Zocalo-it to me! Mexico City
I wasn't long in this city - but it left a good impression.
Firstly, I noticed how crowded it was. After central and south America, there were just so many people on the streets of Mexico City, for blocks and blocks, just crowds of people walking from point A to point B (it has a population that nearly rivals all of Australia). And along the way there were several of these buskers - not sure what it was about, but they always wore the same uniform... raising money for returned servicemen perhaps? Retired bus drivers, even?
I saw my first outside the cathedral on the main Plaza - certainly one of the largest of all the plazas laid out on the Spanish colonial plan, although the cathedral was being used, so there wasn't much to see inside, and what I saw seemed rather poor in comparison to some of the South American ones that were dripping in gold and silver.
And I discovered that Mexico City is the city of museums - they have hundreds all within walking distance. Of course, in the traditional manner they all close on a Monday. I was there on Monday! So I made the most of the cooler weather (sunny and 25) and just wandered around the town admiring the buildings. The Museo de Bellas Artes was quite beautiful from the outside, and has a park next to it (good for sitting down and getting my breath back - the smog was quite bad!).
But Mexico City doesn't just have colonial buildings. There are all types of architecture (and a museum of architecture - closed on Monday, of course), and plenty of public statutory too. I liked the spider. It had an egg sack too! Check out the Blog Gallery pictures.
I was taken with the many palaces, now operating as regular retail or hospitality venues, but the one in the Blog Gallery, covered in blue tiles, was particularly pretty, I thought.
Clearly this is the city for buying gold. Every other shop is a Jeweler selling gold (and to a lesser extent silver), although it was fun to discover that there are other "regions" of retail a little further out from the Zocalo. For example, I somehow wandered into the stationery section - printing wedding invitations, etc. Tens of shops and carts on a plaza all competing for your business! And then there was the second hand book section - big dusty barns of well-thumbed paperbacks like you just don't see anymore in Australia.
My favourite stores to pass though, were the perfumeries. They have lots of empty bottles and they make up perfume to your specification (a bit like the one I went to in Havana, which had been there since 1791!). I thought their displays particularly colourful.
I found a Mexican version of a diner - filled with locals - for dinner. I had tamales (finally) which were excellent, and probably enough (big entree serve), but made an attempt at eating the main meal that was recommended by the staff, as well as drinking horchata (think of rice pudding in liquid form!). It was so cheap, I didn't feel too bad at sampling everything and leaving much food behind. After the blandness of Cuban food, it was nice to have something a bit tasty again.
I didn't really have a chance to see much of the city, but I feel like I got the flavour of it, and would certainly plan to return and explore it properly. The hotel was excellent (even if the power went off and I had to leave down 6 flights of stairs in the dark!) with magnificent views from my window of the sunset.
And despite getting only four hours of sleep before leaving by taxi at 4.45am the next morning, I was amazed at the 15 minute run to the airport when there is no traffic in this city!
Although it was very stressful, I did have an amazing run through the airport and customs in the USA - probably aided by the fact that the plane sat an hour on the tarmac in Mexico City (I only had 2 hours between connections at Dallas Fort Worth), so I got an express pass to get through immigration and customs. It took 10 minutes by train to get to the other terminal for my onward flight - but I did the whole thing in 35 minutes and walked straight onto my second flight!
Sadly, American Airlines don't provide food - so it was nearly 9pm before I ate anything again in NYC. :-( And then it was fried chicken and chips - with a promise I would eat better for the rest of the time in NYC - however, it's hard to find food here that isn't huge and fried. Last night I wanted a cookie with my coffee - just something sweet, thinking that a biscuit would be perfect. This cookie was the size of a bread and butter plate!!! I still have it in my room - I think it will last me the week! ;-)
Until the next post on another dynamic city. Have a nice day! Aveline. xxx
