For our long weekend, a few friends and I went back to Valparaiso and a city close by called Viña del Mar. After weeks and weeks of classes, we thought it'd be a nice relaxing weekend.
Our trip started off with a 1.5 hour bus ride to Valpo.
On the bus!
When we got there. We took a bus and walked in search of our hostel. It ended up being near a plaza we had visited when we went as a class.
On our way to the hostel, which ended up being just up the hill.
We set our stuff down and just walked around the city. We got hungry walking around and bought various snacks. Not following the rules one should while they are abroad, we decided to buy street food. Various vendors were grilling outside, probably because it was a holiday and many restaurants were closed. We bought choripans, which is basically a chorizo sausage on french bread.
Choripan!
After walking around, we went back to the hostel for a quick siesta. It was a pretty nice hostel.
Alcina taking her pre-dinner siesta.
As it was a holiday, many places were closed, like I mentioned before. We ended up eating at a pretty touristy restaurant for dinner. After the choripan, I wasn't that hungry so I ordered the Chilean version of a salad, which came with lettuce, cabbage, beets, shredded carrots, and rice (each had their own section on the plate). Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture.
The restaurant
After dinner, we asked a man at the hostel what we should do at night. He suggested "El Huevo," which is a hip club. Being the educated college students we are, we previa-ed (pre-gamed) in our hostel room and then walked to club.
Our drinks: Piscolas, Pisco and juice, wine, and a drink called "Pop Wine," which was basically pineapple soda (or pop) and some sort of alcohol.
The club was fun but like the other clubs I've been to in Chile. We paid a $6-ish cover and got a free drink, I chose beer. I went to the corner and drank my beer before hitting the dance floor. I'm not a very good dancer so I need the boost. Everyone was smoking, Chilean guys were dancing with us. The one I was dancing was smoking and I'm pretty sure his cigarette burned a whole through the sweatshirt I was holding in my arm. He, like all the Chilean guys I've met here, was very forward and kept trying to kiss me. I was getting annoyed with the situation so I walked home shortly after.
The next morning, we ate our complimentary breakfast of bread and jam with coffee or tea. We packed up our things, and made our way towards Viña. We hopped on a bus, which took no more than 15 minutes, and searched for our next hostel. Viña is very different from Valpo. Valpo is a port city that isn't very city-like. Viña had many buildings and had an actual beach. After walking in the opposite direction for 10 minutes, we eventually found our way to the hostel, dropped off our things, and made our way to walk around the city. We walked towards the beach, passing by the famous "Reloj de Flores" (flower clock). We walked to a castle that used to help ships find their way to Valpo. We kept walking down and found a casino and clubs, which we planned to go to later.
Reloj de Flores
The beach and the city
Notice the woman in the coat in the foreground but the shirtless kid in the background. Weather in Chile is weird. It is winter but during the day it can reach up to 60 degrees. I'm blaming my 3-week cold on the weather. 
The water was freezing but it was fun to have a glimpse of summer during this Chilean winter.
The castle
View from atop the castle
Eventually we got hungry and ate at a McDonalds, as it was the only place in the nearby vicinity. McDonalds' abroad are always fun because you get to see the cultural twists; for example, Chilean McDonald have empanaditas as a side and make they're McFlurry's with a candy bar called Sahne-nuss. We walked back home, and took another pre-dinner siesta.
Viña hostel.
For dinner, the hostel was offering a "Mexican Nite." We were all excited for non-bland food (after a while all Chilean food tastes the same) so we signed up for dinner at the hostel. We got guacamole (which lacked lemon and salt) with bad tortilla chips, and beef burritos. It's the thought that counts, right?
After dinner, we pre-gamed again (well, I sat this one out because my cold decided to come back) and hit the casino! It was my first time at a casino. This one was kind of lame; it was basically a bunch of slot machines, and if you were really into it, you could go off into one of the side rooms for poker. We paid less than $8 dollars to get in and we got a $6 voucher to use at the slots. I ended up being pretty lucky that night and left with $10!
Casino at night
The next day, we ate the complimentary breakfast (again, bread, jam, coffee/tea) and continued to explore the city. We found a bunch of artesania stands by the beach where we spent a while shopping. Later, we ate lunch at a restaurant, got gelato, and headed back to the hostel to grab our things. We had to catch a bus to the bus station, where we almost died because this bus driver was crazy, also, we didn't really know where we were going. Luckily, we got there safely and made it back to Santiago in one piece.
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