The musings and misadventures of a girl unprepared

Wednesday 11 June 2014

My New Home

You'll be happy (and some of you somewhat relieved) to know that I LOVE Mexico City. I won't lie, I'm not a huge fan of the north of Mexico, solely for the heat factor mind you, and I was starting to doubt whether I'd be able to manage living in this country for 8+ months. It turns out however, that Mexico City is much cooler, due to its high altitude and *insert other clever geographical sounding terms here*. Funnily enough, after my minor struggles in Peru and Bolivia with altitude sickness, I hardly even noticed it this time round, despite being over 2,000 metres up (good ol' Wikipedia).

We're currently staying with my friend Edgar, who is one of four Mexican friends I made in my first term at university as they were on exchange to King's. It's so cool to be able to see him again and catch up!! Especially now the tables have turned and I'm visiting his home country. He lives in an area called Xochillico, which is about an hour metro ride from the city centre and like the total babe he is, has offered to let me stay here until I find my own place to live.

In true travelling fashion, we spent our first day wandering around the city centre, visiting all the big land marks and tourist sights. One thing I wasn't prepared for is the sheer size of the city; it's SO BIG. Unlike London, there is breathing room in between buildings, as well as huge empty plazas and spacious parks to walk through. It is also clear that Mexicans are very proud of being Mexican, because almost every monument, official building and pub is adorned with one or more national flag (this could arguably be a world cup thing, but I do get the sense that this national pride goes beyond football). Unfortunately my camera decided to take the day off so the pictures aren't the best.


Close up of the front of the Cathedral.


Rather sinister-looking shot of the whole thing. I think you can still make out the grandeur though.


Palacio de Bellas Artes, super posh inside. According to Greg it's 1940's style Art Deco.


All the Mexican pride!

We also stumbled upon a tequila museum, which we decided not to venture into - how fun can a tequila museum be without tasters? However the gift shop was cool, with literally 100s of types of tequila covering the walls, which made me feel a little like a bull in a china shop. Luckily my clumsy nature took a back seat for the afternoon and disaster was averted.


I've never seen Greg's eyes light up like they did when he was surrounded by tequila.

The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring more of the cities monuments, which is much more interesting when you know some of the background stories behind them (thankyouverymuch Edgar!). We also decided to take a trip to the 'Ciudadela', a traditional and rather touristy market to buy souvenirs and presents for people back home.


Rainbow flag crosswalk outside the Museum of Equality :D


Monumento a la RevoluciĆ³n.


I'm annoyed that this is blurry, but you can see some of the funky hand-made pottery.

In the evening we headed back to meet Edgar, who took us to a small town called 'Tlalpan' (I think/hope!) for the evening to grab some food and yummy Mexican beer. The area was really pretty, with a central park and a small bandstand, surrounded by beautiful purplely-blue lighting.


Naturally, we seized the opportunity to take a boyband shot.

Aside from the fact that the waitress didn't understand me when I asked for 'una cerveza', and laughed at me, it was a wonderful day and really exciting to explore my new home. And, I mean, lI have loads of time to get into Spanish before I start uni in a month and a half... Right?!

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