Mexico City

So, last weekend J. and me went to Mexico City.

First impressions of Mexico City for J. and me

Starting on a Saturday morning and returning very late on Sunday to get the most out of the trip, but still not enough to experience even one "barrio" of this mega city. Insane.

Shot down from the "Monumento de Independencia"

In the monuments cellars...

... there was a funny hall of mirrors

 Equipped with lots of warnings from Mexican and international friends (don't do this, take care of that, make sure you do...) we arrived a bit afraid, but overall very excited of what will happen. Simply put: News are as always one-sided and often exaggerated. As long as you are in the right spot, you can walk around freely. A common scene is that you see Mexicans who don't pay attention to anything around them as they are too busy playing with their iPads... Not only Asia has crazy inequalities...

Better to take the child on a lead in this city...

 We stayed in a super-cozy hostel with lovely people. Not only is breakfast included (not so common in a hostel), but the ladies even prepare it freshly for every single guest. Don't forget to try the home-made jams (ever had fresh guava jam?).

Nice, but also...

... disturbing arts.

The first day was just walking around, trying different delicacies from the street and being just astonished of how lively the city is. Compared to D.F. ("Distrito Federal", that is Mexico City), Cholula is boring...

Exhausted after so much walking...

The most impressive thing here is the metro. First: It's cheap. 3 pesos for each ride,  no matter how far - that's around 17 euro cents. Second: People are crazy. You will never ever be in a silent waggon, but always will somebody sell music (carrying a huge loudspeaker on his back), socks, DVDs, shoe inserts, flash lights, peanuts... I would probably be really pissed off as a worker returning back home from an exhausting day and be filled with sound all the time... But hey, as a tourist it's great. However, as we immediatly became witnesses of a fight I preferred not to take any photos.

Getting some tlacoyos (blue crispy tortillas with refried beans, cheese, chili sauce y cilantro) for reinforcement

The second day we spend lots of time in the Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Anthropology. Both really nice - can't wait to visit more of the cultural sights here.

We really liked the Museum of Modern Art, but unfortunately discovered the most interesting exhibition (not this one) a bit too late...

... because we then had the meeting with our two friends, who were waiting for us at the Museum of Anthropology.

The "Maya calendar", which they found out was just a tournament platform for warriors...

 For some reason I was a bit lazy taking pictures this time (probably because I was too busy walking around with eyes and mouth wide open), so just trust me that we also saw a lot of monuments, places, a hippie market, a wedding, a marathon and we even went to a free concert at night.

D.F. by night

Once again we saw the "voladores", but this time much higher!

 On the zócalo (the main plaza) there was a huge camp of protesters who were against the planned energy reform (which I had just read as a homework and written an essay about, so it was nice to have an idea of what was going on)... Mexico City deserves the name of a city which never sleeps.

Really talented...

...street artists!

We met two friends who stayed at another friend's house and so we had the chance to catch a glimpse of a real "fresa" (high society) apartment. Crazy. The elevator goes directly into the living area (that is, the apartment occupies the whole floor) and it is literally crammed with invaluable antiquities. Oh, that painting on the wall? The owner saw it in a museum in France and really liked it... Not to forget the artbook with personal dedication of the artist whose works we just had marveled at before in the Museum of Modern Art...

Oh yeah - this is what I love here. With lots of chili and lime, please :-)

Ok, so there will definitely be a next time here in Mexico City. For now im fine with Cholula, as I'm really busy with homework anyway. But at least life is really comfortable, eating out every day and enjoying loads of agua frescas (kind of liquid smoothie). Just returned from a really good Italian restaurant (ever eaten a multi-storey salad ;-)) with some nice agua de tuna y limón (pureed cactus fig with water, sugar, lime and mint)... Yummy!

There is something wrong when the government has to protect itself against the own society...

The protesters camp on the zócalo

Just as a side note: I never understood foreigners who travelled through Asia but ate Western dishes. How could they ignore these incredibly tasty flavour gems?! Well, sorry for my lack of understanding guys, now I know exactly what you mean. Most Mexican food really sucks for a vegetarian. In Asia you say "This dish, but without meat, please". If you try this here, you end up with an empty plate. Hrrmm...

You know you are in a safe area when there are ressources to think of nature and provide "eco bicis"