I took the bus to Valparaiso, a harbour city that also houses the parliament of Chile. From what I had read, I expected something like some old European looking quarter of San Francisco. Well, the city is dominated by the 7 or so steep hills that slice it into pieces, and it is more like a colourful mixture of run down colonial style houses next to office buildings from the 60s and street art. Also the elevators are impressive — late 19th century technology. Not sure what the German TÜV inspecting them for safety would say about it. They do not look too thoroughly maintained. But then again — a 150 years back things were built for eternity…
