Strolling through the City of Mexico
We arrived!
We have safely arrived in Mexico! The flights and the layover in Washington went smoothly - now we just have to fight the jet lag.
Our accommodation is very close to the historical city center which is why we started our exploration of the city there. Early in the morning we left the hotel and watched the city wake up. While the countless stands for typical Mexican street food were being assembled, our sleep-deprived and jet lagged selves only had one thing on our mind: coffee! Fortunately, it was very easy to find a cafe (which served delicious coffee grown in Mexico).
After having the coffee and a snack, we located the next Oxxo, a convenience store, where we bought SIM cards for mobile network. Our (albeit very broken) Spanish came in handy, since hardly anyone we have met knows basic English.
Next, we headed to the main square in Mexico City el Zócalo. While walking there, we enjoyed the colorful streets and check out the street food which we might try later. We noticed that moderate physical activities like climbing stairs were harder than we are used to, which we first attributed to the jet lag. Later we realized that the city is built at a high elevation of ca. 2300 m which doesn’t help.
It is lunch time! We wanted to taste tacos at one of the stands. We made out a stand where quite a few Mexicans were having tacos so this one had got to be good, right? Well, that’s what we thought. After receiving the tacos we noticed, that they were full of raw chicken - delicious! Of course, even though we hate throwing away food, we didn’t end up eating those. Time for try number 2! This time we paid attention that we could see the meat being grilled so we could evaluate if the meat was cooked through before purchasing tacos. This strategy proved to be better. These tacos were actually delicious!
Lastly, we headed in the direction of Roma Norte, a very hip area of Mexico City with lots of Cafes and stores selling artistic stuff. We already found our go-to park for relaxing there: The Parque México.
Stay tuned for the next post, where we take you to the ancient pyramids in Teotihuacán!