Here we go again. After waking up in a new city, there’s tons of things to be organized.

First, the shopping. I asked at the downstairs reception for a supermarket, and headed there first thing.

Without breakfast. Was a mistake.

Luckily, this apartment has a lot of the basics like oil, salt, balsamic, pepper, spices, even flower, in the kitchen. So I don’t have to buy literally everything. There’s even instant coffee and tea.

So I got my stuff (the usual pasta, ketchup, cheese, rice, Coke, milk, fruit, granola and eggs combo) and paid around 25000 Pesos – I have no idea what that means and if it’s a lot.

Then I went to the Metro station and got me a local bip! card (more on that in a future Santiago transport post…). I wanted to charge it with 2000 Pesos but the woman behind the counter said: más, más!! I need to adapt to the local currency…. She’s right: one ride is 680 Pesos….dirt cheap but to me it looks like I’m taking a cab.

Then off to the city center to find a mobile phone company for a new chip. I need my 3G connection, soon! That didn’t happen, most of the shops did not sell the pre-paid cards, and the one that did, had none left that would have fit my phone.

With that (not yet) out of the way, I wandered through Santiago’s pedestrian zone around Plaza de Armas, and ran up to the Mercado Central de Santiago. Great, I love markets. This one is a fish market, something I did not expect in a city with mountain views. But then nothing in Chile is really far from the ocean.

In a beautiful iron structure, the market houses a number of fish restaurants in its central hall. You can hardly walk through without being proposed a table every couple of meters.

The most interesting views and smells though came from the small fish vendors that are not located in the main hall, but in the outer corridors: small, cramped, old-fashioned, and lovely to see, even for a vegetarian like me.

Around the market are a couple of other streets with some fruit market stands and other stuff being sold, from Christmas decoration to shoes. Try to find the other shoe in that pile….

I walked further to what I thought might be the central train station. Close, but not quite. Estacion Mapocho had been a train station from the beginning of the 20th century, serving northern Chile and Valparaíso, up until 1987, when it was decommissioned.

Luckily, as a national monument, its beautiful iron roof structure, made in Belgium by the way, escaped distruction and was renovated in the 1990s.

Today it hosts a cultural centre and restaurants. I walked through the impressive building, and watched as they wiped away the trash from a previous event, the huge space being practically empty.

In a side wing, there was an exhibition of young chilean painters and some interesting information about Chilean fashion, based on sustainable production, inspired by the indigenous cultures.

Finally, walking back to Providencia through the Parque Forestal and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (earmarked for a rainy day) and a little stroll through the cool Bellavista barrio, that houses the university and a number of bars and restaurants. That’s where I’ll spend my weekend…

I closed the day with a walk into Providencia, finding the cute Café Calafquén, where I’ll have breakfast tomorrow, and had a pizza and beer at Voraz on Providencia.

Gee, writing this all down I cannot believe how packed this day was. Time to go to sleep.