who doesn't love tree-lined streets? (i guess the answer is: people who clean up the leaves.)
i love cities with clean, tree-lined streets, cafes, sunshine, good restaurants that are open late, bars around each corner, people jogging around town keeping fit. yep, walnut creek is great. if you're not familiar with walnut creek, it's a suburb of danville, where i went to high school. so if u take the english spoken around "the creek" and replace it with spanish, add a couple of old churches and a town square and viola! you get santiago chile. i flew about 1000miles from home and ended up in walnut creek, about 35mi from home. go figure.
i've been in santiago chile for a couple of days now. i arrived two days ago, dead tired, but managed to get some sight-seeing done. on my first day, i did the usual. ya know, the regular stuff, which includes - but is not limited to - going to the tops of stuff and looking down AND standing in front of things and getting my picture taken (thanks Onion.com).
from the opening paragraph, you should discern that santiago is a modern city. so "modern" is a loaded word that means "american" as opposed to "european." so what's that mean? european to me means really old, detailed, intricate workmanship on each building, with a common theme, look and feel, to the entire city (that's what it means to me). think paris, montreal, or florence. "american" is modern, clean lines, simpler, more functional ... walnut creek.
nonetheless, the city is beautiful. the weather is like being in vacaville during the tolerable months, i mean "month." jk. ye, it's not very chilly in chile. other thoughts: we're at 1700ft above sea level or thereabouts in santiago. no annoying humidity. sun sets at 8:30pm. santiago is currently 4 time zones ahead of pacific standard time. (add 4 to your time to get my time here).
santiago is on the verge of summer! it skipped the spring rains this year. thank god for global warming, otherwise i'd be walking around w/ an umbrella. i'm going to make multiple trips to the grocery store in an SUV when i get home - get eggs then come home, get milk then come home, get bread then come home - just to make sure the weather keeps up for the people of santiago. it's the least i can do for such great weather.
on the first day, for lunch, we had argentine beef for 20$ USD (or should i say FRNs) for two 8oz filet mignons - for one person. that's right. i ate 2 pieces of filet for 20USD. soooooo good. beef in argentina is grass fed, so there was a distinct taste difference to american beef. i would describe the beef as tasting somewhere between american beef and lamb. similar gaminess to lamb but redder in color like beef. so probably more like sheep - but not as good in bed (so i hear).
