Yesterday evening some of us from the hostel went out for a walk around town, not for any particular purpose but just to get out for a bit and experience the last couple of days we had in Santiago. At least I got taken to a couple of sights, I got to see closed parks, again, some closed museums, again and went for a walk through the Universidad Catolicas main campus building which was open. It looked very beaten up from the quake, there were cracks in the corners of the walls and balconies but on the whole it wasn't too bad, still very usable. It was a huge building with two main blocks, both with large courtyards, one covered and one open to the elements and that one had a life size statue of the Pope John Paul II in it, it does make sense as it was a catholic university. We went for a coffee on the way back to the hostel, I had an Irish Breakfast tea, not sure what makes it different to an English breakfast tea but it does exist, somebody mentioned it to me when I was in Valdivia and I have been intrigued about it ever since, it wasn't the greatest of teas and I should have just settle with my old favourite Earl Grey.
Back at the hostel most of the people were after a quiet night, I had a couple of beers left over and decided to just drink them. By this point the idea of an early night was quite exciting, catching up on some much needed sleep. The plans completely changed when a few Swiss guys arrived and a competition was started up between two girls and a guy to see if any of them could bag one of the Swiss guys, of course they were all going for the same one. I placed a bet saying that none of them would be successful. This now meant that drinking was most certainly on the agenda, also my friends that I met in Valdivia had turned up a day late I might add.
We went on a mission to buy some alcohol and cigarettes for people, we had to go to a bottelleria as all of the supermarkets were now closed, the bottellerias are really expensive when compared to supermarkets but still very cheap when compared to English prices. Sorted for alcohol and the cigarettes we returned. The Brazilians for some strange reason came on holiday to Chile with a Playstation3 console, seems to me like a bit of an inconvenience but they made good use of it last night having a Pro Evolution Soccer tournament . The competition to bag one of the Swiss boys heated up, one of the girls left to go to bed but there was still one girl and one guy so it was a 50:50 now, the challenge was on! The Swiss boys had brought back a bottle of Absinthe at 75% volume so everybody started having shots of it, it was very nice and there was a special way to drink it, by heating sugar in a spoon with a few drops of Absinthe until it caramelises, then adding this sugar to the shot and adding a couple of drops of water. The night was drawing to an end, it was too late to go out now to any clubs as they were either closed or closing. One of the girls disappeared with the aforementioned Swiss guy and returned a while later. Possibly the bet had been won or lost depending on whose side you are on!