capped Andes are just right there looming massively over it all.
I´ll admit it´s cheap here too. I think we´ll be eating out every night for the duration of our stay in South America, can´t wait! Getting used to the language may take some time but it´s pretty good when people understand my spanish and we actually get somewhere.
Our hostel is in a really old building that looks like it could be in New York or Paris, there´s even a guy in the lift who solely opens the doors and presses the buttons for you. Odd but cool.
A beautiful park is also in the centre of town, once part of a hermits mansion, then a convent then a military bastian, and offers great views of the city and has cool waterfalls within. The money that must've been spent here is unreal yet there is also quite a lot of poverty. There´s a real unemployment problem.
It doesn't feel unsafe here but there's definitly an edge to the place. Like Europe it is not. The Chilean people have had some real hard times and cruel dictators, Pinochet being the most infamous. Many people under his reign 'disappeared' when in disagreement with him. Thousands of people we´re rounded up in the national stadium and neutralised at one point. No wonder the Chileans seem a bit happy. Things are on the up and their new-ish woman president is following most other South American nations in her anti-America stance. For a long time the countries of South America have been exploited by America for no real gain the people of the Continent and for massive American profits. But saying that there doesn't seem too much of an anti-US stance on the streets.
We decide try and work out the subway, which is brand new, and it turns out this is where all the cool kids and people with money are. It's a great and safe way to get around and each station has it's own art theme. One in particular had a huge painting of the Andes. Art is massive here and the whole place is pretty colourful. Music and art is everywhere which gives the place a good vibe. Whether it's somewhere I'd recommend as a visit I'm not sure. Saying that, I´d probably go back and head south and north also. We stay for 3 nights before taking an 8 hour bus across the Andes to Mendoza in Argentina. 8 hours on a bus is nothing here, as we soon find out.