Today is the free day. Finally I had a morning that I don’t have to get up very early. We got up at around 10 am and had a lunch at a mall two blocks away. It is a nice place to have brunch and there are some great stores next to it. We don’t have any plan for the free day until we got lunch. We bought ice creams and started our local street tour. We decided to visit the central cultural Matucana 100 and we were hanging out on streets to finish our ice cream and took uber to the cultural center. It was disappointed when we got there. We thought the would be some great exhibitions in the cultural center. But it looks scared inside the building. There is just a big auditorium with a cafeteria. The only people there is the cashier behind counter. Then we decided to visit the NAVE cultural center. It was several blocks away from the cultural center. On the way to NAVE, we experienced their local people’s life. We passed thorough lots of apartments along streets. There were murals on walls. Houses were painted with different colors. They were pretty like the small town we visited couple days ago. We also saw a elementary school was ended. Children were seating in their school buses and waiting other people back home together. But when we arrived there the NAVE finally, we cannot find any entrance. We found some doors without fences but it was still locked. The worker that was clearing walls told us it was a restaurant and would opened at 3pm. So annoying. Then we just back to hotel.
I’m sorry your free day was a bit of a bust! But a city tour and ice cream still sounds fun! I’ve been really enjoying the murals in the city. I think they add life and color and individuality to otherwise dulls places in the urban setting. That’s one similarity I found between here and Columbus, since there is street art here and on the Short North back home. What do you think of the streets? I don’t come from a big city, so I thought the Columbus city streets were crazy until I came here. People drive very aggressively here. Also, it’s weird for me to imagine streets changing direction during certain parts of the day, which is what they do to accommodate rush hour. I don’t think I would be able to drive in a city like this. I’ve also been taking note of the differences between the shops here and in the states. The shops here have very low roofs and entrances but go back far into the building and are packed side by side. The ones in the US seem to have more spaces. I’d like to know if you’ve noticed any other similarities or differences between the city life here and in Ohio.
Ahh I feel frustrated for you guys just reading this post! One thing I just wasn’t able to get used to was the different times of day that different things are available. These people are truly on a different clock than we are. We’re used to restaurants being open all the time, 3pm seem like such an odd time to open. Especially on a Friday. We noticed the people here definitely eat dinner and go out much later. Our first night here, Bryan and I tried to go to a bar at 10 that had an “open” sign in English lit up. We pulled the door and it was locked. A waiter came up and told us to come back in a half an hour. Apparently the bars stay open until 5 am here. Crazy!
We also went to a couple places that were not at all what we were expecting. Most of their websites are not super updated or available in English. You never really know what you’re getting into here until you’re into it!
I’m jealous you guys got to sleep in. We went on a long hike and woke up at 8 🙁 but it was fun! I hope you guys were able to find something fun to get into that night. Also, I hope you guys were able to get into it haha. This city has so much to offer, but it can certainly be difficult to find it all, especially when you don’t speak Spanish!
Hi, Ziyuan. Yeah, as we all have the same experience on our free day, there’s some unique moments I would like to mention. That day is full of challenges, remember the brunch time, I really want to order the chicken rice, which is the staff food on the other table. So I ordered Chicago burger instead. This reminds me of the same situation is happening in my hometown Shanghai. As many foreigners would come to try foods, some restaurants are providing foreigner food such as pizza, chicken wings instead of local food. The Chicago burger I ordered is so big that I can hardly finish it. After the brunch, I want to try a ice cream. However, I don’t know how to tell the account that I want a two flavor ice cream with a cone. After all the language struggling, I start to draw the shape of ice cream. Fortunately, they understand my drawing! Language is a huge aspect during this traveling. I learn a few Spanish words such as la Cuenta means give me the bill. And perfamiso means excuse me. After the brunch, we walked a little bit and uber to the center cultural museum. I am as disappointed as you are. Because there’s only videos playing from a couple of small screens on the wall. However the architecture form is amazing as they probably keep the historical brick wall structure from the old building and reconstruct the inside by concrete. So while I’m inside this museum I can see the brick wall merges into concrete structure. That’s pretty cool. Hope they can improve the contents in the gallery in the near future.